 Red Room Writer Profile
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Blair Kilpatrick's Blog
November 6, 2009
- I’ve always loved independent bookstores, and Black Oak Books in Berkeley was a prime example. It had that perfect combination of classy and musty. New and used books. An academic flavor. Author photos on the wall. Readings. Coffee shops near by. Walking distance from my house. Black Oak was the first bookstore I discovered when we moved to Berkeley in 1997. I was ...
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November 4, 2009
- I felt a little sad on Sunday, the first day of November. Nostalgic, because it was also the opening day of National Novel Writing Month. Last November, for the first time, I joined hundreds of thousands of aspiring novelists in that crazy, exhilarating NaNoWriMo marathon. I thought of it as an experiment—and as a way to stay busy while I awaited the publication of my first book, ...
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October 23, 2009
- A timely blog topic in Red Room this week, to write about our favorite cities.I started out in Cleveland, a city that inspires jokes. After that, things got better. I spent a good part of my life in Chicago, a wonderful and underrated place. I've come to love New York; my husband was born there and our older son has lived in the Village since he left for college ten years ago. I live ...
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October 9, 2009
- I'm getting set to present "Accordion Dreams" at my first book festival. How fitting that it's in Louisiana.While the rest of my fellow San Francisco Bay Area authors will be Litquake-ing, I'll be letting the good times roll in Baton Rouge. (Too bad I can't be in both places. I did get invited to participate in one Litquake event, but wouldn't you know it's the same weekend. ...
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August 28, 2009
- I'm joining the Red Room Community in blogging this week about bad manners. Lately, I've been struck by a growing category of bad manners.I think of it as a particular kind of "sin of omission." It's the failure to get back to someone--whether it's in response to a social invitation, a job application, a literary query, or a request from a potential client. Sometimes there's an ...
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August 13, 2009
- I don't much like the notion of heroes. I've always had a tendency to idealize important figures in my life and then struggle with the inevitable reality that they have flaws, like anyone else. I certainly idealized my late accordion mentor, a Louisiana-born Creole musician named Danny Poullard. My growing connection to him, and his eventual death, are a major focus of my memoir Accordion ...
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August 6, 2009
- How can anyone write a short blog entry on obsessions, passions, and fixations? That's an impossible task, at least for me. It also risks making me think like a psychologist (which I am) and getting too technical. How are they different? And how about compulsions? Anyhow, I have to get back to finishing my mystery. It's taking longer than it should, because I keep obsessively checking my ...
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July 30, 2009
- I envy my fellow Red Room authors who have to look back through the mists of time to reflect on their first books. It's always easier to share youthful missteps. Accordion Dreams, my first book, still feels very new, since it came out in January--and I was certainly no youth at the time!My agent and my publisher did right by me. I feel very fortunate to have ended up with them--especially ...
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June 25, 2009
- I was checking the listing for Accordion Dreams on Amazon a couple of days ago. I was shocked to discover a little notice that it's now available on Kindle.I followed the link and, sure enough, there I was. Kindled.My first reaction was to wonder how this happened. Then I figured it must have been the publisher's decision. It's probably a good thing. Right? I guess so. I don't own ...
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June 5, 2009
- More bad news this week about the struggles of two Berkeley institutions, Black Oak Books and--the shocker--the Monterey Market, the locally famous produce market around the corner from my house.It wasn't a surprise to read that Black Oak finally closed the store on North Shattuck over the weekend. The new owner seems to have made valiant efforts to keep it going. Every time I've wandered in, ...
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April 24, 2009
- Just back from the closest thing I'll ever have to a "book tour" for Accordion Dreams: ten wonderful days in Louisiana. Traveling with my fiddler husband. The book events always included Cajun-Creole music. A couple of bookstore events, another big presentation at LSU. An interview on a local pubic radio station, by a Cajun woman musician who was as penetrating as Terry Gross. Two ...
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April 13, 2009
- It's bittersweet to be back in New Orleans. Our last visit was in 2005, a few months before Katrina.I'm writing from the funky guesthouse in the Lower Garden District where we'd stayed several times in the past, when our boys were young. It's the same--and not. I can still see signs of storm damage. Ruby, an older African American woman who presided over the breakfast (good, though ...
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April 7, 2009
- Earlier today, I was thrilled to discover the first newspaper review for Accordion Dreams. The review is by New Orleans Times-Picayune book editor Susan Larson. It's a wonderful review, and It comes at an ideal time, just as I get ready for a week long book tour in Louisiana. (It starts on Monday, at Octavia Books in New Orleans.) The review is here. When I discovered it, I was ...
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March 31, 2009
- Are bloggers permanently changing the landscape of the review?This is the question posed by a blogger who goes by the name of devi, on a recent post to "bookish," her book review community on livejournal. The trigger for her essay was a post I wrote on another Internet writing site. I had written about my reaction to the first review of Accordion Dreams. (It was similar to my Red ...
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March 25, 2009
- I've been profiled in this week's East Bay Express, in connection with Friday's upcoming Accordion Dreams reading and concert at Mrs. Dalloway's in Berkeley. It's a wonderful piece by Anneli Rufus. It's also my first profile/review in a real newspaper! Let's see if I can post the link:www.eastbayexpress.com/artsculture/let_the_good_times_roll/Content?oid=950297 So it's little ...
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