Look out, James, here I come...

The Nocturnal Novelist is moving to London!

My wonderful husband David was just accepted into London Business School for their Masters program, which begins early January 2008. I wanted to write about this earlier, but I had to wait until I told my family first! And now I am just days away from the biggest move of my life... and I'm very excited. Although at the end of the day, I can't help but find it funny that I'm moving to the city of the main antagonist in Dear Isabelle. James had better watch out! Moving from California to England in just one month is quite an intimidating order, but so far everything is running surprisingly smooth. Of course, we definitely have our share of stress - endless boxes to pack and bottomless closets to be sifted through... as well as our VISAs and Entry Clearances to get in order. Today was spent trying our best to figure out what exactly would be shipped and which items to pack in our suitcases (a difficult matter indeed given the 2-piece luggage, 50 lb limit each rule)... suddenly photo albums become extremely valuable as they are the only evidence of our past! The very worst part of all of this, I must admit, was giving up our two adorable cats since we are not able to take them along... but I do believe that I found them a wonderful new home.

I am so anxious about getting settled in our new city-- mostly because I'm anxious to start my new novel! Our plane will leave the US on Christmas Eve... and arrive in London on Christmas Day! I am already imagining all the restaurants closed that day and having to pursue a wild search for food.... (can you tell that I have a penchant for worry?) But as my husband keeps telling me, "Everything will be just fine."

Lots more to come....

What, no hint?

The secret is almost out. I have a big announcement coming soon...
I can't say anything yet, but it is super BIG and pretty exciting (and a little scary!)

Under the red sun of Bakersfield

Yesterday's book signing in my hometown of Bakersfield was quite an experience! I had so much fun at Russo's Books that I really look forward to doing another signing there again. Between family & friends & friendly new faces, the hours went by far too fast. Even though I was scheduled at Russo's between 1 and 3pm, I ended up staying until 4pm because I was having so much fun visiting.

The highlight of the day was definitely seeing my lovely sister-in-law Monique Rogers (of A.R.R.C. Technology) and my 9 year-old nephew and baby niece, Riley & Samantha. I hadn't seen them in over a year-- so endless hugs were definitely in order! Little Samantha grabbed the pens with such ease that I think she was definitely ready to take over the signing for me. Unfortunately my brother Alex couldn't make it to the signing since he was out ocean-fishing. I guess Dear Isabelle can't compete with Marlin and Dorado!

Even though I was born and raised in Bakersfield, during my weekend visit I saw something there that I had never before seen in my entire life.

A red sun.

It hung low in the sky and shone dimly through a hazy, browish-gray sky. There was no blue sky, no white clouds. Just a sand-colored sky under a dim, red sun that reminded me more of a harvest moon than anything else. I knew something was definitely strange when I learned that the temperature was only 89 degrees, when Bakersfield's Augusts normally hover around a scorching 112 degrees.

The cause for such an eerie sky was the Zaca Fire, which was a wildfire that had been burning near Santa Barbara since early July. Although Santa Barbara is a couple hours away from Bakersfield, the fire had fiercely consumed over 90,000 acres--- all while inching closer and closer to Bakersfield. The news reported that the fire is not expected to be put out until the first or second week of September!

I couldn't believe it. Billows of smoke were literally pouring into Kern County. The air was thick and we felt our throats burn a bit at first until we adjusted. Perhaps the strangest sight of all was the endless flurry of white and gray ashes that fell from the sky-- just as steadily as a snowfall. In fact, every single car in Bakersfield was covered in a peculiar layer of gray ash and pedestrians walked around with the tiny ash flurries falling in their hair and eyes.

By sunset, the strange smoke-filled sky had created such a surreal effect that the horizon looked completely flipped upside-down, with a thin line of blue closer to the earth, that gradually grew upwards into warm, intense shades of yellow, orange and red and then finally browns and grays.
All in all, it was definitely a dramatic weekend for a mystery book signing!

Upcoming Signing

This Sunday, August 19th, I will be returning to my hometown of Bakersfield, California for a book signing for Dear Isabelle. I'm very excited to see family and old friends again, especially when I realize I haven't been back in over a year! Bakersfield is one of those booming towns that is constantly growing. Every time I go back, I'm always surprised at how much it's grown since I had moved away back in 1997 when I was 17. But some things, like family and friends, always stay the same and for that I am very grateful!


* Book Signing: August 19th, 1-3 p.m. at Russo's Marketplace Books, 9000 Ming Avenue, #I-4 Bakersfield.

"No, Ms. Swan, the microphone is not a PA system, don't worry."

On Saturday afternoon, I gave my first reading of Dear Isabelle at the San Francisco Public Library bookstore.

It's a very difficult thing to decide which part of the book to choose for a reading. Do I choose the beginning, the middle? Certainly not the end! And how many pages should I even read? My dear friends Ann & Laurie gave me the advice that I should pretend the book is a movie and then imagine which part would make for an interesting movie trailer! "Think about the parts of your book that has the least dialogue and the most action." It was very helpful advice and so I ended up choosing the scene surrounding the church fire (end of chapter 11 and beginning of chapter 12). It worked beautifully! There was plenty of dramatic build-up and enough spooky images to keep the audience from falling asleep!

Once my reading was over however, I got terribly nervous all over again. Thankfully, the delightful staff at the SF library bookstore were so kind that I was able to make it through the Q&A session. Questions are always interesting for an author because you never quite know what to expect, but they are tremendously easier than just babbling on all by yourself about the book!

Many thanks to the SF library bookstore staff and especially to Rand for giving me the opportunity to share Dear Isabelle.

"M" is for "My goodness, I did it!"

Yesterday was my very first book talk for Dear Isabelle! Despite a terrible case of nervousness (read "completely petrified"), I somehow made it through and actually had quite a bit of fun!

A special thank-you goes out to Ed Kaufman at "M" is for Mystery bookstore in San Mateo for believing in me and Dear Isabelle. "M" is for Mystery is such a fabulous bookstore - a true gem. It was quite an honor for me to speak there, especially because I shared the floor with another author, Priscilla Royal, author of Justice for the Damned. It was actually my first time meeting another author. I was so excited that at times I wished I was in the audience just so I could ask her more questions. Priscilla was so kind that it really made our book talk quite enjoyable.

The audience asked some excellent questions! Among the more difficult ones to answer was: "Were any characters based on real people that you know?" That was a challenge! Especially regarding the main character Isabelle! Only the "M" audience will know the answer to that one. :)




Thanks to Laurie Rael for taking pictures! I had forgotten my camera and I'm so glad I have some pictures now to remember that special day.

Latest Dates for Book Signings

Here are a couple upcoming signings I am very excited about:

July 27th...................... 2pm at "M" is for Mystery, San Mateo, CA
August 11th........2pm at SF Library Bookstore, San Francisco, CA

Hope to see you there!

/j

p.s. If you can't make it to those dates, or are out of the area, a limited amount of autographed copies of Dear Isabelle are available on my website at www.jessicaswan.com

the blurry line between fiction and non...

The big question i have been getting now that the book has come out is... did it all really happen?

The answer is yes. and no.

Imagination fills a great deal of the book while memories fill in the rest. I wrote the first draft of Dear Isabelle (which, back then was only a paltry 40 pages or so)immediately after returning from my first college semester spent in Seattle. After living my whole life in Bakersfield, I was absolutely enthralled with my first time living in a real "city". And for me that meant a hodge-podge mix of skyscrapers, cafe-lined streets, underground music scenes, indie movie theaters, indie anything and of course swarms of chic people running around in a hurry and dressed always in a rich, lint-free black.

In fact, Dear Isabelle started out as just a simple writing exercise. I remember sitting on my bed back in Bakersfield in front of my laptop (thanks Dad!) and wanting to write down my memories of Seattle so I wouldn't forget them. The first things I wrote about were the sideways rain, the white clouds of steam that rose from the manholes in the streets, and the insanely bright and sunny afternoons that would magically appear after a storm. And then almost suddenly, other things began to pop in my scene as I wrote. Conversations. Music. People I had met. And before I knew it, a little story was quickly developing. I don't know what came over me at that time, but I absolutely could not stop writing. The day turned into night which turned into dawn and before I knew it, three months had gone by. And the only reason I had even stopped at that point was because my mother had gently opened my bedroom door and said, "sweetheart, why don't you get some fresh air? You've been in your room for months and barely eaten a thing. We're starting to worry."


Maybe that's the point that a writer becomes a writer. Not when they start writing, oh no-- but when they start to cause a panicky concern in others.

And finally... the champagne!

Yesterday, or I should say 'two days ago' now that it's already 3am Monday, I had my very first book signing for Dear Isabelle! My hands were so shaky from nerves that I could barely sign my name on the books--- but somehow I managed and made it through! Thanks to everyone for coming out to The Cottage in Belmont to show their support. It really meant so much to me. I was both amazed and overwhelmed at the turn out. Way to go, RCIA! I was so nervous that day (as well as the sleepless night before), but after a little champagne (thanks Ann!) and a lot of hugs I was able to take a deep breath and begin to enjoy myself. I'll post some more pictures tomorrow, but here's a shot (kindly taken by photographer Ben Kong) of my first signing.

Is that really my name there on the cover?

Well, the time has finally come! Dear Isabelle arrived today and well.... take a look for yourself... doesn't that cover look down right spooky? I am so thrilled and excited and nervous all at the same time. I still can't believe it.

This afternoon around 2pm, the delivery man came to my door with so many of these heavy boxes and he asks me, "Are you Isabelle?"

Close.

"No, but I know her well."

I opened that box so fast and lifted up the flaps and there it was. My first novel. For the first hour I was just in a daze, feeling the cover in my hands. Flipping through the pages. Reading random pages as if I had never glimpsed those words before. Definitely a surreal moment.

The wonderful team at Harbor House really did an amazing job.

Can you tell I'm a delayed reactor? It's nearly midnite now and I still cannot believe that my first manuscript is now a real book. I better sleep on it.

What happened to the champagne? This is my very first post! Salut!

It's 10:45pm right now... pretty early still! I'm so excited that The Nocturnal Novelist blog is finally up and running!

As I type this, copies of Dear Isabelle are in a warehouse somewhere in San Francisco tonite. They will be delivered to my home tomorrow! So between the hours of 12 and 4pm, I will be frantically pacing back and forth in my little apartment (it's times like those I wish I had developed a habit for smoking so I could have something interesting to do while I pace) awaiting the arrival of several boxes of my very first novel. I'm already envisioning just how happy I'll feel when I open the first box and take a deep inhale... (a box of newly published books smell just like a new car, right?)... and then dive into a copy and make sure they spelled my name right. Because you never, never know.

More to come... cheers.