Announcing the Vesperisms Book Club!

A rare opportunity to dive deep into a book with its author!

Ladies and gents, I have a very special announcement to make!

So, you know that my new book, Berliners, is coming out in October, and one of my favorite parts about being an author is getting to talk to readers, whether it’s at a school visit or an online talk. I love dialoguing with people about how the books have affected them, whether that’s learning about an aspect of history they didn’t know before, or being moved by the human stories and deeply relating to the characters. I’ve been getting ready for the launch of Berliners, and I’m starting to plan my book tour and other events where I can engage with you when you read the book.

A lot of people reach out to me about my books with kind messages and really great and insightful questions about the books, and I wish I could take the time to answer them in one place, but I didn’t want to do something like an FAQ, because I just like chatting with people so much!

So as I’ve been reading these messages over the last few months and getting ready for launch, I kept thinking, man, wouldn’t it be cool if I could engage with my readers and they could ask me all their questions directly and we could have a conversation about the stories? Because I’ll tell you, my readers often see things in the stories that I didn’t even realize were there, and I wrote them!

I read a lot of books—usually several at once—and some you read on your own, fine, but I also love being a part of a book club with friends of mine, going deep in the discovery of a new book together, and spinning off of each other’s revelations. And I always think, gosh, wouldn’t it be cool if the author were here to explain what he or she was thinking when they created this work?

And then I thought, wait! I’m an author! I could do that with my books!

So in that spirit, I am really excited to announce the inauguration of the Vesperisms Book Club!

Starting in July (Thursdays, July 7-28, at 8 pm ET), I’m going to take you through four weeks doing a deep dive into one of my books. You’ll first of all get a signed copy of the book and book swag to go with it. But you’re going to hear all about the creation of the book, how I made decisions about characters, timelines and settings; what it was like to research, and then, because I’m an illustrator and my novels are all illustrated, how I created the artwork, behind the scenes into my sketchbooks and notes. And then we’ll have a live Q&A where we can share questions and insights with each other. One lucky participant will even win a personalized, annotated copy of the book at the end of the four weeks.

Specifically, with your registration, you receive:

• A signed copy of What the Night Sings

• Book Swag!

• Four online book sessions with readings, including book talk, reading, and a look behind the scenes into the three year process of creating the illustrated novel

• Live Q&A to ask all your burning questions and share your own insights!

• The chance to win a hand-annotated copy of the book at the end of the four weeks!

• A 10% discount on the next book club!

To get ready for the launch of Berliners, we’re going to start with my first novel, What the Night Sings, because the new book is a spinoff of a secondary character from there, picking up 15 years later with a whole new cast of characters.

Whether this is your first time reading the book or this will be a re-read for you, I can’t wait to take you through the book in a completely immersive experience.

History doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s not like a group of people wake up one day and say to each other, “let’s create a historically significant event or movement.” And history isn’t linear or even cyclical. It’s a series of layers, with each event building off of what came before. So to understand where we are today, it’s so important to understand what came before us. History is just the story of people making choices, and how those choices intersect. What we do, how we see the world and our neighbors—it all matters.

Maybe you feel overwhelmed by human history. Or maybe you feel, somewhere deep inside, like you were born at this time for a reason. If history rhymes, then there must be poets—guides who can lead you through the dark forest. Maybe you’re one of them. Let’s find out together.

To register for the Vesperisms Book Club, click here!