OH, HELLO THERE. I promised I’d be back on Monday with some photos, so you can see right there at the top, a big ol’ portrait of a beautiful mantis. She’s ready for her closeup. Also she’s ready to eat the head off your neck.
More mantis photos at the bottom of the post.
Let’s see. What’s up?
October 7th, Super Awesome Rad-as-Hell Authors Kevin Hearne and Delilah S. Dawson will be at the Doylestown Bookshop at 7pm, and who will be joining them? ABRAHAM LINCohh wait no that’s not right. *checks notes* It’s me! I’ll be there! All three of us! Shenanigans will ensue! You will buy The Princess Beard from them!
October 11-12th, I’ll be at the Morristown Book Festival in NJ — not sure of my schedule there but I think I have a couple panels and a signing? You should go!
October 13th, I’ll be at the Bucks County Book Festival, doing a SFF panel at 3pm. Signing after!
Wanderers has been doing… really well? Like, better than all my other books, easily, in terms of sales and reviews. (The SW books here are a bit of an outlier, of course.) But it’s hard not to be happy with the overall response. Every day I get tweets and emails commenting on how people really fell into the book and enjoyed it, and that’s honestly pretty dang heartwarming. It’s nice to see a book you wrote — especially one that’s huge, that’s been living in your head for years, that demanded you take a lot of risks — connecting with people. Because you just never know.
(And I remind you that if you read the book and dug it — or any book! — we authors appreciate the hell out of reviews on places like Goodreads and Amazon. If you hated the book, that’s okay too! You can shriek your bad reviews into the nearest tree stump and the mutated cookie elves who live there will definitely deliver them to me in a timely fashion.)
Of the book, Broad Street Review said:
“Wendig isn’t so much holding up a mirror to society as he is opening the window. The apocalypse is not set 20 minutes in the future, and the story is concerned not with its aftermath but with the fact of its occurrence.”
You can read an interview with me at the Amazon Book Blog.
Enterprise News said of the book (note, review contains spoilers):
“The world of Wanderers is as rich as it is fragile. It clocks in at 800 pages, but, reminiscent of the Harry Potter books, it goes fast and you won’t want it to end. One gets the uncomfortable sensation of looking into a mirror of our America, but with the frightening and the awful comes the astoundingly selfless and truly heartening reminder that, no matter how tough times get, there are always those who will stand up and be shepherds.”
Librarian Misha Stone appeared on King 5 News in Seattle to recommend it, along with some other stellar reads (like Annalee Newitz’s newest).
So, again, thanks to all who have recommended it to others and responded to it.
YAY YOU.
Now, more photos. (Or visit my Flickr.)
Have a great day, frandos.
James S Clarkson I says:
Just finished Wanderers – liked it a lot and agree with the comparisons to The Stand. Also reminded me of The Passage and Darwin’s Radio. It’s in that class. Well done! You should be proud of yourself. I look forward to your next.
September 3, 2019 — 3:05 PM
Mickey Coalwell says:
Hi Chuck. I have a small favor to ask. When you post about your personal appearances, can you include the STATE? You did mention “NJ” for the Morristown Book Festival, which is cool, but Doylestown? Where is that? Bucks County? Sorry, we in the flyover states don’t have an easy familiarity with Eastern towns and counties. You are an internationally known author, and you do travel around the country fairly often, and I would love to catch up with you at one of your frequent personal appearances at festivals, bookshops, cons, etc., so it would really help if you’d just include the name of the state where you’ll be. Two little letters would make all the difference. Would you do that? Thanks!
September 3, 2019 — 5:53 PM
Piccadilly Jilly says:
Mickey, Doylestown is in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It’s about 45 minutes to an hour north of Philadelphia, nestled between Routes 611, 202, and 313. 🙂
September 3, 2019 — 10:08 PM
terribleminds says:
As noted, it’s in PA, Mickey. Hope that helps.
September 4, 2019 — 8:09 AM
Deborah Makarios says:
Oh my word, the face on that butterfly! It’s like “what are you looking at, punk? You think you’re some kind of oil-painting?”
September 3, 2019 — 8:38 PM
Chicago t says:
Shh. I have to finish Wanderers.
September 3, 2019 — 9:35 PM
Widdershins says:
That butterfly is a facehugger, straight outta Alien!
September 4, 2019 — 11:41 PM
jjnotier says:
Whew. No need to worry that the ending of Wanderers won’t match the complexity of the themes/characters. It does. I just recommended Wanderers to a few hundred readers on Goodreads. Waiting for whatever comes next, Chuck. Thank you for your work.
September 8, 2019 — 1:36 PM
terribleminds says:
Thank YOU!
September 9, 2019 — 7:34 AM
lenny face says:
Magnificent!!!
September 13, 2019 — 9:31 PM
Chris says:
Oh, brother. Sigh.
October 6, 2019 — 3:55 AM