DC OutWrite LGBT Book Fair on August 2

BREAKING NEWS: I'll be at the DC Outwrite LGBT Book Fair today - Saturday, August 2 - from 11am-?pm at The DC Center!

I'll be selling my postcards as well as my husband Alex Myers' debut novel, "Revolutionary."

In addition, Alex is participating on a panel discussion, "Writing Trans Characters" at 12pm, and giving a Reading from Revolutionary at 2pm.

If you are in the area, please stop by to say hello! The event is free and open to the public, and is sure to be an extravaganza of writers and readers.

An update on "Revolutionary" - thank you for your support!

If you've been following this blog for more than a month or two, you know that my best beloved and husband of 11 years, Alex Myers, is an author whose first novel, Revolutionary, was just published by Simon & Schuster in January 2014. I've blogged about it frequently (see posts tagged "Revolutionary"), and then I tried not to crow about it constantly because that becomes tiresome when this blog is about letter-writing, no?

But two reasons have compelled me to share an update:
1. Many of you have been kind enough to ask how the book is doing, and
2. The support from my pen pals and blog readers has been overwhelming, and I want to share my gratitude.



So let's tackle the updates first. Alex has been doing readings all over the country, to some great audiences. Above, he's shown at the first reading here in Washington, DC, at the fine Politics & Prose bookstore. The book has gotten some very positive press as well, so I just have to share that briefly, too:

• New York Times review: A Personal Revolution is Set Amid an Epic One
  
• Boston Globe review: "Revolutionary" by Alex Myers
• Boston Globe feature article: Transgender Revolutionary
  
• San Francisco Chronicle interview and review: Interview with Alex Myers, author of 'Revolutionary'
  
• The Daily Beast feature article and interview: The Cross-Dressing Revolutionary: Alex Myers’ New Novel
  

There has been more good media coverage including some some radio interviews, and if you're interested in delving deeper, you can find all of that on his website.



Alex also spoke at the excellent Harvard Book Store on January 31 - shown above. (I don't know if you can make it out in this photo size, but he's standing in front of a rack showing stationery supplies: pens and notebooks. I just had to point that out to you, my dear blog readers.) An extra-cool feature of the Harvard Book Store talk is that they recorded it all on video, so if you are interested in seeing Alex read from and talk about the book, check out this video! You can see his wit and charm in action.

And finally, last but possibly most importantly, I owe a debt of gratitude to all of my wonderful blog readers and pen pals who have bought the book, read the book, talked about the book, tweeted about the book, blogged about the book, and generally supported it in innumerable ways! Let me share just a few out there in the blogosphere that you can enjoy, too:

Ambrosia Jefferson wrote a fine review on her blog (and great reviews on Goodreads and Amazon, too!), and her reviews were among the first out there. Thank you, Ambrosia!

Cathy Stewart, the fantastic force behind some fantastic mail, is holding a book club discussion on Revolutionary on her fine blog for independents, Politics 4 the People. She's posted heavily about it there, and another fine pen pal and mail blogger, Postmuse of the Orphaned Postcard Project, wrote An epistolary review of Revolutionary on Cathy's blog. Thank you to Cathy and Bonnie Jeanne! I am sure the Politics 4 the People phone-in book group discussion this coming Sunday is going to be marvelous, and I look forward to overhearing Alex's end of it from here in our apartment.

And thanks to all the readers and writers who are continuing to buy, read, tweet about, and talk up the book. Did you blog about it and I missed your post (or missed acknowledging it)? Let me know in the comments or in an email!

If you're interested in hearing Alex speak or checking out his other writing and activities, do follow him on Facebook; he announces his readings and speaking engagements there, and here's some exciting breaking news: Alex will be sharing some speaking engagements in the future with Erin Lindsay McCabe, author of I Shall Be Near To You.

Finally, I will just note that Revolutionary is available in hardcover and ebook from bookstores in North America and online retailers like Amazon and others.

Thanks for your patience with my long post about my dearly beloved's book, and happy reading and writing to all!

Book giveaway: "Revolutionary"

I have shared before how excited I am about my beloved's debut novel, "Revolutionary" by Alex Myers, due out from Simon & Schuster on January 14, 2014. (Eeek! That's just two months away!!) Now, at last, there is a real opportunity for others to read it! If you are one of the amazing, gung-ho folks who have already pre-ordered the novel, you are incredibly awesome. But if not, you have a chance to win your very own copy in a Goodreads giveaway. My caveat to you is that I am not a Goodreads member, I know nothing about the rules and requirements (I'm a loyal LibraryThing gal myself), but I know a lot of my blog readers use that service and I believe it's pretty easy to join. This particular giveaway is being offered in the USA only.



Of course the novel has an epistolary element, so that should definitely be of interest to my friendly blog readers. They are giving away 4 copies, and you can enter any time between now and November 22.

Enter to win "Revolutionary" on Goodreads - good luck!

And if you're hungry for more of Alex's writing, you can also check out his blog at alexmyerswriting.blogspot.com or his Facebook author page.

Announcing "Revolutionary:" January 2014

I have never been more excited for a book release in my life. I am ridiculously excited even to be blogging about it.

Announcing... "Revolutionary" by Alex Myers.

Due out from Simon & Schuster on January 14, 2014, it is now available for pre-order on Amazon.

Why am I so excited about this? Well, "Revolutionary" is pretty darn fabulous - "A fascinating retelling of the story of America’s first female soldier, Deborah Sampson Gannett, who ran away from home in 1782, successfully disguised herself as a man, and fought valiantly in the Revolutionary War." It is a book I would love to read anyway, and I know that because I have already read it. How am I so lucky to be an advance reader of this fine novel? Its talented (and, may I say, dashingly handsome) author happens to be my best beloved husband.

How does this book tie into the letter-writing theme of this blog? The novel does have a significant epistolary element - a lot of important information is conveyed in letters, and the reader gets a fine sense of the writing practices (and equipment, all well-researched) from the Revolutionary War era. In fact, in discussing my blog-post-in-progress with Alex, he said that its subject, Deborah Sampson Gannett (of whom Alex is a distant descendent), actually wrote a letter to Paul Revere, which is well-documented and preserved. He promises to write about that Deborah Sampson/Paul Revere letter on his own blog sometime in the future.

If you are wondering why I am suddenly talking about my husband and my personal life when I so rarely do that on this blog, well... I am not only indescribably excited about this book, but I think it is a book that will interest my blog readers as well. There is a clear correlation between reading and letter-writing, and the vast majority of my correspondents and blog readers are also passionate readers of fiction. This book will appeal to lovers of historical fiction and literary fiction alike, including a fascinating examination of the role of gender and how it forms identity.

On his own blog at AlexMyersWriting.blogspot.com, Alex did a great post about the book cover and his thoughts on it. It's a great look at how the themes of the book tie into the cover design (with which he is quite pleased).



This past summer Alex and I did a little road trip to various New England sites where Deborah Sampson has ties; above you can see Alex posing with the statue of Deborah Sampson Gannett (Gannett is her married name) outside the public library in Sharon, Massachusetts, where Deborah lived after the Revolutionary War. Don't ask me if that actually looks like Deborah Sampson or not, because I have no idea, but Alex said the equipment she's holding looks pretty historically accurate.



He would know - he did extensive research on this subject! Photo above shows Alex in 2010, while he was still writing the book, examining Revolutionary War-era equipment at the New Windsor Cantonment in New Windsor, NY - a spot where Deborah (disguised as the soldier Robert) actually spent the winter of 1782-1783 encamped with her fellow soldiers. There is now a handy museum there, with some of the original structure sites and a lot of excellent models of various munitions, uniforms, and other aspects of Revolutionary War life.



Deborah Sampson is a famous enough historical figure to have statues and streets named after her - above you see Alex posing last August with the "Deb Sampson" street sign - and Alex's book is a fictionalized retelling of her days fighting in the Revolutionary War. I am obviously very biased, and I have given up any pretense of objectivity, since I am madly in love with its author and have read many drafts of the book prior to the final version for publication, but I think it is an amazing story and I expect I will not shut up about it anytime soon.

Alex has many published short stories and essays, and one of his essays was adapted for NPR's "This I believe" Rhode Island and aired in July 2012 - you can listen to him reading his "identity" piece on the Rhode Island NPR archives here - and his blog at AlexMyersWriting.blogspot.com is the place to go to read many of Alex's other stories, essays, and some fabulous background information on his research for this historical novel, read a more extensive bio and fascinating personal information about him, plus some great info on his writing process and writing in general, including getting an agent and the publishing process. Good stuff there.

To recap: check out more about Revolutionary on Amazon, and if you're that interested, go ahead and pre-order!

January 14, 2014 is less than 9 months away...

Women Working

This is one of my favorite black and white photos I've sent on Postcrossing lately: US-1292659 to Amanda37 in the Netherlands.

The postcard is available from Syracuse Cultural Workers, and the photo was taken in 1976 by Ellen Shub, in the now-defunct New Words Bookstore in Cambridge, MA. I am especially attached to this postcard because I was a frequent visitor to New Words Bookstore in the 1990s, and it was a fine place indeed.

Literary postcard swap sent

I sent my postcards for my Literary Postcard swap, and really enjoyed the process.

It helps that I am entirely in love with the "Postcards from Penguin: One Hundred Book Covers in One Box" by Chronicle Books. They take fountain pen ink so nicely, and the designs are wonderful - lots of variety.



The book that I raved about, not coincidentally, involved a tiger: The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht.



Even Soda liked it!

Happy summer reading and writing... I think I'll go write a letter now.

My mistake on the Literary Postcard swap

I have to send a last-minute apology for a mistake I made in setting up my Literary postcard swap! I had noted in the swap description that newbies (unrated swappers) were welcome to join as long as they had a filled-out profile, but I neglected to check the box in the swap setup that allows unrated swappers to join the swap.

Mea culpa!

It's fixed now. If you just joined swap-bot, or are an unrated swapper who is interested in joining, you can now do so. Hop on over to the Literary postcard swap on swap-bot to sign up. I will assign partners by noon tomorrow (oops, Tuesday) EST.

Swap reminders: last chance to sign up!

Observant readers may recall my recent blog posts about the Monster postcard swap and Literary postcard swap I'm hosting on swap-bot. The signup deadline for the Monster postcard swap is today, and the signup deadline for the Literary postcard swap is on Monday. If you're thinking of singing up, pull that trigger now!

Monster postcard swap
Literary postcard swap

And since this is tangentially related to the concept of a Literary postcard swap... did you know that Saturday, August 6 is Do Nothing But Read Day?

She is too fond of Books and it has turned her Brain

I am so, so, so very much in love with this postcard, made by the fabulous Stella Marrs. I've held on to it for ages, but just sent it out for a Swap-bot swap. I hope the recipient loves it as much as I do!

Literary postcard swap

I recently sent this postcard from "Postcards from Penguin: One Hundred Book Covers in One Box" by Chronicle Books as Postcrossing card US-1194131 to west in Taiwan. I am really in love with these postcards - they take fountain pen ink beautifully and the design is fabulous. And they always make me want to talk about books!

Sooooo... I'm hosting another Swap-bot swap. Have a look at the Literary postcard swap I just set up. (Yes, I'm still thinking about doing a mythical creatures postcard swap, but it seemed to me that this literary swap was more far-reaching and folks might already have a bunch of good possibilities in their personal collections.) The last day to sign up is August 1, and the swap deadline is August 9. If you're interested, do sign up and get ready to talk books on literary postcards!

Book giveaway: "Write the Right Words"

As promised in my post reviewing "Write the Right Words" by Sandra Lamb," I will be giving away a signed copy of the book. In fact, the publisher will be giving away the book, and they have the restriction of U.S.A and Canada addresses only, no P.O. Boxes.

THE INEVITABLE RULES

1. HOW: To enter the giveaway, leave a comment on this post. One comment/entry per person, please.

2. WHO: No anonymous comments will be approved. You need a blogger profile to enter this giveaway (simply because I need to know who you are - I'm not going to count through "anonymous #7"), and if you don't have a blogger profile yet, just make one. It's fast, easy and free, doesn't require a blog, and I think only requires a valid email address. Also, your profile with email address MUST be viewable, or you must provide a valid email address in your comment. If your name is drawn as the winner, and I don't have or can't access an email address for you, I'll choose another winner. (Don't be an Indigo.) This bit is important, and I don't like to harp on it, but every giveaway I do, I get at least 3 invalid entries. So either 1) you have an email address or a blog of your own accessible on your blogger profile, which I am allowed to view; or 2) you leave an email address in your comment. If your comment/entry doesn't fall into one of those categories, I'm deleting it before I do the selection, lest it throw the numbers off for the random number generator when I do the final pick. (Less than three hours after my original post, I update to say - wow! I've already rejected an entry because it didn't follow the guidelines.) Lastly, keep your eyes peeled for this magical phrase after you submit your comment/entry: "Comments will be visible after blog owner approval." If you miss that and comment twice, or three times, or more, I'll delete duplicates.

3. WHERE: USA and Canada addresses only, and no P.O. Boxes.

4. WHEN: The deadline for comments/entries is 11:59am (Eastern Standard/NYC time) on Monday, August 30. I will choose and announce the random winner that afternoon.

Good luck!

UPDATE: Congrats to Ginigin, winner of this giveaway!

Giveaway: Yours Ever

As promised, it's The Missive Maven's first-ever BLOG GIVEAWAY!

In a delightfully ironic twist, I received two brand-new copies of this book as holiday gifts, one from a dear friend and one from a dear relative. I could send this book as a gift to someone else, but I don't want to repeat my situation of having someone end up with two of the same book.

*In the unlikely event that one of the original givers is reading this blog post - as my dear husband warned might happen - I am sure they will understand. I am delighted with this book and can't wait to read it, but I only need one.

The book, just published on November 10, is Yours Ever: People and Their Letters by Thomas Mallon. You can read all about it at the linked Amazon description, but here's a wee blurb:

"This companion volume to prolific Mallon's 1984 study of diaries, A Book of One's Own, surveys several epistolary subgenres, including friendship, advice, complaint, love, confession, war-zone dispatch and pleas from prison. A 25-year correspondence between Mary McCarthy and Hannah Arendt pleasurably mixes world politics and personal foibles, musings about the Eichmann trial with an unwanted pregnancy and literary gossip. Henry Miller bullied his patient publisher James Laughlin for 30 years (Why should I compromise?... to please you?); Florence Nightingale's angry, agitated letters from the Crimean War show a respect for the suffering soldier and a contempt for complaining nurses; E.M. Forster confides to a friend his homosexual initiation at age 37 by an Egyptian tram conductor; and Winston and Clementine Churchill's long correspondence blends patriotism, ambition and shared tenacity. They stand in marked contrast to the duke and duchess of Windsor's baby talk and self-pity. This smart, witty and lively account with excerpts of a not-yet-extinct literary genre will whet our appetites for published collections of letters—a selected bibliography is included—while motivating us to put pen to paper to rediscover a satisfying means of communication."

If you'd like a chance at getting this book in this here giveaway, just leave a comment on this post. (DON'T comment on the post if you don't want the book! As such, I won't throw off the numbers by responding in the comments section to comments.) I will select a winner from a random number generator. No anonymous comments allowed, sorry - it's easy enough to fill out a blogger profile if you don't have one already.

A FINAL CLARIFICATION: DA RULES

Because I've already had some anonymous comments, let me just end with the rules.

1. No anonymous comments will be approved. You need a blogger profile to enter this one (simply because I need to know who you are - I'm not going to count through "anonymous #7"), and if you don't have one yet, just make one. It's fast, easy and free, doesn't require a blog, and I think only requires a valid email address.

2. The deadline for comments/entries is 12pm (Eastern Standard/NYC time) on Wednesday, December 30.