I am delighted to be speaking at the Tierrasanta Talks Adventure tonight at 6:15 p.m. This event, by the fabulous Adventures by the Book, is $10 and supports the Tierrasanta Village of San Diego — a nonprofit, grassroots membership organization that enables its members to age in place in a caring community setting — which will receive a portion of tonight’s proceeds.
Join us for drinks at 6:15, followed by a reading and discussion of My Last Continent — as well as all things Antarctic and penguin! — and then stay for a screening of the Academy Award-winning film March of the Penguins. I look forward to seeing you there!
I am delighted to be part of this fabulous series, curated by Wild Women, Wild Voices author Judy Reeves and supported by San Diego Writers Ink and Point Loma Tea. And I am looking forward to an afternoon talking about My Last Continent, as well as women in science, women artists and writers, and so much more!
Click here to RSVP – I look forward to seeing you there!
The first two weeks of the My Last Continent book tour have been incredible — it was such fun to visit Boston, New York, Portland, and Seattle, as well as to celebrate here in Ashland.
As many of you know, my travel companion is Admiral Byrd (those of you who have read My Last Continent will know why he’s so named), and he’s the one who’s been photobombing all my book tour photos. The most frequent comment I get when people see Admiral Byrd in person is, “I thought he was so much bigger.” In fact, he’s a tiny little thing, given to me by a dear friend just before My Last Continent was published. It seemed so fitting that he should join me on the tour.
I’m heading to Southern California soon for another month of events (check them out here!), and in the meantime, here are a few scenes from the past couple of weeks. Join me on Facebook, Instagram, and/or Twitter to follow Admiral Byrd’s (and my) adventures as the tour continues!
New York included visits to my brilliant agent and the amazing team at Scribner before a reading at Shakespeare & Co. that evening…
The Ashland event at Bloomsbury Books was so festive, with an overflowing crowd of more than 60 friends and readers…
Powell’s City of Books was especially fun as the crowd included a group of young writers whose energy and great questions made it a lively evening. (And if you’d like a signed copy of My Last Continent, you can order it here!)
And at Seattle’s iconic Elliott Bay Book Company, I saw plenty of friends and met readers who came in from a gorgeous Seattle evening. (And Elliott Bay also has signed copies ofMy Last Continent…)
I was so privileged to have read at Elliott Bay Book Company years ago, when Forgetting English was published, in its former location in Pioneer Square.
Elliott Bay’s new Capitol Hill location is different in appearance, yet the spirit of this incredible store and its dedicated booksellers remains. I look forward to seeing you all tonight at 7 p.m.!
Thanks to the amazing Kat von Cupcake, I’m traveling with these sweet cookies, enjoying a lovely sugar high, and so this evening promises to be one of high energy.
I’m so excited for my hometown book event in Ashland tonight at 7 p.m. at the lovely Bloomsbury Books.
It’s great fun to see My Last Continent in such good company here at the store … and with the temperatures reaching for 90+ degrees today, I’m looking forward to an evening of ice and penguins and all things Antarctic!
I’m delighted to be reading tonight at New York’s beloved Shakespeare & Co. Join us at 7 p.m. for a reading and a chat about My Last Continent and all things Antarctica!
Antarctica is a gigantic continent — it’s about the size of the U.S. and Mexico combined, and nearly twice the size of Australia. While many think that visiting the continent means going to the South Pole, most travelers, in fact, visit the Antarctica peninsula, on the western edge of the continent — which actually quite far from the South Pole.
For those of you who are wondering about the islands visited by the characters in My Last Continent, below is a detailed map of The Cormorant‘s journey. And check out MLC’s book club kit for more about the continent, as well as to meet the penguins!
I’m thrilled to see My Last Continent officially out in the world today!
Check out my Facebook page today for a #FacebookFirstReads live event, during which I’ll read from My Last Continent and chat about a scene from the book (at the location in Boston in which it is set).
And, if you’re in Boston, join me in person! I’m also excited to have the opportunity to talk about all things High Seas with Mark Beauregard and Rachel Richardson tonight at Papercuts J.P. in Boston. I loved their two books and am looking forward to a fun and lively chat.
Thanks to The Daily Beast for publishing my piece on the risks of large cruise liners in fragile polar environments: “Cruise Ships In The Arctic Take Titanic Risks.”
My Last Continent, while purely fictional, was inspired by very real fears of a shipwreck occurring in polar waters. Yet tour companies keep pushing the limits.
Not that we need an excuse to celebrate these magnificent birds … but it’s still fun to see them getting a little extra attention.
After all, they need the exposure: penguins are facing threats from multiple fronts, from climate change to overfishing. I love this post from One Green Planet, which offers five ways you can help penguins.
And to learn about the researchers who count penguins at the bottom of the world, check out The Penguin Counters, a documentary about these dedicated researchers and the species they study in Antarctica.
And, finally … stay tuned for My Last Continent, coming on June 21 from Scribner! In this novel, you’ll meet four species of penguins: three Antarctic species, and the Magellanic penguins of Patagonia. Check out the book club kit for a little more info, and join my mailing list for news and updates on the book.
Author Lucy Jane Bledsoe has had several feline assistants during her writing years, all of whom, she says, “fulfilled their duties faithfully and diligently.” Her current two assistants, Scrunch and Parker, have proven to be a bit more challenging.
Scrunch, now retired now at 19 years old, relished her job as security guard, keeping the premises free of intruders and investigating each whisper of a sound. So well has the latter performed her duties that she’s become know as Scrunch the Magnificent.
So you can imagine my dismay at the behavior of my newest hire, Parker. She doesn’t bathe much, she attacks the elderly Scrunch regularly, and bites me – hard, breaking skin – when I annoy her. She’s also a drain on the full-service healthcare I provide: she’s been treated for a lengthy bout of ringworm, needs regular dental work already at age one, and has litter box habits that suggest digestive tract issues.
You might have guessed by now that her time on the job is less than productive. She tears up manuscripts, bats erasers into places where they can’t be retrieved, and, worst of all, chews the wires of all electronic equipment.
Sending her back to the wilds from whence she came, because of course she’s feral, has been discussed frequently in our household. Scrunch is all for it. However, we, the two human adults in residence, have fallen in love with her. Yes, we realize it’s become an abusive relationship. We do her bidding, and she torments us. Meanwhile, tending to her whims takes up about 50 percent of my day. I’m getting far too little writing done.
Advice is welcome. But we’ll probably ignore it.
Lucy Jane Bledsoe’s new novel, A Thin Bright Line, will be published at the end of the year. She’s the author of four other novels, a collection of short fiction, and one of narrative nonfiction, as well as several children’s books. Her recent short story, “Wolf,” won the Saturday Evening Post Fiction Prize. She’s also won a California Arts Council Award and two National Science Foundation Artists Fellowships, which have taken her to Antarctica three times.
If you’re a writer with a cat editor in your life and you’d like to share the joy, send me a note.
As a writer who is passionate about the environment (and often impatient about the lack of progress when it comes to tackling climate change), I know all too well how challenging it is to write about environmental issues without sacrificing story. And Ann Pancake is one of those authors who does it brilliantly, not only by creating unforgettable characters but by evoking a sense of place so beautifully that readers will come away wanting to protect it as much as her characters do.
It’s more mind-boggling than ever that climate change isn’t being taken more seriously, or discussed more often, especially with scientists’ warnings becoming ever more alarming. In the latest study released this week, research suggests that should the West Antarctic ice sheet melt as currently projected (and with ice melting in other parts of the world as well), sea levels could rise by as much as six feet by 2100. The long-term effects, concludes the New York Times, “would likely be to drown the world’s coastlines, including many of its great cities.”
That may sound far away right now, but if you have small children, they could be among the millions displaced by rising oceans: Among the cities that will be disastrously affected are New York, Miami, New Orleans, London, Venice, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Sydney, Australia.
Millions of people in the U.S. alone will be affected, as this New York Times article outlines, and in fact, “most projections vastly underestimate the number of people at risk because they do not account for population growth.”
While the climate deal negotiated in Paris last year was widely celebrated, many scientists warn that this agreement would not reduce emissions enough to limit global warming and the subsequent rise in sea level.
The good news is that it’s an election year, and how we vote will determine the fate of the planet and its inhabitants. There’s also a lot we can do as individuals — from adjusting our daily routines to eating more sustainably.
A few resources to inspire you:
The film Cowspiracy, now on Netflix from executive producer Leonardo DiCaprio
