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Monday, Nov 9, 2009
I can't imagine what a book tour is like. I know what a rock 'n' roll tour is like.
Well, it's a lot of airports and getting up at 4 in the morning and having eight minutes to eat lunch.
One thing is that even though my subject matter is pretty focused on Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley, there are a lot of different emotions in the book -- there's a lot of joking around and there are a lot of sad and mournful parts -- I can size up a lot about who is asking me a question based on what they're asking me about.
There are certain public radio interviewers who are never going to ever ask me about the "O.C." section of the Garfield chapter [where Vowell links the utopian Oneida community, referred to in old letters as "the O.C.," to the Thursday-night teen drama] because they don't know what it is, or if they do, they're not going to admit to it. And then there are Morning Zoo guys who don't really want to get into the Spanish-American War. So it is kind of interesting going on all these different kinds of shows talking to all these different kinds of people.
And this book tour is different. Since I did "The Incredibles" I have these totally adorable 8- or 9-year-old girls coming to get their Violet stuff signed, and I get to talk to them about how their friends and them play and they always want to be Violet. It's so reassuring, especially because when I was known almost entirely for working on public radio, my audience was all from public radio, which meant that they were all kind of old. And it's kind of terrifying when you're, say, 35 and your audience is like 65. And then you wonder who is going to support your projects after your audience is dead.
Can I ask you about "The O.C."?
Can I ask you about "The O.C."? Didn't you guys just guest-star on an episode? You play at the Bait Shop?
We play three songs at the Bait Shop. And apparently Seth misses our show...
But you're his favorite band!
That's the word on the street.
I talked to one woman last night when I read here in Chicago. I read my Oneida community section where I talk about "The O.C.," and she came up to me and said, "Thank you for reading that. I never knew what 'O.C.' stood for!"
So, you guys played. Was Peter Gallagher there?
Peter Gallagher was not there.
Oh, what's the point!
It was fun. I don't have a TV, and I've never seen the show.
Really? It's a really good show!
So what is on deck for you, aside from the book tour.
I don't have anything on deck for after, for two reasons. First, I don't really have a book idea. But mainly because this is my fourth book, I have a much larger idea now of what writing a book involves. And now that I've been through this a few times, I no longer think of writing a book as just sitting in my room writing it. Now I see it as a whole process, and I see the book tour, what it's about, is getting people to read it. And it doesn't exist as a book to me until people read it.
I've also figured out that how to be happy is to limit my time around other people so that when I'm around other people I give myself over to them. When I'm with my friends and people I love I'm with them. Same thing with my readers. That's what this time is about. I've spent like two years in a room by myself and now I'm with the readers and they have me for as long as they want me, or at least until this book tour ends.
