Last night I spoke to an intimate crowd at Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta. Okay, by which I mean not a jumbo crowd. But, hey, I bet they were probably very intimate people, anyway. In fact, they were the nicest crowd you could imagine. And a few of them stayed around a long time and we talked about writing in all its various forms, and whether MFA programs “work,” and which contemporary writers we love, and things like that. Plus, I got to get a tour of Margaret Mitchell’s apartment, which was great fun. It was a pretty small, dim place. Guess whether she lived there before or after publishing “Gone with the Wind.”
I am a Margaret too, though long ago I threw it over in favor of Meg. This was partly because I wanted to be a writer and had grandiose fantasies along those lines, and I figured that the field was already crowded (Mitchell; Drabble; Atwood); and partly because, whenever I took a standardized test as a kid, I could not fit my entire name in all the bubbles, letter for letter. MARGARET R WOLITZER became MARGARET R WOLITZE
I also saw the actual movie-set front door from Tara, and I lightly brushed my hand along the same metal that Vivien Leigh once touched. (This is why my publisher sent me here: so I could touch things that Vivien Leigh touched.) Book tours are strange animals: you don’t know who you’ll meet, how many you’ll meet, or what they will think of you. I think the trick is to try not to take your own pulse; instead, it’s better during a book tour to think of yourself as one of the business travelers who populate the hotels you stay in and the airports you walk through.
With that in mind, I have decided that while I am between events–eating a chopped Cobb salad in a hotel room or standing in a brass-lined hotel elevator, say, or wheeling my bag of standard black-jacket reading outfit and novels (my own new one, and other people’s)–I will not worry about my reputation, my reviews or my book sales. I will not! Je refuse! Instead, I will simply be my own alter-ego, a business traveler named Margaret R. Wolitzer. I work for Kempco, in marketing, and this week I am traveling around the country to meet with the new regional managers. I hope our meetings go well.
April 7, 2011 at 6:36 pm
I think I’m already having more fun on your book tour than you are. Meet me in Miami next week? We’ll tour together, disguised as two pharmaceutical drug sales chicks.
April 9, 2011 at 5:24 am
But what I really want to know is what the R. stands for?!?!? And also plus you best have fun on this book tour. I know I would.
April 11, 2011 at 6:22 am
Rebecca! And I am indeed having fun…