The Visiting Author

 

The Visiting Author

 

My last in-person author visit was on February 29, 2020. It was Leap Day, a Saturday, at my local public library. A few families showed up to hear me talk about my time travel books for. One of my best friends, fresh off a plane from South Africa, turned up to surprise me. It was a fun morning.

 

Little did I know that everything was about to change. I had hoped to do events that spring, and even more events that fall, when my third middle grade novel was published. But that didn’t happen. Instead, I tried to piece together some Zoom events, which were few and far between. The book came out that fall—and its appearance was like a pebble being dropped into an ocean.

 

The relationship between authors and readers has been transformed by the pandemic. I’ve been moderating some author visits for the Jewish Community Center about 20 minutes up the road, and they’ve always been on Zoom. We have authors making appearances from the Midwest, the Northeast, even Australia, speaking to readers from Maryland. Everyone in their homes, or maybe somewhere else. I moderated one of the discussions from a hotel room in New York City on my phone.

 

While it’s been amazing to hear authors who might not otherwise have been able to visit, there’s something missing. Seeing everyone in their squares—or maybe not seeing them, if they choose not to turn their cameras on—has become routine. I’m looking forward to doing some Zoom book talks when my new book—my first novel for adults—is published next spring. But I’m also hoping to be able to pick back up where I left off that Leap Day back in 2020 and—carefully, and possibly masked—brave the world again.

 

--Deborah Kalb