Steinbeck's Ghost
What I'm Reading....
So Elizabeth Fithian (our marketing director) wants me to start the
F&F blog by sneak-previewing an upcoming book...in just a few
sentences. We're in the midst of launching our debut list this Fall (get our catalog here, or click on the catalog pic on the left),
but I'm going to fast-forward to Fall 2008, and a manuscript I couldn't
put down. The only way I can stay brief is by making a list, so here
goes:
Title: STEINBECK'S GHOST
Author:
Lewis Buzbee -- he's the author of THE YELLOW-LIGHTED BOOKSHOP, a
fabulous memoir-slash-appreciation of books and bookselling that was a
Booksense pick and one of my fave nonfiction books of the last year
(and I'm not just saying that because I'm mentioned in it. Yes, it's
true that I was inspired to raid my mother's liquor cabinet while
reading Hemingway for a school assignment, but that's another story....)
Why we acquired: When we read Lewis's proposal for this middle-grade novel about a boy trying to save the John Steinbeck Public Library in Salinas,CA we flipped over the mystery (the protagonist stumbles upon some creepy history surrounding one of the locations Steinbeck wrote about -- sorry, can't tell you more here) and the promise of a protagonist who makes being a middle-school bibilophile cool.
What's to love?: A cool, creepy mystery; the best articulation I've ever read of how the books we read as kids are friends for life; a great protagonist who will appeal to both boy and girl readers; and a very hip librarian.
Hours stayed up past bedtime to finish the 1st draft: 4
Word I didn't expect to see: Camazotz (Test your literary knowledge -- which Newbery Medal-winning book is this from?)
My fave Steinbeck novel: The Grapes of Wrath
My fave Steinbeck movie: East of Eden (the James Dean version)
Six degrees of separation factor: This photo (also my bio photo) is what I
see when I look up from my reading chair at home -- it's the view from
the house I grew up in in San Francisco, facing the Pacific Ocean.
Taken by my dear friend (and award-winning photographer) Pep Ventosa,
it inspires and calms me every day. Lewis Buzbee lives in San
Francisco. We met lots of years ago when he was still a sales
rep for Chronicle Books and I worked for a trade magazine. He wrote the
first draft of STEINBECK'S GHOST in a room that faces the Pacific
Ocean.
When you'll see the ARC for STEINBECK'S GHOST: March 2008
-- Liz S.
Clicking in for Literary Trivia for $500, please: What was A WRINKLE IN TIME? (Wasn't Camazotz a name of a planet in L'Engle's A WRINKLE IN TIME?)
If so, I am ever so curious to see how this word/planet is connected to STEINBECK'S GHOST. (I'm IN based on the title alone. Why didn't =I= think of that?) ;}
Best of luck at F & F,
Pamela Ross
Posted by: WriterRoss | July 17, 2007 at 06:06 AM