![\"ece89b76592b11e2aaec22000a1faf7c_6\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.katrinakenison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/ece89b76592b11e2aaec22000a1faf7c_6-300x300.jpg?resize=300%2C300\")
We were an unlikely pair, Olive Ann Burns and I.<\/p>\nWe were an unlikely pair, Olive Ann Burns and I.<\/p>\n
She was sixty, a gentle, charming Southern housewife with dreams of finally publishing the enormously long novel she\u2019d spent years writing — years when cancer and chemotherapy and its complications had kept her confined to her house, and the joy of creating characters she loved had kept her going.<\/p>\n
I was twenty-five, an earnest, aspiring New York editor who was certain I\u2019d just discovered my first prize in the slush pile.\u00a0 \u201cCold Sassy Tree<\/a> could become a classic,\u201d<\/em> I confidently predicted in my typewritten manuscript report.\u00a0 \u201cIt needs some cutting, but we MUST publish it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Not quite ready to trust my eager enthusiasm, my boss had his wife read the manuscript.\u00a0 She agreed with me.\u00a0 And so it was that Olive Ann became a first-time author and, in doing so, allowed me to become a first-time editor.<\/p>\n In the process, we became friends. In those more leisurely, pre-internet days (this was 1983!), she typed long, chatty letters to me, full of anecdotes about her family and friends in Atlanta.\u00a0 Thrilled to be engaged in an actual \u201cliterary correspondence,\u201d I answered every one.\u00a0 We spoke on the phone, too, nearly daily for months, as she revised and as I cut pages, both of us trying to whittle her 640-page novel down to a more manageable size.\u00a0 (I wanted to excise what I called \u201cthe dying stories,\u201d long, rambling, invariably funny accounts of the demises and funerals and burials of various minor characters and their relatives.\u00a0 Olive Ann insisted that every Southerner appreciated a good dying story, and that my failure to do so was just evidence of my constrained Yankee heritage.\u00a0 We compromised.)<\/p>\n Olive Ann\u2019s book was a hit, and it did become something of a minor classic, assigned in schools all over the South, featured on Oprah long before the advent of her first book club, and made into a movie starring Faye Dunaway.\u00a0 Sales were brisk. And Olive Ann was in demand everywhere.\u00a0 After all those years of being confined to her sick bed, she was thrilled to be in remission, and delighted to clip on her dangly earrings, put on a sparkly scarf, and go forth to meet her fans.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m a ham!\u201d she would proudly announce to her adoring audiences. And then she would entertain them for an hour, telling wildly improbable yet, she swore, absolutely true stories in her soft Southern drawl.<\/p>\n I was thinking of Olive Ann this morning, as I sponged down the kitchen counter and swept the sand off the mudroom floor.\u00a0 Although she died in 1990, I can summon the sound of her voice still, that musical intonation, her way of turning everything into a story you wanted to hear.<\/p>\n Houghton Mifflin hosted an elegant party in Atlanta on the day Cold Sassy Tree<\/a> was published, and I got to fly down from our New York office for the big event.\u00a0 Rosalynn Carter was there, and various other luminaries and sophisticates.\u00a0 I finally met \u201cmy\u201d author for the first time in person, and was startled by how beautiful she was.\u00a0 (She admitted to being a little surprised by the looks of me, too.\u00a0 \u201cWhy, I thought you would be chubby,\u201d she said, \u201cyou have a chubby voice.\u201d)<\/p>\n But what I remember most vividly was Olive Ann\u2019s admission that night that, even though she was all dressed up and the star of her own glamorous party, with people lining up to get her to sign their books, there was still no escaping the ordinariness of her real life.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought that when I became an au-u-u-thor,\u201d she said, drawing out the word, \u201cit would be like in a fairy tale, and I would turn into, well, a princess.\u00a0 So I was kind of surprised this morning when I looked down at my feet, and realized I still had to cut my toenails!\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed.\u00a0 My book Magical Journey<\/a>\u00a0is officially published today.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been on the radio since 7 am this morning,\u00a0 and will be in my car driving north to a bookstore luncheon tomorrow.\u00a0 There\u2019s a party on Saturday night, and the next day I\u2019ll fly to Nashville, to give a reading at Ann Patchett\u2019s bookstore.\u00a0 My calendar for the next two months is full of travel and appointments and \u00a0appearances. \u00a0 (Check out my EVENTS<\/strong> page to see if I’ll be at a bookstore near you!) Exciting, nervous-making, exhausting. \u00a0And, to me right now, all a little unreal.<\/p>\n So, at the moment, I\u2019m sitting here on the couch, looking at my own toenails.\u00a0 And realizing I should absolutely give them a trim.\u00a0 Meanwhile, there are few other things on my plate as well:\u00a0 Jack\u2019s college essay needs another read, the dog\u2019s butt is stinky, there\u2019s something wrong with the printer, and the car is due for an oil change.\u00a0 The kitchen floor needs vacuuming.\u00a0 We are out of milk.\u00a0 This is my day.\u00a0 This is my life — pub day or not.\u00a0 Thank goodness.\u00a0 And thank you Olive Ann, where ever you are, for reminding me to keep my feet on the ground and my toenails looking nice.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n (Finally!<\/em>) Of course, I’m eager for you to have it in your hands. In the meantime, though, here’s some early reaction — and opportunities to win your own \u00a0copy.<\/p>\n First:<\/em>\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t seen the VIDEO,\u00a0CLICK HERE.<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n Second<\/em>: A few glorious reviews!<\/strong><\/p>\n What could be better, than waking up on pub date to Lindsey Mead’s beautiful reflections?<\/strong> \u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Here’s\u00a0Beth Kephart’s lovely piece<\/strong>.<\/a><\/p>\n Jena Strong says her blog post is\u00a0NOT a review<\/a><\/strong>; but no matter, I can’t imagine anything that could have pleased me more.<\/p>\n Am honored to have a reader and friend in the wise and wonderful Karen Maezen Miller. \u00a0She wrote here<\/strong>.<\/a><\/p>\n And a nice shout-out from\u00a0Book Page<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Want to order a personalized & signed copy?<\/strong>\u00a0My local bookstore is making it easy.\u00a0CLICK HERE<\/strong>.<\/a><\/p>\n To read an excerpt,<\/strong>\u00a0CLICK HERE<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Want to order now?<\/strong>\u00a0CLICK HERE<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Interested in receiving a signed bookplate for a gift?<\/strong>\u00a0(I\u2019d be happy to send you as many as you need!)\u00a0CLICK HERE<\/strong><\/a>. (Make sure to include your mailing address!)<\/p>\nAnd now, for the book news:\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
MAGICAL JOURNEY<\/strong>\u00a0is in stores today.<\/span><\/h3>\n