It Takes More than a Snow Comet of Vomit to Stall a Book Tour
18 February 2025
Dear Friends Who Read and Readers Who Are Friends,
Three weeks from today, my 25th book, The Jackal's Mistress, goes on sale and I will be on my 35th book tour. (All of the events are in the second half of this Goodreads blog post.)
Why are there more book tours than books?
Because, for years, I toured for both the hardcover and paperback editions of books.
I find 25 books less impressive than 35 book tours. THAT is iron-person-triathlon impressive.
To wit? I was on tour on 9/11 (and, yes, on a tarmac in Denver); on the morning we invaded Iraq the second time; and the day of the Boston Marathon bombing. I had an event on the afternoon of January 6, 2021, while the Capitol was being stormed. And I had a book tour canceled on March 13, 2020, because (wait for it) a worldwide pandemic was coming on fast and furious.
But I love book tours.
And I love them because of all of you: readers, booksellers, and librarians.
Here is a true story from one moment on one book tour.
Once upon a time, I vomited in front of a lovely book club from Illinois. Yup, when I’m on a book tour, I hold nothing back.
It was a Friday afternoon and I was on my third plane of the day, this one a Dash 8 turboprop from Denver to Steamboat Springs. The next day I was joining three other novelists for the Bud Werner Memorial Library’s annual Literary Sojourn, an all-day celebration of what words and reading and books can mean to the soul. It’s a terrific event and lots of book clubs make a pilgrimage there—including, that year, one from Illinois that was on the turboprop with me.
Now, I don’t mind small planes. But that day I had been traveling since about six in the morning in Vermont, there was the usual Rocky Mountain clear air turbulence, and I was on my third flight of the day. The book group on the airplane recognized me instantly as one of the authors they were coming to hear, despite the fact that soon after takeoff my skin was airsickness green. And so we chatted and I sipped a Diet Coke and set the air vent above me to “wind tunnel.” Surreptitiously I kept reaching into my seat pocket, trying to find an airsickness bag amidst the magazines and Sky Mall catalogues. Somehow I had two of each, but no airsickness bag.
The group and I talked about books as we flew to Steamboat Springs, and the unforgettable brilliance of the first sentence of Sena Jeter Naslund’s wonderful novel, Ahab’s Wife: “Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last.” At some point, I reached into the pocket of the seat beside me for an airsickness bag. There wasn’t one there, either.
Looking back, I really thought I was going to make it to Steamboat Springs with my dignity intact. I fly a lot and it’s rare for me to feel like I’m going to lose my lunch. I was sure I could remain in this book group’s eyes an author they found charming and open, the sort who didn’t vomit on airplanes. This is called hubris—and, in hindsight, naïvete.
It was on our initial descent that we hit the bump that finally did me in. Now, I did feel it coming. And so without an airsickness bag handy, I showed an instinctive skill with origami I hadn’t known existed somewhere deep inside me: I ripped a few pages from one of the Sky Mall catalogs in my seat pocket, twirled them into a snow cone, and folded the bottom into a seal.
Yup, somewhere around 8000 feet in the air, I created a snow cone of vomit.
Now, here is why I am sharing this story with you. A reader on the plane actually offered to hold my handmade Sky Mall biohazard so I could wipe my mouth and rinse with the last of my Diet Coke. That’s support. That’s kindness. That’s the sort of heroism that is way above any reader’s pay grade.
But the people you meet on a book tour are like that.
So. . .
. . .book tours are a way of thanking my readers in person for their faith in my work. Book tours reassure us that reading is both a solitary and a communal pleasure. And, yes, book tours remind us that novels make us more empathetic as people -- SO empathetic that one reader once offered to hold my snow cone of vomit for me on a Dash 8.
Below are almost all of the places where we can meet on THE JACKAL'S MISTRESS rock and roll book tour this spring. (Shhhhhhh -- there is one more in-person event coming and one more virtual event on the calendar, but they won't be announced until early March.)
So, without further ado, here it is, The Jackal's Mistress Rock and Roll Book Tour.
SATURDAY, MARCH 8
Burlington, Vermont
Phoenix Books -- in conversation with historian Garrett Graff ("When the Sea Came Alive")
89 Church Street
7:00 p.m.
SUNDAY, MARCH 9
Middlebury, Vermont
The Town Hall Theater -- in conversation with Vermont Public's Mikaela Lefrak
Hosted by the Vermont Book Shop
69 South Pleasant Street
4:00 p.m.
MONDAY, MARCH 10
Concord, New Hampshire
Gibson's Bookstore -- in conversation with the revered broadcast journalist, Laura Knoy, who for 25 years hosted New Hampshire Public Radio's "The Exchange"
45 South Main Street
6:30 pm
TUESDAY, MARCH 11
The Jackal's Mistress officially goes on sale everywhere! (Special thanks today to Lemuria Books in Jackson, Mississippi, an absolute gem of a bookstore, where the novel is their March First Editions Book Club Pick. Want to make sure your copy is a SIGNED first edition -- and get many other first editions of the novels you'll treasure in your personal library? Learn more about Lemuria's First Edition Club.)
TUESDAY, MARCH 11
Watertown, Massachusetts
The Armenian Museum of America -- in conversation with historian Khatchig Mouradian ("The Resistance Network"); books by An Unlikely Story
65 Main Street
7:00 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12
Westminster, Maryland
The Carroll Arts Center -- in conversation with novelist Angie Kim ("Happiness Falls"); books by A Likely Story and Park Books
91 West Main Street
7:00 p.m.
THURSDAY, MARCH 13
Decatur, Georgia
Georgia Center for the Book
Decatur Library Auditorium -- in conversation with Karin Slaughter ("This is Why We Lied"); books by A Capella Books
215 Sycamore Street
7:00 p.m.
FRIDAY, MARCH 14
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Pine Lakes Country Club -- hosted by Litchfield Books
5603 Granddaddy Drive
Noon
SATURDAY, MARCH 15
Greenville, South Carolina
M. Judson Booksellers
"Books Over Drinks"
130 S. Main Street
7:30 p.m.
SUNDAY, MARCH 16
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore County Public Library, Perry Hall Branch
9685 Honeygo Blvd.; books by the Ivy Bookshop
2:00 p.m.
TUESDAY, MARCH 18
New York, New York
Barnes and Noble -- in conversation with Miwa Messer (host of the wonderful Barnes and Noble Podcast, "Poured Over")
2289 Broadway
7:00 p.m.
SATURDAY, MARCH 22
Charlottesville, Virginia
The Virginia Festival of the Book
In conversation with Kimberly Brock ("This Fabled Earth")
10:00 a.m.
THURSDAY, APRIL 3
Montclair, New Jersey
First Congregational Church of Montclair -- in conversation with Christina Baker Kline ("The Exiles"); books by Watchung Booksellers
7:00 p.m.
SATURDAY, APRIL 5
Tallahassee, Florida
Word of the South Festival
The AC Hotel
801 South Gadsden Street
Time TBD.
MONDAY, APRIL 28
Virtual Facebook Event
Dolen's Bookclub
8:00 p.m. eastern time.
Yes, the brilliant novelist, Dolen Perkins-Valdez -- author of the forthcoming Happy Land -- has selected The Jackal's Mistress for her April pick. Join her bookclub on Facebook and tune in to enjoy Chris and Dolen in conversation!
FRIDAY, MAY 2
Garden City, New York
The Garden City Hotel -- in conversation with Alyson Richman ("The Timekeepers")
A lunch event hosted by Friends of the Port Washington Library
THURSDAY, MAY 8
Wilmington, Massachusetts
7:30 p.m.
Stay tuned for details.
The swag for this year's tour? Rock and roll canvas tote bags with the dust jacket on one side, and a list of all the "tour" cities on the other.
Hoping I see you all on the road.
In the meantime? Happy reading!
All the best,
Chris
www.ChrisBohjalian.com
@ChrisBohjalian on all the socials
Dear Friends Who Read and Readers Who Are Friends,
Three weeks from today, my 25th book, The Jackal's Mistress, goes on sale and I will be on my 35th book tour. (All of the events are in the second half of this Goodreads blog post.)
Why are there more book tours than books?
Because, for years, I toured for both the hardcover and paperback editions of books.
I find 25 books less impressive than 35 book tours. THAT is iron-person-triathlon impressive.
To wit? I was on tour on 9/11 (and, yes, on a tarmac in Denver); on the morning we invaded Iraq the second time; and the day of the Boston Marathon bombing. I had an event on the afternoon of January 6, 2021, while the Capitol was being stormed. And I had a book tour canceled on March 13, 2020, because (wait for it) a worldwide pandemic was coming on fast and furious.
But I love book tours.
And I love them because of all of you: readers, booksellers, and librarians.
Here is a true story from one moment on one book tour.
Once upon a time, I vomited in front of a lovely book club from Illinois. Yup, when I’m on a book tour, I hold nothing back.
It was a Friday afternoon and I was on my third plane of the day, this one a Dash 8 turboprop from Denver to Steamboat Springs. The next day I was joining three other novelists for the Bud Werner Memorial Library’s annual Literary Sojourn, an all-day celebration of what words and reading and books can mean to the soul. It’s a terrific event and lots of book clubs make a pilgrimage there—including, that year, one from Illinois that was on the turboprop with me.
Now, I don’t mind small planes. But that day I had been traveling since about six in the morning in Vermont, there was the usual Rocky Mountain clear air turbulence, and I was on my third flight of the day. The book group on the airplane recognized me instantly as one of the authors they were coming to hear, despite the fact that soon after takeoff my skin was airsickness green. And so we chatted and I sipped a Diet Coke and set the air vent above me to “wind tunnel.” Surreptitiously I kept reaching into my seat pocket, trying to find an airsickness bag amidst the magazines and Sky Mall catalogues. Somehow I had two of each, but no airsickness bag.
The group and I talked about books as we flew to Steamboat Springs, and the unforgettable brilliance of the first sentence of Sena Jeter Naslund’s wonderful novel, Ahab’s Wife: “Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last.” At some point, I reached into the pocket of the seat beside me for an airsickness bag. There wasn’t one there, either.
Looking back, I really thought I was going to make it to Steamboat Springs with my dignity intact. I fly a lot and it’s rare for me to feel like I’m going to lose my lunch. I was sure I could remain in this book group’s eyes an author they found charming and open, the sort who didn’t vomit on airplanes. This is called hubris—and, in hindsight, naïvete.
It was on our initial descent that we hit the bump that finally did me in. Now, I did feel it coming. And so without an airsickness bag handy, I showed an instinctive skill with origami I hadn’t known existed somewhere deep inside me: I ripped a few pages from one of the Sky Mall catalogs in my seat pocket, twirled them into a snow cone, and folded the bottom into a seal.
Yup, somewhere around 8000 feet in the air, I created a snow cone of vomit.
Now, here is why I am sharing this story with you. A reader on the plane actually offered to hold my handmade Sky Mall biohazard so I could wipe my mouth and rinse with the last of my Diet Coke. That’s support. That’s kindness. That’s the sort of heroism that is way above any reader’s pay grade.
But the people you meet on a book tour are like that.
So. . .
. . .book tours are a way of thanking my readers in person for their faith in my work. Book tours reassure us that reading is both a solitary and a communal pleasure. And, yes, book tours remind us that novels make us more empathetic as people -- SO empathetic that one reader once offered to hold my snow cone of vomit for me on a Dash 8.
Below are almost all of the places where we can meet on THE JACKAL'S MISTRESS rock and roll book tour this spring. (Shhhhhhh -- there is one more in-person event coming and one more virtual event on the calendar, but they won't be announced until early March.)
So, without further ado, here it is, The Jackal's Mistress Rock and Roll Book Tour.
SATURDAY, MARCH 8
Burlington, Vermont
Phoenix Books -- in conversation with historian Garrett Graff ("When the Sea Came Alive")
89 Church Street
7:00 p.m.
SUNDAY, MARCH 9
Middlebury, Vermont
The Town Hall Theater -- in conversation with Vermont Public's Mikaela Lefrak
Hosted by the Vermont Book Shop
69 South Pleasant Street
4:00 p.m.
MONDAY, MARCH 10
Concord, New Hampshire
Gibson's Bookstore -- in conversation with the revered broadcast journalist, Laura Knoy, who for 25 years hosted New Hampshire Public Radio's "The Exchange"
45 South Main Street
6:30 pm
TUESDAY, MARCH 11
The Jackal's Mistress officially goes on sale everywhere! (Special thanks today to Lemuria Books in Jackson, Mississippi, an absolute gem of a bookstore, where the novel is their March First Editions Book Club Pick. Want to make sure your copy is a SIGNED first edition -- and get many other first editions of the novels you'll treasure in your personal library? Learn more about Lemuria's First Edition Club.)
TUESDAY, MARCH 11
Watertown, Massachusetts
The Armenian Museum of America -- in conversation with historian Khatchig Mouradian ("The Resistance Network"); books by An Unlikely Story
65 Main Street
7:00 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12
Westminster, Maryland
The Carroll Arts Center -- in conversation with novelist Angie Kim ("Happiness Falls"); books by A Likely Story and Park Books
91 West Main Street
7:00 p.m.
THURSDAY, MARCH 13
Decatur, Georgia
Georgia Center for the Book
Decatur Library Auditorium -- in conversation with Karin Slaughter ("This is Why We Lied"); books by A Capella Books
215 Sycamore Street
7:00 p.m.
FRIDAY, MARCH 14
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Pine Lakes Country Club -- hosted by Litchfield Books
5603 Granddaddy Drive
Noon
SATURDAY, MARCH 15
Greenville, South Carolina
M. Judson Booksellers
"Books Over Drinks"
130 S. Main Street
7:30 p.m.
SUNDAY, MARCH 16
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore County Public Library, Perry Hall Branch
9685 Honeygo Blvd.; books by the Ivy Bookshop
2:00 p.m.
TUESDAY, MARCH 18
New York, New York
Barnes and Noble -- in conversation with Miwa Messer (host of the wonderful Barnes and Noble Podcast, "Poured Over")
2289 Broadway
7:00 p.m.
SATURDAY, MARCH 22
Charlottesville, Virginia
The Virginia Festival of the Book
In conversation with Kimberly Brock ("This Fabled Earth")
10:00 a.m.
THURSDAY, APRIL 3
Montclair, New Jersey
First Congregational Church of Montclair -- in conversation with Christina Baker Kline ("The Exiles"); books by Watchung Booksellers
7:00 p.m.
SATURDAY, APRIL 5
Tallahassee, Florida
Word of the South Festival
The AC Hotel
801 South Gadsden Street
Time TBD.
MONDAY, APRIL 28
Virtual Facebook Event
Dolen's Bookclub
8:00 p.m. eastern time.
Yes, the brilliant novelist, Dolen Perkins-Valdez -- author of the forthcoming Happy Land -- has selected The Jackal's Mistress for her April pick. Join her bookclub on Facebook and tune in to enjoy Chris and Dolen in conversation!
FRIDAY, MAY 2
Garden City, New York
The Garden City Hotel -- in conversation with Alyson Richman ("The Timekeepers")
A lunch event hosted by Friends of the Port Washington Library
THURSDAY, MAY 8
Wilmington, Massachusetts
7:30 p.m.
Stay tuned for details.
The swag for this year's tour? Rock and roll canvas tote bags with the dust jacket on one side, and a list of all the "tour" cities on the other.
Hoping I see you all on the road.
In the meantime? Happy reading!
All the best,
Chris
www.ChrisBohjalian.com
@ChrisBohjalian on all the socials
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Jeanne
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Feb 18, 2025 09:34AM
Would love it if you could come to Connecticut sometime!
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Jeanne wrote: "Would love it if you could come to Connecticut sometime!"I will be there in June! The event will be announced early next month. Thanks!
It would be awesome if you were to come to Michigan at some point in time :) I absolutely LOVE your books!! Thank you so much!!
Love this post. My first novel was to launch at the Andover Bookstore when the gas explosions happened. Our house was OK, but no electricity of hot water for two weeks. Needless to say, my first launch was cancelled. Hoping to make it there for the second book! It was very sad, but at least I did not barf in front of anyone! Thanks for sharing and giving me a laugh!
