In this post, the first of an ongoing series, author and illustrator Caroline Magerl shares the beginning of her US book tour, full of drawings and musings. In the coming weeks, Caroline will be presenting at venues including the Mazza Museum and Eric Carle Museum; visit carolinemagerl.com/events for details!

San Francisco

Seeing your book on the store shelf can be a shock, of the most pleasant kind. It is a strange feeling to have something that comes from a very personal space to now be offered in such a public way. All I can do is stand there, feeling mildly furtive, knowing its acceptance is out of my hands now.

In truth I rocked up in the hope that there would be a stack of books to sign, but not too many unsold.

“Can I help you?” the young lady politely asked. This is somewhat difficult to answer … how to explain that you casually dropped into their San Francisco bookstore from Australia. I tried not make a big deal about coming half way around the world, to make an unannounced visit.

Eventually I explained and the staff went from moderately surprised to astoundingly pleased. I offered to sign the copies on sale and they immediately scrambled for pens. “Is this the right pen?” one lady asked the other, “No that bled through last time!” was the reply. In time the right pen was located and I signed each copy adding a small drawing for good measure. It struck me how charmingly the staff blew on each to dry the ink before closing the cover … if only they had witnessed the messy process of creating the originals.

I enquired if they got a lot of authors to come in and sign. This was answered with a smile and a card of preprinted ‘signed by author’ stickers.

I so enjoyed these beautiful and characterful stores, and what a pleasure it was to stop in and see them. Especially when my books were inside.

Monterey

As a teenager straight out of home, some of the first really good books that I read were Steinbeck’s Cannery Road and The Log from the Sea of Cortez.

Steinbeck. Bust by Carol W Brown.

I would read these in my lunch break, out the back of the cavernous basement kitchen of the Canberra Hotel where I worked. It was in part his description of the landscape which I found so achingly beautiful, such as how the Cyprus pines always seem to hold a little piece of night. When an author carves a place in your soul like Steinbeck does, you want to go to that world as a rite of passage.

Experiencing this place resonated with me on a very personal level. Only a couple of times have I so greedily drunk in a place that I dreamed about it all that night, once was my first sight of London … Monterey has been another. The coast was harsher than I expected, jagged outcrops and pinnacles, and in pockets were granite boulders nearly round from the constant motion. It was incredibly moving to stand on the beach while my lips turned blue.

Then I came upon seals in a small bay. The water surface was like a mirror, but you could tell there were currents underneath from the vague motion of the kelp. Those seals just hung vertically in their washpool with noses to the sky. I drew them, standing with feet planted in the Pigface.

It brought to mind Steinbeck’s The Log from the Sea of Cortez–the concept that the richest variety of lifeforms occur on the cusp of different environments; in this instance the intertidal zone. I am so glad to have seen this place.

Ohio

My next stop is Ohio and the Mazza Museum, which has the most diverse collection of original artwork by children’s book illustrators in the world.

Then onto Fundamentals Bookstore, which has been have been serving Central Ohio and the community of Delaware for 25 years.

More of these adventures in my next post.

With special thanks to the kind staff at Green Apple Books and Books Inc in San Francisco. Equally to my good hearted airport shuttle driver, who eventually understood that after 28hrs in transit, my hotel room was more desirable than his free city tour. I don’t remember his name or his company but he was appreciated.