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| Nieves at The Night Circus |
On Wednesday, August 24, my sales rep for Doubleday, Ann Kingman (along with her other New England colleagues), threw a big ol' pre-publication book party for
Erin Morgenstern and her incredible debut novel,
The Night Circus. Book sellers, book bloggers, and librarians were issued tickets for this festive event honoring what will probably be the biggest book of the fall.
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| L-R: Elli, Nieves, Erin, me, Joan |
My fellow Odyssey booksellers and I left work early to make the drive up to Concord, a small town that the
Cirque des Reves favors in the novel. Elli, Joan, Nieves and I all dressed for the part as
reveurs like they did in the book, all in black or white, with a splash of red, and we were pleased to see that a large number of book people who had arrived ahead of us had also dressed accordingly. No, the circus tent pitched on the field wasn't black & white striped like in the book, but the folks from Doubleday had arranged circus-like entertainment in the form of a strolling magician and juggler, along with fortune tellers and a balloon man who creates outlandish balloon concoctions.
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| Nieves, getting her fortune read. |
We got to hear an opening track of
The Night Circus audio book, read by the amazing
Jim Dale, and then Alison Callahan, the book's editor, gave a lovely intro for Erin herself. The Doubleday/Random House folks put on a nice spread of hot and cold hors d'oeuvres, and the night wouldn't be complete without a bottomless bowl of caramel popcorn and a chocolate mouse for every attendee. It was great chatting with all of the other book people, including writers from
The Boston Globe and the
Boston Phoenix. We got to chat with Erin for a little while and she was amazingly sweet and generous in her thanks for my review of
The Night Circus (you can read it
here), which I had sent to her. It made her cry; she in turn made me cry in telling me about it. It was all good. We are now bonded through our tears, and the staff are now even more excited to host Erin at the
Odyssey in September than we were before attending this charming event.
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| Nieves and her intricately awesome balloon hat! |
How lovely, thank you! Can I steal your photos to add to my album?
ReplyDeleteYes, please do! The pic I snapped of you and Lesley was apparently taken while you were talking, so I didn't post it. Want me to email it to you?
ReplyDeleteThat sounds amazing! I wish that my bookstore had gotten an invitation (or, if it did, that it had been extended to me)!
ReplyDeleteHow fun! I'm really looking forward to reading the book.
ReplyDeleteToo bad our paths didn't cross at the party - but YES it was an amazing event! You got some fantastic photos - I loved that balloon animal mime. I got a bunny-hat that my sons love.
ReplyDeletesounds like a fun event, sweetie. love, mom
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun evening - we didn't get to chat much, caught up in the excitement of The Night Circus, but it was nice to say hello.
ReplyDeleteWe're counting the days until this novel is published!
Can't wait to read this book! Looks like a fun party.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to hearing and reading "The Night Circus"; it sounds wonderful and I wish I had been at the party.
ReplyDelete