Would YOU do this?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Would YOU do this? Such an unbelievable journey.  In every way.  Reds and readers, you are about to hear a remarkable tale of persistence, diligence, passion, perseverance and…mileage.  And I should also mention talent. Super duper supreme talent.  

We are delighted, beyond delighted, to welcome the brilliant and fabulous Jenny Milchman.

Read on. And gasp.  As I asked before: Would YOU do this? 

The World’s Longest Book Tour Version 2.0

   By Jenny Milchman

I had a very long road to publication. I wrote seven novels over the course of ten years before my eighth finally sold and became my debut.

Which is a story for another Jungle Red post because that book had been roundly rejected by publishers before being offered a deal from an imprint that had turned the same book down six months before. My novel, Cover of Snow, went on to win the Mary Higgins Clark award and be a finalist for two others, earn praise from the New York Times, and a big etc.. The lesson? If you’re receiving rejections, learn from them, yes—but also don’t necessarily assume they’re the last word. Other things can come into play.

Anyhoo. After that amount of rejection—and sheer time—you can believe I’d encountered a fair number of supporters along the way. People who’d kept me going through some dark nights of the writerly soul. And once I finally broke through, I wanted to meet them. Get out there and say thanks to those who had helped me believe I had something to say, and stories that would captivate readers, when my flood of rejections told me I didn’t.

So as the pub date for my “first” novel finally drew near, my husband and I did the next logical thing. We rented out our house, traded in two cars for an SUV that could handle Denver in February, and took our kids out of 1st and 3rd grades to “car-school” them on the road as we crisscrossed the country, meeting every bookseller and librarian and book club leader and even book bloggers who wanted to host an event. I worked with a terrific independent publicity firm that assisted in arranging many of the things I did out there.

And it was magical and wonderful and still the touchstone my family returns to now that those car-schooled kids are most of the way to grown and in college. Gulp. If you’d like to see what life on the bookish road was like, there are two fun music videos on my website.

And I do mean “like” as in warts-and-all-really-like. Watch each frame.

Another note about all the joy and some craziness in those videos.

I do not think, and am not recommending, that those watching at home should do the same thing. You don’t have to. The takeaway from my months of touring is that the face-to-face adds a unique and special component. A way to celebrate the huge accomplishment of your writing in a way that online simply doesn’t duplicate. A hundred Likes are not equal to one reader holding your book and pointing to the twist on p. 311 that blew her away. After which you sign her copy and she takes it back like she’s been handed a jewel.

So get out there in a smaller way. A more reasonable way. Ask your local independent bookstore or your library about holding an event. Reach out to a book club. Or get out of the bookish box entirely and think of alternative venues. Did you write a pet mystery? Maybe a local animal shelter would like to stage a gathering—the proceeds could go to support the shelter. A women’s fiction novel? Same approach for a women’s club in the area.

Or maybe you’re a little more all-in. You’ve read about what I did, wandered over to my website to see for yourself, and it looks kinda amazing. (IT WAS).

You still don’t have be multiple months all-in. Draw a radius around your house sufficient for a weekend or week-long getaway, then identify venues within it. A few bookstores, a library, one or two alternative sites too. Reach out to the people in charge, offer to appear or help put an event together—invite people you know in the region—and hit the road.

If you feel like you don’t want to turn back after your last event, I understand.

And conversely, if you feel wiped out and have no idea how—or why—I would’ve stayed out there, well, I understand that too.

Anyhoo again. Because after five books, and close to twenty months of touring, something cataclysmic happened.

First came the pandemic, which called a screeching halt to our bookish reindeer games. But since that’s a droplet compared to the tsunami of calamities the pandemic caused for so many, it should scarcely be counted.

With the world (partially, and only for some) on track again, my career was not.

I did not have a publisher for my sixth book. In fact, I didn’t even have a sixth book.

My career was at a crossroads, and both I and my agent sensed it. With much love and devotion, we decided the time had come for a change and parted ways.

I signed with a dream agent. That was the (mostly) easy part.

Now to find a publisher just as dreamy and excited about getting my career where it needed to go after a gap. After the world had changed, and me along with it in many ways.

Kids growing. The world reckoning with different forces. Other things too.

At about this point, a publisher approached my new agent. They were a fan of my work and wondered if I would have breakfast, a bookish talk.

Y’all know by now how I feel about bookish talks.

OF COURSE I WOULD.

I couldn’t eat a bite even though the publisher kept graciously plying me with pastries.

And I love pastries.

The restaurant we met in was all art deco and gorgeous. It was one of those moments that make a writer really feel like a writer, or more accurately, like an author.

Who now had her first series to launch, because that’s what the publisher wanted to discuss. Whether I had ever considered writing a series character, perhaps one who made use of my first career as a psychotherapist. There are lots of incredible police and PI and legal procedurals, we mused at that breakfast. What about a psychological procedural?

And Arles Shepherd, rogue psychologist, was born.

Now the first in her series is out, THE USUAL SILENCE, which means things are going to change again. Change is the only constant in this writing life.

What will book touring, the events and face-to-face that I have such a love for, look like with my new publisher?

Where am I going now? Where will the next road, literal or figurative, take me?

The great E.L. Doctorow says writing is like “driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” It’s a great metaphor not only for completing a book, but for whatever comes after it is released.

I hope you will follow along to find out where the road goes for me.

And that your own headlights point you in all good directions.

HANK: Tolja.  Amazing. I’m sure you have LOTS of questions for Jenny–I’ll start. Jenny, what do your kids say about your family adventure? And how about–are you tired of driving?

THE USUAL SILENCE 

A psychologist haunted by childhood trauma must unearth all that is buried in her past in this twisting, lyrical novel of suspense by Mary Higgins Clark Award–winning author Jenny Milchman.

Psychologist Arles Shepherd treats troubled children, struggling with each case to recover from her own traumatic past, much of which she’s lost to the shadows of memory. Having just set up a new kind of treatment center in the remote Adirondack wilderness, Arles longs to heal one patient in particular: a ten-year-old boy who has never spoken a word—or so his mother, Louise, believes.

Hundreds of miles away, Cass Monroe is living a parent’s worst nightmare. His twelve-year-old daughter has vanished on her way home from school. With no clues, no witnesses, and no trail, the police are at a dead end. Fighting a heart that was already ailing, and struggling to keep both his marriage and himself alive, Cass turns to a pair of true-crime podcasters for help.

Arles, Louise, and Cass will soon find their lives entangled in ways none of them could have anticipated. And when the collision occurs, a quarter-century-old secret will be forced out of hiding. Because nothing screams louder than silence.

Jenny Milchman is the Mary Higgins Clark award winning and USA Today bestselling author of five novels. Her work has been praised by the New York Times, New York Journal of Books, San Francisco Journal of Books and more; earned spots on Best Of lists including PureWow, POPSUGAR, the Strand, Suspense, and Big Thrill magazines; and received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist and Shelf Awareness. Four of her novels have been Indie Next Picks. Jenny's short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies as well as Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and a recent piece on touring appeared in the Agatha award winning collection Promophobia. Jenny's new series with Thomas & Mercer features psychologist Arles Shepherd, who has the power to save the most troubled and vulnerable children, but must battle demons of her own to do it. Jenny is a member of the Rogue Women Writers and lives in the Hudson Valley with her family.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jennymilchman
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jennymilchman
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jennymilchman
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4810211.Jenny_Milchman

The Reds Dress Up for Halloween

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Do you love to dress in costume? For Halloween, I mean. When I was little, ALL I wanted to be was a princess–and Mom made me a magical outfit. She took an opalescent pink plastic shower curtain and wove a pink ribbon through the holes, and then tied it around my neck for my beautiful cape. (Whoa, thinking about that now, would we tie something around a kid's neck? Whatever, I lived to tell the tale.) But I loved it. Then she got a piece of silver poster board, and twisted it into a cone, and stapled it for a pointy hat, then put a pink floaty scarf through the top, and then elastic under my chin for my BEAUTIFUL princess hat. Oh, I LOVED it, and I swanned around in for DAYS. Until the whole thing fell apart.

No photos of it exist, sadly. 

In college, we had to dress up as a popular song, so I dyed a white sheet black (a MESS, truly, do NOT do this) and then put it on like a ghost sheet, and went as the 45 record “She’s Not There.” (It was subtle, I admit.)

And listen to this.  Once a boyfriend and I rigged up an unbelievably elaborate rectangular wooden form, which we covered with a red and white checked table cloth. We used ropes to hang it over our shoulders. Then we got poster board, and made it into a cone big enough to fit both of our heads through the hole. Then I made spaghetti, and tried to glue it to the poster board cone. (You have to imagine trying to glue spaghetti, MASSIVE fail, so I ended up sewing it to the cone.) Then we got two brown paper bags, and covered them with glued-on cotton balls,and sprayed all the cotton balls a mixture of red and brown. Then we made eye holes in the cotton-ball covered bags. Then we got into the cone of spaghetti, slung the ropes over our shoulders, then put the cotton ball bags over our heads, tied them around our necks (theme!) and we were a plate of spaghetti and meatballs on a table.

It was AWESOME.

Someday I will tell you about the moment that we realized we had to drive ourselves, AND that contraption, to the party.

The next year-- in 1984!-- I was a tea bag. See? Yes, that's me as Constant Comment. (It took me SO long to create and fill in that tag!)

 I tore brown tights and a brown leotard. Then I tore up brown paper shopping bags into tiny pieces. Put them into a clear dry cleaning bag, and made a pouch. Then I stepped inside tied it around my neck (theme!) with the tag on a string. And the other person was dressed as Hunter S. Thompson, who I met that night–a true meet-cute--and we clicked because I was the only person who knew who he was supposed to be. (We dated for a year, then he left town to follow a traveling circus and shoot a documentary.) 

And Jonathan and I made a pretty satisfying Bellatrix Lestrange and Dumbledore. (My wand is the stem from an artificial rose, I just cut off the flower.) Jonathan is wearing two of my necklaces, and that skirt and top are in my party wardrobe.  I just never wear them together like that.We bought Jonathan's hat, and his "robe" is just burlap with a  hole cut for the neck.

How about you, Reds and readers? What’s the best Halloween costume you’ve ever worn? Or have ever seen?

JENN MCKINLAY: I think the best one I’ve ever created/worn was when my college girlfriends and I made ourselves into Coors Light Cans with the logo “Reach for a Silver Bullet Tonight” on the back (it was soooo 1987). So ridiculous and fun!

Of course, the Hooligans LOVE Halloween and their costumes were always so much fun! From Batman and Robin to Death and the Crash Test Dummy. LOL. 

The best Halloween costume I’ve ever seen was online. A dad made his kids actual Transformer costumes where the kids could turn from the robot to the truck or car. It was amazing. Here’s the youtube: https://youtu.be/fndYxbykd8k

HANK: Jenn! Awesome!

RHYS BOWEN: I didn’t grow up with Halloween, although these days it is as big in UK as it is here. But when my kids were growing up I spent a lot of time making costumes. I remember Clare went once as a tree. One of them went as a dragon with a long tail that kept falling off. Then in the elementary school years when it’s important to conform there was the period of bought costumes. Princesses, Star Wars, witches etc. Then high school they became creative again. Clare once went as the character from Dragonslayer with a dragon on her shoulder. I’ll see if I can find a picture of it.

John and I attended several adult parties but always went as something easy to make. My favorite was John as the devil. Me as a fallen angel. We had to stop a group of teenagers in a dark area to ask for directions. A boy gave them then noticed John. “You have horns!” he said in a horrified voice. “Yes, I’m the devil,” John replied as we drove off.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Oh, wail!! I'm such a fail on Halloween costumes!! I've NEVER had a really good one. Although my mom could sew, she ranked a big zero on the costume creative front (bless her) so mine were always store-bought. And as I can't sew, and as my mom apparently passed on that big fat ZERO to me, I've never made anything remarkable. The best one I can think of is one year I was a gypsy fortune teller, complete with 8-ball, but alas no pics.

Maybe I need to add "Wear a really good Halloween costume" to my bucket list…

LUCY BURDETTE: I love those pictures! Especially the one of Rhys and John as Devil and Angel! I have not dressed up lately, though I can assure you there are plenty of opportunities in Key West. My very favorite costume was one I made in graduate school, where I went to a party as Wonder Woman. 

Honestly, we had much more fun than we had any business having while getting our PhD’s! As you can see, this choice was more about what would look cute than how clever I could be. I think this must have been 1982. I still have the costume up in the attic waiting for granddaughter Thea I suppose. Maybe I should pack it up and send it to her just in case she knows who WW is…

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I never had a store-bought costume as a child, and so, even though I wasn’t as ambitious as my mother, I did sew several and pulled together others with a little help from Goodwill. My kids were, variously, a witch, a leopard, Old King Cole, a glamour witch, Batman, a princess, a princess fairy… two daughters, lots of sparkles and tulle.

As an adult, I had a few banger costumes, starting with going to the Midnight Hallowe’en screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show as a very authentic Magenta. I had an amazing night in London dressed as a Gay Nineties Chorus Girl (my friends and I went to a fancy dress rental place for our costumes that year, as none of us had brought any in our junior-year-abroad luggage.) For a New Year’s Eve party with a theme of “Come as an important news event,” I was infant Prince William, in adult-sized footsie pajamas with a British flag pinned to the rear flap.

And my favorite, the year I sewed matching Robin Hood and Maid Marion outfits for me and Ross. We won a prize!

HALLIE EPHRON: We made our own costumes growing up and I’ve always been lousy at it. My kids, whom we tortured by not letting them buy store-bought costumes, are aces now at Halloween costumes.

And now my grandkids benefit. With a little makeup and clothing on hand, last year Frances dressed up as a slightly broken, thoroughly creepy doll.

HANK: Hallie, that is SO truly creepy and fabulous!  How about you, Reddies? What's your best costume, or even the best one you've ever seen?

Revisiting BLUE MAN

 

HALLIE EPHRON: Soon I’ll be visiting to New York City and taking my grandkids to see BLUE MAN GROUP.

I saw it ages ago in Boston when my kids were little, and we brought along my mother-in-law. She sat with the kids in one of the front rows, the aptly named "raincoat seats," something we had not anticipated. It’s very interactive. She was a very good sport.

Reminded me of one of the first times I went to the New York City Ballet and sat in front-row seats. I can attest to the fact that though ballerinas may look ethereal, sweat flies off their twirling bodies and rains down on the front row. And their toe shoes hitting the stage make loud klunks. 

At BLUE MAN GROUP you’re in danger of getting hit by flying paint or a mis-aimed marshmallow or wetting your pants from laughing so hard. It's very interactive. And I can't wait to see how much more outrageous and ridiculous and awesome it's become. 

I am bringing a set of earplugs. Just in case. 

I’m sure the kids will love it as much as we all did (even my mother-in-law), and I’m certain that my grandson will leave the show with a new goal in life (replacing his current aim to be a parkours champion or a rocket scientist) to become a Blue Man.

Was there a live show that you experienced when you were young and malleable that was so memorable that you’d take your favorite kids there today if you could?