Schuler Books and Music in Grand Rapids hosted the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association April 19, inviting nine authors to tell several dozen booksellers about their most recent works. I was fortunate enough to be included, and spoke for a few minutes about The Lake and the Lost Girl, to be released in just a few weeks now!

 

This was my first public chat about my work, and I wasn’t sure where to begin. What to say that might enrich the book for others? I had made three pages of notes to get my thoughts straight, so I had plenty of options, but ended up speaking briefly about a few personal connections to the story: my love of Lake Michigan, the experience of emotional turbulence within a family, and the passion we can feel for another human being based only on little more than their written words.

 

How fortunate I felt to share the “stage” with novelists Renee Rosen, Augustus Rose, Wade Rouse and Karen Dionne. I shared a table (with our ARCs available to booksellers) with Pulitzer-nominated journalist Dan Egan, whose first book is The Death and Life of the Great Lakes. Three delightful children’s book authors rounded out the schedule. Executive Director of GLIBA, Deb Leonard, introduced each author with knowledgeable, brief book summaries and positive commentary, encouraging me (and I’m sure others) to feel welcome. So did the many other independent bookstore owners who stopped by my table to talk about my book and take an ARC… there was an abundance of intelligence, personality, and love of literature in that room!

 

What a beautiful, diverse and expansive book and music store Schuler’s is, with a restaurant-sized café. I hadn’t visited for many years, and it was such an inspiring surprise to find it at least as vital as I remembered it. Honestly, it’s a destination in

and of itself, and there were plenty of customers enjoying themselves throughout. It was easy to feel like books and bookstores are alive, well, and as magical as ever.