Here are some literary events to jump-start your week. To get your event posted on our calendar, visit our Facebook Your Literary Event page. Please post your event at least one week prior to its date.

Sherman Alexie will be speaking about his new collection, Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories at Barnes & Noble Union Square. See him on Monday, October 15th starting 7 p.m. (New York, NY)

The next installment of the Franklin Park Reading Series will feature Emma Straub, Michael Kimball and more. Hear them on Monday, October 15th at the Franklin Park Bar and Beer Garden starting 8 p.m. (Brooklyn, NY)

Read more

With her first novel debuting on September 4th, author Emma Straub has sold her second book to Penguin’s Riverhead imprint. The Good Face will be published in 2014.

Here’s more from the author: “The Good Face is about the Post family, who readers may remember from three of the stories in Other People We Married. The book follows the Posts and their extended posse on a two-week vacation in Mallorca, Spain.”

We interviewed Straub about her promotional strategy for her book of short stories and learned the Twitter house swap research trip. Press play below to listen.

What if novelists opened for rock bands?

Novelist Emma Straub (pictured) will tour with Magnetic Fields in November, reading from her debut novel, Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures. Click here for ticket information.

Straub wrote about the upcoming dates here: “This November, I will be hitting the road again with my dear friends The Magnetic Fields … this time, as the opening act. I’ll be reading before their shows in Detroit, Pittsburgh, and DC! Expect to hear a short section of the novel as well as some other fun pieces … The above photo was taken on the last night of the first US leg of the Tour at the Bottom of the Sea. You can see all of our adventures here.”

Read more

The Tumblr social network has helped countless writers connect with readers over the last few years. We finally decided to open a GalleyCat Tumblr page, a warehouse for all the opinions, videos, photos and other items that didn’t quite fit on our publishing blog.

We caught up with Tumblr literary outreach Rachel Fershleiser for some advice about using the network. She shared five useful tips for writers who want to explore the social network. You can read her link-filled advice below…

If you have a Tumblr post you think we should see, just add the ‘galleycat’ tag to your Tumblr post. We will use the tag as a source for our own posts. The Millions created a handy Tumblr directory for readers and writers as well.

Read more

Need to do some research for your novel but don’t have a big budget for the trip? Author Emma Straub shared a simple research trip secret: the Twitter house swap.

During our Morning Media Menu interview today, Straub (pictured, via) shared research tips and talked about revising her upcoming novel, Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures. West coast readers can catch Straub this week at Skylight Books and Booksmith.

Follow this link to listen to the complete interview. Here’s an excerpt: “I’m doing a house swap. We are here for three weeks and it’s free–that’s the key to everything. [We connected] over Twitter. The woman I’m swapping with is also an author. We’re both doing the same thing. I’m revising my novel; she’s revising her novel. Now we are both doing it at each others’ houses. It’s been a fabulous success so far, but it’s the first time I’ve done this. The last time I came to do research, we stayed in a hotel and that gets really expensive. Twitter is good for lots of reasons, but one of them is making new friends who will let you sleep in their house.”

Rather than following the traditional book tour circuit, author Emma Straub will visit twelve different locations around the world from her book of short stories–recording the journey at this blog.

Here’s more about the tour: “There are twelve stories in Other People We Married, and each story takes place in a different location. Every month for the next year, I will read a story in its location, or as close as I can get. This blog will follow my travels, my snacks, my impulse-buys, and more. For bonus points, send me a photo of OPWM in an exotic locale, and I will post it here, and send you a postcard in return.”

Last year we spoke with David Daley, founder of Five Chapters and publisher of Straub’s book.