Posts Tagged‘Post-Publication’

Home » Post-Publication » Page 4

Thursday’s Post-Publication Post: Introducing Jane Roper & EDEN LAKE

by Erika Dreifus on
1

I know. By now, you may be accustomed to Thursday posts about my story collection, Quiet Americans. But today is special for Last Light Studio, the collaborative micropress that published my book in January. And that’s because today is Pub Day for the next LLS book: Jane Roper‘s novel, Eden Lake.

I was lucky enough to read Eden Lake in manuscript, and I snagged a signed copy of the finished book a bit early when I was in Boston just about two weeks ago. I recommend it to you especially as we approach summer and you start thinking about your summer reading list. It’s a lively, engaging story that takes place at a summer camp in Maine, and it’s bound to bring back some of your own summer-camp memories. It’s also a story about a family.

Here’s a more “official” description:

In 1968, newlyweds Clay Perry and Carol Weiss founded Eden Lake, a utopian children’s summer camp. Thirty years later, their marriage is long over and the camp has become a pricey playground for entitled suburbanites. When tragedy strikes, the Perryweiss children have to decide what role Eden Lake—and all that it stands for—will play in their lives.

Abe, the eldest and heir apparent, has never been able to commit to a career—or a woman. Jude, entangled with a married man, must confront her turbulent relationship with her past. Eric, the youngest, who has never strayed far from Eden Lake, stands at the precipice of a new life. Idealism and infidelity, childhood memories and the hard truths of adulthood collide and coalesce in the summer of 1998 at Camp Eden Lake.

Sounds juicy, doesn’t it?

It has been a pleasure to follow along as part of Team LLS in these months leading up to Eden Lake‘s debut. One of the pre-pub elements I’ve most admired is the Camp Eden Lake website. It does such an excellent job building on the book’s premise, characters, setting, etc., that you may want to sign your kids up for a summer there right away (or enroll yourself)!

Congratulations to Jane on her novel’s pub day. I know that Eden Lake is going to be a big success! And here’s the icing on the cake: If you become a Jane Roper fan now, you won’t have long to wait for the author’s second book. Her memoir “about the ups and downs of her first three years as a mother of twins” will be published by St. Martin’s Press next year!

Thursday’s Post-Publication Post: A Busy Time for Quiet Americans (and Its Author)

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled
Signing Books at Cambridge Book Party

As I’ve mentioned, I spent last weekend (an extended weekend) in Massachusetts, where I used to live. On Sunday, one of my Cambridge friends generously hosted a “book brunch” to celebrate the publication of my story collection, Quiet Americans (thanks again, A!). It was a lovely gathering, and once again, I felt blessed to have so much support and friendship in my life.

The latest issue of CUNY Matters (my employer’s newsmagazine) was released just before I left for Massachusetts, and I was gratified to see Quiet Americans mentioned in the issue’s books section. (Download CUNY Matters here and scroll to the side column on page 9 to see the shout-out.)

Meantime, the reviews continue to come in. I’m humbled whenever I see that someone has spent precious time writing about my book. Here is one recent review that is especially detailed and comprehensive.

I’m also honored to learn that Midge Raymond is providing a copy of Quiet Americans as one of her Collection Giveaway Project offerings (Midge is also spotlighting Becky Hagenston’s Strange Weather and Lori Ostlund’s The Bigness of the World).

So it has been a busy week for Quiet Americans! Who knows what next week may bring?

Thursday’s Post-Publication Post: Thinking About Sam S.

by Erika Dreifus on
4

There are many reasons that I’ve been thinking a lot about my grandfather lately. For starters, I’m hard at work on a talk that I’ll deliver next week for a conference here in New York on “German-Speaking Jews in New York: Their Immigration and Lasting Presence.” If you’ve been following my book-related blog posts for awhile, it’s probably not a surprise that I’ll be speaking about two German-speaking Jews in New York who meant a great deal to me: my paternal grandparents, whose lives and stories provided much of the inspiration for my story collection, Quiet Americans.

My grandfather, in particular, has been on my mind because he passed away fourteen years ago this week. This means that at Sabbath services this weekend, his name will be read from the yahrzheit list, which reminds us of these anniversaries. He will be remembered as “Sam S. Dreifus.” In the family, he was frequently and affectionately referred to as “Sam S.,” with the invented middle initial serving as a reminder that his original first name, back in Germany, was “Sigmar.”

Like the character of Josef Freibug, who appears in several of the stories in Quiet Americans, my grandfather had an unenviable childhood, and, for that matter, a not-so-easy life after that. He was  a “quiet American” in multiple respects. What seems most remarkable to me is that he never spoke about the challenges that he’d faced basically from birth. Which may help explain why I, blessed with a much more privileged set of life circumstances, have been so drawn to imagining fuller pictures of my grandfather’s background and experiences based on the available true-life details. (Some of this I’ve also written about here.)

I suspect that some of my grandfather’s “quiet” was innate, but it seems likely that his reticence was at least partially due to his having begun learning English relatively late, as an adult who lacked a formal education even in his native language. Still, as I think you’ll see in this photo, which was taken during Thanksgiving a few months after I graduated from college twenty years ago (yes, that’s a graduation photo taped to the kitchen cabinet behind us), my grandfather’s goodness and love shone through even without words. (What you can’t see is that the exception to his quiet came in his singing, especially when he chanted the Hebrew blessings, prayers, and songs that he loved so much.)

We miss you, Grandpa!

Thursday’s Post-Publication Post: FWR’s Short Story Month Collection Giveaway Project

by Erika Dreifus on
12

UPDATE: Congratulations to Frume Sarah (Commenter #5 below) and Becky Wolsk (Commenter #6). You are collection giveaway winners! I will email each of you with more information shortly. Thanks to everyone for participating.

Those of you who have been following this blog for awhile may recall two salient facts. First, around this time last year, I offered a special giveaway: two short-story collections (by Susan Perabo and Margot Singer), in conjunction with the Collection Giveaway Project, an initiative coordinated by Fiction Writers Review (FWR) in celebration of Short Story Month (May). And second, I’m now a contributing editor for FWR, and it’s in that capacity that I am once again promoting the CGP as well as participating in it.

First, the promotion part: You can find details about the 2011 CGP on the FWR site, and I very much hope that plenty of you will choose to take part on your own blogs.

Second, the participation part: This May, I will once again award two short-story collections, one each to lucky commenters who shall be selected at random. This year, the collections I’m spotlighting are Midge Raymond’s newly reissued Forgetting English and my very own Quiet Americans.

I have been a fan of Midge Raymond’s work for years. In fact, I reviewed the first edition of Forgetting English for FWR back when the collection was published by Eastern Washington University Press as winner of the Spokane Prize. In its 2011 incarnation, hot off the presses this spring, the book includes two new stories. You can read an excerpt here. (By the way, Midge is also an instructive and engaging blogger, especially on writing-related topics, and definitely worth following on Twitter, too. First, though, make sure you read the guest post she shared with us right here on Practicing Writing last week as part of her virtual book tour.)

At this point, I don’t think you need much more introductory material about my story collection, Quiet Americans. After all, you’ve been reading pre-publication and post-publication posts for months. But I am very happy to have an occasion to offer another giveaway of my book. Now that Quiet Americans is available for Kindle, I’ll be able to award either a paperback OR e-copy, so please keep that in mind should you emerge as a giveaway winner. (For now, it seems that only the previous edition of Forgetting English is available for Kindle, so the choice there will be between the new edition in paperback and the older one for e-reading.)

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post, telling me about one collection you’ve read since last year’s giveaway. Title, author, press, and a line or two about what’s most memorable about it for you. The Collection Giveaway Project and Short Story Month more broadly are intended to celebrate short stories and the people who read and write them. So let’s get a big discussion (and reading list) going.

Comment anytime up to 12:01 a.m. (U.S. Eastern time) on Tuesday, May 31, 2011. At some point that day, I’ll turn to the trusty random number generator to select and announce our two winners. Please remember that I do have a day job, so I may not get to make the announcement until evening. Thanks for your patience—and for your participation!

Thursday’s Post-Publication Post: Summing Up The Past Several Days

by Erika Dreifus on
2

It has been an eventful several days indeed. Some of what’s been happening was pre-scheduled and already happily anticipated. For instance, last Sunday evening I had a wonderful time when reading in the Sunday Salon series here in NYC. I was the first of four readers, so I was able to relax and enjoy everyone else’s very considerable talents (including musical talents). I read one story from my collection, Quiet Americans: “The Quiet American, Or How to Be a Good Guest.” I find that it’s a terrific story to present “live,” in part because it takes me just under 15 minutes to read in its entirety.

Then, on Tuesday, I spent my lunch hour immersed in energetic conversation on Twitter as a guest of the Jewish Book Council’s Twitter Book Club. So many of you helped spread the word about this event online, and I’m so grateful! (If you weren’t able to join us online, you can check out the transcript and see the discussion there.)

One happy surprise this week: Quiet Americans was named a Frugal Kindle Reader Book Pick of the Day! Many thanks to Jan Zlendich for the nod on April 10! (If you’re looking for still more Kindle titles to read, take a look at Jan’s blog.)

What will the next week bring?

Thursday’s Post-Publication Post: Update on Reviews, Giveaways, Events & The Blue Card

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

It’s been busy lately, and here’s some of what’s been happening with my story collection, Quiet Americans, in recent days.

  • Reviews and ratings continue to accrue (thank you!) on the book’s Amazon and Goodreads pages. Yesterday, I discovered an especially lovely Amazon review that was posted on April 5. (And no, I do not know the reviewer personally!)
  • The giveaway that I announced last week to mark the release of the Kindle version (which, by the way, can be read even without a Kindle device) ended yesterday. Congratulations to the winners (you can see who they are in the giveaway post’s comments section), and thanks to everyone who entered for the helpful feedback.
  • I’ve been practicing the portion of Quiet Americans that I plan to read this weekend in the Sunday Salon series. If you’re thinking of attending, I promise you that I will stick to my time limit! (I may even have a minute-and-a-half to spare.)
  • And I’m really looking forward to next Tuesday’s online chat with participants in the Jewish Book Council’s Twitter Book Club. (Will I “see” you there?)
  • Most important, now that we’ve entered the second quarter of 2011, I’ve sent The Blue Card its first “cut” of the book sale profits/royalties. It’s a not-insignificant, three-figure sum, and I hope that I’ll be able to do even more next quarter. Thank you all for making the contribution possible. (Extra thanks to the friends and family who have made contributions independently, in honor of the book’s publication. You are exceptionally classy–and generous–people!)