Louise Penny stood on the stage, looking out at her audience
of 500 + fans.
“Hold up your copies of the book,” she invited.
They did—and she snapped their pictures with her iPhone.
What must it have looked like to her? A sea of faces and
people waving blue-jacketed copies of her latest crime novel, The Long Way Home, released just two
days ago.
The Canadian author completely won over the audience crowded
into The Barn, an event space at Fearrington Village near Chapel Hill, NC.
McIntyre’s Books, Fearrington’s independent bookstore, sponsored the author
talk and book-signing event, the first stop on Penny’s national book tour. The fans were ready: people started lining up
at 4:30 for the talk, which started at 6:30. Readers came from as far away as
West Virginia, Georgia, Alabama. They clutched their copies of the new book,
the purchase of which had entitled them to two tickets for the occasion. By
6:00 not a seat was available, and the conversational buzz was deafening.
Right on time, Louise Penny strode—she is tall and she
definitely strides—onto the stage at the front of the vast room, preceded by
her publisher, Andrew Martin of Minotaur Books. After the applause died down,
they settled into plump upholstered chairs and started a spirited conversation.
Sometimes, it was a comfortable question-and-answer format, sometimes witty repartee
between the two, who are good friends, as well as having an
author-and-publisher relationship.
Penny was funny, self-deprecating, smart, honest. She gave every
question a thoughtful response. She speaks in articulate paragraphs, and she
laughs often. She talked about her famous characters, Armand Gamache, in particular,
and the way she shapes the shards of an idea into a fully realized story. She
talked about her fears as a child, her insecurities as a writer.
The audience questions demonstrated that Penny has a committed
band of followers who read every book and know the community of Three Pines
well. They appreciate that Penny’s work “transcends the genre” (a cliché that
many mystery writers and readers loathe). They know that she is a fine
writer—period. Early reviews of the new novel agree. This morning’s review from The New York Times noted that her books
“mix some classic elements of the police procedural with a deep-delving
psychology, as well as a sorrowful sense of the precarious nature of human
goodness, and the persistence of the opposite, even in rural Edens like Three
Pines.”
Although Penny has real star power, she never plays the diva.
During her talk, she mused about the
power of having a broad community of readers whose interest and support nourish
her. After the standing ovation at the conclusion of her talk, Penny turned the
tables—applauding the audience and snapping their picture.
(See also my May 1 post on appreciating Penny...)
