Special thanks to this week's guest blogger, Howard Frank Mosher!On Tuesday, March 2, at 7:00, the Galaxy Bookshop will be hosting the WORLD PREMIER of my new Civil War novel. Walking to Gatlinburg tells the story of 17-year-old Morgan Kinneson, who walks from Kingdom County, Vermont, to Gatlinburg, in the Great Smoky Mountains, in search of his brother Pilgrim, a non-combatant Union surgeon missing in action.
For years, I’ve started my book tours at the Galaxy. Independent bookstores are the best booksellers, and the Galaxy represents everything that’s wonderful about them. Chain bookstores tend to all look alike, but indies are all different. The Galaxy, for instance, was once a bank. It still has a vault, not to mention the only drive-by window of any bookshop in the – well, galaxy.
When I walk into a great independent bookstore like the Galaxy, I immediately
sense that I’m surrounded by all my best old (and new) friends: Robert Frost, Jane Austen, Ernest Hemingway, Charles Dickens, Richard Russo, the Northeast Kingdom’s Leland Kinsey and David Budbill.At my Galaxy events, most of the people are my friends. They’re from the Kingdom. When I show my signature slide of myself shooting a bad review with my shotgun, they nod gravely as if to say, “What else would you do with an unfriendly review in the Times?”
Most important of all, I launch my books at the Galaxy for the same reason I buy all my books there. Like independent booksellers from coast to coast, Linda and Sandy and their staff know and love books the way this clueless storyteller knows and loves the outlaws, living and deceased, of the Northeast Kingdom. Why would I ever buy a book any place else?
Please come to the Galaxy and meet Morgan Kinneson and some of his fellow outlaws from Walking to Gatlinburg on March 2 at 7:00 when I’ll be talking about the new novel and my psychopathic, murderous great, great grandpa, who, I’m sorry to report, inspired the mad villain Ludi Too in my latest! Sad but true. See you at the World Premier.
Looks like fun, but since it's Town Meeting Day I'm going to be a little busy! I won't be able to join you. Darn! Can't wait to read the book though. -Bethany Dunbar
ReplyDeleteSorry you won't be able to come, but maybe you can catch Howard at one of his other stops--he has a full schedule on his website.
ReplyDelete