Columbia author Brandi Perry will release her fifth novel next week and kicks off her book tour right here at home.
Perry will appear at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Flower Shop on Church Street where she’ll be signing her latest offering, “c.”
“Every time I have a book that comes out and I know there is going to be a big tour, I try to launch it in Columbia,” Perry said. “I do that primarily because it gives a chance to come get a copy before most people get a copy. This is my hometown. You hear that it takes a village to raise somebody and I feel like there are so many people in this community that have helped raise me. It’s my way to give back a little bit and let them have a piece of something that nobody else has until I go on tour, or if they’ve ordered it online.”
The book launches online at midnight on June 20 and Perry will hit the road for a book tour that covers a great deal of territory.
“I’m really excited about two in particular,” she said. “I have a bucket list for everything in my life and signings are no different. One of my bucket list items was to sign at the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson and I’ll be signing there in August. I’ll also be singing in Monroeville, Ala. at their courthouse. It is the home of Harper Lee, who wrote ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ and the adopted home of Truman Capote, who wrote ‘In Cold Blood.’ Both of them spent considerable time in the courthouse in Monroeville. I’ve been extended an offer to do two signings there. One will be this summer and the other will be closer to Christmas. With the opening at the Flower Shop, and the Mississippi Book Festival and Monroeville, I could pretty much end my tour and be happy with just those few signings. I have some opportunities to go to Tennessee for several events and signings, I’ve been asked to come to Indiana to speak at a high school, all over Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. It’s going to be widespread. It’s going to be fun.”
Perry said she is excited because ‘Splintered’ has been garnering a lot of attention before its release.
“This could be my biggest and best seller yet,” she said. “I owe a lot of that to Shotwell Publishing, who took a chance on a book that’s a little bit different than a lot of people have seen. It’s based in Natchez and New Orleans, so you get a lot of history and that existence that those cities contain. Shotwell has done a fantastic job on the cover; they’ve done a fantastic job with promotions and that sort of thing. I owe a lot of the early buzz to them.”
Though she doesn’t want to give away the storyline, Perry said readers will enjoy the plot.
“My main character is Keaton Fordice,” she said. “He was a New York Times bestseller. He was married and has a daughter. But when he went on tour he pretty much philandered his way through every city he visited. His activities cost him his family. He’s basically living in a shack overlooking the Mississippi River in Natchez. He comes from a very rich, political family and they’ve basically disowned him. They don’t want anything to do with him.”
Fordice is at his wit’s end when he gets the opportunity to stay in a house in New Orleans that is being flipped by a friend of his.
“The only problem for him is that he can’t bring any drugs or alcohol in,” she said. “They’re going to basically lock him in and he’ll have a natural detox. He will be able to write and whatever, That’s where his issues started. You don’t know if it’s the house or if it’s Keaton detoxing … I really can’t say much more … you’ll have to read the book.”
Perry said her parents got the first copy of the book and that her father, Jimmy, read the book in one day.
“He did say that it is the most intense book of mine that I’ve ever written,” she said. “My dad is a big fan of that genre. He took several breaks, because he said it’s intense. This is book No. 5, and it’s my first book in about three or four years. I spent an entire year researching this. I never want to write a book and have someone say, ‘That’s not how that happens,’ I dealt with an addiction psychologist on the Coast, who helped me with learning about the detoxing process from alcohol and drugs. I did tons and tons of research and then a busy schedule kept me from spilling it out. It’s been about a three year process. It’s like sending a kid off to college after you’ve raised them. You’ve taken so much time and energy and then, they’re gone and it’s time to have fun. My fun aspect is to go to interviews and signings. I get to visit with Marshall Ramsey in a couple of weeks. Being able to go from town to town and talk about something that has been such a part of my life for the last three or four years is rewarding to me.”
Perry also said her friends and family in Columbia have been terrific throughout the process. Presales have far outnumbered the ones previously and 95 percent of those are from here, she said.
Pictured Above: Author Brandi Perry shows off a copy of her latest novel, “Splintered.” The Columbia native will begin her book tour with an event in Columbia on Wednesday. The thriller’s main character is a best-selling author trying to rebuild his life in New Orleans. | Photo by Mark Rogers
