High Stakes for Me at the Millbrook Literary Festival

If you happen to be in Millbrook, NY this coming Saturday, June 21, drop into the library at 11:15 a.m. and you can hear me read from my new novel, One Hundred Miles from Manhattan.

This year marks the 6th annual Millbrook Literary Festival, and I’m being featured in an “Author Spotlight” during the day-long event.

My practice reading and book signing at Merritt Bookstore in Millbrook last month was a success, and if you care to see it, the video is below. I was introduced by friend and fellow author Dave King.

Since last month’s reading, I’ve continued to rehearse, polishing my delivery and the voices of the various characters. The section I read is only about 2,000 words (or 15 minutes) long, but contained in it are 9 characters, and I’m trying to make each of them distinct.

The pressure is on for me because the novel is about a fictional community very much like Millbrook (Wellington, NY), and this is my hometown.

I spent my summers here as a boy, graduated from high school here, was a newspaper reporter here after college, and settled down here again about 8 years ago. I’m a fixture at the diner, the post office, the library, and the Chinese restaurant. Every day I bump into someone with whom I went to high school.

The point is, I’m going to have to show my face around the village after this, so it had better be good.