I'm very honoured that Michelle Chahine has selected Rumi and the Red Handbag as one of the Fall Reading Club choices on Maria Shriver's website.
There are, in fact, book club questions for the novel, and I'll be posting those soon, as will my publisher on her site.
I can tell you that when you publish a quirky-sweet book with an incredible but small press in Canada, you really don't expect to end up on a 49th Shelf list, let alone a Harper's Bazaar list, and certainly not on a reading club list on Maria Shriver's website.
It's a gift, a pure gift, that I know. But in all honesty, and maybe as someone who is better "known" as a poet and essayist, it's been a lot to take in. I wrote an email to a very good friend of mine, Kimmy Beach, saying, I don't really know how to process this. And her response to me was this: "Bask. Dream. Glow. Drink wine. Go out for an expensive meal. If there is one thing we know about this life we've chosen, it's that it's transitory. Love it. Enjoy it. Revel in it. Celebrate it with your family."
So for now I'm, feeling grateful for all this lovely notice, and for the advice of wise friends.