Dear Writers, Dear Friends,
I have so much to share with you, and I will be starting to post again, as much as I can on craft, so please watch these pages. For now, I have to tell you about my novel, Blue Earth.
It’s now been a little while since Blue Earth – my 4th book but my first full-length novel, has been published by Modern History Press in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This is a book I worked on for a very long time, along with other writing projects, a working class life, and a consciousness which kept me busy on numerous other projects, including organizing groups of writers, artists, filmmakers, and others to visit Cuba and meet their Cuban counterparts, as well as helping to curate and organize Cuban film festivals. Throw in some dancing, sure.
But since the book has come out, I have been doing some traveling for various book-related events around the country, which I will continue to do. A calendar of my goings-on appears on the calendar page of this website (finally updated!!).And Blue Earth has its own page, not finished but with some useful information. Like many writers, I suffer from a desire to write that is greater than my desire and ability to publicize my work, but most of us understand that letting people know about your writing is crucial to it being read, and I certainly want that. Indeed, I want Blue Earth to enter the conversation, the dialogue of the planet, and I want that for History Artist, my next novel, still to be completed, and for all my published works and works to come. So, I’m trying!
Wherever I have read from Blue Earth, wherever I have discussed the characters and issues and the writing of Blue Earth, the response has been powerful and vibrant. When a Blue Earth reading and discussion is paired with a writing workshop, some magical things seem to happen.
So I am putting out this call, for my novel Blue Earth, for me as a writer and a teacher of creative writing, and asking you to help get news out about this book:
Buy Blue Earth. Ask for it at your favorite local, independent bookstore. Or, you know how. Read it. Get it into more hands.
Connect me to reviewers at publications you respect; contact me about arranging readings from Blue Earth or my other work; contract me for writers workshops, retreats, visiting writer residencies and events at colleges and universities; help to arrange for my participation in conferences and workshops; get the book into your book club, your college courses.
But contact me. A book that took me more than a decade to write, well, there just might be something in it!
Any question I can’t answer, I will refer you to the publicist for Modern History Press, David Unowsky; or the publisher.
For now, contact me, the author, at aachtenberg at gmail.com or message me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/anya.achtenberg
Thank you all so much.
And good writing and reading to you,
Anya Achtenberg
Anya Achtenberg 