| Volume III, Issue Two
| September 2008 |
| Sandra Named One of "Denver Dozen" |
Sandra is one of 12 novelists featured in a unique literary project celebrating the 150th anniversary of both Denver and the Rocky Mountain News. The project, entitled “A Dozen on Denver: Stories to celebrate the city at 150,” features 11 of Colorado’s top novelists, each writing an original 2,500-word story set in a different decade in the city’s history. The Rocky is sponsoring a contest to select the 12th writer, whose story will be set in the future.
In addition to writing her own story, “Lennie’s Tavern,” which is set in the 1940s, Sandra is managing editor of the project. She, along with Laurie Brock, a publishing consultant, and Margaret Maupin, the beloved events coordinator (now retired) for the Tattered Cover bookstore, will select finalists from among entries for the 12th writer position. The winner will be chosen by the Rocky’s book editor, Patti Thorn.
Beginning in September, the stories will run chronologically on Tuesdays, beginning with a story set in 1858. While the stories are unconnected, each mentions Denver’s iconic Larimer Street. The city was founded on |
Larimer, and to a great extent, the street mirrored the city’s fortunes, peaking during the mining boom, then sliding into the doldrums. Larimer became the city’s Skid Row by the 1930s and was revived only a generation ago with Denver’s urban renewal.
“A Dozen on Denver” was inspired by a similar project in the London Times, but the idea was tailored to fit Denver. Besides Sandra, the 11 novelists include Margaret Coel, Joanne Greenberg, Pam Houston, Connie Willis, Nick Arvin, Manuel Ramos, Robert Greer, Arnold Grossman, Diane Mott Davidson and Laura Pritchett.
In addition to the weekly stories, the Rocky plans a special supplement featuring all 12 stories. The paper has commissioned original artwork for each story and will run interviews with the authors.
Sandra, who as managing editor of the project, edited the 11 stories, says she is “impressed with the variety and richness of Colorado authors.” She and others involved in “A Dozen on Denver” hope the project will be a model for other cities to showcase their writers. |
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When I decided to become a writer, I dreamed of being an award-winning novelist feted by editors and publishers at the Plaza Hotel in New York. What a stroke of luck that it turned out that way.
In May, at Book Expo in Los Angeles, the audio version of Tallgrass was named winner of two Audie Awards by the Audio Publishers’ Association. I was not there. So in June, when my daughter Dana and I were in New York, we had tea at the Plaza with both the publisher and producer of Macmillan Audio, where they gave me the award. But first, they handed me the finalist medal, a three-inch medallion on a maroon ribbon, which I promptly put around my neck (and forgot to take off, so I ended up walking along Fifth Avenue wearing it, impressing everyone I passed.)
Then amidst the ghosts of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and Eloise, as the waiter set down doll-size sandwiches and scones, fresh fruit and pastries, the Macmillan ladies presented me with my Audie Award for best audio novel. (Lorelei King, who read Tallgrass, received her award for best female narrator at Book Expo.) The award is a six-inch crystal circle, which, alas, is not suitable for wearing. It may be a threat to national security, however, because I was pulled aside at security at the Newark airport while the officer checked it out. Or maybe he just wanted to admire it.
I have judged entries for literary awards and know that the best book doesn’t always win. The whims of the judges play a part in picking the winner. And sometimes, everybody’s third choice wins because the first and second choices are different for each judge. Still, it is such an honor to win an award like this and far more satisfying to be a winner than a judge. And of course, I’d like to think Tallgrass really was the best.
The audio version of Tallgrass, by the way, seven-CDs, sells for $29.95. Macmillan Audio (formerly Audio Renaissance) is also producing the audio version of my upcoming novel, Prayers For Sale, which will be issued next year, in conjunction with the novel. While I was in New York, I recorded an interview with the producer about the book. I have a lovely, melodious voice, of course, and don’t know why I came out with a whiny Midwestern twang.
Incidentally, earlier that day, I stepped off a curb while hailing a cab, twisted my foot, and landed on my side in a gutter of dirty water. (It was amazing how many people came to my rescue. So much for jaded New Yorkers.) So it’s appropriate, I suppose, to say that I went from the gutter to the height of fame. And in only one day. —SD |
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Prayers for Sale Publication Date Set
Prayers for Sale, Sandra’s eighth novel, will be issued in mid-April, 2009. The book, set in Middle Swan, Colorado, a fictitious town patterned after Breckenridge, is about an 86-year-old woman who finds herself facing the end of her days, when she discovers that even at that age, life offers new acts. St. Martin’s Press plans an extensive marketing campaign and a book tour. Details will be in an upcoming issue of Piecework. |
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| Sandra's
Picks |
My daughter and I are going to Italy in the fall, so mostly, I’ve been reading guidebooks and phrase books. I know how to ask for a discount in Italian and to say my daughter is a lawyer (advocate) who speaks English, although I may be saying she’s an avocado who speaks English. I’ve also read two books set in Florence:
The Monster of Florence. By Douglas Preston
with Mario Spezi. (Grand Central.)
Beginning in 1968, a serial killer murdered 14 persons, killing them as they made love in parked cars in secluded lovers’ lanes near Florence. Douglas Preston, who went to Florence to write a novel but discovered two of the killings had taken place near his apartment, and Mario Spezi, the journalist who covered the crimes, write an insightful true story of the killings that shocked Florence over a 20-year period and the inept police work that failed to turn up the killer. At one point, Spezi is arrested for the crimes, and Preston is interrogated as an accomplice. |
Galileo’s Daughter. By Dava Sobel. (Penguin.)
Of course, you know who Galileo is. But you may not know his devoted daughter was a nun who idolized her father and wrote him charming letters, sometimes twice a week. This nonfiction work is the story of Galileo, interwoven with letters from the daughter, Suor Marie Celeste. It is rich in historical detail and a sense of time and place. Galileo was a victim of the Inquisition, forced to repent his heretical idea that the earth moved around the sun, and as punishment was placed under house arrest and ordered to keep his ideas to himself. Still, you get the feeling that his life was a lot better than that of pour Suor Marie Celeste, who went into the convent as a young teenager and never once left.
Arrivederci! |
| Appearances |
October 29-November 1,
2008
Houston, Texas |
Houston
International Quilt Festival
Craftsman Touch Books Booth |
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Houston, Texas
7:00 p.m. |
Barnes & Noble
Champions Village
5303 DM 1960 West
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