If you’ve got a book club or a library group and you’re thinking of discussing The Husbands, and you’d like me to call in to chat — first, thank you so much for considering my book for your group! I would love to call in if we can find a time that works, I have such a fun time with these.
Unfortunately, like a lot of writers, I’m currently receiving a lot of scam emails from fake book groups - usually a few a day, sometimes as many as ten. (Here’s the Writer Beware writeup on these scams.) This means it can be hard to spot the real invitations. So if you have a real book group, the easiest thing to do is to just book in directly using the calendar linked below. Or if you need to talk about times or some details that aren’t covered by the info below, you can still email me, of course… just please start off the email by telling me about one of your favourite trees, so I know you’ve actually read this and not just got my name off a list of emails somewhere!
Here’s the deal on book group calls:
I’m in the UK, and I tend to write in the mornings and do other work in the afternoons, so my lunchtimes and the end of the working day are the best bet. Unfortunately that means evening events in American timezones tend to be difficult (especially the west coast)
I’ve got a calendar of availability here, with times mostly on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. This should automatically translate availability to your time zone. If you’re in the Americas and struggling to find a time, maybe check out Tuesday which generally runs slightly later than the other days. If you’re in Australia or a similar timezone, check out Sunday, when I have some morning times, which should be your Sunday evenings.
Happy to use my Zoom account, or if you have a regular setup you like to use then that works too
If there’s a time that works for you, please book it in! Timeslots are available a couple of months in advance (if you’re super-organised and booking now for later in the year, or can’t find a time that works, drop me a line)
Generally I’ve found the chats end up running for maybe 40-45 minutes
I do need at least one or two other people on the call to have their cameras on — I’m pretty bad at talking to a blank screen and none of us would have a good time!
Please don’t record the session without checking
Very occasionally someone offers me a fee for calling into their group - that’s absolutely not necessary, but if you do have budget allocated for a speaker then please consider instead making a donation to Arts Emergency, who help young people from underrepresented backgrounds with access to mentorship, expertise and opportunities in arts and culture
You might also want to check out the reading guides that my publishers have prepared - the US/Canadian version is here, the UK version is here