One Last Batch of BEA Party Shots

Carolyn Turgeon (right) was in a celebratory mood at the Unbridled Books party last Saturday night, and why not? Her forthcoming debut novel, Rain Village, was a surprise breakout among the hundreds of ARCs floating around the convention floor—the buzz was so strong that all the copies Unbridled had planned to have Turgeon sign for booksellers during a Sunday morning meet-and-greet had already been scooped up. Or maybe it wasn’t such a surprise: “Carolyn has one of the freshest, most resonant voices I’ve come across in a long while,” says Unbridled co-publisher Greg Michalson (I caught up with him later in e-mail). “Her storytelling echoes the masters but is not quite like anyone else you’ve read. She writes with a breathless, turbulent emotional rush that surrounds our senses and threatens to overwhelm… She takes us through a fictional world full of myth and fable wrapped in the down-to earth, bravely earned personal wisdom of her heroines, all spun with a beautiful, lush prose that makes us believe.”

People gave me a lot of good-natured ribbing about my plans to attend the Harlequin reception, but I had a hunch that with Mira making so much hoopla about the publication of its anthology of suspense stories from International Thriller Writers (called, aptly enough, Thriller), there’d be a lot more cool writers joining the party’s usual fun mix—and as usual it was just the right size to mingle without feeling like you were caught up in a circus. As it was, while I caught up with many of my favorite chick-lit writers, Sarah (who recently wrote a PW story about the ITW) kept running into somebody else she knew in the mystery scene every five minutes, including Julia Spencer-Fleming (left) and Chris Mooney, who I convinced to pose for a picture before my camera’s memory ran out.

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.