Author Michael Ondaatje Book Tour Review

Seattle Public Library

October 24, 2011

Tonight is going to be huge and I am so sure of it I get off work early to ensure I get a prime seat. One of the true masters of prose, Michael Ondaatje has arrived to promote his newest book, “The Cat’s Table.”

Mr. Ondaatje’s appearance was advertised in the Seattle times as part of the Library author series and as expected the place was packed.
Now, I honestly believe that Mr. Ondaatje writing is some of the best prose by any living author. Too bad his author reading stunk.

Rick from Elliot Bay Bookstore gives a heartfelt introduction and Ondaatje makes a grand appearance, looking the part of a regal professor from that Ivy League school you wished you could have attended.

This is the biggest crowd I have seen in a long time. Three hundred plus fans of literature appear tonight for an evening that truly sucked. This is the kind of author who is capable of attracting a crowd that might never step out of the house.
Oh a word about the audience. This is not the regular lit crowd. Book clubs came. Groups of students arrive. This is the high snob, I read a book a week and what an intellectual I am crowd. This is the crowd that comes into town with friends for dinner and lectures, plays symphonies. They buy books get it?

Mr. Ondaatje begins with a very brief introduction, so brief in fact that I barely get the premise before he starts reading scattered long sections from his newest novel. “Cat’s Table”

The novel is the story of three eleven year old boys, on a voyage to London. The boys, strangers at first, are traveling unsupervised by adults and the novel follows their journey of discovery as they leave home for various reasons.

Mr.Ondaatje’s reading voice can best be described as hypnotic. He has a soft unique accent that is pleasant to the ear and as he begins reading you can hear a pin drop. The passages he reads tonight lead me to believe this book is of the same caliber as his previous works and his ability to command words that good together is on full display. If you have never read one of his novels, check one out and you will see what I mean.

For instance, Mr.Ondaatje’s protagonist, (ironically named Michael) describes a specific character he meets as “tentative,” “languid”, and “moving like a sick cat.” When the boys place themselves intentionally in harm's way and are discovered by the ship’s spotlight the narrator describes that he and his companions could “sense the outrage behind the light.”

As said earlier, Mr.Ondaatje has a soothing voice, it lacks inflection, but is a gorgeous voice causing the crowd to sway like the rocking of the ship his characters travel. There is however a danger to listening to this kind of author read and that is the danger of falling asleep.

The first twenty minutes go well. Rarely did Mr.Ondaatje take a break from reading to explain anything and when doing so, the author offered little background to the audience. What little bit of the novel’s back story he did expound upon lacked humor or antidotes.

This reading was analogous to a long slow steady love making session; after the initial magic wears off the constant rhythm becomes irritating and then you just hope it ends soon.

Finally when he stopped reading, the author closed the book and said softly, “I will now take your questions.”

Questions about what? He hardly said anything, read for forty minutes and now the crowd was expected to ask questions? I got some questions, Hey Mike why don’t you talk to us about the book's plot, or your motivation for writing or your writing process or you what you had for dinner? Something so the audience has a starting point for a conversation.

So now unfold the worst thing that can happen during an author reading. The audience provides all subject material; the author is forced to deal with the result thus turning a nice evening into a staid, insipid mess.

So what do you get when an author steps on the stage, reads for forty minutes then goes straight into Q&A?

Here are some pearls:

Which of your novels is your favorite? (Ondaatje dismisses the question.)
What are you reading now? (He can’t remember off the top of his head)
Who was your first publisher? (Relevance please)

By now, Mr. Ondaatje looks bored. I’m bored. That is because there is no focus of his reading. The excitement of the audience is reduced to a band of adults checking their smart phones. Give us a conversation starter Ondaatje. Tell us where you lived how you started where you came to love the craft? My God it was more awkward than a junior high dance.

Here is some more questions:

“What novels were your inspiration?” (The author says too many to mention)
“What is your method of writing?” (Long hand then three or four drafts before the finished product.)

Okay, maybe I am being too harsh. To be fair Mr. Ondaatje has been on a huge tour and Seattle was the tail end. He is and older man now; he successful but he is tired. I doubt there are few questions he has never been asked.

I don’t care. People made sacrifices to come here tonight. Seattle is in the midst of one of the biggest paralyzing road projects in its history. It was a testament to Mr. Ondaatje and the city’s literary fans that came out tonight in such impressive numbers most authors will never experience.

At least Mr. Ondaatje could have made an effort to be interesting.

Author Scott Westfeld Book Tour Review

Seattle Public Library
Sponsored by Secret Garden Books

October 10, 2011


Short Version: "Scott Westerfeld is not the adult who tries to relate to younger fans by acting their age. Westerfeld succeeds by being an adult who holds a youth’s attention by being interesting. He certainly had mine tonight."


Here is something adults complain about, not enough adolescents read these days. Well they should have been here this night

A few years back I attended a writer’s conference in Canada and Scott Westerfeld's novel "Leviathan" was hailed by this particular literary agent as the premier novel on the Steampunk genre. Well goodness me anytime the premiere anything is in town it is time to make an appearance. I confess this was an eye opener.

By the time I got in the door to the Seattle Downtown library I didn’t know what the hell to think. Kids. Loads of them, showing up on a Friday night with books to be autographed and dressed in costumes resembling the characters Westerfeld had created.

As a lone adult I had neither a costume nor was I escorting a teenage fan and so I stuck out like a sore thumb as the crowd lined up.

One group of young ladies (Age 13-15 )were dressed up in outfits straight out a scene from a Monte painting. Actually they didn’t look so out of place as they did, well, cute. They were clean cute clean polite proper girls who read books and are into the characters. Moms stayed an appropriate distance away of course but it was heartwarming.

Then there was the smallish prepubescent boy (13?) sporting the Duran Duran Haircut who wore a shirt that said “Step into the Dork Side” What was funny about him was every time another adult appeared his dad would look around with that expression of ‘Please God don’t let anyone I know see me.’

Steam punk is hard to define. Think of alternative universe where automation and technology have no bounds but everything is new and takes place around the turn of the last century. Confused? Think "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" as an early Steampunk adventure novel.


Inside the library I get a good seat when a young man fired up on what seems a lethal combination of Red Bull and hyper-enthusiasm jumps the seat next to right and asks me “Are you pulling a Malone?” Huh?

Malone it turns out is a reporter in the Westerfeld novels and this kid thinks my note pad and tape recorder are part of my costume. I am just playing a character. The young man is old by the crowds standards, (19) and he is fully decked out in military surplus gear (complete with Aviator Goggles of course) and explains to me that he is dressed as a “Clanker” from the novel.

I don’t know what a Clanker is but as the kid prattles on (Let’s call him Wes) I now realize I have a Sherpa to take me inside the world of the Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan trilogy.

HOLD YOUR BREATH THIS IS THE DYSTOPIAN BACKDROP OF LEVIATHAN.

According to Wes, Charles Darwin discovers DNA. This allows counties known as Darwinist, (Britain, France, Russia,) use their advanced technology to create an advanced weapon system dominated by gene splicing. This means their weapons are hybrid animals with special powers to be used in warfare.

The Darwinist nations are opposed to the “Clanker Nations” (Germany, Austria-Hungary) who have developed high powered creative War machines operated by Steam and other fuels existing before the age of Nuclear power. The Clankers are at philosophical and technological differences with the Darwinist. The Arch Duke Ferdinand gets assassinated, World War I has breaks out and it is up to the two sides to settle things once and for all.


Get it? I don’t either because IT’S STEAMPUNK but I am hoping Scott Westerfeld will explain as his author reading is about to start. “Wes” is done with me and finds costume company on the auditorium floor.

THE READING

It’s hard to hold the attention of someone across the room but holding the attention of one hundred fifty kids? The atmosphere is that of a high school pep rally and I am dying to see how this middle aged author is going to pull it off.

Westerfeld is tall and comes across gentle even shy, as if he has never yelled at anyone in his life. Rather than stand off stage waiting for the big entrance, Westerfeld sits calmly at the front of the stage taking pictures of the crowd and playing with his telephone. For a man who is here to speak to adoring fans I am shocked how the crowd streams in past him not giving him a second glance. I wonder if these kids know who he is because they ignore him like a substitute teacher.

Westerfeld looks bored, and if he reads like he looks this is going to be a wasted reading. What is the old saying about judging a book and its cover?

After he is introduced by the library staff Westerfeld a portable microphone where the author turns into part history professor and part game show host complete with a PowerPoint presentation.

Unlike the adult who is scared of children, Westerfeld refuses to hide behind a podium. He prefers the portable microphone for mobility and like any good novel, Westerfeld challenges the audience to not only follow what he says but to physically follow his movements on stage.

Now I understand his secret. Scott Westerfeld is not the adult who tries to relate to younger fans by acting their age. Westerfeld succeeds by being an adult who holds a youth’s attention by being interesting. He certainly had mine tonight.

What was so great about tonight? I complain that authors should talk about their novels and read from their books for the purpose of increasing book sales. Westerfeld is one of those rare birds who can sell books without uttering a word from his novel.
He did this through the visual images of his novel’s illustrations.

You see, tonight this was not a reading but a history lesson about illustrations in novels. The author spoke of the power of the illustrator and how they can shape and increase the pleasure of the written word. He talked about how the legendary image of Sherlock Holmes, complete with Deerstalking hat, was not created by the author, but rather an illustrator. Nowhere in the Sherlock Holmes books does it say Holmes even wears a hat of any kind; let alone a Londoner wearing a hat used when hunting in the woods but that first illustrator gave Holmes an iconic image for history.

With this background, Westerfeld began to explain to the audience how his illustrator, Keith Thompson, helped shape the world of the Leviathan series. Westerfeld heaped praise on Thompson’s work as a key component to the success of the series.
Westerfeld said that he would write a few chapters then Thompson would send back the drawings that came to his imagination from Westerfeld’s words. Often times Thompson’s illustrations shaped and changed the novels so that the two fit hand in hand.

Toward the end, Westerfeld, encouraged the young audience, or anyone who dared to write a novel to stretch their imaginations beyond what they think others will accept as normal.

It was an inspiring night even for an adult.

Author Juliet Eilperin's Book Tour Review

University Book Store


7-25-11


The problem with journalist writing a book is that they go on book promotions and that can be painful. Once on stage reporters treat these junkets as if they were at a press conference and on the wrong side of the podium. Journalist are used to being in the safety of the press core asking the questions not answering them. At the podium, they often squirm and produce canned guarded boring responses. I understand. It’s the reporter’s nature to swim around with their kind, waiting for a sign of distress before they attack. Kind of like, well… a shark.

Not so tonight. As a speaker on the subject Ms.Juliet Eilperin's is fantastic and right before Shark Week beings she is in Seattle pumping up her new book "Demon Fish: Travels Through the Hidden World of Sharks"

It was a remarkable evening. Concise and direct, her speech flows without hesitation or remarkably without refereeing to notes. It’s a shame that due to the time restrictions at University Books she did not use her power point presentation for visual emphasis.

The best part of Ms. Eilperin's speech tonight may have occurred before the Author Event began. I arrive early, sit in the front row and chat with the Book store employees. To my shock, Ms. Eilperin's arrives early as well and introduces herself to the staff with a brilliant smile that would send a dentist into the poor house. I’m now ease dropping.

She is a gracious lady, unpretentious and without entourage perfect manners and speaks to the book store staff with respect. An audience member approaches her sounding like an academic or a researcher. She humbles herself to him by admitting her concern to get things correct. The man compliments her work, saying that she did a fine job at pulling together a vast subject like sharks and Ms. Eilperin seems appreciative. It’s such a sweet exchange I almost need an insulin shot.

As I sit in the front, she makes eye contact and I mention the excellent preview of her book in theSeattle Times by authorDavid B. Williams and again the woman’s face lights up.

“I just saw that today. I don’t know that person, do you?” Actually I don’t but with my note pad and tape recorder out, I guess I look like a media member. I mention write about author tours on this little blog.
“Oh she says. I will look forward to reading what you said about this.”
Maybe she was being polite but by now I found the woman so gracious I think I would paint her house if she asked.
Ms. Eilperin is not a Shark fanatic but admits that her work for the Washington Post led her to this book. The book is a tribute the environmental challenges that sharks fight for survival.

The subject of her talk is the current threat of sharks by man, specifically the Chinese cultural prestige to eat Shark Fin Soup. The author sites estimates of 35million -70 million sharks a years being killed for their fins only. The book, “Demon Fish” is not just political since it covers a wide variety of shark information but her talk tonight focuses on the shark fin trade

Once discouraged by a Communist system as a delicacy, Shark Fin Soup has gone into greater demand by the prosperous Chinese economy, and with China’s prospering, the taste for that prestige is growing. As the author points out Shark Fin Soup is a staple of Chinese wedding receptions and business is booming.

Things seem to be changing according to the author. Several countries are banning Shark fishing and some countries realize that the tourism from sharks may make them more valuable live than dead. It is akin to the fight by African locals to preserve the Elephant as a tourist draw, instead of killing them for their ivory tusks.

One young Chinese-American girl in the audience defends her culture (respectful not hostile) by saying that it is hard for young Chinese environmentalist to go against the grandparents and parent’s desire for Shark Fin Soup to be served. This was a perfectly reasoned statement and one that could invite all kinds of controversy depending on how it is answered or if the author is caught up in her own fanaticism. But Ms. Eilperin is skilled in her response and focuses on the environmental impact of the custom and not a damning of the Chinese people.

This served as one of the better audience commentaries of the evening because it was during the Q & A I wanted to stand up kiss Juliet Eilperin right on her big beautiful smile.

The hijackers were lurking in the audience. These kinds of people don’t ask questions. They look for affirmation of their personal opinions by asking leading questions and disregarding the speaker if the hijacker opinion is not validated. They try (and God do they try) to take over the speakers talk by making statements instead of questions, interrupting the author’s answer and acting like this public forum is taking place in the hijacker’s living room. Too often this happens and I hate it.

When these questions occurred, Juliet Eilperin would simply nod her head in agreement and motioning her hands saying “Uh-huh, uh-huh.” It was like watching a jump roper preparing to enter double-dutch. As the audience member blabbed on and on, Ms. Eilperin revved up her momentum, until that blessed moment when the audience member forced to take half a breath, and BAM, she breaks the hijacker’s speech by jumping in with some amazing fact and then continues on to the next question without appearing to offend anyone. It was brilliant.

I wish I could take that, bottle it up, and spray it around the room before every author reading. It would save a lot of unfortunate author readings.

Sapphire Book Tour Review

July 17, 2011



Sapphireis no joke. That’s the first thing that goes through my mind as she takes the stage to read from her newest novel, “The Kid.” Prior to that, I sit mystified. Yes it’s a warm perfect summer night but who the heck would not want to be inside the cement tinderbox basement of Elliot Bay’s dungeon to listen to an author whose previous work produced an Academy Award winning movie?

I am shocked the crowd is small. Fifteen minutes before the program is to start, I count twenty seven people but I expected over a hundred. I see the faces of the regulars who like myself, attend author readings regularly. Some Sapphire fans are reading her newest novel but many of the audience are engaged in political discussions. (More later) At exactly 7pm, the basement fills faster than a Nordstrom’s half off sale and the staff sets up another thirty chairs. Why do people decide to show up late to these things? And why did the two gay men next to me reek of onions? Damn it, I got a good seat too. It’s not the smell that irritates me it’s the audience.

Putting it blunt, where are the black people? Famous African American authors are few and far between on the speaking circuit. The Seattle African American community, show up in force when Toni Morrison, Terry McMillian, or Walter Mosley came to town but not tonight. Why? What is it about Sapphire that causes such a low turnout from the very community she comes from?

The room is not void of the African American community but the house is filling up faster and faster with that demographic I find highly entertaining/irritating: ex-hippies.

These are mainly female, white middle class AARP eligible folks, who attend lectures like this as a means of connecting to the kind of people they never grew up around. They are an intellectual know-it-all, crowd of elite snobs and prior to the author’s arrival I listen to the opinions of white people speaking up about the problems in poor black communities. Now, I have no problem with people having a point of view, (heck I write a blog) but what makes this gaggle of Subaru driving, left wing Glen Becks experts on the world of Sapphire?

Conversation volume is turned up as they shout their opinions over one another
to promote their personal causes; while trying to tell anyone in earshot that only they understand what the clueless masses don’t understand.Their sentences usually start with “I don’t understand people who…” or end sentences with “these guys don’t get it.”

I love it. Can’t wait to see how the speaker handles the Q & A session because I know some of these people are going to try to hijack the evening. This is why author readings can be so entertaining and here I continue to wait among the stench of onion on strangers.

Of course, Sapphire is not a pretender like these sycophants. She understands the plight of her novels subjects and the demons that fail those in social service organizations. She is a political voice of intelligent activism and when hearing her speak tonight there is little doubt she knows what she is talking about.

Anybody who has ever read Sapphire’s debut the novel “Push” which turned into the academy award winning movie “Precious” are aware of the novels harsh subjects covering incest, rape, illiteracy, domestic abuse and AIDS among the African American community. I’ve never read the book, but when flipping through sections of “Push” but I know someone has talent when their writing makes me physically ill.

Her newest novel “The Kid” is the tragic follow up to “Push” The book begins with Precious, having died of AIDS leaving her nine year old son, Abdul to the government social service system. This is Abdul’s story. A tale of abuse and choice that leaves him with a crack of hope in a world that has damned him to life in institutions.

Tonight, despite a hectic day of interviews, Sapphire finds the energy to read sections from the book as if she is trying to impress the audience: it works.

The author’s background (a veteran of the Slampoet circuit) serves both she and the audience well. It wasn’t a reading but a performance.

She has complete command of the stage. Maybe I shouldn’t be impressed given Sapphire’s background. Maybe I should have expected this magnificent reading tonight but night after night of hearing bad readings performed by unrehearsed authors has made me numb. I don’t write about all of them. So when I see an author on stage, remarkable as Sapphire was this evening, I appreciate the effort and I wish to God others were here as well.

“The Kid” is a collection of hard words describing a hard world and Sapphire’s talent makes these words palatable. She reads prepared comments off hand written notes, then reads sections of the novel as we follow Abdul’s journey.
She explains a lot of the novel. In fact she reads almost too much to entice the reader into buying the book. Thankfully, Sapphire doesn’t give away the ending, but she doesn’t leave much for the audience to discover about Abdul either.

The audience follows Abdul at his mother’s death bed to the bureaucratic nightmare of Foster homes, disconnected family relationships, self-awakening and graphic sexual abuse (both as victim and perpetrator)

Oh and sidebar about Sapphire. I loved her fearless nature. I loved how she called Andrew Sullivan a racist for his insensitive comments. It really frosted my cake, however, when during the Q & A session, she said Abdul should not be considered a pedophile because he himself is only a child.
So when fourteen year old Abdul sexually molests another boy in the orphanage what does that make him? A pedophile or a rapist of minors?

As I said it is a hard world that Sapphire writes about.

Author Jim Shepard's Author Reading

May 17, 2011

ELLIOT BAY BOOK STORE

Short version: University Professor fails.


He was once nominated for the National Book Award in 2007. AuthorJim Shepard made an appearance tonight to promote his new collection of short stories “You Think That’s Bad”

After the introduction the author took the stage leaving only one question: Was this guy serious? Really? This is how an esteemed English Professor acts?

Worse of all, the good professor’s reading was the kind of performance that makes it tough to get excited about promoting these events. That is not to say that the reading was a complete loss but the good things too few and far between.

Maybe he was trying to channel Northwest Short story master Raymond Carver. Most authors are inclined to dress at least a little like a professional for an author reading. It can only be imagined that Mr. Shepard figured that the best way to blend into Seattle was to dig out the ancient grunge rocker,flannel shirt his wife has tried several times to throw away.

Professor Shepard started the reading with the standard formula “I’m going to read a little, answer a few questions and then sign some books okay?” Which is fine but then most authors will set the stage by providing some kind of background for the audience to hear. Instead he jumps right into a section from the story, “Boys Town.” Now often times, jumping into a story with no introduction is a great technique for setting the evenings tone.

It did not, however, work tonight.

Even in this modern era, it is still bad manners for an author, at least an author reading in a public business, to not give his audience the common courtesy of announcing that tonight’s reading selection will contain as many F-Bombs as a Martin Scorsese movie. He could have even offered a radio edit, or have chosen a less colorful selection. Instead Mr. Shepard selection was a potty mouthed display of immaturity that came across like a school boy sneaking cigarettes from his stepdad.

The reading selection is written from the point of view of a thirty nine year old man, still living at home, mentally still craving Gerber food and treating his mother as if she were his trailer park bride resulting from a shot gun wedding.

The story’s narrator is a disturbing dysfunctional character with little hope and little depth but before the audience can get into the story or begin to get a feeling for the story’s purpose Wham! Mr. Shepard shuts the book and starts taking questions.

This made the Q & A and the rest of the evening difficult. With such a short reading and the author’s failure to introduce the story, the audience has so little information it was impossible to gain traction on what topics might make for an interesting questions.

There were few audience members familiar with his work and this created an awkward evening full of general questions to an unfamiliar author. In this instance, some authors will frame an evening into a theme that guides the audience questions. This would have saved Mr. Shepard from answering such questions as “What do you see college kids reading on campus these days: Twilight?” Thank God we were in the basement or I might have jumped a window. It does however bring up another point.

Williams College, one the highest ranking liberal art colleges in America, and to have such and esteemed faculty member in town was special. It was inspiring to hear Mr. Shepard express his love of books and for teaching. He was honest about his position in the lexicon of literature and how freeing it is to work on the short story form compared to the novel. He spoke of how the much time and research was still required to produce one short story. He also made the valid point that all stories/novels should be read aloud by the writer before publication. These were the enjoyable parts of the evening,

Neil Low's Author Reading Tour

4-16-2011

Third Place Books

But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid…. He has a range of awareness that startles you, but it belongs to him by right, because it belongs to the world he lives in. – Raymond Chandler “The Simple Art of Murder”


The Short version: Seattle Police Captain reads from his newest novel set in Pre-WWII Seattle and gets a little lost in the night.

Police Captain, author, and story teller Neil Low arrived to Third Place Books with his new crime novel, “Unreasonable Persuasion.”

The story is based on true events that happened in late 1930’s Seattle. Before WWII, two Canadians; sympathetic to the Chinese war against Imperial Japan, once tried to blow up a ship in Seattle. The boat was full of scrap metal from the trolley tracks torn in headed to the land of the rising sun, just before WWII. Take that Home Land Security.

Anyway this tale provides the backdrop for “Unreasonable Persuasion,” is the third book in Captain Low’ crime series featuring Private Detective, Allen Stewart. Captain Low’s knowledge of Seattle history and Seattle police corruption during the prohibition era is second only to his expertise as a peace officer and an author.

It has been said that policeman and doctors are great story tellers but make lousy writers. Usually this is said by writers who are not doctors or cops but there is some merit to this claim. What often captivates people over a few beers can bog down in print when a person tries their hand at being an author so it speaks well of Captain Low’s writing success.

It is sage advice to never get in the way of a good story, and Neil Low is the kind of author that can keep a dinner party entertained for an entire evening with his intriguing tales.

THE READING.

The author is an engaging man. As people arrive the Captain greets them with a warm smile while handing out promotional cards as easy as a church user hands out the choir’s song list.

As pleasant as Captain Low comes across his presentation style is analogous to a CSI investigator specializing in the pattern of blood splatters: the guy is all over the place.
After the introduction, Captain Low was going to start with Q& A. This is before he said anything. (Huh?) Then he changed his mind. Then he was going to read something from his first book. Then he stopped and began with his background which gave both he and the audience a starting spot but it didn’t stop there.

He moved from stories to segue to another segue until he returned to his first point which got swallowed up by a vignette. A cloud of dysordre fell upon the room and Third Place Books was swallowed whole.

Soon he started reading from his newest book. Half a page into the chapter the Captain stopped mid sentence and jumped further ahead into a separate section of novel. The author restarts his reading, with no set up or explanation to the audience. He just starts reading another section.

By now the night is now in spin cycle and there is forty five minutes left. This is going to be a long night destined to only turn into something really tragic or really funny.

UNTIL…

Once he focuses, the Captain reads well in public. Really well in fact the words from the books section he finally settles on is great. Years of standing in front of a roll call can make a man comfortable in front of crowds. Captain Low is reading the description of the crime scene that is not especially long, but is best describe as Eeeach!

The words and voice of this writer are vivid and scary as hell yet he showed enough class to avoided appealing to the sick and twisted populace who think “Saw IV” was a comedy. It is the kind of scene that can only be written by someone who as actually bore witness to events that would haunt many people.

The rest of the evening is a few questions and more and audience questions and more stories and segues that distract and confuse.

With so much material to draw upon and a warm outgoing personality, if Captain Low ever gets his presentations organized, this will be a can’t miss show.

Cara Black vs Jacqueline Winspear a contradiction in Author Reading

Short version: Two authors come to Seattle with much in common, but one had the better author reading.


In novel writing there are few things the author has control over but one of them is the author reading. It is the one opportunity where an author can connect with the reading public in a way that is both personal and professional.

What makes a good author reading is the question. So many things can happen. So many things are unforeseen. Some are boring, but if done properly it can leave a lasting impression. This brings us to the show down between two ladies of literature.Cara Blackand Jacqueline Winspear

On the surface the two authors have a tremendous amount in common. They are mature, polite, educated and worldly women. It is not hard to imagine them being neighbors and visiting while trimming roses or drinking tea.

Both women write an established mystery series with character’s set overseas in the 20th century. Ms.Winspear’s character Maisie Dobbs is set in England after the end of World War I while Ms. Black’s private detective Aimee Leduc lives in 1990’s Paris.

Why compare these two female authors? Because both recently appeared in Seattle and demonstrated how, despite the similarities, there are differences in each author reading.

Start with atmosphere, which is important. The French organization, I’Alliance Francaise and University Books sponsored Ms. Black to read and discuss her newest novel “Murder in Passy”. Her reading took place in one of the rooms at Seattle’s Good Sheppard Home. This is a unique setting inside a beautiful one hundred year old building now used for various events. It is also worth mentioning that the Good Sheppard Home is centered in a quiet neighborhood with few distractions. No car horns or sirens or heavy traffic as the room window opens up to the large grounds surrounded by an old stone fence and heavy foliage.

Tonight the biggest distraction was I’Alliance Francaise selling French wine by the glass. (an excellent idea)

The spacious classrooms large enough that the soft spoken Ms. Black was concerned about being heard as no microphone was available. Her anxiety was unwarranted as the crowd remained attentive and cell phones silenced without being asked.

They came to hear her speak of Parisian culture and her how her years of research lead her to the inner workings of a French private detective agency. It was a simple straight forward uneventful presentation. Nothing spectacular would happen tonight and the audience was comprised of mainly people from I’Alliance Francaise some fans and other writers.

Still Ms. Black had a large challenge ahead of her. She was presenting her novel to a group whose interest lay not in her books but that of French culture. This was her eleventh book. The question is how does an author present a new novel, (and not a standalone novel but one from an established series, no less) to a crowd unfamiliar with her work.

More later.


The reading for Jacqueline Winspear presenting her novel "A Lesson in Secrets" was the exact opposite of Ms. Black. Her novels have a strong following in this region and the impressive crowd size placed a strain on the Lake Forest Park branch of Third Place Books.

She read on the main stage is known as the Third Place “Commons” where it is located in the center of a large food court and multitudes of long tables are used by the public for personal meetings. The chairs are set and the curtains are drawn, but only the biggies read here.

It is impossible to close off the noise of the conversations in the Commons. On a busy night such as this, the conditions were reminiscent of the days when European Opera singers sang for the wealthy in their boxes while the proletariat were milling around the floors selling chickens, gambling and throwing the occasional tomato at a bad actor.

Even so, Ms. Winspear has a formidable presence, on stage. She has a gorgeous English accent that marries to a rich gentle voice. From the very moment she takes the stage she is prepared and more focused than Cara Black or several authors for that matter. If you hear her speak there is little doubt she is an expert in her subject.

Ms. Winspear also avoids one of the great blunders that author’s make on tour. She is here to sell books. Early on she tells the audience that she will divulge little information about her new novel and politely encouraged the crowd to buy the books. This is an admirable trait, but one that can be taken too far.

Ms. Winspear’s talk was more of a history lecture than an author reading. Her intention was to leave the crowd with hints about her newest novel which was strange for a woman who desires to sell books. Tonight she spoke on the subjects of secrets, unappreciated contributions by British women during WWI and of all things “Winnie the Poo.”

Neither woman was a particularly entertaining reader but this is not a damnable sin. Not every author has the talent to sound like they perform at the Globe Theater and to their credit neither woman read more than a couple of pages.

So what was the difference?

Here lies the lesson. Ms. Winspear assumed her audience knew her work where Ms. Black did not.

By her own admission, Ms. Winspear had been to Seattle on many occasions which might explain why she addressed the audience about her main protagonist, Maisie Dobbs, with such familiarity.

Ms. Winspear’s intended, on this evening to create interest in her new novel but her “clues” were so abstract and so cryptic that she failed to leave any understanding about what Maisie Dobbs will do to warrant investing twenty five dollars to find out.

By the time the Q&A session came about she left no room for the audience to ask questions about the new novel and the All the questions were regarding past novels and the standard, “What are you reading now?”and “Will we see Maisie Dobbs in a movie?”

In defense of Ms. Winspear, it is appreciated when authors try to bring something new to their base core of readers. A tired old speech given repeatedly to fans is a big turn off but tonight people learned a great deal about Winnie the Poo and nothing of “A Lesson in Secrets"

The majority of Cara Black’s talk was about her characters development, history and plot lines. She brought the crowd of unfamiliar fans into the world of private investigator Aimee Leduc. Granted this took time, (she spoke longer than Ms. Winspear) and thank God for French wine, but by taking these steps in an intimate setting, Ms. Black was able to draw the crowd into both her newest novel and the entire series. Proof of her success this evening was demonstrated as Ms. Black was peppered with questions about her entire catalogue of novels and the amount of books bought by the more modest crowd.

Both women are deserving of their success but putting aside writing talent, prose and plot, it seems that to gain new fans in these hard economic times, it pays for a mystery novelist to be less mysterious.