Gwendolyn Womack

This past weekend I was in Austin, one of my favorite cities, for the Texas Book Festival. It was wonderful to be back. I’m originally from Houston and lived in Austin years ago before heading to college (to Alaska – where I discovered there is a rivalry between the states and I would get teased “What’s a Texan doing up here?”) A nostalgic fun fact: in Austin I worked for the Austin American-Statesman newspaper as a data entry clerk in the Classifieds Department. Now that feels like a lifetime ago!

The first thing I saw when I stepped off the airplane put a big smile on my face…

Friday night I was thrilled to attend the gala at the Four Seasons and hear Margaret Atwood speak. Daniel Handler a.k.a Lemony Snicket was the host and Taye Diggs spoke as well. It was a fabulous night. On the way to the ballroom, this dramatic wall hanging of horns caught my eye, and in the ballroom, every seat had a book on the chair. I chose The Burma Spring because years ago I helped on a theater performance about Aung San Suu Kyi’s life. I love this picture of the book on the table.

Saturday’s top highlights: “Everything But the Kitchen Sink,” a talk with Daniel Handler and Amelia Gray, moderated by Owen Egerton in The Paramount Theatre (which I heard is celebrating its 100th year!)… Stopping by Typewriter Rodeo‘s tent and getting a poem written for me. (I’m going to do a whole blog post just on that next) … and hearing some incredible jazz at the Elephant Bar – a bar that was rated one of the top ten jazz bars in the US. I highly recommend you go if you’re in Austin.

Sunday I headed to the Texas Monthly building to check in for my event which was called “Thrills, Chills, and Genre Defiance” with Vu Tran, author of Dragonfish, and moderated by Geoff Rips. Here we are heading to the Capital Building, which is opened up for the festival. Our talk was in one of the chambers inside – a one-of-kind experience.

 

The event had a fantastic turnout. Vu and I both read the first few pages of our books and then did a Q&A. Afterwards we headed outside to the book signing tent. (These pictures below were taken by one of my friends, Charlotte Schillaci.)

 

Right near the tent I found a consignment shop and art gallery, Old Bakery and Emporium, in an historic building. Inside they had some wonderful art, including this stained glass artwork made by Stephen Moy, who I discovered is a 93 year old artist. I took a dragonfly and a flower with me back to LA to remember this fantastic weekend.

Thank you, Austin!

 

This year was my first time attending Litquake in San Francisco and it was such a wonderful experience. I participated in two events – the first was “New Voices,” an afternoon of readings from debut authors held at Z Space, a theater downtown. On the way there, my cab driver drove like a maniac and blasted jazz the whole time, all the while wanting to know about my book. It got things off to a real kinetic start.

I read with six other authors: Jan Ellison (A Small Indiscretion), Isaac Constantine (Jeremiah’s Ghost), Victoria Shorr (Backlands), Michaela Carter (Further Out Than You Thought), Val Brelinski (The Girl Who Slept With God), and Angela Pneuman (Lay It on My Heart).  I really enjoyed sitting in the audience and listening to everyone’s stories.

For my reading, I had gotten the urge several days before to try something completely new, so I read part of the Alexander Pushkin lifetime and what happens when Bryan comes out of the recall. It’s a good example of the jumps between lifetimes and how Bryan handles remembering. I’ll definitely do it again.

The next event, “First-Time Authors Reveal All,” was a panel discussion geared for writers and was held at the Foundation Center. The event had a great turnout – a big thank you to all the writers who came! Sharing some photos below: heading into the building, the event and our silly selfie afterwards. Also, this talk was recorded. There is a link to it on YouTube if you want to take a look.

  

While I was in San Francisco, the days could not have been more gorgeous and planes were flying overhead for Fleet Week. There was a real excitement in the air and it was fantastic connecting with so many writers in a city-wide celebration of books. Thank you, Litquake! Happy 16th year and here’s to many more!

 

Here is a link to an interview I did with Brad Bogner discussing The Memory Painter.

Click here to listen.

 

Novelist M.K. Tod invited me to do a Q&A for her blog Inside Historical Fiction.

Click here to read the interview at awriterofhistory.com  

 

 

A special e-book promotion begins today for The Memory Painter. The e-book has been discounted from $12.99 to $1.99 at all major e-book retailers from 9/28 – 10/4. Links to the book are below. Please help spread the word. Thanks!

AMAZON

iBOOKS

KOBO

NOOK

Next month I’m really excited to be participating in Litquake in San Francisco & the Texas Book Festival in Austin. If you’re in either city, here’s a link to the festivals below. I’d love to see you there.

For Litquake I’ll be participating in two events:

October 10th, New Voices, which is part of Off The Richter Scale, a weekend of events at Z Space. New Voices goes from 12:45 – 2:30.

October 12th, First-Time Authors Reveal All at 3pm at the Foundation Center.

For The Texas Book Festival:

The festival dates are 10/17 & 10/18. Their event schedule will be up mid-September. Here’s a link to the festival’s site.