Author Event

It was our pleasure, along with Books & Books Westhampton, to host International Bestselling Author Alyson Richman on Sunday, October 27^th.  In an intimate gathering with fans, booklovers and aspiring writers, Ms. Richman discussed her works, why she writes and answered questions from some of her very inquisitive readers.

Ms. Richman charmingly captured the audience’s attention as she spoke of her books, four in total and one on the way, due out next fall.  She shared her background as to how she became an accomplished, well-known novelist. Her craft wasn’t cultivated through the typical love of reading and a profound appreciation for classic literature, though Ms. Richman does indulge in reading many popular book selections.  Ms. Richman was not a formal literature student; attending lecture on the great writers of the past and studying their works.  She was born on Long Island to a painter, her mother and her father, an engineer.  As a teenager her family moved to Japan due to her father’s career.  After spending much of her young adult life in a foreign country, Ms. Richman attended Wellesley College, where she majored in art history.  Ms. Richman said she constantly was asking questions and searching for answers.  She was often told, by her art history professors, that she had a unique ability to tell the story behind the art itself.  When she graduated Ms. Richman secured a grant and traveled back to Japan this time immersing herself in the culture as an apprentice to a Noh Mask Carver.  These carvers were rare and few still exist.  They came from long lineages of carvers and most times one mask could take a year or more to carve.  From this opportunity she began crafting her debut novel, The Mask Carver’s Son; asking herself what it would be like to grow up in the traditional Japanese culture, but desire something else much different, more modern, from what was expected of you.  What was it like to be the first of your family to shed the customs of one’s inheritance and follow your dreams?  What would it have been like to be an impressionist painter during the Meiji Period while living in Japan? Hence the story of Yamamoto Kiyoki, his strained and distant relationships and his desire to be a painter, not a mask carver like his father.

The Mask Carver’s Son, just rereleased this fall, was Ms. Richman’s first title published.  In acknowledgment of its second publication the Monday Night Book Club chose it as their October book pick.  As Ms. Richman read eloquently aloud to her audience from The Mask Carver’s Son she furthered her reader’s love of her writing.  Attendees learned of Ms. Richman’s writing process; how she researches the answers to her questions for a year, traveling and meeting with individuals to help piece her stories together. She the submits the first draft, after a year of writing and editing, then edits it and eight months to a year later it’s done and published.

Ms. Richman also discussed her three other titles, including the well enjoyed, 2012 Long Island Reads Winner, The Lost Wife.  She said by book four she finally found her audience who are now patiently waiting her fifth novel to be revealed next fall.  In anticipation of her next book Ms. Richman fed the audience bread crumbs of the story to come; we know the title, The Garden of Letters, along with the setting, during WWI, and the character, a messenger for the Italian Resistance.

Thank you to Alyson Richman and her lovely daughter for joining us on Sunday.  The discussion was fantastic and Ms. Richman is a wonderful storyteller.  Many readers were thrilled to have met such a phenomenal writer and are eagerly awaiting The Garden of Letters.  For more information or to check out Ms. Richman’s other titles visit her website at AlysonRichman.com.