Book Launched! Passage of the Kissing People is a Go!

The book launch party for my novel 74th Street Productions threw 4/25 was beyond my wildest dreams. I hoped for 50 people to show up at Razzi’s Pizza(high fives to them). They gave us their newly renovated basement, and we needed every inch of it. It was a dismal night, rain blowing sideways, and a major road construction project in the street out front, but at 7:00 people started pouring in.

We had over 120 people there, packed elbow to elbow, even out in the hallway, all there for a tale of love, betrayal and family language. I tried something new for me, a slide show with a few sound effects. I got the idea from Mary Gleysteen, long time ace bookseller at. When I was working on Naked at the PodiumI interviewed her for the section on bookstore presentations, and asked her for her thoughts. She said, “I wish novelists could do a slide show, or something with some visual aspect.” So I did. As the book is set in 2 eras, 1953 and 1997 I used slides and sounds to indicate the change in the eras–an old Western Electric phone vs a Motorola SmarTec cell, with the sound of the ring tones was one.

Another new thing, I asked everyone there who had a blog, a Facebook page, or Twitter account to post something about the book and the event. I have no idea how social media really works, but I’m trying to plunge into it. Looking out over that crowd convinced me that no man on earth goes better friended than I.

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Book Launch Tonight

Tonight is the launch party for my novel Passage of the Kissing People. (More info about the book, including the first chapter, is available elsewhere on this web site.) Family language played a huge role in the development of the story, because it is based on my family history, and particularly the years 1952-53 when we were beginning to create our own family language. My sister and I were 5 and 7 then, that age where you pick up words at school or from books or movies and try to fit them into your world. For years I told stories about that time and place (and the Sonoma Vallley and the Sonoma State Home were places that made an imprint on a kid’s mind) but with this book I was able to find a way to use those stories in a larger cause. My wife always told me to make the book non-fiction, because it is so much easier to sell than fiction, but I didn’t have a narrative thread. That had to come from the fiction side of my brain. I’ve been steaming around with my hair on fire trying to get everything ready. Now there’s nothing left but the Big Show. Further bulletins will be issued as developments warrant.

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