Road Trip Day 2 – Baltimore to Richmond
The Red Canoe Bookstore in Baltimore
Two stops today. In the morning we hit the Red Canoe Bookstore and Café in Baltimore. It’s a beautiful store with a great YA selection and incredible muffins (really, I tried three different types, the apple/mango, the peach cobbler, and the mixed berry) and good coffee. It was a wonderful way to start the day. Max picked up a graphic novel and I we each got a t-shirt. The owner, Nicole, said these days they make more money from the café than the books and that she’d be specializing in YA and kids books to hone in on that market. It’s the kind of place you park yourself with a good book (purchased of course) or your computer, and read – only getting up every half hour or so to get another muffin or a refill on your coffee. Ahhhh.
I-95 was a mess. We lost an hour at least alternately sitting and creeping south to Richmond. We finally got to Richmond near 5pm and found Fountain Bookstore, where Kelly Justice and Doc filled me in on the doings of SIBA (Southern Independent Booksellers Association) and the city of Richmond’s authors. Kelly gave me some tips on which bookstores to go along the way south and told me she would carry Open Wounds – any author who stopped by in person was on her good side. Like I said. It’s all about relationships.
Made it to Raleigh/Durham about 9:30pm – exhausted. The La Quinta hotel near the Research Triangle in Chapel Hill is nice – the wood floor section especially good for yoga. Hey… after two days in the car I need some extra pigeon/eka pada raja ka potasana.
Tomorrow we’re off to Atlanta stopping at Quail Ridge Books and Fly Leaf in Raleigh/Durham, McIntyre’s in PIttsboro, and Bookmark in Charlotte.
Road Trip Day 1
We’re on our way to Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. It’s 17 plus hours by car.
We must be out of our minds.
Harry Potter here we come. My son is very, very excited. Karen and I are too. We’re stopping in Baltimore, Raleigh, and Atlanta on the way down with short stops in Richmond, Greensboro, and Charlotte for bookstores too.
We’re going to hit as many independent bookstores as we can.
It’s old fashion, door to door, at stores that probably don’t carry Open Wounds but which I’ll pitch the book too and try to build up some interest in through face to face contact – in other words building relationships. I think it’ll work. Even if it doesn’t I’ll meet some great booksellers and see some great stores in different parts of the country that I’ve never been to before and that will be cool.
Really.
It will be. Even if my butt is sore from the 4-7 hour days in the saddle, I mean car, and I’m hopped up on too much caffeine, way past my coffee limit (watch out for the Tazo Awake tea latte – it’s deadly too). That’s what vacation is for.
Adventure.
Today we left Jackson Heights four hours later than we thought we would. Basically we were right on schedule… for us.
We hit an hour’s traffic on the BQE in Brooklyn. It was sixty road workers, most carrying “slow” signs, a few with machines of some sort, maybe replacing the pavement, many standing around. It was like watching a battalion on parade in yellow and orange wearing hard hats. It was six lanes condensed down to one. It took an hour to go maybe a mile, maybe two. My hair was standing on end and I had a silent scream locked in my throat. My son’s face was pressed against the side window. My wife took mental pictures to use on twitter and Facebook later. No, really, we got through okay but it was an hour! We soared through to Baltimore from there.
In Maryland we saw one guy working on the road, a dust cloud surrounding him from some machinery he was using. One guy. In yellow and orange. No sign-holders. No traffic jam. Thank you.
I’m writing from a Day’s Inn with an Indian Restaurant attached to it. I love Indian food so I wish we’d known ahead of time and ate here rather than the diner we hit along the way.
Tomorrow morning I’m going to Red Canoe Bookstore Cafe, while Max and Karen take a swim in the pool before we head to Raleigh. We’ll hit Richmond along the way and go to the Fountain Bookstore.
It is so good to be on vacation.
Two and a half weeks.
Day 1.
Book Launch at Seaburn Book Store
"I've waited 33 years for this moment..."
Last week, on Thursday night, we launched Open Wounds. It sounds funny that way but it really felt like a launch. The only thing I didn’t do was break a bottle of champagne across the bow of the book – though that would have been an interesting sight to see. There was wine and pastries from our favorite French Patisserie Canelles. But more than anything there were people. We filled the downstairs room with friends, family, colleagues, writers, and some folks from the neighborhood – Astoria – who saw the advertisement and stopped by. There were over 65 people with many standing in the back. It was hot and thunder-stormy – humid and thick, even with the AC on. The fan had to be turned off so you could hear me read. And I did read. That’s what felt like a launch – the reading, the showing off of my work to others, the revealing of my secret life as a writer.
Before it filled up and overflowed!
And it was fun. And the book store sold 42 copies. The book store owner walked around with a big smile on her face.
My publisher/editor Evelyn Fazio, introduced me to the audience with some kind words and there were two other wonderful WestSide authors in attendance: Karen DelleCava (latest book is A Closer Look) and Selene Castrovilla (latest book is The Girl Next Door and Melt) to help cheer me on.
My father also came and I finally signed a book for him. He still hasn’t read Open Wounds but I’m waiting to hear what he thinks ’cause now it’s on his list. What follows is a picture of the inscription. The ship has launched and the party was a good one to send it on its way. I couldn’t ask for more. I’m only sorry my publicists Marissa, Julie, and Sami from JKS Communications couldn’t be there to celebrate with me – as it would never have happened without them.
Inscription for my father...
Reviews and Interviews
I’ve been busy these last two weeks. Two weeks ago I was in DC and in addition to presenting at a National Association for Drug Court Professionals conference on Teambuilding and LGBT sensitivity issues had the chance to fence with the DC Fencers club (more on that in another entry) and visited a few bookstores to talk about Open Wounds. I’ve also been doing a lot of interviews – each different in its own way and worth checking out to find out how Open Wounds and its cast of characters came about. I’m going to list them below and give you some background on each.
Two local papers start things off:
The Queens Tribune – Jason Cohen did a piece on me titled Renaissance Man (I’m getting a swelled head already) that is only available in print and not on the internet – so no link. But it’s been fun having some neighbors come up to me and tell me, “I didn’t know you wrote a book!” I didn’t know so many people I knew read the Queens Tribune!
The Queens Courier – Salimah Khoj a wrote a nice piece on their online magazine called Jackson Heights Author Finds Inspiration in Childhood. We had to phone interviews and some written responses in order to get this one down and I think she did a great job.
Followed by two blog interviews:
Nikki Meiggs’ Wicked Awesome Books book blog just reviewed Open Wounds and today put out the second of two parts of an interview (part 1 and part 2) we did together. She has a contest open until August 16th – simply comment on part 2 by answering this question: If you could live in any time period or historical event what would it be and why? She’s giving a free signed copy of Open Wounds to the winner! I met Nikki at BEA in the late spring and she has a great blog on YA books and really loves books. I also love the title of her website – who wouldn’t?
Cynthia Leitich Smith blog Cynsations also just put up an interview called New Voice: Joseph Lunievicz on Open Wounds. What’s interesting about Cynthia’s interview were the questions she asked. There were easily thirty different questions from various categories and I was able to choose two, and only two, to respond to. These are different from any other interview questions and I found them challenging and interesting to answer. She also did a wonderful job with pictures to complement the interview of books I mentioned and supplemental posts I have out on other sites.
And one review…
There’s also a short review of Open Wounds by Jodi Reszotaarski on her blog Book Eater – A novel test kitchen. She’s a high school media specialist in Lake County, Ohio. Thanks, Jodi for the great review!
Next up some fencing stories.
New York Fencers Academy in Brooklyn
Went to speak to the nine members of the New York Fencer’s Academy in Coney Island today during lunch of their summer camp. Taught them some stage fencing, talked about Open Wounds, and read a piece from the book. The kids were great and I had a blast. Special thanks to Coach Misha Mokretsov for inviting me and giving me the time to speak to the kids.
Teaching the duck and hitch!
The Duck!
Engarde!
The whole club!
Engage the blade!
Lunievicz 