{"id":857,"date":"2011-03-28T15:23:37","date_gmt":"2011-03-28T19:23:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.old.caraghobrien.com\/book\/?p=857"},"modified":"2011-03-29T08:26:06","modified_gmt":"2011-03-29T12:26:06","slug":"the-paris-book-fair-quite-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/birthmarked\/the-paris-book-fair-quite-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"The Paris Book Fair: Quite Fun"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Audrey Petit, Caragh O'Brien, and Sarah Millet in Paris, 2011<\/p><\/div>\n

My French editor at Mango, Sarah Millet, kindly fetched me from the airport in Paris a couple Fridays ago, and we were joined by Audrey Petit, the sci-fi series editor of Mondes imaginares, for lunch at La Marlotte, a quaint restaurant in the 6th<\/sup> arrondissement.\u00a0 Sarah was friendly and engaging from the first hello.\u00a0 She spoke of how she came to Paris to study, stayed on to work in publishing, and has grown to enjoy the busy city as her friendships there deepen.\u00a0 Audrey welcomed me warmly, too, and when I asked her how she entered publishing, she explained that she originally studied philosophy, then started editing in sci-fi and fantasy. \u00a0Eventually, she advanced to directrice de collection<\/em>, and as such, she edits collections like the one I’m in at Mango and another at Orbit.\u00a0 We spoke of the shortage of childcare, the beleaguered educational system, our concerns for devastated Japan, Colin Firth movies, and President Nicholas Sarkozy\u2019s low popularity, but most of all, we talked of books. It was fascinating, and so, so fun.<\/p>\n

\"\"In case anybody cares about such things as food, I can report that I enjoyed a creamy vichyssoise with asparagus, then salmon over a bed of creamed leaks, and then chocolate li\u00e9geoise, which is extremely rich chocolate ice cream with mountains of frothy whipped cream in a tall glass.\u00a0 Note the cream theme.\u00a0 Hard to go wrong there. Thanks again, Sarah and Audrey!<\/p>\n

Afterward, we went to the Salon du Livre\/Paris Book Fair, where thousands of books and booklovers filled a room so vast I couldn\u2019t see from one end to the other.\u00a0 The air hummed with French voices.\u00a0 Colorful book posters hung overhead, and a stage was busy with a panel presentation.\u00a0 At the grid location E44, Fleurus Editions was set up with brightly lit bookshelves and tables, like a mini bookstore.<\/p>\n

\"\"

My daughter and I, Salon du Livre 2011<\/p><\/div>\n

I met some of the people on the team who decided to wrap my book in a ribbon\u2014that red band of the title is actually printed on fabric\u2014and they also showed me the website<\/a> where people can take a personality quiz<\/a> related to characters in the book.\u00a0 How cool is that?\u00a0 Two other writers for Fleurus were there, too, and I had a chance to talk with them a bit about next projects and balancing writing with life.\u00a0 We\u2019re all doing versions of the same thing, it seems.\u00a0 As I sat at a table close to the aisle, with a poster of the cover of my book behind me, people stopped by to chat and ask me to sign my book.\u00a0 A few even asked for photos, which I found amusing.<\/p>\n

The happiest moment was when I glanced past my next group and saw my daughter standing there.\u00a0 She\u2019d come from Rennes, where she\u2019s a student, to meet me, and I was so happy to see her.\u00a0 Books are about bringing people together, you know?\u00a0 Sometimes they bring people together in unusual places, like Paris.\u00a0 I\u2019m so grateful Sarah invited me to sign at the Salon du Livre.\u00a0 For me, the entire day was unforgettable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My French editor at Mango, Sarah Millet, kindly fetched me from the airport in Paris a couple Fridays ago, and we were joined by Audrey Petit, the sci-fi series editor of Mondes imaginares, for lunch at La Marlotte, a quaint restaurant in the 6th arrondissement.\u00a0 Sarah was friendly and engaging from the first hello.\u00a0 She […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birthmarked"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":869,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions\/869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}