I admit it: I unreservedly, unabashedly LOVE books. This seems the perfect time for this admission, as the sun sets on this year’s Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.It was a phenomenal weekend. I had my annual Milford-Haven Novels booth. But this year, I had Advance Reader Copies of my beautiful new novel What the Heart Knows. I wasn’t there to sell this time. I was there to give this pre-publication edition to advance readers in exchange for their comments.
How do I know I really love books? How do I know a book lover when I “read” one?
First, I know because after standing in the blazing sun for two days in a row, my devoted team shares with me the glow (and sunburn) of survivors’ triumph.
Next, I know I love books because I got that warm fuzzy feeling every time I walked by a booth where authors or publishers were sharing—I mean really sharing—about their book: hearts ablaze, eyes alight, voices resonating with passion. I knew the hours they’d spent writing, the months they’d spent waiting for an agent’s reply, the years they’d spent dreaming of completing their story.
I’m filled with gratitude: for the long line of women who joined us in the hot sun to wait for their signed book; for the videographers Dianemarie and Doug Collins who captured these amazing moments on video (check my website soon to watch!); for Mary Helsaple the amazing artist who paints my cover art, and who painted her beautiful watercolors in my booth for the delight of all our visitors; for Katy Sullivan and Bill Berkuta, Monica Fay and Lorien Goodman, who handed out postcards and spoke to scores of festivalites; for the beautiful USC campus and for the heavenly shade trees that gave us some respite; for the L.A. Times for making this festival the largest in the country.
But most important of all, I know I love books because I see them for what they truly are: little doors that open into other worlds. And this weekend, I not only got to be surrounded by thousands of these little doors, each vibrating with the secrets they hold. I also got to open the door of my own new book to scores of new readers.
These new readers . . . how beautiful their faces were when they glimpsed the possibilities lurking behind the door of my gorgeous new book cover. How thrilled I was to hear their question: what’s the book about? And how extraordinary to feel that special connection when I could answer: the book is about you. Because it’s about a woman who begins to listen to her heart, a woman who’s beginning to believe in herself, a woman who’s getting around to doing those things that, in her heart of hearts, she’s always wanted to do.
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