Paperback Tour for "The Girls of Atomic City"

Yes, it’s about that time to hit the road. Here are the cities I’ll be visiting in the coming months. Check back for additional dates. Hope to see some of you out on the road!

Monday, February 24, 2014

New York, NY

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

*Event Closed

Saturday, March 1, 2014, 9:15 AM

Long Beach, CA

Long Beach Festival of Authors

Long Beach Convention Center, 110 Pine Ave.

Monday, March 3, 2014, 11:15 AM

Denver, CO

American Physical Society - Annual Meeting

Colorado Convention Center, 700 14th Street

*Registration Required

Tuesday, March 11, 2014, 7:00 PM

South Hadley, MA

Odyssey Books, 9 College Street

Thursday, March 13, 2014, 7:30 PM

Fredericksburg, VA

University of Mary Washington

Dodd Auditorium, George Washington Hall

1301 College Avenue

*Ticketed Event

Saturday, March 15, 2014, 5 PM

Asheville, NC

Malaprop’s Bookstore Cafe

55 Haywood Street

Tuesday, March 18, 2014, Noon

Oak Ridge, TN

ALTRUSA Literacy Luncheon

Oak Ridge High School

1450 Oak Ridge Turnpike

*Ticketed Event

Friday and Saturday, March 21 - 22, 2014, 2:00 PM

Charlottesville, VA

Virginia Festival of the Book

Monday, March 24, 2014, 7:00 PM

Austin, TX

Book People

603 N Lamar Boulevard

Tuesday, March 25, 2014, 7:00 PM

Houston, TX

Brazos Bookstore

2421 Bissonnet Street

Wednesday, March 26, 2014, 3:00 PM

Oxford, MS

Oxford Conference for the Book

Journalism Panel moderated by Curtis Wilkie

Overby Center at the University of Mississippi

555 Grove Loop, Suite 247

Tuesday, April 1, 2014, 7:00 PM

Ann Arbor, MI

Nicola’s Books

2513 Jackson Ave. (in Westgate Shopping Center)

Wednesday, April 2, 7:00 PM

Cincinnati, OH

Joseph-Beth Booksellers

2692 Madison Road

Monday, April 7, 2014, 7:00 PM

Naperville, IL

Anderson’s Book Shop

123 W. Jefferson Avenue

Tuesday, April 8, 2014, 6:00 PM

Wichita, KS

Watermark Books

4701 E. Douglas Avenue

Thursday and Friday, April 10 - 11, 2014

Boone and Hudson, NC 

Caldwell Community College

Details forthcoming

BOOK GIVEAWAY: Enter to win THE GIRLS OF ATOMIC CITY by Denise Kiernan

Book giveaway over at Riffle! Three copies available. Only eight days left!

rifflenonfiction:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

THE GIRLS OF ATOMIC CITY was hailed by top media outlets as “fascinating” and “a phenomenal story” when it was first published earlier this year. It hit The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times Best Seller lists, made Amazon’s Top 100 Best Books of…

Happy Day for Books and Readers: GoodReads Choice Awards

   Download a Q&A about The Girls of Atomic City!

Thank you.

That’s right, you, the one over there who owes me nothing, whom I’ve never met, the one who isn’t related to me or feels they have to play the part of the dutiful friend. YOU.

You just happened to hear about my book somewhere. I can’t possibly know how or what struck you about it at that particular moment as you were going about your life. For some reason you looked it over and then proceeded to spend not only your hard-earned money on something I wrote but you gave that book your time as well. What’s more, you took the time to rate it, to recommend it, to pass it along virtually and verbally and even physically. And you’re not even my mom.

When I learned that The Girls of Atomic City was nominated as one of the best history and biography titles in this year’s GoodReads Choice Awards, I was happy for all of those sadly unevolved approval-seeking reasons, sure, but what is particularly satisfying about the GoodReads Choice Awards is that they are chosen by a community of readers, a group of folks connected in the magical land of the inter-webs by their love of a good book. 

In the words of nearly every nominee ever in the history of awards both great and small, “It’s great just to be nominated.” Well, guess what? It is. 

You can learn more about all the awards here. There are so many wonderful books. Give them some of your ever lovin' clicks. 

***Sign up for my mailing list here. Important news coming soon!

Some older but ever so valid perspective from Paul Graham’s essay “How To Do What You Love” (http://www.paulgraham.com/love.html):

Prestige is just fossilized inspiration. If you do anything well enough, you’ll makeit prestigious. Plenty of things we now consider prestigious were anything but at first. Jazz comes to mind—though almost any established art form would do. So just do what you like, and let prestige take care of itself.

Prestige is especially dangerous to the ambitious. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, the way to do it is to bait the hook with prestige. That’s the recipe for getting people to give talks, write forewords, serve on committees, be department heads, and so on. It might be a good rule simply to avoid any prestigious task. If it didn’t suck, they wouldn’t have had to make it prestigious.