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Book Launch Event!

Book Launch Event at BookPeople Bookstore, Austin

April 30, 2012


We had a great time. Champagne, munchies, literary chit-chat and a nice crowd. Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale was #3 on Bookpeople's April Bestsellers List.

Wish you were there!
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Book Launch Party SNAPSHOT

Snapshot of the BookPeople Book Launch FUN!

Here's a link to BookPeople, Austin's incredible independent bookstore:

Austin's BOOKPEOPLE.
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Another Book Launch SNAPSHOT

Another snapshot of the BookPeople Book Launch FUN!

Former Writers League of Texas' director Cyndi Hughes and I as we wax deeply literary during her interview of me at our BookPeople Book Launch Party.
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Of 1st Lit Loves: Nancy Drew, Harper Lee, and the "Easy" Faulkner

When I was a kid, the only time I wasn’t trying to break my little tomboy neck every single day was when I was reading, which was also every single day: I devoured Superman comic books from my Dad’s drugstore and all the Hardy Boy and Nancy Drew mysteries at my small town’s Carnegie Public Library. And they led me to "The Phantom Tollbooth," "Tom Sawyer," "A Wrinkle in Time," then "To Kill a Mockingbird" and beyond. But I wasn’t one of those kids that cherished one book; I cherished them all. It was the fact of reading, the new worlds I entered every day that mattered.

I read my way to a B.A. in American Literature, where my required reading was the classic Southern literature that would haunt my style and story-telling psyche when I began my own writing: Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, the stories of Flannery O’Connor and Eudora Welty, the “easy” William Faulkner such as “As I Lay Dying,” and the “hard” Faulkner, like “Sound and the Fury,” which I hated as a reader/later appreciated as a teacher/and much later surprisingly loved as a writer. These are in my ear and in my voice. I love them still.

And what of favorite books by modern writers? The touchstones on my own modern writing journey? There’s Pat Conroy’s "The Water is Wide" and Marilynne Robinson’s "Housekeeping" for language, Lee Smith’s "Oral History" for voice, and Larry McMurtry’s "Lonesome Dove" for sense of place, Amy Hempel’s "At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom" for brevity, and Margaret Atwood’s "The Handmaid’s Tale" for fearlessness. They keep reminding me what can be done with words. But my literary first love were those empowered kids’ series that made me first love the imaginary world of words as much as the real one.

(**written for "Literary First Loves" column SheReads.org Online Book Club. For more including a GIVEAWAY of Texas goodies as well as a signed copy of the novel, CLICK HERE)  Read More 
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Cherubs Announce the Good News!

"Faith Bass Darling's
Last Garage Sale
"
is finally open for business.


I now can say, with a nice little hallelujah, the much-loved phrase that gladdens the heart of any novelist: "Now on Sale at a Bookstore Near You."

(PLUS these fine online store links-CLICK HERE)

Spread the word, if you would be so kind....

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Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage-An "IndieNextPick" May List



Love those independent bookstores!

Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale has been named to the The May 2012 "IndieNext" Great Reads List.

Truly proud to be on it.

The IndieNext List is a dozen or so chosen titles from across publishing by Indiebound, the independent bookseller's association. Click on the link below for more good reads for the month. These people know a good read:

The May 2012 IndieNext Great Reads List Read More 
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GOODREADS.com and LIBRARYTHING.com Galley Giveaway thru Feb. 29



BE the FIRST on your block to attend "Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale."

Are you a member of GOODREADS.COM or LIBRARY THING? Both of them are winding down their Galley Giveaway Countdown for Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale." My publisher has put 25 copies up for early grabs. All you have to do is enter. It closes Feb. 29. (And if you're not a member, maybe this is a good reason to join?) C'mon over and check it out ASAP. Because you know how the good stuff always goes first at garage sales:

GOODREADS.COM GALLEY GIVEWAY COUNTDOWN: Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale  Read More 
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SHE'S SIGNING GALLEYS--First Fun Author Rush


Now THIS was writer's-dream fun: Signing galleys at the American Library Association's Winter conference in Dallas. They handed me a red sharpie and I went for it for two hours.

I guess everybody likes a free book, even if it's a galley.

Now for the words inside to grab them and hold on....(every writer's hope).  Read More 
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