Bookish Happenings in January: Raggedy Man

January was a whirlwind here at Bookish HQ.

Fortunately there were books involved!

Clyde Curley, one of my dearest teachers, launched Raggedy Man on January 10th.  The launch party was hosted by Annie Bloom’s Books in Portland’s Multnomah Village. According to Clyde the bookstore sold out of their first shipment (before the launch) in just a week, and as of yesterday Annie Bloom’s employee Jeffrey Shaffer reported that copies are still “flying off the shelves.”

This seems natural given this mystery is set in Portland, Oregon, and Portlanders love to consume artistic interpretations of our fair city (Portlandia, Wildwood, and Grimm just to name some current examples). Whereas some portrayals of Portland use the city as just a place on the map, Raggedy Man is informed by Clyde’s intimacy of having lived in Portland for several decades. (During the reading, a few of his off-the-cuff remarks had the audience in stitches: “He was an anarchist from Eugene. (They’re all from Eugene!)”

While the novel was self-published, it has been garnering some big attention. It recently got picked up by Ingram (a large book distribution company) so it should be widely available through any bookstore, or you can order Raggedy Man directly through Clyde.

Give it a read!