Remember the past—and await the future. ~ A Discovery of Witches
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| Deb and the penguin NOLA or Bust! |
It's been a very week busy in the AST world, and we have a lot of information to share with you! The Book of Life U.S. Tour 2015 has kicked off! We were very fortunate to have some eyes and ears on the ground for us, including Jennifer Marcum Gelder of Nola Bijoux in New Orleans, LA — a long-time Daemon friend and frequent co-sponsor of some of our BEST giveaways in the past, as well as Kristin Lampe in Asheville, NC. We thank our friends on the ground for giving us an opportunity to share in their experiences!
Deb and her penguin are off to meet the fans and talk about the All Souls Trilogy! We hope everyone that wants to meet her gets to. We can testify that it's a wonderful experience for readers!
REMEMBER THE PAST
• May 24, 2015
Deb headed out to New Orleans in preparation of kicking off 'The Book of Life' summer tour. She was ready, but were Marcus and Ransome?
• May 25, 2015
Ms. Harkness takes in New Orleans! While on a promenade, Deb noticed some things in an antique shop that could have belonged to Marcus. We suspect Pheobe is somehow involved in this!
• Taking a break lead Deb to Café du Monde – home of the best café au lait and beignets. She let us in on a little secret: Ransome likes the smell of powdered sugar. We are thankful it was Deb's tale to tell!
• To get that down home N’awlins vibe, we were treated to some street music: MUSIC FROM NOLA
• May 26, 2015
HAPPY PAPERBACK PUBLICATION DAY!
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| Harkness' inspiriration for The Domino Club - click here for more info |
The day started with giveaways and second chances! With the help of Penguin Books, we are again hosting a giveaway (ends June 8, midnight EST)! One lucky U.S. winner will receive an All Souls Trilogy themed prize pack that includes the paperback edition of The Book of Life, a signed Diana’s commonplace book, an ouroboros mirror and six alchemical buttons (pictured on the giveaway post). It’s still going strong, so be sure to enter to win this great prize package (U.S. only)!
Go to Deb’s Twitter page to see what other All Souls Trilogy giveaways are going on—she often retweets some of them to share with her followers.
All Souls Con celebrated the launch of TBOL paperback with their own giveaway on Twitter (open to all!) For details, check out the All Souls Con Twitter page. Also, Penguin Books surprised everyone this week with an awesome flash giveaway on Twitter. On launch day (26 May), they did a giveaway for a signed copy of Diana’s commonplace book and an exclusive All Souls Trilogy board game! We know! We would love to get our hands on one of those! Alas, they are limited. Follow Penguin Books on Twitter and be on the look out for that and any other giveaways they may have. They go quick though! We will do our best to retweet the details of some of these giveaways so you will be in-the-know too (follow us!)
Treats:
• Read how music inspires her writing - FB post on music inspiration.
Interviews/Articles:
• Interview with WOCA radio – Ocala, Florida: Watch Here
• Interview with SUVUDU - .PDF file of this interview also available in our downloads library.
• Note for our RA4MC-specific fans: The SUVUDU interview was fun to read! There is a small mention at the end speaking of her working with the BBC after the tour to get the television show in production. "Squee!" you say! "What do we do now?" you ask! Well friends, absolutely nothing has changed as far as news goes. She already implied in her original announcement that she'd be working with them to get the show on the road. The BBC hasn't even announced the project yet. All we know is that they bought the rights to it and are working on a production. We'll leave them to it, and we carry on! (Write the BBC! Thanks!) It is exciting hear more as events unfold, but like Ysabeau said of Philippe de Clermont, "...He watched. He waited." ~Chapter 5, The Book of Life. We watch. We wait.
• We found a nice piece from The Clarion, the University of Denver's student newspaper ... read it here.
Book signings:
• May 26, 2015 - The Book of Life event at Barnes & Noble in Metarie, Louisiana
Observations by friend to the Daemons, Jen at Nola Bijoux…
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| Jen and her 'Mini Me' |
Personally, my love for books, including this series, inspired me to start a jewelry business Nola Bijoux, and “A Discovery of Witches” is the most searched term that gets people to my store (I recently added knitting to my repertoire thanks to Outlander and anxiously await a BBC series of the All Souls Trilogy so I can get to knitting Matthew’s scarf!)
When Deb arrived, the signing was set up with a table and microphone at the front and an audience of chairs in the upstairs reading area (just like where Diana met Matthew for the first time). My Mini Me and I lucked out and were able to sit in the front row for the whole hour of her talk. She began much as I’m sure every other book signing for The Book of Life has started off and read to us from the first chapter of the book - the conversation between Philippe and Em. Surprisingly, someone in the audience (two people counting my 8 year old) hadn’t read the book so she promised to try to keep spoilers to a minimum. She also offered us a rare treat, and because part of the book is actually set in New Orleans, she read from a chapter between Matthew and Ransome when Matthew recounts the names of those he’s killed.
Deb promised us that she is still “writing” but that a Trilogy is only 3 books so don’t expect another book to be a continuation of this one. She has lots of ideas or “squirming puppies” that are running around, and she hasn’t caught one yet. She wants to do the books justice and doesn’t want the fans to get to a point where they're thinking “not another one” (as if that could ever happen). Deb wants to stay true to the story and the fans. She also didn’t rule out novellas or short stories, but again, she doesn’t want to just write to write.
During the Q&A she was asked if there would be a book about Philippe, and she informed us that she
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| Jen and Deb! |
I used that opportunity to see if I could get a nugget about Ysabeau. Her first (listed) name is “Genevieve” - from which Jennifer derives so I (and another AST Fan Jennifer Kipp) have spent hours researching the origin of that persona. I was hopeful that because Matthew said in the books “Her name is Genevieve, but she prefers Ysabeau” and Matthew’s given name was Matthew, that Genevieve was Ysabeau’s given name and where the research should start. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Deb shared that Ysabeau’s given name isn’t Genevieve, though she didn’t say which of the five was her given name. She also shared that none of the Vampire’s “first” names in the list are necessarily their given names. Back to the drawing board. However, we now know that Ysabeau is older than Homer which is saying a lot. She even hinted that Ysabeau may be from the time before years were counted and kept track of. My goodness, Ysabeau looks good and is reasonably sane for being around that long!
She took a picture with my daughter and me and gave me a big hug. She also thanked me for the jewelry I have sent her in the past and told everyone that I make beautiful jewelry inspired by the books through Nola Bijoux. She’s emailed me before and said thank you, but to hear it from her in front of a room full of people was incredibly special.
One last note! Don’t forget to check your camera when you leave to make sure the picture you took with Deb turned out! I didn’t check, and for quite a while I thought my camera had eaten the pictures. The card was empty and no matter what I tried, there wasn’t nothing on it. Then suddenly, as if by witchcraft - the pictures reappeared (I promise it wasn’t user error; I’m pretty tech savvy.)
Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll make it to any other signings this time around so I’m hopeful that she’ll write more novels soon. I am however, putting out vibes into the universe for a London/Oxford Tour given by Deb. Wouldn’t that be awesome?
Thank you, Jen!
Visit Jen's Etsy shop, Nola Bijoux for All Souls Trilogy inspired items and more!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/NolaBijoux
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Nola.Bijoux
• May 27, 2015 - The Book of Life event at Malaprop's Bookstore/Café, Asheville, North Carolina
Thanks, Kristin!
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| Kristin & Deb! |
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| Photos provided by Malaprop's Bookstore/Café |
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| Photo by Kristin Lampe |
- Diana time-walked to be there for Philippe, as she promised him in Shadow of Night, but she has not done it yet. It’s implied that it’s an event yet to happen. Philippe and Diana spend time together after he is captured, but before Benjamin took charge of his torture.
- Deb makes a point to her readers to take Diana’s journey in this trilogy to heart. Recognize your own powers, accept them. Use them!
AWAIT THE FUTURE
Deb’s book signing tips:
• Please check her EVENTS feed on Facebook for complete event information, including signing line policies and ticket buy links (if they have them).
• She recommends always checking back with the venue to make sure your pre-orders are set (if you made them). This is especially vital if you want to order the new paperback boxed set of the trilogy (on sale now), the hardback boxed set of the trilogy (with commonplace book included), or hardbacks of ADOW or SON. They will have these items on hand in limited supply.
Remaining tour locations and dates:
For more information, see Deb's FB annoucement, as well as Parnassus Books annoucement on Twitter.
May 29 – 7:00 pm
Politics and Prose Bookstore, Washington DC
http://www.politics-prose.com/event/book/deborah-harkness-book-of-life
May 31 – 7:00 pm
The Hillman Center for the Performing Arts, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
http://www.shadysideacademy.org/page.cfm?p=15496
June 1 – 7:00 pm
Barnes and Noble Stonebriar, Frisco, Texas
http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/86841
June 2 - 6:00 pm
Watermark Books & Café, Wichita, Kansas
http://www.watermarkbooks.com/event/deborah-harkness-1
June 3 – 7:30 pm
Boulder Bookstore, Boulder, Colorado
http://www.boulderbookstore.net/event/deborah-harkness-book-life
June 4 – 7:00 pm
Nicola’s Books, Ann Arbor, Michigan
http://www.nicolasbooks.com/event/deborah-harkness-%E2%80%8Bbook-life
June 5 – 6:00 pm
Crooked Tree Arts Center, Petoskey, Michigan
http://www.mcleanandeakin.com/event/deborah-harkness-author-event
June 7 – 2:00 pm
Anderson’s Book Shop, Naperville, Illinois
http://www.andersonsbookshop.com/event/deborah-harkness-0
June 8 – 7:00 pm
Jean Cocteau Cinema, Santa Fe, New Mexico
http://www.jeancocteaucinema.com/event/author-event-deborah-harkness/
June 9 – 7:00 pm
Central & Unser Public Library, Albuquerque, New Mexico
http://www.bkwrks.com/deborah-harkness-tickets
For more information, see Deb's FB announcement
June 14 – 3:00 pm
Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park, Washington
http://www.thirdplacebooks.com
Again, confirm all dates, locations and times by consulting the links above. To see any details Deb may have added/changed or highlighted, please visit Deb's Event page on Facebook.
That's what we have for you today, friends! 'Til next time. . .
P.S. Thank you Jennifer Marcum Gelder and Kristin Lampe for sharing your event experiences with us! We are so happy you two got to meet her!
P.P.S. Would you like to share your upcoming experience on this book tour with us & our audience? Send us an email! Armitage4Clairmont@gmail.com, subject: 2015 TBOL U.S. Book Tour.
