Melanie Gideon

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melaniegideon — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 19:49:16 +0000

I feel like I’ve been on another planet for the past two months and although the travel and the adventures were wonderful, I am so, so happy to be home. Well, I’ve done my job. Wife 22 is officially launched and out there in the world and I am just starting to dip my toe into the waters of my new novel. This is my absolute favorite part of being a writer. Starting from the beginning once again. Dreaming up the next journey. Where do I want my characters to spend the next two years? Perhaps someplace like this. The magical, incredible, soul-restoring Isle of Skye in Scotland. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a more breathtakingly beautiful part of the world.

What is the secret?

melaniegideon — Wed, 30 May 2012 19:36:38 +0000

I felt like a bride yesterday. My wonderful agent, Elizabeth Sheinkman, sent me a gorgeous bouquet of flowers to the celebrate the publication day of Wife 22. And I did my first reading at A Great Good Place for Books. There was a wonderful home-town crowd and over the course of the evening I asked people to tell me their secret to a long-lasting relationship or marriage. There were some amazing responses. Thought I would share a few.

Truth and honesty. Time apart.

Trust. You like how he/she smells. Enough money.

Patience, affection, forgiveness, humor–thinking the other is adorable.

Saying thanks and offering to fill up his coffee.

What is your secret to a long-lasting marriage?

Cherries and summer and book launches . . . finally!

melaniegideon — Mon, 28 May 2012 18:41:26 +0000

Cherries are here. It’s Memorial Day. Which means summer is here. Which means Wife 22′s launch day is TOMORROW! I can’t believe I’ll be able to walk into a bookstore tomorrow and see it on the shelf. Lots of exciting things are happening. Wife 22 made the USA Today Hot Summer Books list. Tomorrow night is my first reading at my favorite bookstore in the world, A Great Good Place for Books at 7pm. If you’re interested in coming to a reading please check out the events page. A chapter from Wife 22 is Narrative Magazine’s Story of the Week. And Wife 22 has already gone into a second printing. Thank you everybody who has pre-ordered the book. I go on book tour this coming Saturday and they’ll be lots more news coming soon.

Lucky earrings and roller coasters . . .

melaniegideon — Tue, 22 May 2012 21:20:27 +0000

Less than one week until Wife 22 is published in the U.S. and I’m wearing my lucky earrings all the time now, except for when I took this photo. It’s such a busy time at the moment. Working on lots of last minute articles and Q&A’s for blogs and newspapers. Also I’m getting ready for my book tour. What to wear besides my lucky earrings? Suggestions? I’m going to San Diego, Austin, New York, Chicago and Florida, and I’m doing local readings here in the Bay Area. Please visit the events page for details. Lots of exciting press coming soon. Hint: Look for me in the July issue of O Magazine! I feel like I just buckled into the roller coaster car. I’ve been through book launches many times. Why does it always feel like the first time?

The Romantic Life of Alice B . . .

melaniegideon — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:05:31 +0000

AKA Wife 22 hit the shelves in France last week. Here’s the ad that ran in French Elle. I’m going to France in July. It’s the first time I’ve ever been and I’m so excited. I’ll have a chance to meet my French publishers and to do all the touristy things one does in Paris. The trip is part business and part pleasure. My husband and I will be celebrating our twentieth wedding anniversary as well. Where better to celebrate than the city of light?

Thirsty anyone?

melaniegideon — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:57:06 +0000

My lovely publisher made coasters for Wife 22. I don’t know if you can see the writing on the coaster but it says “Sometimes marriage is a Catch-22.” This tagline refers to the moment in Wife 22 when Alice realizes that some of the things she found so charming when she first married her husband, William, are the very things that twenty years later drive her crazy. What do you think about that? Do you agree?

Cowboy Creamery and Point Reyes

melaniegideon — Fri, 11 May 2012 13:48:19 +0000

The other day we went on one of our favorite jaunts to Point Reyes. It felt like summer. Seventy degrees on Limantour beach. Wild lupine. The air smelled of roses. Afterwards to the Pine Cone Cafe for an expresso milk shake and Thai beef salad. And after that, to the Cowboy Creamery for Red Hawk cheese–the stinkiest, most wonderful cheese ever. It’s all gone but I’m still dreaming about it. I’ve decided if this writing gig doesn’t work out I want to open a cheese store. Truly, what would life be without cheese? Those are the kinds of big thoughts I’m thinking today.

30 days and supermoons . . .

melaniegideon — Sun, 06 May 2012 02:38:15 +0000

Less than thirty days until Wife 22 hits the shelves. It’s the calm before the storm (hopeful thinking here). If I had to define slipperiness, these last weeks before the book launches would be slipperiness incarnate. I keep reminding myself to breath. The book has a destiny of its own. My job is to let it go. Easier said then done, of course!

I’ve become the queen of distracting myself. Reading as much as I can. Gone, Girl, by Gillian Flynn with whom I did a bookseller event with–you HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK! It’s brilliant and I couldn’t put it down. Carry the One, by Carol Anshaw. Breathtaking. Also just finished Joan Didion’s Blue Nights. I’m not sure how I feel about this one yet.

Since I last wrote, Wife 22 got another starred review from Publishers Weekly. And Harper Collins, my UK publisher, created a wonderful trailer which you’ll find in the video tab in the Wife 22 section.

It’s summer weather here in Northern California and tonight is the supermoon. I love that word–supermoon. My son is graduating from middle school. The jasmine is already blooming. Too soon, too early, all of it, but luscious and trying not to miss a second of it all.

Finland and my first star

melaniegideon — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 22:00:41 +0000

The covers for the foreign editions are starting to come in. Here’s Finland, one of my favorites. Also a bit of wonderful news . . . I got my first trade review from Library Journal and it’s a starred review. I’m so pleased!

The Way I Read Now

melaniegideon — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 20:04:05 +0000

I’ve been reading non-stop these days. Hungrily. Voraciously. Like when I was a kid and my mother took me to the library every week and I checked out five books, read them all, and went back to the library the following Monday after school and checked out some more. I have a special reading chair. A reading blanket. Reading lamp. And a reading brain. That now requires quiet. Absolute quiet. Otherwise I can’t concentrate at all. Otherwise I fall asleep. I read somewhere (don’t ask me where I can’t remember) that the middle-aged brain is less able to filter out distractions. I can’t, for instance, like my son, read upside down, in the dark, listening to my iPod.

Last two amazing books: Emily, Alone, by Stewart O’Nan and Pure, by Julianna Baggott. This photo was taken by my friend Kerri Arsenault. It seemed right for today. Maybe gazing out at the landscape is the way a dog reads.