On Books and Writing
Charleston City Paper (Charleston, SC) recently spoke with Susan Crandall for a short Q&A regarding Whistling Past the Graveyard. Be warned, spoilers lurk if you’ve not already read the book!
The newspaper also did a fantastic write up of Whistling Past the Graveyard. So if you haven’t read the book, it’s a great place to whet your appetite.
The Whistling Past the Graveyard audio book, narrated by Amy Rubinate, is now available from iTunes and Audible.com
Amy Rubinate has been a professional actor and singer for over a decade. She has narrated and provided character voices for many interactive children’s books, toys and video games. Her one-woman cabaret shows have been performed in New York and San Francisco. Amy has a degree in Oral Interpretation of Literature, and won state and national awards for poetry reading. Her performance makes Whistling Past the Graveyard an audio book to remember.
Audio book also available for digital download from Hoopla and on CD from Dreamscape directly, or Amazon.
Independent booksellers are unheralded heroes of the literary world. While Amazon, Barnes & Noble and the like take most of the spotlight, it’s the indies who are the engine behind a book launch. As such, I’d like to thank Bookshop Santa Cruz for featuring Whistling Past the Graveyard on the homepage of their website. I truly appreciate your support of the novel.
If you are an independent bookseller with a window display or a store display for Whistling Past the Graveyard or are doing promotion for the book on your website, please email pictures to content@susancrandall.net so we can feature you on the website!
In addition the fine booksellers who have been so kind and and enthusiastic in their support of Whistling Past the Graveyard on the book tour also deserve a great deal of credit and thanks. If you are a reader near any of these bookshops, I highly recommend a visit. It will be well worth your time, and these fine locally owned, independent businesses deserve your support.
Indiana:
Mississippi:
Tennessee:
Georgia:
Florida:
North Carolina:
South Carolina:
Many thanks to all!
If you’re a bookseller or library and would like to book an event, please contact Stephanie DeLuca, publicist at Simon & Schuster.
Southern Hospitality isn’t just a phrase. I am a stranger. I am welcome.
I love Southern cooking even more than I realized. May have to go shopping for a Mumu before I return home. I finally stopped “checking in” on FB because I’m ashamed that all of the places are restaurants.
No matter how careful I am, I leave things behind in hotels.
In much of the South you get your picture “made,” not “taken.”
It is less expensive to pay to check two bags on an airline than to pay for weight overage on one (My sincere apologies to my publisher.) This of course was information readily available to me had I checked; and yet I don’t think I could wrangle another bag on my travels with daily hotel changes and various modes of transportation, so it was a bit of a moot point.
A fine Southern Gentleman (and mother) at his first book signing. (Photo: FoxTale Book Shoppe
Driving in the Atlanta metro area is confusing and hair-raising. No road runs straight. Ten lanes of traffic is the norm. Many, many streets have multiple names, one to the right, another to the left. Names are reused on different streets and roads with things like SE, CONN or EXT tacked on the end that might indicate meaning to locals but really messes with me and my GPS.
Hotel air conditioners use fake thermostats…I’m convinced none of them actually control the temperature in the room.
3 weeks without my yoga class are going to cripple me.
My Yelp app on my phone is indispensable.
And most importantly: Booksellers are a vast ocean of secret (and yet easily accessible) knowledge and a sometimes untapped resource for booklovers. I have left every book store on this tour with a new and lengthy list of books to add to my TBR pile. I want to share my fabulous discoveries with you. I’ve asked several to be guests on my website with their recommended reads. Too many good books languish in the shadows. Let these booksellers guide you to some wonderful reading.
An Accidental Forking
It’s hard to be gone from home for nearly three weeks straight, even if I’m having a great time meeting booksellers and readers and discussing Whistling Past the Graveyard. It’s even harder to be away from a 16-month-old granddaughter. To prevent complete Gram-withdraw symptoms, my hubby, son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter made a five hour drive from Indianapolis to meet me in Nashville, TN where I was signing books with author and friend Karen White at Parnassus Books.
The signing was wonderful. Lauren at Parnassus did a great job facilitating (even though she still felt the weight of Parnassus’ Neil Gaiman event just a few days prior). Karen and I both gave our spiel about our books and did our little readings before we had a great q&a / discussion with the fine folks in attendance. Interacting with readers who enjoy books as much as Karen and I do is truly a treat, and helps to pull us through long drives and distance from family.
Afterward, Karen joined the Crandall clan for a Saturday evening dinner (the restaurant will remain nameless to protect my identity). It had been a long, long day for baby Olivia, but she was a trooper, an angel at the dinner table. While we adults chatted, she busied herself unloading and reloading my purse (very into organizing, this baby). Of course, Karen, jokester that she is, maneuvered plenty of inappropriate things into Olivia’s reach to be reloaded into Gram’s purse. Before we left the restaurant I removed and returned to the table a salt shaker, a pepper mill, two different bottles of hot sauce, variously used cocktail napkins and sugar packets. Once all that was back where it belonged we left the restaurant. We put our sweet little girl to bed and I was able to lay my head down with images of her bright smile in my head.
Olivia Grabbyhands at Parnassus Books in Nashville
At breakfast the next morning (in a different restaurant, wherein my husband and son consumed more french toast than perhaps they should), I was searching in my purse for my lip balm and what did I discover? One fork. Misplaced, of course, I won’t go so far as label myself (or my granddaughter) a thief!
At least it looked to be near the end of its useful life.
It is newly loved by me on the road, as a gift from my little Olivia. By the end, this will be one well-traveled fork, and, hopefully, the (nameless) restaurant will be none the wiser.
Susan Crandall was spotted in the wild this morning by Memphis, TN resident and new mother Sarah Hutcherson on morning show Good Morning Memphis. This rare and elusive author can become frightened if confronted. If seen, please do not try to capture alone, only in large groups. She is said to have an event in Memphis, Tennessee tonight, July 12, at The Book Sellers at Laurelwood. Attendance is expected to be moderate to heavy, so individuals should feel safe in approaching. If one should be brave enough to seek out and observe this majestic creature in her natural habitat, the details are as follows:
July 12, 2013 @ 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
The Booksellers at Laurelwood
387 South Perkins Road
Memphis,TN 38117
UPDATE: Susan Crandall has since been spotted on Memphis CBS affiliate WREG.
Photo courtesy of Sarah Hutcherson.
Whistling Past the Graveyard received a wonderful write up in yesterday’s (July 10,2013) Atlanta Journal-Constitution (“‘Whistling’ sees 1963 South through sassy 9-year-old’s eyes”). In it, Susan discussed her inspiration and process for translating the words Starla whispered into her ear and onto the page.
Unfortunately, the article is only available to Atlanta Journal-Constitution subscribers. If you’re a subscriber, the Whistling Past the Graveyard article can be seen online at MyAJC.com.
Susan has three upcoming appearances in the Atlanta metro-area:
7/15 – Woodstock, GA @ Foxtale Book Shoppe 7:00 pm
http://www.foxtalebookshoppe.com/
7/16 – Roswell, GA @ Bookmiser 7:00 pm
http://www.bookmiser.net/
7/17 – Decatur, GA @ Eagle Eye Book Shop 7:00 pm
http://www.eagleeyebooks.com/