The Book Tour Continues: Montclair New Jersey

    The book tour continues:  On Saturday I was in Rockville Centre, New York, at Turn of the Corkscrew bookstore, and tonight, Thursday October 11, 2018, I was in Montclair, New Jersey at the redoubtable and inimitable Write Group that has its 30 or more sessions a month at the Montclair Library.
    Montclair is not a  small town, but it is definitely a town rather than a city, and I doubt there is any other community in the country with a more dedicated and active community of writers.  Did you note that I said above 30 or more sessions for support and learning a month?  These are critique groups and talks and workshops and sessions for group writing to prompts-- they are really amazing, with a large and enthusiastic membership, organized by many, but especially Carl Selinger, who emails out their schedule and is the liaison to the library.
    I've visited them before, but this was an especially dedicated group, many of them already published, and we talked mostly about structuring our books
    I did something new, which is always good, (and was suggested by Helen Lippman, the event organizer who asked for information about my journey as a writer, and about the journey to publication of the new book).
     So I brought in a sheet of excerpts of critiques of the book after its first couple of drafts:  one from the first reader of the whole manuscript  (a member of my writers' group) and then two of the university press readers.  I talked about how I responded to the critiques, and how they led me to make major and fruitful changes to the book.  Very collegial and satisfying evening.