I know that view
STILL TRUE is out this Tuesday, Sept. 27!
The dog and I spent the weekend helping my husband get settled into his temporary new apartment four hours from home, where he is helping Free Bikes 4 Kidz–Minneapolis collect, refurbish and give away 5,000 bikes over the next three months. Everything about the new place is perfect, he said, right down to the Taco John’s in Black River Falls at exactly the halfway point on the drive between there and here. Upon arrival, I immediately agreed—and not just because of the used bookstore I found around the corner with the rabbit named Zorro. It was because I realized where this new home was.
I love Minneapolis. I was born in Minnesota and still have close family there, but my visits increased five years ago after I started writing fiction. I’d rent a room for the weekend in this same area and, between writing sessions, meet up with one of my oldest, most bookish friends (a teacher turned librarian turned archivist). We’d walk for miles along the city’s unbelievable network of paths, popping into Birchbark Books or Magers & Quinn at least once a day, sometimes more, and I’d dream about what it would feel like to wander to the Gs in the literary fiction section and find Maggie Ginsberg on that shelf.
And it was a real possibility. Still True was still a manuscript out on submission with my then-agent, who’d grown up in this very neighborhood with her book binder parents before starting her own bookstore in Dinkytown and founding The Loft Literary Center. She’d been a New York agent for the past 40 years. She knew her stuff and, unbelievably, she loved my book. On these visits I’d snap photos around the lakes and send them to her. “I know that view,” she’d say.
On Saturday while my husband was on one of his ridiculously long bike rides, I ran around Lake of the Isles and Bde Maka Ska. It was raining and a bit gloomy and thought about every other time I’d seen these views. I recalled the particular trek to Birchbark Books with Andy in 2014 when he bought me a print of Louise Erdrich’s words about how life will break you, but so will solitude; how you have to risk love. I remembered exactly where I was rounding the northern bend of Lake of the Isles in 2018 when I paused the Writers on Writing interview I was listening to with an author I’d never heard of to order her book. It was Susan Henderson’s Flicker of Old Dreams, which I promptly fell in love with. (When I learned her editor had the exact same name as the librarian friend I was circling the lake with, it felt like even more bookish magic.) And, more than once on this weekend’s run, I thought about where I was each of the times my agent forwarded one of many lovely editors’ rejections for earlier versions of Still True.
I wish I could run back in time to 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and tell my heartbroken self to keep going, that even though that lovely woman isn’t my agent any longer, Still True is coming out on Tuesday and she is thrilled for me. That there are 14 incredible blurbs on the praise pages inside, including one from Susan Henderson. That I’ll be going back to Magers & Quinn on November 17th for an author event—and this time, I’ll be the author.
On Sunday, Andy and I walked to Magers & Quinn. He spotted an old framed store poster featuring a bike with a stack of books in front of the lake, and talked them into selling it to him to hang on the wall of his new place.
Rocco and I said goodbye and Andy told me I absolutely had to stop at Taco John’s at the halfway point on the drive back home. I had no intention of listening to him. I wasn’t even hungry.
But just as the exit came into view, a double rainbow sliced the sky. The last double rainbow I recalled seeing was on our wedding day seven years ago. Laughing, I took the exit. When the dude handed me my pot of gold potato oles he whispered that he’d given me double “for the dog.” We got back on the road and pointed the car toward a home that keeps on moving. Every time the double rainbow disappeared in the shifting rain and darkening sky, it reappeared more vividly than before. I looked at Rocco, handing him one potato ole for every ten of mine.
“I know that view,” I said.
Still True Launches on Tuesday!
Official pre-pub launch at Mystery to Me bookstore was a rousing success!
I have yet to come down from last week’s pre-publication launch event at Mystery to Me bookstore. It was absolutely wonderful and I’m so grateful for warmth and support I felt radiating from that room.
You can still watch the Crowdcast livestream here and drop into Mystery to Me anytime to pick up a signed copy of Still True!
Join me with Nickolas Butler in Eau Claire on Wednesday!
9/28 at 7 p.m.: Whispers in the Driftless with Nickolas Butler
Eau Claire! Come see the newly renovated L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library and join internationally bestselling author Nickolas Butler and me in conversation about Still True. Visit this Facebook event page and let us know if you’re coming! This is graciously hosted by the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild and books will be available for sale and signing.
10/12 at 5:30 p.m.: Kismet Books with Laura Anne Bird
Verona/Mount Horeb/Blue Mounds/Barneveld! Space is still available for this conversation between me and middle grade author — and incredibly voracious reader/book reviewer — Laura Anne Bird. We first met at Kismet so it feels like kismet to meet again here for this.
10/16 at 12 p.m.: Wisconsin Book Festival with Mary Wimmer
Thrilled to be presenting at the Wisconsin Book Festival this year, the festival’s 20th anniversary celebration! I’ll be in conversation with Mary Wimmer, author of The Art of the Break, at Madison’s Central Library in community room 302 that Sunday at noon. (Stick around for the next presentation in that room, Pete Souza!) All Wisconsin Book Festival presenting authors’ books will be available for sale at the events, be sure to check out the entire schedule—it’s amazing.
10/21 at 6 p.m.: Local Author Book Fair in Black Earth
Join me and four other local authors, including my friend, Alex Bledsoe, for a local author book fair sponsored by the Black Earth Public Library. It will be held at the Black Earth Historical Society and we will all be reading, signing and selling books. Visit this Facebook event page and let us know if you’re coming!
… and more! These are just the September and October events. Stay turned to this newsletter or check out my website to see where I’ll be in November and December, including Appleton, Minneapolis and Waukesha, and back to Madison with Christina Clancy!
In the News!
Here are some new articles and reviews since my last newsletter. For a full list of recent news, please visit my website.
Madison author’s debut novel addresses family secrets, alcoholism
September issue ‘Isthmus Pick’
“Two Mount Horeb Authors Have New Books Coming Out”
Mount Horeb Mail newspaper interview with author Alex Bledsoe
Love, Life, And Writing In The Driftless: A Q&A With Author Maggie Ginsberg On Her Debut Novel Still True
Chippewa Valley Writers Guild preview of event with Nickolas Butler
On word vitamins, substance abuse, and her complicated love letter to small-town Wisconsin
Readers Lane Review of ‘Still True’ and interview by author Laura Anne Bird
Reviews and How You Can Help
Did you like Still True? Did you know that leaving a rating and review on places like Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and more can make a huge difference for authors? I am absolutely loving the texts, posts, and Instagram stories you’re sharing as Still True begins to ship out. If you like the book, please spread the word. Tell all of your friends. Request it from the library. Schedule it for your book group—and let me know if you’d like me to attend! And please leave a review so that other people can find out about Still True and my book baby can find its readers. Every little bit helps.
I love this so much. Not as much as potato oles (I mean...) but a lot 😉
Maggie, I just dropped in to say I *just* finished Still True and am reeling from it! I need to collect my thoughts properly, but I needed to just say thank you for writing and persisting with this wonderful story. I will be including it (with a hearty recommendation) in my “October Collection” newsletter on Saturday.