Wicked Witch of Publishing (TM) in Social Frenzy Meets Alec Baldwin, Lynn Scherr, James Brady at Novel Night. Literary Event Moves Old Books for Authors, New Books for Independent Bookstore and Pours Cash into East Hampton Library Coffers.
What a great idea to have Novel Night at the library in East Hampton, New York. An estimated 250 author groupies showed up at the cocktail party held on a lush grassy patch of lawn behind the library and approximately 375 deeper-pocketed benefactors/patrons/sponsors headed over to “one of 22 lovely East Hampton private homes” for dinner later that night where authors would hold court.
Of course, it is very busy in The Hamptons this time of year and I was torn about which of five big events to attend. Former President Bill Clinton and Junior Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton were in town for two very pricey fundraisers. I thought about going, but I just couldn’t see how I could force down $1000 worth of scrambled eggs at breakfast and knock back $2000 worth of margaritas at the cocktail hour, and still be able make it to my event of choice, Novel Night, at 6:30 pm—where all those local authors were corralled and captive under the big tent.
Novel Night
Author Tom Clavin (Dark Noon: The Final Voyage of the Fishing Boat Pelican) and I arrived at the library together. The left pocket of my loose-fitting, Edwardian-style dress was stuffed with The Publishing Contrarian business cards and my right pocket held my trusty Chanel #31 “Waikiki” glossy lipstick—the better to air-kiss you, my dear.
Tom and I slipped under the white tent just as the staff finished setting up, which meant I got a great view of Tom Twomey, Chairman of the Board of The East Hampton Library, and of the receiving line as the landed gentry (for whom $75 was chump change) and a few local yokels (one of whom confessed to me that parting with the $75 admission fee was killing her) streamed in. Stacks of books ordered by BookHampton, the local independent bookstore, were piled on tables which were arranged in a kind of “U” shape. Other out-dated or out-of-print books that had clearly been gathering dust in boxes in authors’ basements were also contributed. (Hey, just because a book is out-of-print, doesn’t mean it’s a bad book—but don’t get me started!)
Authors either stood behind their books or somewhere in the crowd where a nametag-on-chest encouraged people to ask for an autograph. I know proceeds from the sale of the books went to BookHampton, though my assumption is that those authors who contributed their own copies got the cash. The money for tickets to the cocktail party and/or dinner (sponsor—$150, patron—$250, benefactor—$500) went straight into the East Hampton Library coffers.
As I’d anticipated, I had a great time. Tom introduced me to so many people, who in turn introduced me to even more people, that I was completely atwitter. In the two hours I had to meet and greet, I slipped back and forth through the literary crowd and mingled with their fans, seeing people I knew, getting introduced to people I wanted to know. (Thanks, Tom!)
- I passed myself off briefly as Lynn Scherr, former ABC News Correspondent and author of Tall Blondes: A Book About Giraffes, when I was hovering around her book and she wasn’t at the event yet. (“Are you Lynn?” “Why, yes, I am,” I replied, happily flogging her book a bit for her until she arrived.) I had seen her years ago on our favorite beach in East Hampton, Georgica Beach, but had not met her until she took over selling and autographing her own book. (She looks fabulous, by the way!).
- I reminded James Brady, columnist for Parade magazine and author of The Scariest Place in the World: A Marine Returns to North Korea, that we had met before in the local supermarket and that I had read his previous book, The Marines of Autumn, and that afterwards I had blogged about him. When I mentioned that he hadn’t come by to leave a comment (sniff, sniff), he took my card and assured me he’d drop by soon. He was very gracious.
- I chatted with Robert Drury, Tom’s co-author of the soon-to-be-released Halsey’s Typhoon: The Storm that Decimated the Pacific Fleets. My late father had been a ship’s doctor on the U.S.S. Alabama during WWII, and I recall him mentioning a terrific storm in the Pacific that washed a person of very high rank overboard, only to have him scooped up and miraculously rescued by a vessel at the rear. (I wish I had paid more attention to the story. Too late now.) Could that storm be the typhoon Tom and Bob wrote about? I know former President Gerald Ford makes an appearance in the Clavin/Drury book in a previously untold story, but I’ll leave what happened to him during the typhoon as a teaser to entice you to buy the book when it comes out.
- I flipped through Dava Sobel’s The Planets. Sobel also wrote Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time. These types of books put my brain in lockdown, though I do recall giving Longitude to my older brother for Christmas because it’s more his thing. I’m still trying to figure out when the preferred pronunciation of “Ur ANUS,” became “UR in us”. (Look it up!) Snigger. Snigger.
Taking a break from being relentlessly charming, I cut through the crowd to make my way to the bar when suddenly my darty eyes met and held, for just a split second, Alec Baldwin’s.
You know, it’s fairly amazing what happens when a celebrity is mingling with civilians, so to speak. Baldwin was given a rather wide berth. Not that I kept a surreptitious eye on him, mind you, but it seemed that very few people approached him, though he was rarely standing alone. At any rate, I was busy thumbing through one of the books on the table, having lost track of Baldwin (momentarily) and chatting it up with someone who knew everyone, when this someone looked over my shoulder and said: “Lynne, let me introduce you to….” The handsome man to whom I was being introduced extended his hand and said: “Hi, I’m Alec.” I recall mumbling a few inane comments. My big regret is that when Alec(!) left the event, as he passed by me (not that I positioned myself), I failed to ask him what books he had purchased and why he had bought those specific books so I could report more fully!
The evening was a smashing success—in terms of meeting people (it’s all about ME!) and supporting the library (a worthy cause!). Jay McInerney (The Good Life), John Meyer (Heartbreaker: A Memoir of Judy Garland), Ina Garten (Barefoot Contesia at Home: Everyday Recipes You’ll Make Over and Over Again), Linda Bird Francke (On the Road with Francis Assisi: A Timeless Journey Through Umbria and Tuscany, and Beyond) were there, too, as were many other authors like Melissa Bank, Anthony Brandt, Marie Brenner, Robert Caro, Edmund Carpenter, Jill A. Davis, Cholene Espinoza, Steven Gaines, and Michael Shnayerson.
If I was disappointed at all, it was that despite the presence of so many authors under the same tent, no fights, cat or otherwise, broke out during Novel Night! I hear that some authors were not on speaking terms with other authors and that one author stomped off in a huff because his book was not displayed on the table. (What a shock! An author present and no books available! How rare is that?) But noooooo, everyone was on his or her best behavior, perhaps saving the fisticuffs for the parking lot or after the Artists & Writers Softball Game scheduled for August 19th, which I will try to force myself off the beach to attend. I was asked to play one year when the teams were top heavy with men, but alas, I can bat, I can hit, I can run, I can catch, but I throw…just like a girl.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: I did attend the Media Bistro Galley Cat mixer last week at the Me Bar in New York City. A lot of fun. I spoke with Ron Hogan, and finally met Sarah Weinman. I also got to say “hi” in person to Carl Lennertz, VP of Marketing at the HarperCollins imprint. I spotted him immediately among the crowd. Even though he was engrossed in conversation and there was a real press of people at the rooftop event, he fairly radiated “boss,” despite his dress-down blue jeans and blue-checked shirt, so he was easy to spot. Thanks Ron and Sarah for providing an opportunity to meet fellow bloggers and publishing industry folk face-to-face.
August 17th, 2006 at 8:40 am
WAY too cool! Feel my envy!
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing (TM): Just a little change of pace from The Publishing Contrarian during the Dog Days of Summer. Thanks for stopping by, Kelsey. What’s up with your award-winning manuscript?
August 17th, 2006 at 10:12 am
O’ to live in New York! I had free tickets to see Bill Clinton when he was here a couple of months back. (I didn’t go.) It sounds like a fun event. Thanks for sharing.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing (TM): Steve, you should have gone! I was introduced to President Clinton at a fundraiser for Senator Hillary Clinton. (Strong handshake!) These events can be very interesting and lots of fun. I’ve also been to Republican gatherings. An entirely different feel!
August 17th, 2006 at 12:39 pm
When I grow up I want to be you oh Wicked Witch! What a wonderful life you do lead….
To those of us who are unable to hobnob with the literati and glitteratti, your column is a wonderful peek into an altogether rarefied world. (I too am curious about Alex Baldwin’s choice of books; why not call him up and ask?)
Thanks for a most entertaining column. Only in East Hampton could a library event exude such glamour!
August 17th, 2006 at 3:18 pm
I admire you for getting through something like this. After ten minutes I’d be looking for the nearest sharp object or firearm with which I could end my life–quickly, mercifully.
August 17th, 2006 at 3:29 pm
IMHO:
I must say that your latest posting concerning your “Social Frenzy” sounds more like the gushings of a cub (society) reporter from the Independent or the EH Star rather than the clever mind that (we know) lies beneath. No sign of the “Contrarian” or the “Wicked” in this ramble. Me thinks your regular readers would like to see a little more “Witch” and a lot less “star-struck.”
R
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing (TM): Okay, okay. Next time I’ll invite you, too.
August 17th, 2006 at 6:55 pm
Sorry, but I have to agree with Ron. If I want celebrity name dropping, I’ll read US Weekly or turn on Entertainment Tonight.
And my reaction doesn’t come from envy. I find celebrities and the subject of celebrity to be of no interest or cultural value whatsoever.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing (TM): Hi, Peter! Did you miss the part about the party being a benefit for the library? I applaud all the authors who showed up, including those who did not have a book for sale on the table. I also applaud all the people who paid top dollar for these books when benefit attendees were well aware that the books could be purchased much, much more cheaply over the Internet. Did you miss my last post in which I urged writers and authors to get up, get out and get meeting people IN PUBLISHING wherever and whenever they could?
August 17th, 2006 at 7:37 pm
Lynne,
Enjoyed your posting. Any woman who finds herself “atwitter” is O.K. with me. Keep ‘em coming.
Paul
August 17th, 2006 at 7:58 pm
A wonderful, juicy and hilarious read.
August 18th, 2006 at 2:29 am
Dear Lynne:
I don’t doubt your sincerity or your spirit of charity in attending this event. It’s a little after midnight here in North Hollywood, California (you’ll see why I mention my location in a moment).
I don’t want to seem ungenerous or sour, so I won’t even go into a rant (I could unleash a good one, though) on what I think of celebrity fund raisers and many charities, so I’ll leave it alone. Best not to make enemies.
My opportunities to meet (I loathe the term networking) anyone in publishing is nil, first because of my location, which is rather far from the hub of publishing and its participants, and second, because I am disabled.
However, without the benefit of networking I have had little difficulty in getting reputable agents and even several editors (such as Victoria Wilson at Knopf) to read my last book proposal. Alas, they failed to share my enthusiasm for it, something I’m afraid no amount of networking would change.
Quite frankly, the idea of attending some charity fundraising event in the hope of exchanging a few words with someone in the bookbiz who won’t remember, know or care who I am the next day is one of my conceptions of Hell.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing (TM): Well, it does help to be positively disposed toward these events in order to have a good time! I’d say you use your very smart and articulate Web site to advantage. We’re networking right now, are we not?
August 18th, 2006 at 8:40 am
Name dropping got me where I am today. I frequently hobnob with Butch Callary, the mayor of Covington, Kentucky. I once got an email from Craig Wilson of USA today. As soon as the restraining order is lifted, I plan on being a guest at his home.
Seriously, I am jealous—because I DID meet Phyillis McGorry, the wife of Bill McGorry (publisher of Publisher’s Weekly) at Book Expo this year. She loved my beach themed, table dancing booth. As I signed a book for her, and gave her a “Will Dance For Margaritas” tank top, she told me that I would have to come throw a beach party at their home the Hamptons. Alas, the summer is nearly over and the invitation must have been lost in the mail. Instead I will be signing books at the Kroger in Anderson Ohio next Saturday. You go girl!
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing (TM): From DC’s hilarious Web site: DC Stanfa’s abilities in salesmanship led to speaking before both social and professional events where her topics include “From Bold To Sold: Getting What You Want By Being A Shameless Opportunist.” Her engagements—built around humor and the importance of self-esteem—draw from her own experiences at surviving high school, the Catholic church, datelessness, and the “Jerry Springer Show.” She is the author of the memoir The Art of Table Dancing: Escapades of an Irreverent Woman. Fabulous write-ups in Citizen-Times and The Enquirer. YOU go girl!
August 18th, 2006 at 11:16 am
I’d like to know how to “radiate boss” the way Carl Lennertz did. Did you happen to note the components of that aura, Wicked Witch? What was he doing to get such an effect?
August 18th, 2006 at 12:15 pm
My Aunt Lucille took the train out to Montauk in 1917. She said the journey from Penn Station lasted ten hours and when got out east there was no one there. It’s obvious from your report that things have changed since then. Did you take the train?
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing (TM): I should have taken the train. It’s about a 3 hr trip with a “change in Jamaica.” (Not THAT Jamaica!) From NYC I kept up an easy 70 mph on RT 495 East to RT 27 East, flogging my near-, but not quite, classic ‘89 Jeep Cherokee all the way. Once I hit “the wall”—Southampton—it took me about 10 hours to inch my way between Southampton and East Hampton–normally a 30 minute drive, but NOT in the summer.
August 18th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
It’s perfectly understandable that writers have, uh, mixed feelings about “networking” and other events that Lynne enters with the enthusiasm of the typical mosh diver.
It’s all those admonitions to trust the learned publishing business people to recognize the genius in your writing–or not–just write from your heart and talent will, sooner or later, out. Just remember, no typos and keep those queries going out–one at a time, of course, waiting the requisite year or so for a rejection before mailing the next–and forGodsake don’t forget your bluidy SASE.
How does all that jibe with martini chatter in muggy summer library backyards? “Hey, wanna read my script, Alex, uh, Alec? it’s kinda like DaVinci meets Snakes on a Plane!” I guess you gotta find what works for you.
PS: I noticed a lot of those extra-long non-fiction book titles in your report on “Novel Night,” Lynne. Do they know what a “novel” is, out there in that place with the funny white wooden easy chairs?
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing (TM): Hum… James Brady’s The Marines of Autumn is a novel. Jay Mcinerney’s The Good Life is a novel. Yikes! Dave, you are right! Where are the novels? “An invented prose narrative that is usually long and complex and deals especially with human experience through a usually connected sequence of events.” I’m looking at the list of authors and I see the poet Daniel Thomas Moran, but… Maybe The East Hampton Library has to change the event to “Book Night.”
August 23rd, 2006 at 4:22 pm
Hey Lynne Scanlon,
I came across your blog and was left cliff hanging. You said, “I was looking through the list of authors and saw the poet Daniel Thomas Moran, but….” I could not locate the rest of it and I have been quietly terrified ever since. Where did the rest of it go and do I want to read it? You know how poets can be.
By the way, you look much taller in person.
Cheers—Dan
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing (TM): Dan is the Suffolk County Poet Laureate. He is the author of five collections of poetry, including From HiLo to Willow Road, In Praise of August, and Sheltered by Islands. (Thanks for coming by, Dan!)
August 23rd, 2006 at 4:50 pm
Ode On Labor Day 2006
Be Gone Already!
All you once pale and pasty,
who, at once, come to fouleth ocean and bay
with the oils of sunblock.
Be Gone! All you who drive slow
in the large cars without blinkers,
your heads spinning and craning
about at these once placid landscapes,
pointing at our vistas and wildlife,
our fauna and quaint dew-kissed cottages.
Sure, thy children are loud and clamoring,
especially in restaurants, willing us
your many headaches and your indigestions.
Lo! Now, the days of August are hot and rainless.
Even so thy mowers lie silent, tho’ the hush
too soon falls defeated before thy leaf blowers.
Oh Now, Be Gone! Lazy summer days,
when our people know not repose, but
only the many names of toiling and
of suffering and of the constant
giving of directions to the lost.
Be Gone!, Taking thy motorcycles which destroy
like avenging armies in back roads wars,
making our windows and our ribcages rattle.
And Be Gone! You upon your velocipedes,
in silly outfits, bright and hard on the eyes,
which bear thy anatomies with horrid definition.
Lo!, Thy flats are too few and thy manners as well,
thou clottest our passages like a constipation, unrelieved.
Oh Be Gone! from the ATMs and
the recycling center chutes and bins and
so especially the IGA where thou cuttest our lines,
and insisteth on running over and over for
just one more thing for thy lunch upon our beach,
or for thy morning breakfast.
Lo! We longeth wearily, for afternoons when our
aisles will be wide, our shelves in plenitude.
Oh! dare not query of us the days of Winter,
For thou can never knowest truly that
these be the days we bless so devoutly,
when thy umbrellas hath folded and
thy dinghy’s and such disturb not the waters.
Be Gone! Thy shrill and silly pastel outfits,
thy friends and thy relatives too numerous.
Thou takest calls too often and photos too many,
especially upon our ferries which groan and list
with the great weight and ballast of you.
Be Gone! U-Turns and abrupt maneuvers,
we are weary of the waits and parallel parkings,
and the chalk lines which marketh our tires.
Yea, the cool winds lie patient over The Great Lakes,
our airs to be soon cleared of the summer stifle,
Lo, Though our kitchens are soon stilled,
our bars will ever beckon and assuage us truly.
Yea, there are glasses to be hoisted in thy absence,
and lifted and lifted whence Spring emerges once more.
For now we will sleep the slumbers so craved for,
thy cities and thy vast suburbs are once more filled and
the gentle balance of our worlds, restored.
2006 Daniel Thomas Moran
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing (TM): Just in time for Labor Day and the great exodus of summer people. Bye, bye.
August 25th, 2006 at 11:05 am
Wow, wish I had been there to hobnob, too. Sounds like a great opportunity.
By the way, those aren’t your short stories over at http://www.skintwriter.com are they? In the contest? They sound like your fiction.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: I’ll go over to skintwriter and take a look! Maybe I’ll take credit for them!
August 25th, 2006 at 2:01 pm
Lynne,
It’s very kind of you to invite me on to your blog. From London your list of names seems very “Daisy and Tom” and a long way away. I was a student here with Bill Clinton and Robert Reich, so there is something of home about what you wrote.
In the UK we have a really serious problem with our public library service and I need moral and any other kind of support from anyone who knows the value of a good library. Please get your friends to visit http://www.goodlibraryguide.com/blog/
Love from London, Tim
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing (TM): Tim was the first bookseller in the UK to open an all-night bookstore, complete with cafe and sofas. In England he was managing director first of Sherratt & Hughes and then of Waterstone’s bookshops and of the English book chain WHSmith in Europe. Since 1999 Tim has pursued library improvement at the local and countrywide level by urging improved book ranges, longer hours, and more welcoming buildings. He is the author of “Who’s in Charge? Responsibility for the Public Library Service,” a report which is used now in many countries to assess public-library services. Tim is also a writer, published by Bloomsbury.