Erika Dreifus

I’ve already mentioned the wonderful news that my story collection, Quiet Americans, has been selected as the next title for the Jewish Book Council’s Twitter Book Club. We’ll be chatting online on Tuesday, April 12 (12:30, U.S. Eastern time), and you are all cordially invited to attend!

What I haven’t yet shared is that last week, I learned that two more clubs have chosen Quiet Americans to read and discuss. These are groups that meet face-to-face. They happen to be located in different parts of the country (and not in any state I’ve lived in, which for some reason I find remarkable).

With this happy development, I have turned my attention to a project I know I should have managed awhile back: writing a reading guide/discussion questions. (Again, remember, Last Light Studio is a very new and very small press. It’s not as though there’s an employee whose responsibility it is to write the questions.)

This really shouldn’t be so difficult, right? Especially for me, with years of teaching experience behind me. After all, how many times have I created and circulated questions to help guide my students’ reading?

But, of course, this set of questions is different. I’ve been looking at reading guides and questions for other authors’ books for some guidance. But, as usual, I’m again turning to all of you. Especially those of you who participate in book clubs. How many questions do you like to have on hand? If there’s a “type” of question that seems to work well (or badly), might you share it here? This inquiring mind wants to know! Thank you very much!

(Oh, and when I’ve completed this project, I’ll be sure to post the questions/guide on the website.)

Just after publishing last Thursday’s post, which featured John Kremer’s list of “30 Ways to Help a Book Author You Love,” I became the grateful recipient of still more support and encouragement for my own new story collection, Quiet Americans.

Examples:

• A new acquaintance, following up on an email I’d sent, invited me a) to present a reading/discussion on her college’s campus and b) to participate on a conference panel. (More details about both of these events as they become available.)
• A former colleague, having noticed Josh Lambert’s mention of Quiet Americans online, emailed to ask if I’d like him to query a contact about the possibility of a reading back in Cambridge. My answer: YES, PLEASE (AND THANK YOU!).
• News trickled back to me about a reader who was apparently so caught up in Quiet Americans that, at the conclusion of her New-Jersey-to-New-York train ride, the conductor had to knock on her window from the Penn Station platform to remind her to leave the train. (She’d received the book from a family friend of ours, who had gifted copies to all the members of her Mah Jongg group!)
• And, in a glorious gesture of generosity and friendship, four of my co-workers lured me into an office late one afternoon to surprise me with their four, just-arrived copies of Quiet Americans, which they promptly asked me to autograph. (They were not, by the way, the first co-workers to order the book and surprise me with an autograph request, but they were the first to do so en masse!)

What’s really kind of astonishing is that I doubt that any of these instances resulted from the people involved having read last week’s blog post. I’m just that blessed.