Subscribe to one of Suzanne's online bookclubs and receive her daily
column at: DearReader.com
AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader
Dear Reader,
Margaret reads at the book club and she's curious...
"Good morning Suzanne. Thank you for providing a place, through your book club, for readers and authors to connect. I enjoy reading your columns about your everyday life. You are officially the only person I know who actually owns a bubble machine. What a cool idea!
In subscribing to your emails, I noticed a wide variety of genres and authors. Can you share how you choose which author to feature? What are your requirements and prerequisites? I noticed this week you featured one of my favorite mystery writers, Anne Perry. Does the author's personal background affect your choice in any way? After reading virtually all of her work, I was quite surprised to discover Miss Perry actually had a criminal past. I am interested in how a fact like this affects your decision to choose to feature her."
From bubble admirer,
Margaret
(Suzanne replies:)
Thanks for asking Margaret, I appreciate you taking the time to write. Choosing the line-up of titles every week for the book club, it's kind of like baking a cake. There's a basic recipe that I've followed since 1999, when I first started the clubs. Though in the beginning, it was more like a box mix, because the first year there was only one book featured each week, and the genre changed each week, too. Now I offer 12 different genres.
My recipe doesn't include researching authors when I'm selecting a book, so actually I wasn't aware of Anne Perry's past. When I read books I'm hoping to find one that will grab your attention from the beginning. Book club emails are sent out Monday through Friday, so I only have five days to hook 'ya, and if I do (if the book is a good match for you), then you can reserve a copy at your local library, or buy a copy at your favorite book seller.
My mission from the beginning was (and still is), to make it easy and fun for people to find the time to read and to connect them with their local library. And to be able to introduce folks to authors they might not be aware of, and to give them the opportunity to talk to authors. That's why I feature AuthorBuzz and guest authors in my column.
There's a little bit of crazy-fun in the book club, too. But then what would you expect from a woman who runs an electric bubble machine in front of her house? My daily column features some weird giveaways. I've shopped for socks for readers, given away heating pads for their cats, I bake chocolate chip cookies and send them overnight to readers each month, and of course I've given away bubble machines, too.
As a thank you for writing today, I'd like to send you a battery operated bubble machine. Be sure to email me your mailing address.
So that's the basic recipe. I'm simply looking for great books to share with readers and hopefully I bring some fun into their lives, too.
* The winner of A Writer's Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You, by Ralph Fletcher is Tracy White, and the winner of the turtle float (a souvenir from my trip to Wisconsin), is Brenda Tucker.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
* This month's Penguin Classics book is DEATH OF A HERO by Richard Aldington. Start reading now and enter to win a Penguin totebag. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/July13Classics
AUTHORBUZZ: GLOW: A NOVEL (Fiction) by Jessica Maria Tuccelli
October 29, 1941. Ella McGee sits on a bus bound for her Southern hometown. Behind her in Washington, D.C. lie the broken pieces of her parents' love story--a black father and a mother of Cherokee and Scotch-Irish descent. But Ella's journey is just beginning when she reaches Hopewell Country, and her disappearance into the Georgia mountains unfurls family secrets, heartbreak and fierce love.
Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on GLOW to find out more about the book and the author, Jessica Maria Tuccelli. Send her an email, she'd love to hear from you.
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