Denise Kiernan. That's me.
Yesteryear’s stereotype-defiers: Kick-ass vintage public domain photos of women in science.
LOVE LOVE LOVE these.
Girls of Atomic City — National Tour in May & June
I’m hitting the road in May and June to promote my book, The Girls of Atomic City. Here’s the list of cities, bookstores, and events. The first half is a driving tour through the Southeast; the second half will see me bopping around the U.S. to various bookstores and festivals. If our paths cross, stop by and say “hi”!
SOUTHERN DRIVING TOUR
Charlotte, NC
Thursday, May 2
Park Road Books 7 pm
4139 Park Rd.
Charlotte, NC
*Talk, Q&A, Signing
Greenville, SC
Friday, May 10
Fiction Addiction 12 pm
Venue: City Range Restaurant
615 Haywood Rd.
Greenville, SC
*Lunch Event & Signing
Nashville, TN
Tuesday, May 14
Parnassus Books 6:30 pm
3900 Hillsboro Pike
Nashville, TN
*Talk, Q&A, Signing
Raleigh, NC
Thursday, May 16
Quail Ridge Books 7:30 pm
3522 Wade Ave.
Raleigh, NC
*Talk, Q&A, Signing
Southern Pines, NC
Friday, May 17
Country Bookshop 4:30 pm
140 NW Broad St.
Southern Pines, NC
*Talk, Q&A, Signing
Chapel Hill, NC
Saturday, May 18
Flyleaf Books Noon
752 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Chapel Hill, NC
*Talk, Q&A, Signing
Knoxville, TN
Tuesday, May 21
Union Ave Books 6 pm
Venue: The East Tennessee History Center Auditorium
601 Gay St.
Knoxville TN
*Talk, Q&A, Signing
Atlanta, GA
Tuesday, June 4
A Cappella Books 7 pm
Venue: Carter Presidential Library
441 Freedom Parkway
Atlanta, GA
*Talk, Q&A, Signing
August 30 - September 1, 2013
Decatur Festival of Books
Details TBD
Sylva, NC
Saturday, June 29
City Lights Bookstore 6:30 pm
3 East Jackson St.
Sylva, NC
*Talk, Q&A, Signing
* * *
*NATIONAL TOUR
Milwaukee, WI
Saturday, June 8
Boswell Books 2 pm
2559 N Downer Ave.
Milwaukee, WI
*Talk, Q&A, Signing
Chicago, IL
Sunday, June 9
Chicago Tribune Printers Row Festival
Solo Presentation
Details TBD
Lexington, KY
Wednesday, June 12
Joseph-Beth Booksellers 7 pm
161 Lexington Green Circle
Lexington KY
*Talk, Q&A, Signing
Denver, CO
Friday, June 14
Tattered Cover 7:30 pm
2526 East Colfax Ave.
Denver, CO
*Talk, Q&A, Signing
Los Angeles, CA
Saturday, June 15
Vroman’s Bookstore 4 pm
695 E. Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA
*Talk, Q&A, Signing
San Francisco, CA
Monday, June 17
Book Passage 6 pm
1 Ferry Building
San Francisco, CA
*Talk, Q&A, Signing
Seattle, WA
Wednesday, June 19
Elliot Bay Book Company 7pm
1521 Tenth Ave.
Seattle, WA
*Talk, Q&A, Signing
Albuquerque, NM
Friday, June 21
Bookworks
Albuquerque, NM
Venue: National Atomic Museum
learningwithliterature Asks:
denisekiernan Said:
Hi Tony,
Thank you for writing and for your support of local independent booksellers! I can give you a couple options: My local bookstore, Malaprop’s, in Asheville, NC, ships any of my books anywhere in the world (just about). You can reach them at 1-828-254-6734. However, it may be more affordable to have the book shipped from a store on the west coast. I know that Books Inc. in Palo Alto, CA, carries “The Girls of Atomic City.” I don’t know if they carry the other books, but they may be willing to order them. Their number is: 1-650-321-0600. Hope that helps!
Denise
Sharing a blog post here that I did for Omnivoracious over at Amazon about writing “The Girls of Atomic City.”
It’s here—that day all authors wait for which, when it finally dawns, is one of the most anticlimactic career events ever, no matter how many times you go through it. Pub day.
Books are a long haul. You get a kernel of an idea, do a little digging and try to decide whether this is a topic you want to live with for years. Then of course there’s the business end of the entire endeavor which, if you’re like me, can’t be ignored if you want to make a living: Can I sell this to a publisher and can that publisher sell it to readers?
So the kernel sprouts and you decide that you do want to live with the idea until you don’t and then until you can’t live without the idea again. Then there are the proposals and the meetings and all the while you’re trying to keep researching and come up with a clear vision for this project that you’ve already told major publishing corporations you really do have a vision for. Then you get the deal. Relief. Deadlines. A schedule. Sort of. An end date? In a sense, sure.
You write. You rewrite. You keep researching. You turn in the first draft, which is maybe the most anticlimactic of all the anticlimatices. (New word! It’s one of those vertices in life that you think you’ve reached but feel underwhelmed when you actually do.) You’re still so far from done and you know it. You wait for your editor. You already want to make changes the minute you hit “send” and your manuscript went out into the ether on its way to the publisher. That’s fine. Changes are coming.
Your changes. The editor’s changes. Changes from those trusted colleagues you allowed to see your ugly, ugly first draft. Revisions and more drafts follow. The end is so much closer and you know now that the time to really whip things into shape is shrinking fast.
A first look at your cover blows a little wind up your skirt and you get excited again. A cover! It’s real! Do you like it? they ask. You do! You really do! You’re not just saying that to avoid sounding like a moody, picky writer with no design experience. Everyone weighs in. Then polite “suggestions” from the real power-wielders at any publishing house: sales. They don’t like the cover. Am I OK with that? Absolutely. After all, there are bigger fish in this fry-daddy.
First pass pages! Am I done? No. The copy editor has seen it, maybe a proofer. Only make necessary changes… Necessary. Never do writers have more trouble defining such a two-cent word than when they are instructed to make only “necessary” changes.
Pencil marks. Post-its. Use this pencil, not that one. You finish…sort of. You mail it in. You’re done!
No, you’re not.
Promotional materials. Second pass pages and galleys. The book is in print…sort of. Ugh..I could invent a drinking game based on the number of times I used the word (insert favorite adjective here)…I can’t believe I….Can I still change…? Your editor is about to hop on a plane and pry the pages from your cold dead hands. Promotional materials again. Web sites. Meetings. Lists of people you hope will give this book a second look. Finally, there are no more changes to be made. The book is off to the printer.
But you’re still not done. Wrangling for press, emailing, tweeting. Yay! I got a piece in yadda-yadda magazine! Boo! Whozeewhatsit doesn’t want to have me on their show! Yay! Boo! Wine.
Then, finally, on a rainy Tuesday, the book is officially out in the world. Sort of. Actually there has already been press. People have already been tweeting pics of the book after purchasing it BEFORE the pub date from stores that ignore those sort of contractual restrictions. Emails from friends and people I haven’t heard from in a while are, by far, the best part of this day, and I will answer every single one.
However, I’m still not done. I have talks to give, traveling to do, presentations to prepare (clothes to buy…) I open my laptop and try to get back to work. The inter-web sink hole drags me down into the neuro-pacification that is KenKen and I wander over to…
Hang on. What’s that a picture of…? Who is that? She looks fascinating. She did what? When? Huh. You know what would be a great story…
And another kernel sprouts in the dark. Happy pub day.
You can hear my wife Denise Kiernan talking about her new book The Girls of Atomic City via this link from this interview which aired this morning on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition Sunday.
Denise was interviewed along with two of the women she profiles in the book.
The article accompanying the audio link also includes a free chapter of the book.
* * *
Geez, I hope this post comes through okay. Been having problems. More stuff has been going on, too. Will post about it soon.
Thanks, baby! Homemade pizza for you later!
Love that one of my atomic “girls” made this promo for NPR’s Weekend Edition: Colleen Black, 88 years young. Tune in this Sunday, March 3, from 8 to 10 AM to hear more from Colleen, Celia Klemski, and me as we talk about the Manhattan Project and The Girls of Atomic City.
Melba Roy, NASA Mathmetician, at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland in 1964. Ms. Roy, a 1950 graduate of Howard University, led a group of NASA mathmeticians known as “computers” who tracked the Echo satellites. The first time I shared Ms. Roy on VBG, my friend Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, a former postdoc in astrophysics at NASA, helpfully explained what Ms. Roy did in the comment section. I am sharing Chanda’s comment again here: “By the way, since I am a physicist, I might as well explain a little bit about what she did: when we launch satellites into orbit, there are a lot of things to keep track of. We have to ensure that gravitational pull from other bodies, such as other satellites, the moon, etc. don’t perturb and destabilize the orbit. These are extremely hard calculations to do even today, even with a machine-computer. So, what she did was extremely intense, difficult work. The goal of the work, in addition to ensuring satellites remained in a stable orbit, was to know where everything was at all times. So they had to be able to calculate with a high level of accuracy. Anyway, that’s the story behind orbital element timetables”. Photo: NASA/Corbis.
LOVE LOVE LOVE this video about Caravaggio (one of my fave painters) as juicily described (better than I ever could) by my darling, Giulia Bernardini. Art fans take note: Giulia, an M.A., instructor of art history and humanities, will be teaching Sensuality and Splendor in Rome, Italy, this summer. It is well worth your time and dime to join this one-week, on-site art seminar that will examine the High Renaissance and Baroque art in the Eternal City! I, for one, can tell you that Giulia’s knowledge, passion and personality are a RARE combination, best sampled in one of the greatest cities on the planet. For full details, visit wonderfeast.com
Mystery writer Robert Lopresti reviews “Button Man” by my husband, Joseph D’Agnese. As I’ve mentioned in prior posts, this fantastic story set in NYC’s garment district, is in the March issue of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. What Lopresti says about Joe’s writing is not only true, but a good measure of what all solid mystery writing should be. Click through to read Lopresti’s review and visit his blog, “Little Big Crimes.”
