Would YOU do this?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Would YOU do this? Such an unbelievable journey.  In every way.  Reds and readers, you are about to hear a remarkable tale of persistence, diligence, passion, perseverance and…mileage.  And I should also mention talent. Super duper supreme talent.  

We are delighted, beyond delighted, to welcome the brilliant and fabulous Jenny Milchman.

Read on. And gasp.  As I asked before: Would YOU do this? 

The World’s Longest Book Tour Version 2.0

   By Jenny Milchman

I had a very long road to publication. I wrote seven novels over the course of ten years before my eighth finally sold and became my debut.

Which is a story for another Jungle Red post because that book had been roundly rejected by publishers before being offered a deal from an imprint that had turned the same book down six months before. My novel, Cover of Snow, went on to win the Mary Higgins Clark award and be a finalist for two others, earn praise from the New York Times, and a big etc.. The lesson? If you’re receiving rejections, learn from them, yes—but also don’t necessarily assume they’re the last word. Other things can come into play.

Anyhoo. After that amount of rejection—and sheer time—you can believe I’d encountered a fair number of supporters along the way. People who’d kept me going through some dark nights of the writerly soul. And once I finally broke through, I wanted to meet them. Get out there and say thanks to those who had helped me believe I had something to say, and stories that would captivate readers, when my flood of rejections told me I didn’t.

So as the pub date for my “first” novel finally drew near, my husband and I did the next logical thing. We rented out our house, traded in two cars for an SUV that could handle Denver in February, and took our kids out of 1st and 3rd grades to “car-school” them on the road as we crisscrossed the country, meeting every bookseller and librarian and book club leader and even book bloggers who wanted to host an event. I worked with a terrific independent publicity firm that assisted in arranging many of the things I did out there.

And it was magical and wonderful and still the touchstone my family returns to now that those car-schooled kids are most of the way to grown and in college. Gulp. If you’d like to see what life on the bookish road was like, there are two fun music videos on my website.

And I do mean “like” as in warts-and-all-really-like. Watch each frame.

Another note about all the joy and some craziness in those videos.

I do not think, and am not recommending, that those watching at home should do the same thing. You don’t have to. The takeaway from my months of touring is that the face-to-face adds a unique and special component. A way to celebrate the huge accomplishment of your writing in a way that online simply doesn’t duplicate. A hundred Likes are not equal to one reader holding your book and pointing to the twist on p. 311 that blew her away. After which you sign her copy and she takes it back like she’s been handed a jewel.

So get out there in a smaller way. A more reasonable way. Ask your local independent bookstore or your library about holding an event. Reach out to a book club. Or get out of the bookish box entirely and think of alternative venues. Did you write a pet mystery? Maybe a local animal shelter would like to stage a gathering—the proceeds could go to support the shelter. A women’s fiction novel? Same approach for a women’s club in the area.

Or maybe you’re a little more all-in. You’ve read about what I did, wandered over to my website to see for yourself, and it looks kinda amazing. (IT WAS).

You still don’t have be multiple months all-in. Draw a radius around your house sufficient for a weekend or week-long getaway, then identify venues within it. A few bookstores, a library, one or two alternative sites too. Reach out to the people in charge, offer to appear or help put an event together—invite people you know in the region—and hit the road.

If you feel like you don’t want to turn back after your last event, I understand.

And conversely, if you feel wiped out and have no idea how—or why—I would’ve stayed out there, well, I understand that too.

Anyhoo again. Because after five books, and close to twenty months of touring, something cataclysmic happened.

First came the pandemic, which called a screeching halt to our bookish reindeer games. But since that’s a droplet compared to the tsunami of calamities the pandemic caused for so many, it should scarcely be counted.

With the world (partially, and only for some) on track again, my career was not.

I did not have a publisher for my sixth book. In fact, I didn’t even have a sixth book.

My career was at a crossroads, and both I and my agent sensed it. With much love and devotion, we decided the time had come for a change and parted ways.

I signed with a dream agent. That was the (mostly) easy part.

Now to find a publisher just as dreamy and excited about getting my career where it needed to go after a gap. After the world had changed, and me along with it in many ways.

Kids growing. The world reckoning with different forces. Other things too.

At about this point, a publisher approached my new agent. They were a fan of my work and wondered if I would have breakfast, a bookish talk.

Y’all know by now how I feel about bookish talks.

OF COURSE I WOULD.

I couldn’t eat a bite even though the publisher kept graciously plying me with pastries.

And I love pastries.

The restaurant we met in was all art deco and gorgeous. It was one of those moments that make a writer really feel like a writer, or more accurately, like an author.

Who now had her first series to launch, because that’s what the publisher wanted to discuss. Whether I had ever considered writing a series character, perhaps one who made use of my first career as a psychotherapist. There are lots of incredible police and PI and legal procedurals, we mused at that breakfast. What about a psychological procedural?

And Arles Shepherd, rogue psychologist, was born.

Now the first in her series is out, THE USUAL SILENCE, which means things are going to change again. Change is the only constant in this writing life.

What will book touring, the events and face-to-face that I have such a love for, look like with my new publisher?

Where am I going now? Where will the next road, literal or figurative, take me?

The great E.L. Doctorow says writing is like “driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” It’s a great metaphor not only for completing a book, but for whatever comes after it is released.

I hope you will follow along to find out where the road goes for me.

And that your own headlights point you in all good directions.

HANK: Tolja.  Amazing. I’m sure you have LOTS of questions for Jenny–I’ll start. Jenny, what do your kids say about your family adventure? And how about–are you tired of driving?

THE USUAL SILENCE 

A psychologist haunted by childhood trauma must unearth all that is buried in her past in this twisting, lyrical novel of suspense by Mary Higgins Clark Award–winning author Jenny Milchman.

Psychologist Arles Shepherd treats troubled children, struggling with each case to recover from her own traumatic past, much of which she’s lost to the shadows of memory. Having just set up a new kind of treatment center in the remote Adirondack wilderness, Arles longs to heal one patient in particular: a ten-year-old boy who has never spoken a word—or so his mother, Louise, believes.

Hundreds of miles away, Cass Monroe is living a parent’s worst nightmare. His twelve-year-old daughter has vanished on her way home from school. With no clues, no witnesses, and no trail, the police are at a dead end. Fighting a heart that was already ailing, and struggling to keep both his marriage and himself alive, Cass turns to a pair of true-crime podcasters for help.

Arles, Louise, and Cass will soon find their lives entangled in ways none of them could have anticipated. And when the collision occurs, a quarter-century-old secret will be forced out of hiding. Because nothing screams louder than silence.

Jenny Milchman is the Mary Higgins Clark award winning and USA Today bestselling author of five novels. Her work has been praised by the New York Times, New York Journal of Books, San Francisco Journal of Books and more; earned spots on Best Of lists including PureWow, POPSUGAR, the Strand, Suspense, and Big Thrill magazines; and received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist and Shelf Awareness. Four of her novels have been Indie Next Picks. Jenny's short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies as well as Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and a recent piece on touring appeared in the Agatha award winning collection Promophobia. Jenny's new series with Thomas & Mercer features psychologist Arles Shepherd, who has the power to save the most troubled and vulnerable children, but must battle demons of her own to do it. Jenny is a member of the Rogue Women Writers and lives in the Hudson Valley with her family.

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