Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve had time for the luxury of a blog post but now that the agony of jet lag is subsiding, I’m feeling like it’s time for a quick post about The Vasemaker’s Daughter and my trip to southern Japan.  It was a great time, mainly a wonderful connection with family and friends, but some key researching happened as well…and I had a great time at Recife Bar doing a reading of Sunsets and also In the Sunlight of Sakurajima.  Both were received with lots of enthusiasm and I made a bunch of new friends and saw some old friends too.

It’s amazing to already be at a point where book two is nearing “birth” and becoming a tangible reality.  Compared to the nearly 10 years that book one too, being this far along with book two in just two years is amazing.  Though due to some other projects, I’ll need to put this aside for a bit this summer and pick it up again this fall.

Here’s my Facebook Post at my author Facebook page about the Recife event.  If you haven’t “liked” my author page yet, please do!

Ciao for now…and see you in the bookstore!  :-)

“Does it have any sex in it?” the man sitting next to me on the plane asked, looking a little stiffer as he peered at the Sunsets of Tulum bookmark I’d just handed him.

I was on the way to a book event in New Mexico and we’d been stranded in Dallas Fort Worth for almost 5 hours. Twice before, they’d loaded us onto the plane for Albuquerque and twice we’d waited at the gate for hours as they’d diagnosed different mechanical failures. I’d noticed the guy next to me had a Dean Koontz book and thought, “heck, it can’t hurt to give him a bookmark.” So as we boarded the third plane and waited (again) for what would be our final time, I took the plunge and handed him one, saying, “I’m a writer, here’s a bookmark, maybe this can be your next read.”

Now I was pretty sure I’d handed it to a religious nut. This was Texas after all.

“Well,” I said, thinking of the 3 or 4 pages of pretty explicit sex and the allusions that were sprinkled throughout. “Yes, it has sex scenes. But they’re not gratuitous–”

“What about the F word?” he said, almost cutting me off. “Does it have that too?”

Ummm…here and there.

“Yes,” I answered, steeling myself for some lecture about obscenity and profanity and so on from some jerk who doesn’t understand the freedom of speech or the difference between literature and porn. Just the perfect ending of a long, exhausting delay-filled travel. It was my fault, of course, for giving him the bookmark. But it upset me to think of someone dismissing it because they were a prude. “But not too much. Just here and there.”

“I know what you’re thinking,” he said, smiling. “But my grandmother’s 99th birthday is coming up next week and she doesn’t have much mobility, and she loves reading. She’d get a total kick out of the fact that I met you on the plane but if it’s got tons of sex and profanity she won’t read it…”

And so I explained that it was a love story, a literary romance about an unexpected, life-changing affair and that the sex wasn’t gratuitous, but was there because it was part of the story. It was graphic but warranted. And I told him the anecdote of one of my friend’s friend’s relatives, in her 80s, who’d read it and said, “My…graphic…but you’re never too old to learn!” And we agreed that she could just skip over the sections if they were too spicy.

To make a long story short, shortly after I was pulling my suitcase out of the overhead and he bought a signed copy before the plane took off. Perhaps this was like that movie Groundhog Day: I had to sell a book before the plane could leave…

Thanks, Don, if you’re out there…I hope “Gram” loves the book and has a great birthday next week, and thanks for the lesson in not jumping to conclusions when someone asks if the book has sexy scenes.

Get your signed copy of Sunsets of Tulum here or an unsigned copy wherever books are sold.

‪#‎SunsetsofTulum‬ ‪#‎greatreads‬ ‪#‎bookclub‬

I was thrilled the other day to wake up and find the following review of Sunsets of Tulum in my Inbox:

It’s not the New York Times book review (yet!) but it’s both thrilling and humbling to see a review praise it unprompted and (unlike Kirkus!) with not payment exchange.

And a librarian friend recently told me that their two copies have been in permanent circulation since they got them last fall!

If you know anyone in Hollywood who wants to option the movie rights, send them my way! :-)

Been having such an amazing time here in Yucatan.  The readings of _Sunsets of Tulum_ went well, and there’s been plenty of great wildlife to see along the way.  Some of the road signs we passed are below:

Most of the time we’ve stayed in relatively cheap motels, with a few notable exceptions. The Hacienda Blancaflor was lovely and cost $79/night. It’s out of the way, so we ate dinner and breakfast there, and it was great food. Our total bill came to 2000 pesos, which is about $160 or so with the exchange rate. Not bad!

More pics and comments at www.facebook.com/RayBartlettAuthor — hope to see you there!

It’s amazing to be back in Yucatan! Not just because it’s 80 degrees here and was 29 when I left. I’ve already had 2 lovely book signings in Cancun and Puerto Morelos. Needful Things Used Bookstore hosted me the evening I flew in, Saturday the 16th, and it was a bit dicey because the flight from EWR to CUN had a medical emergency. A woman passed out right in the next aisle and that probably helped us arrive early. We breezed through immigration and customs (for once!) and our car rental company Avant is worth mentioning: they’re kind of under the radar because they meet you outside the airport in the parking lot, but they charged EXACTLY what we were quoted, they drop off and pick up anywhere, and they even include a big plastic ice cooler.

The reading at Needful Things was less attended than we’d hoped, but the people who came were so interested and enthusiastic it was impossible not to have a great time. We drank Tulum Sunsets, we talked about writing, I signed books (see here!) and it reminded me again how much fun the publicity side of writing is. Books matter.

Then to Puerto Morelos, where Alma Libre Bookstore and Layla Guesthouse co-hosted me for a wonderfully attended evening. 30+ people and some old friends, including the hammock-maker, Mauricio, who in a vague way inspired the hammock scene in Sunsets of Tulum. Had great questions from the audience and sold a number of books at the signing.

Today we head to Tulum, where we’ll be floating down Mayan canals, hopefully seeing parrots and toucans in the jungle, and visiting the youth hostel in Tulum that inspired some of the book! Can’t wait!

Honored and excited to have the cover spot on this issue of the Portsmouth Review. Check it out here:

Huge thank you to Rebecca Skane for the great coverage!

Would absolutely LOVE to have your (ideally positive!) Amazon review for Sunsets of Tulum.

Never done one before?

No worries. Just log into your Amazon account, click here, and then click on the stars. You should be able to write a review!

These factor hugely into Amazon ranking and for example, with just 2 5-star reviews my novel jumped to 4th on my Amazon author page. If a few more of you write them, it might be in first place. Every little bit helps!

Thank you all for your enthusiasm and support!