Happy Book Birthday, Long Road to the Circus (now with crafts!)

Oh, frabjous day! It’s finally here! Today, I am pleased as PUNCH to inform you of the release of my debut novel LONG ROAD TO THE CIRCUS! It’s been a long time coming and just a delight to behold in the . . . pulp? Pulp is like the book version of flesh, right? Yeah. Yeah, we’ll go with that.

Today I’d like to encapsulate all the places this book has cropped up so far and will crop up. And I am beginning, as is my wont, with bribery. Specifically, the bribery of children’s librarians, school teachers, and anyone else with a penchant for programming. If you scroll to the bottom of this post, I will show you the absolutely magnificent craft that my wonderful librarian colleagues came up with. They claim they just adapted it from firstpalette.com, but I think they’re being modest. There’s a lot of personality to this craft!

But first I want to invite all of you to celebrate with me. If you know me then you know I’m a jabber jaws. I like to talk. I like to talk about books. I like to talk about my own book. I like to talk about the really strange story behind the creation of my book. And behold! Ample opportunities to do so, whether you live near or far!! Here’s what I have lined up as of right now:

• 10/5 – 6:30 p.m. Virtual book store appearance – Book Stall, Winnetka, IL. You can register here.
• 10/8 – 6:00 p.m. Virtual book store appearance with David Small! – Literati Bookstore, Ann Arbor, MI – More information here. Click here to join the webinar
• 10/9 – 11:00 a.m. Book store appearance – Bookends and Beginnings, Evanston, IL – More information here.
• 10/16 – 3:00 p.m. Book store appearance with David Small! – Book Bug, Kalamazoo, MI – You can register here.
• 10/23 – 11:00 a.m. Book store appearance – Booked, Evanston, IL
• 10/27 – 6:00 p.m. Virtual book store appearance with Karla Valenti, author of LOTERIA! – Women and Children First, Chicago, IL. More info here.

I can actually give some additional information that may not make it into my talks too. Recently I spoke with Chris Barton and Jennifer Ziegler of the highly amusing video series This One’s Dedicated to… On the show they ask people to explain the dedications of their books, and mine’s a doozy. Not only is it a podcast (available here where you can win a copy of my book) but you can watch our talk as well:

I also did a guest post for the SCBWI-MI blog The Mitten about the book’s historically Michigan-centric roots, should that be your kind of thing.

Okay. I think I promised you a craft, did I not? Should you need it, the delightful Sally Battle concocted the following. First, you walk into our “Art Garden” where you see this:

And the tables look like this:

See all the different stations? Well, you have to follow them. The instructions look like this:

I mean it sincerely when I say that this may be the highlight of my authorial life. Big big thanks to Sally Battle and everyone else for making this happen!

Filed under: Best Books, Best Books of 2021