Susan Wiggs | The Worst Booksigning Ever

When you first sell a book, did you dream about going on tour? Did you imagine yourself putting on grown-up clothes, lipstick and new shoes to sally forth to meet your adoring public? Maybe you pictured yourself with a slick-looking Moonsus business tote slung jauntily over your shoulder, dashing from one bookstore to the next, leaving a trail of avid readers in your wake.

Then one day-be careful what you wish for-you find yourself on a book tour. You’re going to bookstores and big-box stores, doing signing after signing. And grim reality sets in-the inhuman hour you have to get up to get to the airport in time for your flight. The soul-sucking lines and security measures at the airport. The dearth of media coverage, forcing you to confront the reality that no, the publication of a novel about a woman’s emotional journey to self-actualization is not exactly the news hook the papers have been looking for. Then there are the events themselves-the frighteningly empty seats at the readings, the painful absence of book-buying fans. The oh-shit expression on the bookseller’s face when she realizes no one is coming to buy a book. You’re asked where the bathrooms are, where the Twilight books are, and would you mind holding this 16-foot boa constrictor?* By the end of the first leg of the tour, you’ve cycled through the stages of grief-denial, anger, bargaining and bleak resignation.


To read more about Susan's experiences with book signings please click here.

Book Club Rewind - Susan Wiggs

Susan Wiggs was the Plano (Texas) book club's author for our April get together. I was really looking forward to this month's call because I had just read and enjoyed Susan's latest book, Snowfall at Willow Lake. This is the fourth book in The Lakeshore Chronicles series, but don't fear. Those of us who had read Snowfall at Willow Lake and not the other Lakeshore Chronicles did NOT feel like we had just landed in the middle of the series. We didn't feel like we were missing any information nor were we trapped in a series summary for the first few chapters. The book truly stands alone...That's not to say I don't want more!

But back to book club.

Susan was super excited to be part of our book club. She had recently been to visit her publisher and been treated to the full Queen for day routine in Toronto and had not had a chance to rave about it to anyone. By Queen for a day routine, we're talking about large flower bouquets, limo ride, 1st class seat during flight, 5 star meal out with publisher, etc. Of interest to Susan's fans, the publisher expressed interest in a Lakeshore Chronicles Christmas story as well as a cookbook. They also talked about wanting hardcovers, but worry not readers, Susan said there were no plans at this time to have future Lakeshore Chronicles' books come out as hardcover. Her next book, however, called Just Breathe is planned to be released this September as a hardcover. While not part of the Lakeshore Chronicles, the main characters apparently did come and stay at the inn in Dockside (which she also mentioned was the book that she got the least amount of reader feedback on).

Regarding Just Breathe, Susan is asking that when the reprint of her historical The Charm School (complete with new cover art) is released, that you send Susan an email telling her what you think about the excerpt for Just Breathe included at the end of The Charm School.

Speaking of historicals, Susan is planning to do another historical, but it likely will not be one of the hardcovers that I mentioned earlier.

Susan is currently writing Fireside, the next in The Lakeshore Chronicles and featuring Noah's friend Bo from Snowfall at Willow Lake. We also heard that there will be at least another story after Fireside BEFORE Susan writes Daisy's story. She gets a lot of reader comments about Daisy what with her being an unwed teenage mother, but what can I say she was one of my favorite characters in the book!

Odd trivia:
The names of Sophie & Noah's adopted children came from names in SPAM emails. You know those banking or money transfer scams I'm talking about. She just "...can't let those go to waste."

Susan Wiggs | Shopping

So I splurged a little on a dress for to wear to the tea. Never mind that I'll only be there "virtually." Sometimes the perfect dress is called for, even in cyberspace.

And okay, I splurged on the shoes, too. And, um, the bag. As a working writer, 90% of my clothes are the kind of thing you wear to clean out the garage. The other 10% of my wardrobe looks more like this. And how did I earn this hot little number?

See for yourself. This is a shot of me at a booksigning–yes, a booksigning–at a military base in Florida. The day was organized around an air show, and there were tables and booths set up in the hangars along the air strip. I found myself sharing a table with an army ranger and his pet, Roxanne the Snake. The ranger wanted me to hold his snake. I said no. I hid behind my tower of unsold books. He insisted, so I told him I would only hold his snake if I sold all these books. (I never sell out at a signing.) But people kept buying books, and I was down to 3, so the ranger bought them all and I had to make good on my promise to hold his snake.

The snake seemed to like me. The ranger did not, because I told him his snake felt like a purse.

Anyway. Here I am with Roxanne, smiling through my inner silent screams of horror, earning any damn dress I want. For life. So there:

Note that this shot is slightly blurry. Why? Because Mr. Manly-Man Husband of Mine was standing about Note that this shot is slightly blurry. Why? Because Mr. Manly-Man Husband of Mine was standing about fifty yards away, too afraid to come closer, so this is with the zoom lens. And, I admit, I was not exactly holding still.

Diane von Furstenberg has to get her inspiration somewhere, right?

So...where are your favorite places to shop on the Internet? My bookmarks point me to http://www.net-a-porter.com/, http://www.anthropologie.com/, http://www.smartbargains.com/, and http://www.endless.com/. Shop on!

Visit me on the Web! You can find me here: http://www.susanwiggs.com/, my blog is here: http://www.susanwiggs.wordpress.com/ and my photo show at http://www.susanwiggs.shutterfly.com/.

Susan Wiggs

The Charm School - May 1, 2008


Special bonus material–I spotted this on Story Broads:
I want a red dress.
I want it flimsy and cheap,
I want it too tight, I want to wear it
until someone tears it off me.
I want it sleeveless and backless,
this dress, so no one has to guess
what’s underneath. I want to walk down
the street past Thrifty’s and the hardware store
with all those keys glittering in the window,
past Mr. and Mrs. Wong selling day-old
donuts in their café, past the Guerra brothers
slinging pigs from the truck and onto the dolly,
hoisting the slick snouts over their shoulders.
I want to walk like I’m the only
woman on earth and I can have my pick.
I want that red dress bad.
I want it to confirm
your worst fears about me,
to show you how little I care about you
or anything except what
I want. When I find it, I’ll pull that garment
from its hanger like I’m choosing a body
to carry me into this world, through
the birth-cries and the love-cries too,
and I’ll wear it like bones, like skin,
it’ll be the damned
dress they bury me in.
–Kim Addonizio