All Booked Out

It’s been a busy three weeks since my book came out, with podcasts and interviews and signing events. Well before my book came out, back in February, I was featured on Daphne Gray-Grant’s blog, Publication Coach. My friend Frances Peck had recommended me, and I got to answer questions about my writing life, which was a nice change from talking about science.

After my book came out and after my amazing launch with friends in the Rockies, I was on Cara Santa Maria’s Talk Nerdy podcast. We talked about mental health, academia, and field science. I wished we had talked more about glaciology, but I guess it’s up to me, too, to drive the conversation. In a crossover moment, I was also on Ronit Plank’s Let’s Talk Memoir podcast. It was great to talk about the craft of memoir, after having talked to Cara about science stuff.

I also participated in an Advanced Nonfiction class at SUNY Oswego, taught by Sari Fordham. Students read a book, interview the author, and send their interview out for publication in a literary journal. I was interviewed by Sasha Bailey, who managed to get our chat published in Oyster River Pages. It hasn’t been published yet, but should be out in the next month.

The National Association of Science Writers (NASW) has a feature on their website called Advance Copy, where science writers who are members of NASW are featured with their new books. It was fun to write a brief (300 word) blurb about my book and the writing process, and I’m happy to be in the excellent company of other authors.

My book was also reviewed in Science magazine, by Anna Farro Henderson. She wrote a great review, I really appreciated it. Another review appeared in Mountain Life: Rocky Mountains, written by Laura Ollerenshaw. The outdoor crowd is a totally different market for me, so I hope the review reaches a lot of people. And I was interviewed for Hippocampus magazine, reaching a whole other audience of creative nonfiction writer.

I was profiled in BC Bookworld’s summer edition, which was a nice boost. I love this paper, and usually pick it up on the ferry. On our last ferry trip they didn’t have any copies, but thankfully my local bookstore did!

Speaking of my local bookstore, Melanie at Volume One Books was a star at bringing me into the store to do a book signing. They must have had about 20 copies of my book—I hope they all sell! I spent a couple of hours on Saturday sitting at my signing desk and talking with people who came in. I made four sales, with a potential two more plus one guy who was going to order from Amazon (note to this guy—be a good person and buy from your local bookstore. It’s not even cheaper on Amazon).

I was so pleased that my friend Frances came from Vancouver just to meet me at my signing! It was fantastic to see her and to go for lunch. We had so much to catch up on, as she’s working on her third novel and I’m feeling my way into my second book.

I also got to chat with different people about the book. It’s fascinating the ways in which readers interpret the title. Some thought it was all about melting glaciers and ice and the climate crisis, some thought I was still doing field research. Some people got hung up on the word “scientist.” One guy wanted me to give him a marketing pitch. Needless to say, he didn’t buy the book.

Finally, I did a radio interview for Talk Radio Europe in Spain (who knows how they came across my book!), so that was my 15 minutes (literally) of fame. It went well and the interviewer was easy to talk to.

I’ve been extraordinarily lucky to land some of these reviews and events. Now my focus is not so much on selling the book but getting my story out there. I didn’t write about it to only have 20 people or so read about it. I want to share it widely, so people can come along with me for the ride.

To do that, I’m thinking of doing a fall reading, but it will depend on how I’m feeling and whether I think I can pull myself together enough to do a presentation. I know I can make a presentation no problem. But I’d have to practice it a lot to be comfortable giving that presentation.

Other than that I’m looking into January for events – I’ll have an interview with Melissa Sevigny published in Terrain.org, and I’ll hopefully be on KJ Aiello’s new podcast, Book Hook.

But for now I’m combating a bipolar high, which I think was triggered by the massive change in my routine during the book launch and afterwards. Life won’t be much fun in the weeks ahead, so maybe it’s good I don’t have any more planned book events. I’ll just revel in the ones I did have.