Novelist. Editor. Journalist. Business Writer.
Don’t forget. I’m reading this Saturday in Lafayette and Monday in Baton Rouge. Now, I know this is almost as exciting as the NFC Championship on Sunday and this may cause you to become confused. So I thought I’d make like Jersey Shore and tell you about the situation. (Note for New Yorkers, there will be a reading in Brooklyn on Feb. 11. Mark your calendars now)
Basic ground rules.
Continue reading “Tips for Attending a Book Reading”
Chere Dastugue Coen, who runs Louisiana Book News, reviewed The First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival yesterday. She liked it! The review ran in The Daily World (out of Opelousas) and The Daily Advertiser (out of Lafayette). That’s right, Acadiana has as many (or more) daily newspapers as the New York Metro area. At any rate, you can find her full review here.
The humor in Wheaton’s novel emerges from the cast of characters and their simple everyday occurrences, and when you live in the South you know how humor stares you in the face, just waiting to be written down. However, capturing that essence that is all Southern — or in this case Cajun — takes a special creative pen and Wheaton wields with aplomb. The First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival is laugh-out-loud, recognize-your-mawmaw funny.
So apparently The First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival was a topic discussion during Mass this morning in the real Grand Prairie. By the real priest. In the real St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church. It seems he was a little put out — he’d been expecting perhaps a non-fiction account of the real festival, not a first-person fictional account of a laughingly bad priest.
Continue reading “Meanwhile, In the Real Grand Prairie”
So I’m reading and signing books at the Barnes & Noble in Lafayette, Louisiana, on Saturday, Jan. 23 at 2 p.m. This will actually be the second time I read at that particular store.
Way back in the day, 1996 I think it was, when I was attending USL for my master’s degree, I signed up for the reading series the graduate department conducted. I’m a shameless attention whore and I thought it would be an excellent way to show these chumps my crazy mad writing skills. Then it occurred to me that I might be the chump. Up until that point, my reading had been limited to tiny events as an undergrad where I thought I was big man on campus, one of a few English majors at a school full of scientists (and drunks). I’d never get nervous at those things, partly because I was full of myself, partly because I was full of booze.
But driving into Lafayette — we were living in Opelousas at the time — I was struck by a powerful case of nerves. These weren’t college kids farting around that I’d be reading in front of. These were people seeking advanced degrees in writing. These were published poets and writers. The guy I’d be reading before already had an MFA and was a teacher, not a student. Who the hell was I? No one, that’s who. And this reading wasn’t going down in dank little bar. No, it would be under the bright lights of the Starbucks in a Barnes & Noble. And there’d be no booze to help me build up a little courage. By the time I arrived at Barnes & Noble, it was all I could do not to poop my pants!
But I didn’t. Thankfully. I survived. I think I even did the jerk thing and read two stories–took up my whole 20 minutes. Because people love nothing more than to listen to someone drone on for 20 minutes!
At any rate, I’d be honored if some of you knuckleheads came down to the signing and readings I’ll be doing. One in Lafayette, one in Baton Rouge and one in Brooklyn. I’ll try to keep the reading part short. I swear. Spread the word. Bring friends. Bring family. Bring people who haven’t bought the book yet. I’m a little worried about turnout in Baton Rouge, so Baton Rouge people, bring like three friends with you!
Here are the details.
Saturday, January 23 — 2 p.m.
Barnes and Noble — Lafayette
5705 Johnston Street
Lafayette, La. 70503
Monday, January 25 — 7 p.m.
Barnes and Noble — Baton Rouge (CitiPlace)
2590 CitiPlace Court
Baton Rouge, La. 70808
Thursday, February 11 — 7:30 p.m.
Barnes and Noble — Brooklyn (Park Slope)
267 Seventh Avenue
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11215
So Sunday morning, as I was trying to sleep in on my last day of freedom before returning to the grind of the day job, the phone rang. It was my mom. The Daily Advocate — out of Baton Rouge — had reviewed The First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival. A real book review, in print, where my mom could see it. Now THAT’S what I’m talking about. Even better, Advocate Books Editor Greg Langley liked it. He didn’t love it. But he liked it. Even better than that? Not that the book is exactly complex, but he got at what I was trying to do behind the story. Here’s a little taste:
There are large issues on display in this book which can’t be resolved. There are smaller issues which can be resolved. The key complication is, of course, Father Steve’s attraction to Vicky. In that sense, this book is a romantic comedy and a pretty good one. Wheaton keeps you hanging around to the end to find the answer. Along the way, he gives you some pretty good questions as well.
So yesterday The First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival officially hit bookstore shelves around the country. So far people have been kind enough to send or post photos from various places from Lafayette to Santa Monica. I’ve posted some more of those after the jump. But this one right here might be the cutest photo.
With the exception of one Amazon reviewers, reception so far has been pretty positive. Jessica Gottlieb wrote a review and is on my case to write a sequel. Josh Sternberg was kind enough to write an early review. Little Brown Pen not only wrote a review, she snapped a pick of the book on top of her precious Jane Austen! Thanks to anyone and everyone who’s picked up a copy and offered congratulations or written a review — and don’t be shy with those Amazon and B&N.com reviews. Those actually help (me ego, if nothing else).
Also cool is that it seems to have landed in the “notable” new sections of both Barnes & Noble and Borders. That means complete strangers might stumble across it and pick it up without me bugging them for six months!
Photos below. Continue reading “The Novel Makes the Rounds”
This will be the last time I bother yall for the rest of the year. I swear. But since I’ve been rushing around bragging like a fool when I received positive reviews, I thought I’d share my first negative review. This is from some guy on Amazon. Here it is:
“They say you can’t judge a book by it’s cover. In the case of Ad Age columnist Ken Wheaton’s, starter effort it is true. The First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival has a cover that is frame worthy. The pages within, however, might be most useful in the recycling bin or wrapping fish. That is how much I was disappointed by this unnecessarily convoluted and profanity-laced debut novel. Although the beautiful cover hints of a lovely small town saga I found the story of protagonist Catholic priest Steve Sibille to be forced. I am sure the author was aiming for a columnist’s penchant for irreverence but resulted, in my opinion, with a disrespectful nose-thumbing of Catholicism as well as an overbearing and failed attempt at humor and graceful wittiness.”
That’s his opinion and he’s entitled to it.
That said, if you have read the book and you are an Amazon reviewer, well, you know, get crackin’. (Note: That’s get crackin’, not get cracklins. Don’t want your high cholesterol to be my fault.)
Happy New Year.
This photo here might very well be the first copy of The First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival purchased in a bookstore. It was picked up by a follower on Twitter (@shoegrrl) in a Books A Million in the Lake Charles area yesterday. She said there were four copies in the regular fiction/literature section. So, if you’re in the Lake Charles area, go to the store and wipe ’em out completely. Then bug them to put it out on a table near the front of the store! And thanks to @shoegrrl for buying the book!
Can you hear me, now? Good. Now listen to me. I did a podcast interview with the fine folks at Hey Brooklyn! You can hear me prattle on about The First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival, blogging, work and lord knows what else. I even attempt to read a passage from the book at one point. It was a cold read on a passage I hadn’t read out loud before, so, well, it’s not my usual effort worthy of a Grammy. Anyway, go check it out.
The First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival starts shipping in eight (8) days and the nation is just bursting with excitement about it. OK, so maybe a handful of people are bursting with excitement and everyone else is just bursting from too much holiday food and the mental strain of the New Orleans Saints making the playoffs.
Continue reading “10 Things You Can Do to Make Me Rich!”
KEN WHEATON 