Posts filed under ‘A Long Way from Iowa’
A Long Way from Iowa Launches at The Red Wheelbarrow, Paris
With my friend (and bookseller extraordinaire) Penelope Fletcher, at the launch of A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France.
I stated on my Facebook page not too long ago that having my book launch at The Red Wheelbarrow bookstore in Paris was a longtime dream come true, but that is not strictly accurate.
The truth is I never really dreamed of having a book launch at a bookstore in Paris, at least not until fairly recently. Not until I became friends with Penelope Fletcher, the manager of my very favorite English-language bookstore in Paris (and in my opinion the very best one too).
Penelope is what every indie bookstore manager should be: a voracious reader with boundless love and enthusiasm for books and writers, and a passionate interest in putting the right readers together with the right books. (Being possessed of abundant energy and indefatigable persistence and determination is helpful too. 🙂 )
I could go on and on about Penelope’s talents, skills, and excellence as a bookseller, but perhaps I will save that for another post. For now let me just say that she has become a good friend, and a faithful supporter of my work, and I am deeply grateful for that.
Anyway. So it is that I found myself living that dream come true last night, at The Red Wheelbarrow in Paris. Here are a few photos of the event.
And so this book, a labor of love that I worked on off and on over a period of many years, is finally out in the world–and on the shelves at The Red Wheelbarrow as well as other bookstores (for example at my favorite Washington DC bookstore, Politics and Prose), and online as well. You can learn a bit about the book here, and I hope you will be interested enough to buy it. I hope even more that you will like it (and that if you do, you will write an online review of it). These things help authors so much!
The best thing about the event, at least for me, is that it was a wonderful mix of friends, and people I’d never met before. (The best thing for Penelope, I imagine, is that almost everyone who was there for the reading bought the book!) And I think it was fun for everyone that I had brought one of my favorite champagnes from the CĂ´te des Bar (which is where I now live) to celebrate the event.
There is one more best thing about the event for me. And that is that both of my sons were there, with their very nice girlfriends. Nothing could have made the event more special for me.
Janet Hulstrand is a writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher of writing and of literature who divides her time between the US and France. She is the author of Demystifying the French: How to Love Them, and Make Them Love You, and  A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France.
Book Tour! for A Long Way from Iowa
I’m really happy about the initial launch of A Long Way from Iowa. Thanks to everyone who has already bought the book!
If I can ask one more little favor of you, it would be for you to write a review on Amazon and/or GoodReads. These reviews really help writers, and they are so easy to do!
I have not been in the US since 2019 and I am very much looking forward to getting back there this summer, to see friends and family, and to do a little book tour.
My book tour will begin in France, with events scheduled for Paris and Nice. Then in August I will finally make it (fingers crossed) to my ancestral homeland (Sweden), with one of my sons. And I will fly from there to somewhere in the US (exact initial destination to be determined).
I’m very excited about one very special event, scheduled for September 23 in Washington DC, at Politics and Prose bookstore, which was one of my favorite places to be during the 14 years I lived in the Washington area. There I look forward to seeing not only many of those who took the classes I taught there, but also the wonderful friends I made in Washington during those years.
Of course this book tour has to go to the Midwest, and it will! I am also hoping to make it to a part of the country I’ve never been before and have always wanted to go: the Pacific Northwest.
And surely a book that has a chapter titled “A Cheap Loft in the West Village” should have some kind of event in New York City, shouldn’t it?
The details of such a trip take quite a while to arrange. But the first events have been scheduled, and they are posted here. Stay tuned for more as the calendar develops.
Janet Hulstrand is a writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher of writing and of literature who divides her time between the US and France. She is the author of Demystifying the French: How to Love Them, and Make Them Love You, and A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France.
An Interview with BonjourParis.com
Thanks so much to Mary Winston Nicklin for this wonderful interview spotlighting my new book, A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France. BonjourParis.com is a great resource for anyone who loves Paris: if you don’t know about it already, you should!
I hope you enjoy this interview, which touches on a number of the key themes in my book: writing, motherhood, travel, family relatonships, women’s lives, and France!
Janet Hulstrand is a writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher of writing and of literature who divides her time between the US and France. She is the author of Demystifying the French: How to Love Them, and Make Them Love You, and  A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France.
The best journeys are the long ones
My friend David Brown is one of the most intelligent, avid, broadly and widely read, and voracious readers I know. And he doesn’t just read; he shares what he has learned from the many books he reads with the readers of his wonderful blog. I am therefore very honored (as well as grateful) that he has chosen to feature my new book (“A Long Way from Iowa”) in his latest post. (PS He writes about things other than books too; for example, music, politics, historic preservation, life. Always with kindness, thoughtfulness, and grace. You might want to follow his blog. There’s always More to Come! 🙂 )
The mail brought a friend’s new book about the journey from her childhood home in Minnesota to life today in a village in France. Her adventures include years in New York, working as Caroline Kennedy’s editorial assistant, and living in a gypsy caravan outside Paris. I dug in with anticipation.
A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France (2023) by Janet Hulstrand is a delightful memoir that takes us from her grandmother’s hometown in Bonair, Iowa, to the author’s home in the French countryside. We learn much about Janet’s journey, including the complicated relationship with the two women who fueled her love for learning and exploration. A testament to family and the writing life, A Long Way from Iowa will interest those who seek to understand the people and places that shape the path they choose.
I caught up with Janet who enthusiastically agreed to…
View original post 897 more words
A Long Way from Iowa Is Now Available
More than thirty years ago I had the idea to a write a book that would pay tribute to my mother and grandmother, whose passion for reading, writing, and travel had been passed on to me. I wanted to honor the fact that this was a legacy they had passed down to me even though neither of them got to do as much of these things in their own lives as they would have liked to do.
They did live pretty happy lives anyway, and they were wonderful role models in that way. Still, I feel pretty lucky that I am the one of the three of us who was able to live out some of the unfulfilled dreams they carried with them through their lives–silently, but no less real for all that.
Finally, as of today, my book is now available in both e-book and paperback from my wonderful indie publishing service, BookBaby. In March you will be able to buy the book anywhere books are sold, but for now this is the only place you can buy it. (It is also the place where the author gets the best royalties. 🙂 )
If you prefer to buy the book some other way, the preordering period for Amazon is now open, and it should be open on Bookshop.org soon also. But I do hope that some of you will support BookBaby (and me through BookBaby). BookBaby is a wonderful thing for authors!
But honestly, I don’t care all that much where you buy the book: I will just be so pleased if you do; and I will be even more pleased if you like it.
.Janet Hulstrand is a writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher of writing and of literature who divides her time between the US and France. She is the author of Demystifying the French: How to Love Them, and Make Them Love You, and A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France.
Writing from the Heart, Reading for the Road 