HOTEL MOSCOW--The Pleasures of Book Touring

On the road....

One of the pleasures of book touring at this time of the year is savoring the beauty of the changing of the season. This week alone, on visits to Boston, New Jersey, and Long Island (NY), I found myself looking forward to gulping more mileage on the road just so I could watch the sun ignite the leaves in the brightest yellow, orange, and red.

Russian living conditions are still so Soviet....

Photo credit: Yevgeny Kondakov

Take a look at this extraordinary photo of a family in a Russian communal apartment. Even today, almost a quarter century since the fall of communism, millions of Russians still live in such conditions, with no physical or emotional privacy. What has deprivation of one’s self done to the Russian psyche? That is one of the topics I speak about at my many presentations. Please join me in any of my coming up talks in NY, PA, NJ, FL, MI, and CT, a schedule that now stretches deep into May 2016. 

A peek behind the scene of book publicity:

Friends who get a closer peek behind the scenes at what my life is like these days often express amazement at what’s involved. Gone are the years when an author mailed a manuscript to her agent, then sat down to pen her next book. The concept of “promotion” doesn’t sound as elegant as “touring,” but the nitty-gritty is just that. Yes, I am invited for TV interviews, but how does each such an interview come about--and how does the video get onto YouTube? Yes, HOTEL MOSCOW garners reviews, but how do reviewers know about the book and the active links pop up on my website? And what about the “guest blogging”? These days, rather than review a book, some websites ask authors to post an interesting essay. That’s a great opportunity for me to expand on issues related to my novel, but it takes away from penning  my next book. 

Are you in a book group? Skype with me!

  

There is no greater pleasure for me than to interact with reading groups, which I often do over Skype. In fact,Reading Groups Choices has selected HOTEL MOSCOW as one of its featured book groups’ selection for 2016! If your book group selects HOTEL MOSCOW, please contact me at AuthorTalia@aol.com to set up the time for me to join online. (If you can't access Skype, the phone works superbly well.)

What does being Jewish mean to me?

Some of you have noticed that I skipped a September issue. It was due to the Jewish holidays. My non-Jewish friends find it interesting that like me, many Jews are secular, their Jewish identity well rooted in the traditions but not the faith. Here is one of my essays on the subject, titled "Jewish Through and Through." (More essays on topics ranging from the political, global and social issues to my family life can be read under My Writing.)

"Which of your books shall I read next?"

“Which of your books shall I read next?” I get this question often from readers who’ve come into my writing via HOTEL MOSCOW, my fourth novel. Since each of my books is entirely different in setting, topic and even voice, I suggest that you read the first chapter of each on my website to help you decide. (Audible versions are available too--including samples.) I promise that no matter which novel you choose, you’re up for an emotional adventure of the “can’t-put-it-down” nature.

The pleasure of sharing your reading with others

Short of writing your own book, sharing with others a novel you’ve enjoyed is part of the pleasure of reading.…Therefore, I have a favor to ask: Please post a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads.com, (where you can now pose me a question.) Even a couple of lines will do for a review, but it gets those mysterious algorithms working.  

Onward with this adventure

And finally, if you’ve missed my previous newsletters, they are available right here on Talia Tells Tales blog. Just scroll down now!

Judging by the number of clicks they get, it seems that indeed, readers like you enjoy taking the journey behind the scene of publishing.

Thank you again,

Talia

Talia Carner

www.TaliaCarner.com

P.S. A librarian reader has sent me this quote by author William Styron: “A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.” That what she felt about HOTEL MOSCOW—but added that she felt elated and “a better person” for learning so much.…

HOTEL MOSCOW--The Launch

         My new novel, HOTEL MOSCOW was released in June with a great party, in which the ice sculpture was as much of a hit as the book.

          In my April  and May newsletters I  touched on my experiences in Russia: I was a consultant to Fortune 500 companies when, in 1993, I was sent by the U.S. Information Agency to Russia to teach Russian women the entrepreneurial skills they needed after the fall of communism. On my second visit, in October, I was caught in the uprising of the Russian parliament against President Yeltsin, was chased by the militia, and was threatened with jail.

Most intriguing: 

         In the dozen radio talks I’ve given these past two weeks since the launch of HOTEL MOSCOW, every interviewer was fascinated by the novel’s backdrop: the terrifying portrait of a nation in transition from Communism, of a world superpower undergoing a profound and violent change.

            It is hard for us to imagine the misery of life under Soviet totalitarian regime. It is even harder to grasp the nightmare of waking up one day to a world where all laws have been obliterated. While bewildered Russians struggled to learn new survival skills in new market economy, the corruption and brutality of the former Soviet regime was now imitated by thousands of mafia groups. HOTEL MOSCOW tells it with an inside view. As one reviewer wrote, “HOTEL MOSCOW taught me lessons about humanity, about what we, as people, are capable of.”

What has not changed? 

   

Photo by Yevgeny Kondako

In the new Russia young people discover new opportunities and restaurants are now store-front (formerly out of sight in basements or second floors.) Yet, dozens of industrial cities are as bleak and hopeless as before. And in beautiful St. Petersburg, the Soviet kommunalka, the communal apartment, where a family of three may live in a room as small as 5 x10 ft.—and shares a toilet, bath and kitchen with five to ten other families—is still home to millions of Russians. The lack of privacy is shown in this unique photo I was able to obtain. In HOTEL MOSCOW, readers get an inside view of such a life through Svetlana, one of the Russian characters.

 Author at launch time.... 

    “What does releasing the novel involve?” people ask me.

It’s exhilarating. But a book does not break out of the gate without long preparations and continued attention. The book launch was immediately followed by the release of my essays and blogs. My piece about identifying with Second-Generation—children of Holocaust survivors (even though I am not)—garnered a huge readership, as did my essay about my secular, faithless Jewish identity. Both are issues that the protagonist of HOTEL MOSCOW, Brooke Fielding, struggles with. 

            But it is the early morning commuter radio shows that present me with a physical challenge: How do I speak without sounding as though I had just woken up? I wake up 40 minutes earlier and reset my sleepy voice by belting out the ABC song. I am not up to anything more operatic….

Meeting you! 

            The most exciting part of publishing a new novel is my many speaking engagements. After years of toiling away at my keyboard in solitude, now comes the time when I share my passions with others. I don’t do “readings,” but rather talk about the background issues of the novel. Please join me in the coming weeks and months at the many events already scheduled in NY, NJ, CT and MA. (In August I’ll publish the travel schedule to Detroit, Pennsylvania, Boston and others.)

To say that my new novel, HOTEL MOSCOW was “long awaited” is a cliché that I, a writer, must avoid. But the thousands of readers who pre-ordered it and the dozens of bloggers that areposting their reviews give me a high that only an entertainer on stage can understand.

The bloggers are joining the chorus of bestselling suspense authors such as Nelson DeMille who wrote: “A finely drawn tale of a country emerging from its dark Soviet past into a present overshadowed by a new kind of terror and lawless corruption…. That will keep the reader mesmerized…. An insightful post-Cold War thriller.”

Thank you!

Talia Carner

www.TaliaCarner.com

 

P.S. While I encourage you to support your local indiebookstore, and I thank B&N for its loyalty, and Amazon is always a great online seller, I can’t not share with you that Costco now carries HOTEL MOSCOW (see below)!

HOTEL MOSCOW in Costco

  

  

  

Paris, here I come!

             In my four years at Alliance Française, a French-language high school in Tel-Aviv, we all became Francophiles. We belted out French songs, staged school plays in French—and cursed in French. A romantic teenager with three language at my disposal and a flare for writing, I penned poetry in French.

            The summer after our junior year, a selected group of students was sent to France on a month-long mission, which included almost three weeks in Paris. That memorable first trip turned up decades later as the seed of inspiration for my novel JERUSALEM MAIDEN.

            Somewhere along the journey into French language and culture, a dream sprouted: one day I would spend a semester at the famous Sorbonne university in Paris, where I would study Civilisation Française.

            Life, though, had its own agenda, and the dream never materialized. And while in the decades that followed I visited Paris numerous times, I put behind not only that youthful fantasy, but also the language I had once loved. In my twenties, I moved to New York, made English my daily language—and soon the language of my career, first in business, and then in the literary world. When my American husband and I traveled through France, I acted in restaurants and stores as an American tourist that did not even speak French. The Francophile part of my life was erased.

            And then, in 2005, while penning a novel set in Jerusalem, my protagonist surprised me and took off to Paris. Only after I packed my bags and chased her there did I realize that unbeknown to me, the author, her move had been motivated by my very first school trip in the 1960s. It was then that I had imagined my grandmother—the inspiration for JERUSALEM MAIDEN—as an artist there during the avant-garde era.

            What did I know about Paris at that historical time? In the two weeks prior to leaving home to follow my protagonist, I trained my oral muscles and grey cells with verb conjugations and nuanced pronunciation. My husband was amused when I walked around the house mouthing forgotten words and phrases. 

            In Paris, for the first time in decades, I spoke the language as I became a flaneuse, a wanderer, now exploring the city though the eyes of my protagonist in 1924, at a time when most houses had no running water, few had electricity or gas lines, and sanitation services were provided by the slop wagon into which residents emptied their chamber pots. I sat at dusty libraries and leafed through tomes of history—in French.

            In 2010, when JERUSALEM MAIDEN was preparing for publication by HarperCollins, I set out on another project, investigating the history of a painting that had been in my family. I grew up with this museum-size canvas and was so attached to it that after my sister inherited it I commissioned an artist to copy it. Now I contacted long lost cousins, a brother and a sister whom I had met only once forty years earlier, and whose grandparents had originally purchased this painting. Raised in Germany, the brother and sister—now with their respective spouses—lived in different parts of France. The first phone conversation with the sister turned into an almost two-hours long chat. A week later I spoke with her brother, and after forty delightful minutes, he put his French-speaking wife on the phone. Like the others, she was warm and delighted at the renewed contact.

            Three months later, my husband and I piggy-backed a trip to Europe with a get-together in Paris with these cousins. The three couples spent fabulous four days, where we bonded beautifully. Since both my cousins’ spouses spoke no English, I chatted in French from morning to night. My husband, who spoke only English showed the best of his bonhomie self. Although my grammar was far from perfect, it was clear that it was intuitively ingrained, as only someone who had once been fluent in the language could have mastered.

            A year ago, in the spring of 2012, Ron and I visited each of the cousins in their respective hometown, where again I spoke only French. Soon, I was flooded with memories of my high school years when the language and its cultural nuances had meant so much to me.

            This past Fall, at a conversation with a young man who was on remission from cancer, he brought up the question of a bucket list. “What would you do if you had only one year to live?” he asked.

            After some thought, I replied, “I’ll eat chocolate.”

            He burst out laughing. “That’s it? You’ve done and seen everything? I haven’t even been to California!”

            Later, I reflected on my pathetically short wish list. Had I really accomplished everything I could ever dream of? Or did I not dare dream outside the obvious, beyond what was available to me?

            My old desire to spend a semester in the Sorbonne popped in my head. At this time in my life, nothing held me back from making it happen: I had the financial means, my children were emancipated adults, my husband a busy independent man. Besides being French-challenged, he had always enjoyed Paris for just a few days at a time. On the other hand, he always supported my interests. With his unending encouragement, I had blossomed.

The first problem I encountered was that the student body at the Sorbonne that had once been so appealing, hadn't changed: they were still twenty year olds. And a semester was too long to tear myself from my life.  

I approached my husband with the request of a birthday gift of only one month in which I would tailor my own language and culture program. Sure enough, a quick Google search brought up language immersion classes for business executives, presumably in their 40s rather than in their 20s. I discovered groups of expat writers that conducted French conversations, and I signed up for lectures about art and theater along with architectural walks. I would take my exercise and dance classes in French and would even play Mah-Jongg in French.

There was a moment—turned into hours--in which I panicked.

In today’s world of Internet, I could view photographs of each furnished apartment from every possible angel. It would be my home for the month, a place to cocoon alone. But that’s when reality hit me. I had never been alone! Even in the solitude of writing, Ron had always been in the background. After thirty-five years together, I was accustomed to his ever-present care and friendship. Since he struggled with the same separation anxiety, I had to keep my bravado. I forged on with my plan--or my bucket list would once again be reduced to only one thing: chocolate….

I will be leaving for Paris in 8 days. Stay tuned.

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Novelist Talia Carner lives in New York. Her latest novel, JERUSALEM MAIDEN (HarperCollins, 2011) deals with the struggle between freedom and faith. (www.TaliaCarner.com)