of the best places for a writer to hold a book reading. Before such events. I tend to get kind of cranky. Not only do I have to write the book, but I also have to stand before a bunch of strangers and talk about it. Despite a lifelong dread of public speaking, I’m getting a lot more comfortable with public readings. They should all be like my experience at Book Passage this Saturday. Despite the 10 am time slot (their usual time for “kid” events), I got a nice turnout, thanks to the store’s excellent publicity and my friend Kathy calling out all of her Marin County friends. Hannah, the young woman who introduced me, obviously read the book and was gracious and welcoming.While reading sections from Home, and Other Big, Fat Lies, I kept an eye on the kids in the front row and was delighted to see them engrossed. The Q & A sessions was especially fun – from the third grader who asked the intriguing question -- “Do you like all of your characters?” -- to the woman from Oakland who asked – “Do you have a writer’s group?”, which emphasized to me how much I need some ongoing feedback as I make my way through this next novel. The group was lively, but small enough for me to ask a question that has me really concerned. My current novel-in-progress opens with a 12-year-old girl dying and her organs being donated. Is that too much? Would you read a book that stared with something so upsetting and graphic? I was thrilled to look at a row of 14-year-old girls and seeing their heads nodding in support of the idea.
As people came forward to have their books signed, my eye caught the eye of a middle-aged
woman who was smiling at me. Something about her looked familiar, and for some reason, my mind leaped back to my high school in Philadelphia and came up with a name: Janet. I hadn’t seen Janet since we were both 17. She recognized my name in the Book Passage newsletter and wondered if it was the same "Jill Wolfson". I'm so glad she decided to come. We both definitely have more wrinkles and more gray, but I recognized her anyway. My Philly accent confirmed I was the right Jill.Janet and I were never friends, but she was certainly part of my landscape at Northeast High. I remember her as being especially beautiful with a serenity that stood out in a sea of teenage chaos. Janet was popular – That enviable word! -- in a way that I never was. Class secretary, that kind of thing. As she complimented my reading, I laughed to myself about how – admit or not – this was part of every writer’s fantasy – maybe in some cases, the initial impetus to publish. To stand all grown-up and successful before the former high school princess who once seemed to have it all.
But of course, chances are that Janet felt as miserable and insecure in high school as I did. We hugged, exchanged contact information. I hope to get the chance to hear her own story – her 30 year-plus journey from an entrenched Jewish neighborhood to Marin of all places, a path that I’m sure is as interesting and compelling as the path our grandparents took out of the shtetl.
Book Passage offers an amazing number of literary events -- more than 400 each year - in both the Marin and San Fran. locations. www.bookpassage.com
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