THIS WEEK'S DRAMA QUEEN ACTIVITIES

DRAMA QUEENS IN THE HOUSE celebrated its one-month mark last week with a book launch party hosted by dear friends, Patricia Ewer and David Mangen. It was a terrific evening and I enjoyed every minute. Great friends, food, conversation. Fun reunions and unexpected connections. Book sales, book signing. . . great fun! Patricia and I have been friends since the 1970s when we worked together at the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis.




BOOK LAUNCH PHOTOS:

Book sales & signing

Old friends from UWW

Reading a chapter

In the middle picture, Gorden Hedahl (one of my professors from UW-Whitewater in the early 1970s) catches up with Chery Davies Day.  Back then Gorden was Professor Hedahl, and he directed LOOK BACK IN ANGER during his first year at UWW. The production featured Chery and yours truly. Julie Weaver (not pictured) and I met when we were both actresses at Theatre L'Homme Dieu in Alexandria, Minnesota. I missed the photo-op when she and Chery were sitting in the kitchen eating burritos and discovering they know each other's sons (who were in a band together) though the two of them had never met. It was that kind of evening.

My submission to #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign

On May 1st, Ellen Oh (www.EllenOh.com), along with Cindy Pon and Malinda Lo from the wonderful DiversityinYA.com website kicked off their #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign on twitter, tumblr and FB. The campaign was launched in response to BookCon's all-white male panel on kid's lit and immediately went wild across all platforms. The first day of the campaign, people were asked to hand-print a sign and post pictures demonstrating their commitment to diversity in books. This was my submission. Thanks to Ken Williams, daughter Jennifer Williams, and husband Gordon Nakagawa for allowing themselves to be visual aids for the cause (and for my book promotion).  

Q&A on Linda Townsdin's blog

Last and definitely not least, yesterday the Q&A exchange I had with my best friend, Linda Townsdin, was complete when she posted my answers to the questions we picked on her fabulous blog, A Writer's Journey.  

Check it out here: http://lindatownsdin.com/2014/05/05/julie-williams-drama-queens-in-the-house/

As a writer, the writing itself comes first. Second to that for me is thinking about, reading about, talking with others about, and writing about the writing process. After that (way after that) comes the marketing and promotion. This interview is a happy convergence for me (and I hope for you). I had a lot of fun doing it (usually a good sign) and learned something about myself and my process.

It's been a busy week. I think it's time to grab the rake and head for the garden before it rains again.

One Week Until My Book Comes Out

My new book, DRAMA QUEENS IN THE HOUSE (Roaring Brook/Macmillan) comes out next week. Tuesday, March 25, 2014 to be exact. I've been working on this particular book for nearly 10 years. The most intense work, of course, took place in the last three years since I signed my contract and went to work with my editor at Macmillan. The book has morphed and shape-shifted more than once during that time! And now, finally, here we are. Book launch ready. The book. And me. With only a week to go, I'm doing the things I know to do like: finalizing lists of all the people I want to share my excitement with, checking to see that local bookstores have ordered it, talking with their event coordinators to find out what I can do to help sell the book, agreeing to do some guest blogs and book give-aways -- those kinds of things. But am I ready?

Yes. And no. Excited. And terrified. I love my main character, Jessie, and her crazy nontraditional family. I'm so glad I got to go along with Jessie during a really important year in her life -- one where she has to deal with a lot of change and where she discovers some really cool things about herself and her place in the dramatic world of her family's theatre company. Jessie and I share a sense of humor, but she's a lot more outgoing than I am. And her family? Uh, yeah. A LOT more outgoing than I ever dreamed of being.

So as I sit here, crossing to-do items off a long list, I find myself feeling like the girl in the picture above. That picture of me was taken when I was Jessie's age -- 15, about to turn 16. Pretty smart, a reader, an artist, more introverted than extroverted except when I was performing. Then a miracle happened. All my self-consciousness disappeared and I became whatever character I was playing (from head cheerleader on pep rally days to my first dramatic onstage role as Tessie Hutchinson, the wife and mother who is stoned to death in Shirley Jackson's THE LOTTERY). When I defied my mother and the rules of my mother's religion and played that role (which, incidentally, won a best actress award at a regional competition), I had never even been to see a live theatrical production. That was about to change dramatically -- let's just say from then on the theatre was in my blood and nothing was ever the same again. Did I stop being introverted when I wasn't onstage? No. Not then, not in all the years since.

But the theatre gave me a voice. Maybe I should say -- gave me many voices to choose from. And the performance of those voices led me to writing poetry and stories and novels. And that led me to teaching and directing, which led me back to performance and writing and publishing . . . 

There's a lot to be excited about. Next week my book comes out.  It's the first I've written that draws its inspiration from my many years in the theatre and I hope it won't be the last. 

Macmillan:  us.macmillan.com/dramaqueensinthehouse/JulieWilliams

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Drama-Queens-House-Julie-Williams/dp/1596437359/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1395176055&sr=8-1

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/drama-queens-in-the-house-julie-williams/1115382352?ean=9781596437357