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Allison Larkin

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    • Home of the American Circus
    • The People We Keep
    • Allie Larkin
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You are here: Home / Blog Tour / The First STAY Event

The First STAY Event

June 14, 2010 Filed Under: Blog Tour, STAY

Oh my gosh! Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that my first reading for STAY would be so freaking fantastic. There were so many people. I started reading to a really good sized crowd, and when I looked up at the audience a few paragraphs later, the room was completely packed with a crowd of people standing in the back. It was also as I started to read a more emotional scene, and, well, you know me -I started to get a little choked up.

The Q&A part of the event was so much fun. Great questions! It’s so much fun to talk about the writing process with other writers and talk about dogs with other dog lovers. And signing books – oh, it doesn’t get better than having a few minutes to chat with everyone who showed up. I got to see dog pictures and sign books that would be gifts to friends, and meet kids I’d only known from Facebook photos.

I am so completely amazed and so thankful to everyone who made the event so incredibly special. Getting to be in the same room and share my work with the people who have made Rochester my home over the past ten years truly is a dream come true. Old friends, new friends, work friends, blue friends (no, no one was blue, but I seemed to be headed in that direction).

And honestly, if you haven’t been to the Greece Ridge Barnes & Noble, you are really missing something. The booksellers and staff are like a family of people who love love love books. I feel so thankful that they’ve taken me in and supported me through. Seeing STAY on the shelves is all the more special because I got to share this process with them.

Rebecca, the Community Relations Manager, even worked with my friends from high school to have the poster in the photo above sent up for the event. She unveiled it after I was done reading (thankfully, because I would have sobbed more than read if she’d done it before). It came with a card signed, from your oldest friends and friends from nursery school and summer camp and high school signed it for me. I am so touched, that not only did my friends put this together, but that Rebecca helped, and everyone at B&N kept it a secret!

I’ll steal more photos from Facebook to post later, but the above is my favorite of the set J took. The lovely Ben Gonyo posing in front of the poster my friends sent up.

THANK YOU!!! And thank you to everyone who sends and tweets photos of my book with their dogs and kids and on shelves. It is so exciting to see STAY from your perspective. And I hope I get to meet so many of you while I’m out and about this summer.

And! More links!!!!!

Malfeasance

Drunk Writer Talk

Two Peas in a Bucket
Melissa Walker
The Good Human
Blatherskite

Guide to Literary Agents

Condo Blues
Return to Rural
Free and Flawed
The Debutante Ball
How to Make Kimchi
Debs Book Bag
Sidenote
M. J. Iuppa

6 Comments

Comments

  1. Karen says

    June 15, 2010 at 3:31 pm

    I can feel your excitement and the rollercoaster ride you must be on!
    Good Luck! Enter me again in the contest.

    Karen Goodwin
    goodgil(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)northlc.com

    Reply
  2. The Modern Gal says

    June 15, 2010 at 4:50 pm

    Ha ha, I love that photo! What an awesome surprise. I wish I could be there for your events!

    Reply
  3. courtney says

    June 15, 2010 at 5:20 pm

    That’s so great! It must have been incredible to have a room full of people who came out just to listen to you.

    Is that J in that picture?

    Reply
  4. Allie says

    June 15, 2010 at 7:10 pm

    No, that’s not J. He took the picture. That’s our friend, Ben Gonyo. He’s a documentary filmmaker, and he’s absolutely hysterical.

    Reply
  5. Mickey says

    June 17, 2010 at 2:48 am

    If I were ever at a reading where the author choked up reading her own work, I’d definitely buy the book. Keep rockin’!

    Reply
  6. Tony Dollars says

    June 17, 2010 at 8:51 pm

    You expressed exactly how I feel every timeI stand on a stage. Though I’ve done it year after year, I am still amazed and thankful to see that people are there listening to me.

    Reply

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Allison Larkin

allielarkinwrites

Internationally bestselling author of three novels as Allie Larkin and THE PEOPLE WE KEEP. Look for HOME OF THE AMERICAN CIRCUS @gallerybooks May 2025

“Larkin abandons the typical story arc in favor “Larkin abandons the typical story arc in favor of a more naturally flowing up-and-down journey that basks in beautiful moments like a slice-of-life story. Whether it’s banter at the bar Freya’s working or a leaking roof that is simply one more thing than she can possibly handle right now, the characters and their experiences are so real and pure that their joys and sorrows are amplified tenfold.” 

So honored by this AP review of Home of the American Circus! 

https://apnews.com/article/home-american-circus-allison-larkin-book-review-79ea3d1fdb69ef16232a8dfb7d148ad6

#homeoftheamericancircus #booksbooksbooks
I’ve seen a bunch of references to Home of the A I’ve seen a bunch of references to Home of the American Circus as my second novel. It’s actually my 5th! Before The People We Keep, under the name Allie Larkin, I wrote three books: Stay, Why Can’t I Be You, and Swimming for Sunlight. Here they are in their various editions with some of their translations! (And @justjuliawhelan also narrated Stay and Why Can’t I Be You, if you’d like to listen!)

Fun fact: That gorgeous dog on the hardcover of Stay was actually our dog Argo, and I took that photo of him when @duttonbooks couldn’t find the perfect photo of a black German Shepherd. #booksbooksbooks #bookstagram
Pub Day Part One. The thing is, it’s really hard Pub Day Part One. The thing is, it’s really hard to be a creative person in the world, and the blessing, the salvation, the joy of it is the community around art: the writers who will call an emergency novel Zoom meeting when you’re stuck on a draft, the ones who roll up their sleeves and make sure your words are saying what you intend to say, the one who writes an interview to promote your book in the local paper, the reader who captures pictures of the event and makes a reel, the bookstore saints who plan a meal based on the story and serve blue and yellow cupcakes and sing happy birthday to your book on launch day, the readers who show up and get books signed and ask great questions and tell stories about their lives. That’s book magic. And thanks to @townecenterbks (especially Judy and Stacey although I know there are bookstore saints behind the scenes too) and @reneewritesnovels and @woolfmania and @cassandra.a.dunn and @lindalattelessons @aneedleinmybookstack and everyone who showed up to Read it and Eat, I will never ever forget the pub day for Home of the American Circus. You all made it so special. Thank you! I love you. I’m so grateful to be part of the community of writers and readers. ❤️🐘
@deborahblakeauthor RIGHT BACK AT YOU! ❤️❤️❤️
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I will be back on Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I will be back on the grid tomorrow! I love you all so much and I’m so grateful for your support! 😘😘😘 #homeoftheamericancircus
Well, here we are on the eve of Pub Day for Home o Well, here we are on the eve of Pub Day for Home of the American Circus! 

You know that classic bit of writing advice about how you’re supposed to write the book that scares you? Well, for a long time the thought of actually writing and sharing Home of the American Circus scared the heck out of me. I spent many many years collecting ideas for this book, terrified by the thought of how deep I’d have to dig to tell this story the right way. The book is firmly fiction, and the characters are all my imaginary friends, but the setting and themes are literally and figuratively close to home for me. Freya’s story isn’t mine, we have different life events and demographics, but I understand her sense of grief and loss and floundering and hope on a cellular level. And of all the characters I’ve ever written, the way her mind works is the closest to how I think and feel. It takes place in the town where I grew up. And I think when you read this book, you won’t know my life story, but you will know the tenor of my heart. I grew up as a kid with undiagnosed ADHD in a place where I didn’t fit, frantically trying to look normal, believing it was the only way anyone would love me. Always falling short, terrified of failure. And then in my early twenties, I dropped out of college and worked at a biker bar and made such a huge mess of my life that I was forced to build myself up again brick by brick—this time knowing that failure isn’t the worst thing that can happen to a person. That as long as you can find the strength to try again in one way or another, falling flat on your face is not the end of the world. And I learned that the only way to truly feel loved is to be yourself and see who’s up for loving you in your natural form. The people I keep taught me that. And even though it scared me, this was a book I needed to write, it’s the work I’m most proud of, with characters I love the most. So sharing it doesn’t feel like the end of the world at all. Just the end of the world where I have not shared this novel set in ny hometown with a character who has a heart like mine. #misheardlyrics #rem #homeoftheamericancircus #awkwardguitar #itstheendoftheworldasweknowitandifeelfine
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