Last year I had the pleasure of working with Barbara Pope, author of The Blood of Lorraine. Publicizing mysteries, or crime fiction can be daunting, but when it goes well, it's fun. I have read crime fiction since I was a teenager, and written about it for many years. Barbara's book transcends the genre, as they say, and offers readers a striking window into a time and place most of us aren't particularly familiar with - late 19th century northern France, bordering on Germany. What made Barbara's book fun to publicize? Well, it has that one element we need to take it outside of the box: a hook...and that hook was its theme of antisemitism of the era. So we learn, we are entertained, we leave just a bit wiser...and we have something besides simply a well-told story to use for pitching media.
If you visit Barbara's website, be sure to read her blog. She's been back to France in the dead of winter researching her next book, and she also talks about her return to her hometown of Cleveland, where I set up an event for her at AppleTree Books. (Thanks Jane!)
