Denise on The Daily Show, Part II
This is the extended portion of the interview, available only online.
Denise on the Daily Show, Part I
Denise on The Daily Show, Part 1
This aired March 28, 2013.
Denise talks about THE GIRLS OF ATOMIC CITY on Morning Joe
Denise on MSNBC
I’m finally getting around to posting the videos of last week’s interviews.
Here’s the video of Denise’s interview on MSNBC’s morning show, “Morning Joe.”
Denise on MSNBC Thursday AM
Change of plans: My wife Denise Kiernan will be on the MSNBC program “Morning Joe” Thursday AM talking about her book, The Girls of Atomic City.
This is a three-hour morning talk show and it looks like Denise will show up in the last hour.
I’ll post a clip later if one is available.
We’re still a go for The Daily Show Thursday night as well.
The PBS airing really boosted sales, if the Amazon ranking is any indication. It took the book from the mid-600s to #46 when we woke this AM.
Meet Hugh Howie. No, not that Hugh Howey.
Meet Hugh Howie.
He’s a friend of Denise’s from way back. Just moved to the area.
Note the spelling of his name. He’s an artist and graphic designer. He is not, for instance, Hugh Howey, author of Wool, the sci-fi phenom all the kids are crowing about these days.
And yet, because people in general are a) inattentive spellers, b) stupid and/or c) lazy, Hugh Howie spends a lot of time in his day sifting through e-mails sent via his website intended for the eyes of the other Mr. H.
He finds it hilarious—and annoying.
What do people write about?
"Plot points, what they think of his stories, suggestions for future books. He appears to do pretty well with the ladies. A lot of ladies write.”
That’s the quasi-humorous part. The annoying part is that if you type Hugh Howie’s name correctly into Google, the world’s great search engine automatically returns Hugh Howey’s website at the top of your search. Hugh Howie’s site is about five links further down. So those who type in H-O-W-I-E are actually promoted to write Howey, but still somehow manage to annoy Mr. Howie.
Basically, if you’re actually looking for Mr. Howie, Google assumes you have typed the name incorrectly. “The guy’s screwing up my SEO!” Howie says.
Let’s set the record straight going forward, shall we? You can follow my Asheville neighbor, Mr. Howie, on Twitter @aHugeProduction
Denise presents THE GIRLS OF ATOMIC CITY at NYU
Video: Denise’s lecture in New York!
This is a one-hour video of Denise talking about her book, The Girls of Atomic City, as part of the Speaker on the Square series at New York University.
The talk was attended by 300 people.
Denise on PBS News Hour
Video: Denise on PBS
Late Friday, The PBS NewsHour postponed airing their interview with my wife, Denise Kiernan, talking about her new book, The Girls of Atomic City due to late-breaking news. But they did upload the video, shown here.
You can read the article they posted here.
The clip will mostly likely air late next week.
We’re still on for The Daily Show Thursday, and Morning Joe Friday morning. I’ll keep you apprised of any details or changes.
The Daily Show posted Denise’s pic/bio here. The show airs March 28 at 11 pm and then re-airs Mar 29 at 7 pm.
Denise on TV!
Denise on TV!
We’re back home for a few days. Denise’s talk and book signing in Oak Ridge, the city where The Girls of Atomic City is based, went exactly as you might expect. Heavily attended at the local Museum of Science and Energy. After her talk, people waited an hour-and-a-half in line to get their books autographed. The little museum bookshop sold out their stock of 100 books and some ladies drove 30 miles round-trip to the B&N in nearby Knoxville to get more copies.
The unexpected thing was seeing people leaving Denise’s table once getting their books signed, and then asking the 80- to 90-year-old “girls” — the real-life protags of Denise’s book — to sign their books as well.
All well and good. This was the book’s hometown, and I expected as much. I did not expect the following:
Denise on The PBS NewsHour: Watch tomorrow, March 22.
Denise on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Watch March 28.
Denise on Morning Joe on MSNBC: Watch March 29.
This is unprecedented in our experience, believe me. I’ve resisted sharing the deets until they were confirmed. Even so, the nature of TV programming forces me to add the caveat that one or all three of these could easily be cancelled at the last minute. But this is what’s on the books right now. I’ll post the clips if/when they become available.
Yes, we’re excited. And sleepy.
Oak Ridge photo courtesy of D. Ray Smith.
New short story at Plots With Guns!
I have a new short story up at the crime ‘zine, Plots With Guns. This story was inspired by the sound of a woman’s voice. It’s an Appalachian story. Real Cackalacky.
What else?
Spent the last two days chasing around DC. Denise did some meetings yesterday, a signing at the Smithsonian’s American History Museum today, and a TV interview with The PBS Newshour this afternoon. That clip will probably run next week. Awesome to hear people come up to her saying they had heard of the book on NPR, or were already reading it. Tomorrow she’ll be signing at the International Spy Museum starting at 2 pm in DC, if you’re around.
The New York Times has posted the Bestseller List containing Denise’s book online at this link. The post says it’ll be printed in the March 24 issue of the book review, but they probably will only do the Top 15. So if you’re Denise’s mom, please hold off buying that issue.
Still kind of shocked by David B. Silva’s death. I located posts talking about him here, here, here, and here.
That’s about it. Really beat. Still trying to shake this head cold. Beginning to hate these trips. More tomorrow, maybe, on our last day in DC. Head to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, on Sunday.
THE GIRLS OF ATOMIC CITY hits the New York Times Bestseller List!
The Girls of Atomic City a NYT Bestseller!
This is surreal: We found out today that Denise’s book The Girls of Atomic City had hit The New York Times Bestseller list at #33 for the week ending March 24, 2013. 9, 2013.
Yes, the publisher has been unwavering in its support of the book, Yes, the book’s gotten great press, such as the NPR interview the Sunday before it pubbed. And yes, it seems to have been eagerly awaited by legions of Americans who had some connection to the facility in Tennessee profiled in the book.
But was that enough to send it to the extended list?
We’re still trying to make sense of it.
While we were hopeful this might happen someday, we certainly didn’t think it would happen like, now. Like, so fast.
Denise is blown away. She did a lunchtime talk today at the National Archives in DC. The Archives has been nice to us in the past with our Quirk history books, and Denise used a lot of Archives resources researching her book. So doing a signing there was a natural. Eighty-three people attended. Not an earth-shattering number, but nice to see familiar faces in the audience who have stopped by the Archives bookstore in the past to have us sign our previous books, such as the U.S.’s "Collector-in-Chief."
Later, we went out with one of Denise’s “girls,” who came into the district with her husband and grown children. We enjoyed a nice lunch. And then, as Denise and I were hanging out at a bar on the way back to our hotel, she got the call from her editor.
What does it mean? How does it change things? Will it change things? We frankly don’t know. It’s a lot to take in. But for now, Denise is just trying to relax and calm the eff down.
***
I was sad to hear of the death of horror writer David B. Silva, a true master of the genre. I’d only started reading his work in the last two years, and I’ve never read anything so fine and so chilling. Robert Swartwood has a nice tribute on his blog about Silva. Truly sad.