Now, for those of you who haven’t bought or read it yet, doesn’t that make it more urgent?

But, no, I will not tell you what page it starts on. The book’s not that long. Even if you’re a reader who hunts straight for “the good parts,” it won’t take you that long to get there.

What might be construed as unique about the sex in my novel is that it’s sex for the after-60 set, a demographic I know intimately. And, at least in the opinion of one (unnamed) friend in the same demographic who read the book on a train, it was good enough to be a turn-on. On the other hand, a male friend of ours told my husband he thought it was pretty far-fetched and over the top (excuse the pun) to be realistic for our age group.  This being a guy-guy conversation, my husband said “writers only write what they know.”  Ahem…

So, you ask, what was it like writing this?  Did I think, perhaps worry, that it would reflect on my personal life experience? Mmm…a little (though, given reactions, that’s not a bad thing–certainly not for my husband, a self-described consultant on the sex text).  What was somewhat weird was working on this section with my developmental editor, Alan Rinzler, a gentleman of a certain age (roughly a year older than my husband), a veteran in the book business and, no doubt, in personal “experience.”  We had the most interesting exchanges via computer tracking/comment technology applied to my text.  I hesitate to be too graphic, but here is the gist of a few of Alan’s points along the way: “too mechanical,” “sounds painful,” “if she were facing…, it would be the  (YEAR I–Linda–GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE)  position.”    He used the number.  I remember thinking, “Yes, Alan, I know.”

So, in this process you want to be cool, hip, knowing, but how knowing?  Are you trying to impress your editor, for starters?  Are you hoping to turn on your readers?  And what determines success in sex scenes?

Ah, Google, the fount of all key words, even “writing sex scenes.”  This elicited a potential response of about 15 million entries.  I happened on one on the first page from writer Steven Almond.  It’s a 2003 piece in which he offers ten guiding principles.  Here are the first and the last.

#1 “Stop having sex. This is very important. Remember that the sexiest thing about sex is really desire, which is just a fancy word for not getting laid.”

And #10: “It is okay to get aroused by your own sex scenes. In fact, it’s pretty much required. Remember, part of the intent of a good sex scene is to arouse the reader. And you’re not likely to do that unless you, yourself, are feeling the same delicious tremors. You should be envisioning what you’re writing and — whether with one hand or two — transcribing these visions in detail.”

You can read the intervening eight tips on your own (but, trust me, I picked out “the good parts”).  As for what I wrote, I ran into Dr. Ruth Westheimer, whom I know as Miriam’s mother, and her longtime collaborator and publicist, Pierre Lehu, at Book Expo in May, and I’ve asked her to  take a look and approve!

In the meantime, I hope my sex scenes work for my readers, whatever their definition of that is.

is:

The biggest exhibitors are the major publishers–the MacMillans, Random Houses, Knopf–of this world, despite their b…… and moaning about how tough the business is.  These exhibit areas are lavish, with video, state-of-the-art signage, giant logo-ed carpeting. Not surprisingly, Google was there too, and Amazon and Barnes & Noble–as well as major distributors to independent bookstores, including Ingram and Baker & Taylor.    There were whole aisles–several of them–of displays by university presses, as well as hundreds on lesser known small publishers.  Plus, the e-book and audio book people.  And printing companies, collective promotion companies, foreign publishers (from Belgium to Israel to Saudi Arabia), and the San Francisco Writers Conference, the only entity like it I saw with a booth.  Attendee categories range from exhibitor to agents to booksellers to librarians author to book club member (how Eli registered: husband of published author was not a category!)

Since I’d self-published, so to speak, I didn’t have a publisher’s site to feature me at a signing.  Those that did included some big names, such as best-selling mystery writer  Michael Connelly, who was actually there signing books for a line of devotées that even Eli, a fan, thought was too long.  His patience, or lack of same, didn’t even respond to the free book  which came with the signing.  There were also huge lines for signings at Harlequin (romance) publishers.

Ah, the free books–that was an amazing phenomenon that I hadn’t expected.  (And we succumbed to a few more than we should have, considering that we’re schlepping them back to San Francisco this weekend, despite our limited luggage space for this Denver-New York-Chicago-Milwaukee odyssey of friends’, book, business, family, and reunion events strung one after another.) I’ll let you know what I like when I read the few I picked up.  Just like at the Jewish Book Network event–so many interesting books (so little time to read).

AFTER THE AUCTION did get some visibility at Book Expo.  I had signed up for a spot on a new titles showcase that was prominently positioned in the Javits lobby outside the exhibit areas–well placed near food, restrooms, newsstands, and seating (a much appreciated commodity after traipsing through the Expo).  And, networker/worker of a room (even a giant one like Javits) that I am, I met quite a few “relevant” people.

Like other self-publishing companies, Lightning Source the resource I used, was represented–as part of the massive Ingram exhibit (Ingram owns Lightning Source, one reason I chose it, as Ingram is a major book distributor). Sadly, I had no advance clue that some of their self-published products would be on display at that exhibit.  I asked the rep, who said, “Who’s your Lightning Source sales rep?”  So, I know now, if this happens again, that this is one more area of self-promotion–my self-publishing company sales rep!!  The key to a shot at exposure at the company’s exhibit.

So, I had my moment (or days) in the sun at Book Expo.  But for me, it was a learning experience, part of the totality of the learning experience that is publishing a book.

But maybe the next book will be displayed at one of the biggie publisher’s sites, with a queue for my signing.  It would be nice for Eli to have the patience to stick around for that one!

The column I’m citing, timed during the baseball championship games leading to the World Series, focused on the the fancy new baseball stadiums in New York, including the Mets’ new home named for its corporate sponsor, Citigroup, of federal rescue funds fame.  Herbert makes the point that, even for many families not desperately hurt by recession and unemployment, a jaunt to these new palaces of sport is an expense worthy of considerable thought.  Between tickets and concessions, baseball has priced itself out of the ballpark.  Herbert, recalling his childhood when “even the scalpers’ tickets were affordable,”  regrets that today’s youngsters of modest means have no access to America’s pastime, and people sleep on the street while one magnificent, luxury box-lined field after another opens.

This commentary juxtaposed with the news of the book price wars made me think that, while the price of one pastime has skyrocketed, the price of another is up for grabs.  My first take: this devalues reading.  But a closer look at the wars that ensued in advance of this holiday shopping season revealed that the wars really centered on big name best sellers–the likes of Dan Brown and, G-d help me, Sarah Palin–that Wal-Mart and Target pegged as discountable “loss leader” they could sell in quantity as their shoppers rampaged through the stores toward the bigger-ticket items on their lists.

Independent booksellers professed to be nonplussed by this move; after all, they’ve been under relative siege for years (thanks to Amazon, B&N, Borders, et. al.), and the big-box stores were unlikely to cater to their more literary- and service-minded clientele. Here in San Francisco some local bookstores weren’t even stocking Going Rogue.  So, if they weren’t worried, why should I?  I just find it hard to view books–any books–as a loss leader commodities.

My husband, Eli, and I recently spent a week in the Berkshire Mountain area of western Massachusetts.  It’s a bounty of glorious nature and culture: Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra; Jacob’s Pillow Dance Center; the fabulous Clark Art Institute; the Norman Rockwell Museum and others; theatre festivals.  We were busy and enjoyed it all.

The Berkshires are also home to such literary greats as Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, Edith Wharton,…and Dr. Seuss!  But Sholem Aleichem? Glückel of Hamelin, Who knew?

No less revered by their readers in their time and locales were some of the great Yiddish writers, and, remarkably, their legacies are also preserved in the land of their American Lit peers.  The National Yiddish Book Center (http://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/) sits on a lushly wooded site on the campus of Hampshire College, just outside Amherst, MA.  The center’s 37,000 square foot building architecturally resembles a shtetel synagogue.

The 1.5 million books were rescued by center founder, Aaron Lansky, a MacArthur Genius Award Fellow, who in 1980 started an effort to preserve Yiddish literature and books by advertising for and, along with volunteers, personally collecting truckloads. The ongoing vibrancy of the center lies in its efforts to revive and preserve not just the books themselves but the richness of the language and the writing and other culture it produced. Toward this end goes Steven Spielberg’s funding to digitize the physically deteriorating tomes, more of which still pour in every week.

*Eastern European village, where Yiddish speaking and reading Jews lived.
**Mother tongue.