News & Events

Campaign For The American Reader recently asked me if I’d like to contribute three blog posts for the CFTAR network and I said of course – their goal is to encourage more people to read more books and every writer wants that!

Here are the blog posts I did for them:

WRITERS READ – Which details what books I’m reading right now.

MY BOOK, THE MOVIE – My attempt to cast The Memory Painter, The Movie

& my favorite of the three:

THE PAGE 69 TEST – Which looks at page 69 of the book and see if it is a representation of the entire book. Here is what I found…

Thank you Marshal Zeringue & CFTAR.

Yesterday I spent all day in Mission Viejo, CA at a wonderful book event called Books Are Better Shared. A lot of avid book club readers and writers got together for a day of intimate talks, lunch and signings. Here’s some pictures to capture the day…

When I drove up this WONDER sculpture was the first thing I saw and it stands right in front of the building. For a split moment I felt like a kid going to book Disneyland.

Here’s one of the morning sessions. I’m actually standing in the book room surrounded by a ton of book tables that are just out of frame. I snapped this one quickly…

This picture isn’t that good (taken at the last minute of wrap up) but the panel was fantastic!  “Discover A New Country” lead by author Gina Nahai (The Luminous Heart of Johah S. & other novels), the panel included Aline Ohanesian (Orhan’s Interitance), Alexis Landau (Empire of the Senses) , and Michelle Gable (A Paris Apartment). All three are debut authors and Gina asked some fantastic questions about their journey to publication, the countries they chose to write about, and juggling a writing life while raising kids. They had us all laughing quite a bit.

(Meanwhile – there was another panel going on in another room that I wish I could had attended as well. The difficulties of having only one body.)

Here’s a picture of Alexis Landau and Michelle Gable (love her hot pink sunglasses) at their signing table. I’m already knee-deep in reading Alexis’ exquisite novel, so I bought Michelle’s The Paris Apartment. It sounds incredible – inspired by the true story of a woman who secretly owned an apartment in Paris and locked it up in 1940 and never opened it again. After she died, the estate discovered this apartment and inside was a wealth of treasures. Talk about a fascinating story.

After lunch, my panel was “Discover a New Way to Discuss Books” with Sophie Littlefield (A Bad Day For Sorry, Aftertime, and many other books) and Jessica Knoll (Luckiest Girl Alive). Hildy Stern moderated and we discussed the inspiration behind our stories, underlying themes, the characters’ journeys, and the challenges of genre. It was a great discussion and I just have to say Sophie was so generous and supportive to us debuts.

 

Special thanks to Terry Gilman, Hildy Stern, Emilio and the whole crew for putting on such a fantastic event. And thank you for sending us home with a bag of books and delectable bundt cakes. This picture is actually Margaret Dilloway’s (Author of Sisters of Heart and Snow). My son dug into the cakes before I could take a picture.

Here’s the latest book news in Canada!

The Vancouver Sun reviewed the book. Click here to read the article.

The Memory Painter is also featured in the May issue of Elle Canada. Here is a snapshot of the top corner of page 90:

This last week I flew to Houston to do a reading at Brazos Bookstore on Friday evening 5/8. Earlier in the day one of my oldest friends threw a book luncheon at her house and Brazos also came to sell books to everyone. It was a fantastic day start to finish.

Here’s a few photos at the bookstore starting with the outside. It’s such a great store and in a perfect location right in the Village. To find out more about Brazos, click here to visit their website.

Setting out chairs in the main room and getting ready…

 

Houston is my hometown so a lot of family and friends came. It was a wonderful reunion.

Here I’m talking about the journey to publication & doing a reading…

Signing one of my oldest friend’s books… She drove me to the after party and when she started the car, the audiobook was playing, which really surprised me. They were in ancient Egypt.

After signing books, the bookstore asked me to sign the back of a chair – A fun tradition.(And it is actually challenging to sign the back of a chair. Now I know.)

 

Here is the Brazos team – a huge thanks to them for a fantastic night.

Also special thanks to Charlotte Schillaci & Friedhelm Luening for taking photos. And a big thank you to Julia Burke for making the trip so special.

Ethan Jones Books blog does regular author interviews asking every writer 10 questions. Here’s the 10 questions I was asked about writing The Memory Painter…

https://ethanjonesbooks.wordpress.com/2015/05/04/10-questions-with-gwendolyn-womack/

 

Yesterday was such special day. Ladies, Lunch & Literacy hosted a book luncheon for The Memory Painter. We met and had fabulous Greek food at Pettras in Manhattan Beach and I discussed the journey writing the book to an amazing group of very passionate readers!

(The menu – 5 kinds of Greek dips with pita, Chicken Soulvaki, and Greek doughnuts with ice cream. Yum!)

We only thought to snap a few pictures right as it was ending, but here are two to remember the day…

At one of the tables by the window…

At my table in the middle of the room…

I had a wonderful time and there was a lot of laughter. Thank you Terry Gilman & Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore and everyone who came – what a perfect end to the first week of the book launch.