EVACUATION PLAN wins!

Friday night my novel-in-stories EVACUATION PLAN won the North Texas Book Festival Book Award for adult fiction. The winners in the other two categories were from Texas Tech Press. The award honors books from independent publishers. Woo-hoo!

EVACUATION PLAN premieres on Kindle!

I have never met anyone who owns a Kindle, but those of you who do can now read my novel-in-stories EVACUATION PLAN on yours, and it's already ranked an amazing 29,236 on Amazon.com. I'm pleased if the print edition gets above 100,000 on Amazon. But could it be there just aren't that many Kindle books to compete with? Anyone own a Kindle? Let me know how you like it.

Going nuts at the Texas Book Festival

That's a nutcracker I'm hoisting in the air at my Texas Book Festival booth. I brought a bunch of pecans gathered from our yard and offered passersby a crack at them Sunday, while getting them to stop and check out EVACUATION PLAN.

Thanks to everyone who came by. I sold some books and met some incredible people! The next event is Texas Authors' Day on Nov. 18 from 2-5 p.m. at the San Marcos Public Library.

EVACUATION PLAN goes to Denmark!

I spent two hours this morning discussing my novel EVACUATION PLAN with students visiting Austin from Denmark. What a treat. They asked interesting questions and we had a lively discussion of hospice. Best of all, I can be assured that there will be many copies of the book floating around Europe. Speaking of which, my mother's friend had a copy with her on a recent flight to India and accidentally left it on the airplane. I wonder where it ended up?

Two new reviews of EVACUATION PLAN worth checking out by the wonderful Peggy Tibbitts and the good folks at Curled Up With a Good Book. Joe-O sez check them out.

And YES I will be selling the book at the Texas Book Festival this Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Look for the tents!

Football, poetry and me

A view from the podium.


Larry Thomas reads.

It's been an interesting week. Monday I went to my first Mack Brown press conference as The Austin Chronicle continued in its quest to turn me into a sports writer, specifically on the University of Texas Longhorn football beat. It resulted in two pieces that you can see here.


Friday, poet Joe Hoppe, prose writer Maxine Beach, who is also the new head of the Austin Community College Creative Writing Department, and I got up early to drive to Granbury. After biscuits and gravy at a local diner, we read at Langdon Weekend, an event sponsored by Tarleton State University. In the photo above you can see my view out on the audience with a copy of my novel Evacuation Plan in the foreground.

Later we listened to a reading by Texas' new poet laureate Larry Thomas at a private residence overlooking the local lake.

On the way back we stopped in Dublin for some of that real-sugar Dr Pepper minus the period.

Jeff Salamon's Statesman column

A brief shout out from Jeff Salamon in the Austin American-Stateman today for Evacuation Plan. Scroll to the bottom of his column. Jeff is going on leave to care for his new child. I can relate. Monday is the official start to the year I plan to be at home, writing, teaching online and enjoying time with Nicholas.

Oh, and April Kihlstrom had this nice comment about my recent Writers League of Texas talk. Thanks, April!

Writers League of Texas

A great night Thursday speaking to the Writers League of Texas about Evacuation Plan. Despite a pouring rain, about 40 people showed up to hear me read from the book. David Zuniga of Hospice Austin again spoke briefly about hospice and the evening ended with some lively discussion. Because of a mixup about getting the book in stock at Barnes and Noble, I was allowed to sell the books directly myself, which allowed me to give a portion of the proceeds directly to Hospice Austin. I was able to hand David a check on the spot. I, of course, forgot to take photos of the event despite having a camera in my pocket. So you get a pic of Nick and book instead.

A couple of interesting developments in the evening:

-- I was asked to speak to the San Gabriel Writers in January.
-- Diane, the president of the Writers League of Texas, suggested that the book would be a perfect choice for the Austin mayor's book club. Anyone want to email him and push that idea? Anyone know, ahem, Oprah?
-- The eveming was filmed for the Writers League access television show that runs on Time Waner Cable. Look for it soon.

Also this week, the first book club signed me up to speak to them. Bring on those requests!

What a night!

Jesse Sublett jams for the crowd.

I'll post more pix later (hey, Chuck, send me some of yours!), but just a note to say last night's release party for EVACUATION PLAN was awesome. Jesse Sublett rocked the house, the actors were great and we pulled in a crowd of more than 100. Oh, and we sold 74 books!

It was a little steamy at BookPeople in the middle of the crowd, but it was a heartfelt night. Thanks to everyone who came. If you missed it, I'll be reading next in Austin at the Writers League of Texas meeting at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 16 at Barnes and Noble-Westlake. Come on by!

The true star of the night, of course, was Nicholas, who had a harem of attendants.

Today's the day and Statesman piece

Today is the day for the release of Evacuation Plan! I was on the Dudley and Bob Show this morning, and they couldn't have been more gracious. Very high-tech in the studio and running like a well-oiled, funny machine.

Also today, the Austin American-Statesman wrote about the book as the "Best Bet" for entertainment today. Brad Buchholz writes:

"Austin author Joe O'Connell's first novel, 'Evacuation Plan,' sets out to honor the dying — and those who care for them — in the setting of hospice. '(You) know the difference between death and an electric eel?' observes one of the characters in the book. 'People aren't afraid to talk about electric eels!' O'Connell was inspired to write 'Evacuation Plan' after a three-month stint as a volunteer at Hospice Austin. His novel, crafted in the style of Tim O'Brien's recent novel 'July, July,' is a collection of reminiscence — tales alternately gentle, dramatic, surrealistic, that collectively affirm the beauty of being alive, even as they acknowledge that all of us face the necessity of making our own 'evacuation plan.'

" 'The message of hospice is more important than my book,' says O'Connell, who is donating a portion of sales to Hospice Austin. 'And that message is that you can have dignity and control over the end of your existence, that chance to say goodbye on your own terms. Who can ask for more than that?'

In celebration of 'Evacuation Plan,' BookPeople is staging a dramatic reading tonight that features Austin actors Chris Sykes, Amparo Garcia-Crow and Gary Kent. They will speak in the first-person voices of the novel's characters. Austin writer and rocker Jesse Sublett will play music that honors the novel's themes. What we have here is a home-grown Austin writer, and not your traditional book signing."

Very cool! Hope to see a great crowd tonight!

'Evacuation Plan' release is next week!

The actors get their pages!



The book release is next week. I met yesterday with the actors who will be giving a dramatic reading from EVACUATION PLAN. And tomorrow I meet with Brad Buchholz of the Austin American-Statesman for a piece expected to run right before the reading.