Thank you to all who came to celebrate with us at the book launch party for the release of The Zen Time Traveler on Sunday, July 12th. It was a treat to have so many people from different aspects of our lives—college friends, Zen friends, Shintaido friends, a cohort of nine people I met at Clark University in the early 1970s and have been friends with ever since, Bela’s South Deerfield Women’s Club friends, members of her French class, and many more.
Because we were returning to the Shintaido Farm (now the Engaged Mindfulness Institute) that Bela and I built and ran from 2006-2016 for the practice of Shintaido, I decided to ask the audience to participate in a little vocal warmup before the reading. A few Shintaido people came up front, and we led the crowd to “make a joyful noise” by expressing the “Ah and “Oh” sounds of Aozora-taiso, the “blue sky exercise.” We did three rounds of it and filled the dojo (now a zendo) with our voices. It got me warmed up and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves!
The reading
and follow-up Q&A
both went well, and there was an after party for the out-of-towners at our home with pizza, swimming, and conversation deep into the evening.
Before the launch party two newspapers published articles/reviews of The Zen Time Traveler. Check out one review at MassLive that also ran in in the printed Springfield Republican. We were pleased to see a review in both the Hampshire Gazette and Greenfield Recorder.
If you are in the area and like to support local bookstores, you can find The Zen Time Traveler at Broadside Books in Northampton. It’s also available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. If you like The Zen Time Traveler, please do me a big favor and post reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Thanks!
Enjoy your summer and happy reading!