Dear Reader,

Dear Reader,

My novel is released today. Let's pretend you've bought it. Let's pretend you're holding it in your hands. I know what it feels like. 

Visible Woman by Perry Vasquez

The novel you are about to read has been with me for over a decade. Like all authors I’ve tried to put into it everything I have to say about life, just in case I never get a chance to do this book thing again. So what you’re holding is my best attempt at downloading everything I have in my head that matters.

I’ve been asked what pieces of this novel are from real life and which are pure invention. The truth is that nothing here is a direct representation of anything in “real life.” At the same time, everything here is very real to me, and all of my most important pieces: my kids, my husband, my mother, and even my robot fixation, are present. This book is a treatise; it’s what I believe. And that means true love and merciless death and mechanical evolution and happy motherhood and mortal fear. There’s some weird stuff, some serious stuff, some goofy stuff. Some of it is pretty dark.

Publishing a novel is, I am finding, a very personal public act. In the book, I expose my self – dark and light, good and bad – and when you have read it, you will know me better than I will probably ever get the chance to know you. I am so grateful that I have this way to explain myself, this book-sized opening in my head. And I am so grateful to you that you are willing to listen, to hear this story, and to understand.

In other words, I have waited a long time to meet you, and I’m so happy that you are finally here.

Love,
LYDIA

Three Book Launch Events for Shine Shine Shine

My book will be released tomorrow, July 17th! On this day you can walk into any bookstore, demand to be sold a copy of my book, and the bookseller will cheerfully comply. Cheerfully. And honorably. It's true.

I am having three book launch events because triangles. Here I have arranged them chronologically.

EVENT 1: Signing/Reading/Meeting/Greeting @ Prince Books: 12:00pm Tuesday, July 17

Prince Books

109 East Main St.

Norfolk, VA 23510

757-622-9223

http://www.prince-books.com

Special note: The first ten people to buy books from Prince Bookstore will receive a coupon to receive an item of your choice for free at the Leaping Lizard cafe. Browse the menu. Let Maxon buy you lunch. 

EVENT 2: Virtual Book Launch Party @ Shindig Events: 7:30pm Tuesday, July 17

http://shindig.com/event/shineshineshine

No need to register, download, install, get a ticket, drive anywhere, or put on pants. There will be special guests including Joshilyn Jackson, who read the audiobook for Shine Shine Shine, Andrea Kinnear and my husband, who wrote the math equations. I may be wearing a robot head. I may be singing a song. You can participate with audio/video and appear on the screen via your webcam, OR you can participate via chat only. 

Official cocktail of the event:

The Perfect Mother

The perfect mother is always minty-fresh and peacefully diluted with vodka and sugar.

Start with this:
1 cup fresh mint leaves
1 cup sugar
1 cup water

Combine and boil, simmer, cool, then strain to make mint syrup. While it's bubbling, whisper your suspicions about your neighbors over the pot. As you're straining, mash the mint with vigor, attempting to extract all the secrets from its leaves. Should yield 1 1/2 cups if you strain angrily enough. 

Juice three limes into a pitcher. With each lime you strain, visualize one way you've changed for the better in the last ten years. Add a cup of vodka and a cup of club soda, and all the mint syrup. Stir with satisfaction.

Mix and pour over ice into glasses. Garnish with a straw topper by punching out the holes and sticking your straw in and out (click for larger image): 

EVENT 3: Book Launch Party @ Barnes & Noble : 7:00pm Wednesday July 18th

Come a bit early for appetizers, Italian soda, cupcakes and a beautiful book cake from Frank's cousin who needs a Facebook page so I can link to her! I'll get the party started at 6:30 and the actual event will begin with an intro from my son Benny at 7:00pm. 

Family Portrait

The Virginia Janes

The Virginia Janes 2012, a set on Flickr.

The band had a photo shoot last Sunday. These are the results. I pretty much love all these awesome people. I love rocking out with them. :)

Audiobook Sample for Shine Shine Shine: Put it in your ears now!

When I found out I was getting an audiobook for my novel, Shine Shine Shine (read about it and get first 50 pages here!), I was happy, but sort of worried in an undefined way. When I found out that Joshilyn Jackson was reading my audiobook, I was ecstatic, and all my worry went away. Joshilyn is a spectacular actor. I remember seeing her in Chicago in a production of Cowboy Mouth by Sam Shephard. When she was on stage, she completely transformed into this other person. I know, I know, that's what actors do and they're supposed to do it, if they didn't do it it would be kind of weird. But when you see someone you know doing it, and they do it so completely, it makes you want to approach them hesitantly, ready to poke them in the face, when you see them later. It makes you wonder who they really are. And then you forget about it for years and years until someone tells you they're reading your audiobook and then you're like YES. That is a good actor, right there. She will do a good job.

Joshilyn was one of the first readers of my final draft of Shine Shine Shine. She "got" Maxon and Sunny and Bubber and Emma right away. And I'm so proud of the job she did reading them. It was not an easy job -- the book goes from Burma to the wilds of rural Pennsylvania to the moon and from autistic adults who have learned to control their pitch and volume to autistic children who haven't. There were a few awesome phone conversations where we tried out how the dialect would be, or how certain lines would sound, and then she just did her thing like I knew she would.

So here's a sample of that good work. Right click the image below to download the first chapter of the audiobook as an MP3 or just left click to listen in your browser. Meet Maxon, Sunny, Bubber, Les Weathers, Rache, Jenny, and my novel. I hope you like each other.