Ha ha. Ouch.

HBO's documentary on Fran Lebowitz was so good, I lost track of time and missed Conan's monologue.
 The girl is witty.

A few vinegary shots from Ms. Lebowitz:

Very few people possess true artistic ability. It is therefore both unseemly and unproductive to irritate the situation by making an effort. If you have a burning, restless urge to write or paint, simply eat something sweet and the feeling will pass.
Fran Lebowitz

I prefer dead writers because you don't run into them at parties.  Fran Lebowitz

Why My Arm is Purple

The closest I will come to gripping an Oscar...
was being presented the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction last week at the New York Yacht Club.

I'd like to thank the Academy...

Thanks to Reba Williams, founder of the award, and Dave Williams, her husband, and the judges who decided on SECRET KEEPERS as the winner, I had a heavenly week.

I pinched myself a lot. Hence, the purple arm.

My friends, if you have a southern author in mind who has had a book published this year or next, a book set in the South, nominate them for this award--and send in a copy of their galley or book to Reba for consideration.

I tell you, last week's reception was one of the best moments of my writing life.
 

Among those attending the reception were David, Aurora and James, editors and publicists from Picador.

 

My Garden, My Asylum

I'm a guest blogger today over at Magical Musings:

Someone asked me if the garden is where I do my best thinking. I told her it’s where I do my best not thinking. Inspiration arrives unbidden. The seeds of ideas are sown. (Continue reading.)

 Pictured here from my garden: sunflower with smitten bee, sticky with pollen.

Oh, The Paperback Arrives!

The paperback edition of SECRET KEEPERS arrived on my doorstep Friday, swaddled in cardboard, pink and healthy. 

 Isn't she gorgeous?  Thank you Picador!

Are you ready for the world, baby girl?

The inspiration: A vintage seed packet. Love the torn edge on top, with the spillin' seeds... [Oops...pardon the double entendre.] The flowers are vibrant and beautiful-- sirens to lure readers in. [Sirens like the women on the island in mythology NOT the ambulance Sy-REENs that scream at intersections.]

Already heard the jokes about the  10 cents.   Ha ha. Is this the price? Ha ha. NOPE. It may be vintage, but this baby has an ISBN ...you can scan!

The official PUB DAY is May 25, and you can have lunch with me on Wednesday, May 26 to celebrate this paperback edition!

Here are the details on the BOOK YOUR LUNCH event at the Lazy Goat on Wed. May 26 at noon--thank you FICTION ADDICTION!  Visit this link to  reserve your space and select your meal [no later than May 24...can't  just walk in...the chef needs the plan, man...sorry.]

Hope hope HOPE to see you there. Unless your hundreds of miles away or in another country or something.

Book Your Lunch with Mindy Friddle

Mindy Friddle

Wed., May 26th, 2010 from 12-2pm
@ The Lazy Goat, $25 per person
Purchase Tickets & Books / View menu
Greenville novelist Mindy Friddle is also a gardener and her horitcultural passion seeps into her writing. Her second novel, Secret Keepers (Picador, paperback, $14.00) is set in a small Southern town — a land of neglected Confederate monuments, faith-based shopping centers, and overgrown, seedy estates — where a once-grand heirloom garden is covertly rescued, revealing a divided family’s secret lives of turmoil and yearning.

SECRET KEEPERS and Read-It-First

I love it when I go to, say, Whole Foods, and they have trays of different delectable treats on toothpicks that look and smell heavenly, and they say, here, try one, it's free... and you can't help but indulge. They give you a taste, a smidge of delicious, enough to make you realize you just have to have more, you just have to try out this recipe, and whoever thought star fruit and jalapeno peppers would be so...strangly addictive?

Well, this week SECRET KEEPERS is that delectable snack on a toothpick. Help yourself!

Here's how it works: Today starts a week-long email excerpt of SECRET KEEPERS from Suzanne Beecher's Read-it-First e-mail book club.

Each weekday morning, Read-it-First sends a few pages from the week’s featured title right to your email. By the end of the week, you’ll have read the opening chapters of that week's selection. It's a great way to sample a lot of different books-- books you may not have otherwise read or stumbled upon. Think snack tray.

You'll get a real taste, and you might even want to share the recipe, ummm, novel with your book club.

You can join READ-IT-FIRST here for an a tantalizing taste of SECRET KEEPERS...and all kinds of books in the weeks to come...and did I mention it's FREE?

Guest Blog: Setting--warped a little

Over at The Bookcase, I'm guest blogging today on why SECRET KEEPERS is set in Palmetto, loosely based on my hometown and its overlay of New South over Old South. Sometimes it helps to have a lousy sense of direction-- you can just, you know, make things up. Or warp them. Take liberties. Earn your poetic license.

For example, I changed the cemetery name from Springwood to Springforth. I thought Springforth was a better name for a cemetery, anyway. And that outdated Confederate Monument--you see them in just about every southern town-- I tweaked that, too.

Sometimes I find inspiration right in my front yard. The pitcher plants, Love-Lies-Bleeding, and moonflower vine in my garden prompted some poetic license. Amaranth, a seedy, neglected estate in Secret Keepers, has a secret garden. When the Blooming Idiots gardeners stumble upon its bounty of botanicals, they find a few other-worldly flowers as well: secret keepers are flowers with a potent aroma that trigger a powerful memory of love in a person’s life.

Read the entire post here.

Scenes from the Bootylicious Booktour

I've got so many sole-ful experiences and photos to share from the ongoing Bootylicious Booktour, it's hard to know where to start. I know, I know. The longest journey begins with one step. One boot at a time.

So, from my visit to Quail Ridge Books--one of the most dedicated bookstores around-- in Raleigh last week, a few pics. I gave the bookstore a boot planter, pictured here, with succulents and a plant called "Jamaican Rope."

And speaking of cool names...While in Raleigh, I stayed a hotel called The Velvet Cloak. Named after the chivalrous Sir Walter of course, but it just sounded deliciously euphemistic. I'll meet you tonight at the Velvet Cloak-- that's the kind of text msg or tweet that might get you in trouble. Come to think of it, it's also the perfect name for some gorgeous dark rose.

Don't want to clog up the bandwidth, so I'll post just a few pictures every day. Tomorrow-- McIntyre's Fine Books.



Quail Ridge in Raleigh

Book Launch Party Tonght!

Book Launch Party Tonight with free food and adult beverages. Also live music--Celtic bluegrass. If you're in the area--Upstate, SC-- drop by, hang out, chat, celebrate. Because what else am I going to do with all this hummus and wine? And chocolate and crabcakes and fruit and cheese and beer?

Book Launch and Signing Party for SECRET KEEPERS
Tonight, 6:00-8:30 p.m.

Wine, beer & hors d'oeuvres

Metropolitan Arts Council
16 Augusta Street [across from Smoke on the Water, and beside the Lottery office]
Greenville, SC 29601

Books available for purchase at the party, courtesy of The Open Book

This event is open to the public, so please bring a friend!

These boots were made for planting

When I hit the road for a book tour in a couple of weeks, I'll be bringing along a LOT of footware. But not to wear. These are boots. Discarded ones. Some pilfered. All stuffed with sumptuous succulents and posies.

The friends, loved ones, and strangers unaware they've donated to the booty cause will surely be charmed by the results. I'm still collecting boots and gathering up plants. I'll be giving some bootylicious planters away at readings and signings-- while supplies last. Hope to see you there.

Addendum: I've already written about the cover of SECRET KEEPERS--those boots are on my front porch. I keep getting asked--but WHOSE boots are they? Well, one of them is a husband's and one belongs to some dude from the 80's. I think. But that sounds like an entirely new novel.

SECRET KEEPERS Book Tour Events

Here are some upcoming book tour events I've got scheduled. Hope, hope, HOPE to see you there. More to come.

Thursday, April 2
2009 Clemson Literary Festival
Downtown Reading--Abernathy Waterfront Park
4:30 - 7:30 pm
Info: www.myspace.com/clemsonliteraryfestival.

Monday, April 27
Emrys Reading Room [Books available for purchase by The Open Book]
Public Reading
7 pm at The Handlebar
304 E.Stone Avenue, Greenville, SC

Thursday, May 14
Quail Ridge Books & Music
7:30 PM
3522 Wade Ave
Raleigh NC 27607
(919) 828-7912
www.quailridgebooks.com

Friday, May 15th
McIntyre's Fine Books & Bookends
2 pm
2000 Fearrington Village
Pittsboro, NC 27312
www.mcintyresbooks.com

Sunday, May 17
Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe
3:00 PM
"Writers at Home" Public Reading
55 Haywood Street
Asheville, NC 28801
Tel: (828) 254-6734
info@malaprops.com
Malaprops

Monday, May 18
7:15 pm
Decatur Literary Festival
Hosted by Georgia Center for the Book
Decatur Public Library
215 Sycamore St.
Decatur, GA 30030
georgiacenterforthebook.org

Thursday, May 21
Book Launch Party
6-8:30 pm
Metropolitan Arts Council
16 Augusta St. in the historic West End
Greenville, SC 29601
Books available for purchase on site
contact mindy AT mindyfriddle Dot Com for more information

Friday May 29
Litchfield Books
Moveable Feast Luncheon
14427 Ocean Hwy Unit G
Litchfield Landing
Pawleys Island, SC 29585
Litchfield Landing
Pawley's Island, SC
litchfieldbooks.com
litchfieldbooks@worldnet.att.net

The Bootylicious Cover Story of Secret Keepers

My publisher has been terrific about soliciting my ideas for the book jacket of Secret Keepers.

Originally, I shared some images I had in mind: vintage seed catalogs, seed packets, outsider garden art.

The first cover idea looked like this:
Charming, lovely, and "iconic," as a friend of mine said. But after an informal poll among some friends and artists familiar with my novel, the thinking was that this cover might be a tad old-fashioned for the story. True, there is much about the past and its intrusion into one family's present-day conflicts, but there is also a range of characters in SECRET KEEPERS-- feisty widows, a love-sick landscaper, a wayward teen, a women trapped in shopping addiction and a loveless marriage, a homeless, gifted plantsman--characters who aren't...dainty. Characters eventually brought together by the mysterious plants from a forsaken, forgotten garden.




I was asked to send in more ideas, and I shared a range of website links [rusty lawn chairs, vine-covered iron gates, etc.] and a few photos from my own garden that I thought might illustrate a sort of ruined finery, weed-swallowed-but-rescued theme. What a cool surprise to see a photo I took used on the cover. As I write this, those succulent-filled boots are on my front porch.

Cover Story part 1

I need your help. I'm casting about for images and art and objects that capture the feel of Secret Keepers, my forthcoming novel. I'm no graphic artist...and I'm so happy to foist off--I mean delegate-- jacket design to the professionals. But my editor agrees that bringing along some ideas that evoke the novel is a splendid idea. For The Garden Angel, I helped track down the featured porch--and actually took the photo myself. I wanted something definitely UNpristine and forlorn and beautiful--sort of ruined finery. And so I emailed my humble jpg, and the true artists then worked their magic and designed around it.

This time, I'm attracted to vintage seed catalogs and botanicals. Secret Keepers is about the emergence of a swallowed-up lost garden--the legacy of a tragic planthunter.

I love this:



And also this--because of the landscape of the town:


And this:


Here is the album for more examples and larger views.

Vintage Botanical Illustrations, Prints, and Seed Catalogs
What do you think? Do tell.