Southern Reach: On the Road with Acceptance--DC, Baltimore, Richmond, Austin To Go

(This amazing photo by Kyle Cassidy.)The release of the final book in the Southern Reach trilogy, Acceptance, has been a wild, great ride. In addition to the great reviews from Slate, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, the NYT Book Review, and many more, I've been gratified that readers have followed along for this last adventure. Acceptance made the NYT bestseller list at #16 and has popped up on several indie and regional bestseller lists as well. More importantly, readers have been emailing and face-booking and tweeting about how much they've enjoyed the entire trilogy. I'm really thrilled about that--thank you.The book tour has been a blast--with these events still to come, with further details in this post:

--Saturday, Sept. 27, 6pm: Politics & Prose Bookstore in Washington DC--Sunday, Sept. 28, 12pm: Baltimore Book Festival reading--Tuesday, Sept. 30, 7pm: Fountain Bookstore reading in Richmond Virginia--Oct. 25-26: Texas Book Festival in Austin, for which I'll have an event and also participate in a Jeopardy competition during their Litcrawl

The Acceptance book tour started with the Brooklyn Book Festival where I took the stage with Lev Grossman and Deji Olukotun to talk about fantastical thrillers--just a great conversation, I thought, along with short readings. I also got a chance to peruse the booths and buy some books. Such great energy at the festival, even on a humid, hot day. Also got a chance to have coffee with Lauren Beukes, Laurie Penny, Deji, and Matthew Rossi. I had to take a photo of that, since it seemed like a confluence that might never happen again.(Me, Laurie Penny, Lauren Beukes, Deji Olukotun, and Matthew Rossi)That night, I went out drinking with Lauren and some writing students and other friends. I'll embarrass the writers because I think you'll want to know all their names sooner than later: Martin Cahill, Zach Lisbeth, Kristen Roupenian, and Puloma Mukherjee. From a beer bar and then Char 4, we made it to the Zombie Bar and then over to the Brandy Library, where old pal Gabriel Mesa met us...all in all a fine evening that really, in retrospect, had some aspects of a pub crawl. We also met two monster dogs the size of ponies.(With Lauren Beukes and Lev Grossman at Housing Works)Then Lev Grossman, Lauren Beukes, and I did an event hosted by Housing Works and WORD Bookstore, which was so much fun. A lot of cracking wise and a running theme about a sausage. Jenn Northington from WORD was a great moderator. I also brought Area X with me, although I'm sure the great audience (standing room only!) hadn't expected Carrot Top. Raging Biblioholism has a write-up of the event here. I also got in what's becoming a running meta-reference, to Kristen Roupenian's grand unified baked goods theory of the Southern Reach.(Signing in FSG's conference room.)The next day, I headed over to FSG to sign over 600 copies of the trilogy for indie bookstores, NY Comic-Con, et al. I also happened to pass the Strand Bookstore and was blown away to see Acceptance in the front window as one of their bestsellers, and also a prominent display of the book inside as well. I've been visiting the Strand for so many years, and I never thought I'd see the day when one of my books was a store favorite. It was, I have to admit, a very special moment for me.(Inside the Strand Bookstore...my heart a-flutter...)From NYC, I hopped on a train to Philadelphia for a behind-the-scenes tour of the Academy of Natural Sciences by Jill Sybesma and Carolyn Belardo, with Chris Urie of Geekadelphia, a co-host of the event the next night, also there. Chris's enthusiasm for the academy was very evident as was Jill's commitment to the rescued raptors. Getting to see the owls and hawks up-close was stunning. Photographer Kyle Cassidy was there to document the experience right before heading off for an LA photo shoot. Lovely people all. Although as you can tell the screech owl was not delighted to make my acquaintance.(Screech owl at the Academy of Natural Sciences)The night of the event, at Philly's Free Library, Jill brought a barn owl and between that, the slide show, reading, and discussion I thought everything went off flawlessly. Someone even came from as far away from Ohio and I had many great and humbling conversations with readers who had truly connected with the novels. (They also asked insightful questions.) Taylor Feld, one of our Shared Worlds teen SF/F writing camp students was even in the audience. I was also very glad to catch up with a dear friend of Ann's and mine, Stephen Segal. A local Philly paper wrote a great review of Acceptance and Michael Swanwick did a nice little write-up of the event. Many thanks to Geekadelphia, the Free Library, the Academy of Natural Sciences, and Joseph Fox Bookshop for teaming up for the event. You can now find signed copies in Philly at Joseph Fox Bookshop, too.(The security guard who thought I might be trouble, me, Jill Sybesma--whose title at the Academy of Natural Sciences must be Coolest Job Ever--and an awesome barn owl. After the Southern Reach event last night.)Owls, of course, figure prominently in Acceptance. You could say that an owl is at the heart of the emotional resonance of the novel. So it was an experience for me that is, as they say, hard to put into words. I felt so blessed and grateful that the Southern Reach novels have put me into this place where I get these kinds of opportunities. Also thanks to Philly for this great review the day of the event.I can't wait to visit Politics & Prose, a truly great bookstore, experience the Baltimore Book Festival, and return to another fav, Fountain Bookstore and the brilliant Kelly Justice. I hope to see some of you there. And please spread the word--and if you like Acceptance, thanks for reviewing it or mentioning it online.