Danyel Smith

Went to Danyel Smith’s reading yesterday for her new book Bliss. She drew a pretty big crowd in McNally Robinson. She seemed incredibly comfortable, front and center which allowed personality to shine through. I’ve been to some readings where the author is quite boring but Danyel was pretty down-to-earth.

Okay so I am not going to lie. My father got me into visualization. Visualize yourself doing what you want to do, he says. So for a moment I visualized myself up there, front and center reading from my book. Let me tell you, I was working the crowd, they loved me!

Okay back to Danyel. She said that her ultimate writing goal is to write a tome, an epic or as she desribed, a book thick like Roots. She wants to be able to capture’s a readers attention for 800 pages. That is definitely something to work towards in our soundbyte society. I just wonder about carrying an 800-pager on the subway. I don’t even like dragging hardcovers on there. But again, I acknowledge the fact that I am a little lazy.

I haven’t read Bliss yet, but am eager to get started. (Do I always say that? But it’s the truth.)