allie, haley, and hallie walk into a bookstore...
(l.) one of olivetti’s typewriter pals allie brought for the “type in”; (r.) haley and i in front of little shop of stories in decatur, ga!
yesterday, my bookish roadtrip buddy haley and i drove down to decatur, georgia to celebrate the one and only allie millington, debut author of olivetti!
yep. that tom hanks reviewed allie’s book in sunday’s NYTimes book review!!
in the sunday, march 24 edition of the new york times, hollywood’s nicest guy, mr. tom hanks himself, wrote a glowing review of allie millington’s debut novel: olivetti.
as a typewriter collector himself, he too resonated with their power to record words and have their own emotions about the world around them…
neither allie nor her agent kristen have yet to figure out how tom even got a copy of olivetti, but it’s one of those wished-into-being best-advocate-out-there-for-the-tale kismet happy things! what fun!
about a month or two ago, a bookish/author friend (can’t remember who!) shared in her stories the forthcoming children’s book title: OLIVETTI.
i immediately fell in love with the cover art, and honestly: a book that has a typewriter as one of its narrators? i was SO in.
over the course of internet-connection time, i sucked author allie in with my enthusiasm for her soon-to-be released debut middle grade* novel, and she somehow heartily (thankfully) accepted by instagram-extended friendship and fangirl-dom.
after seeing the book, i’d immediately pre*ordered a signed copy from little shop of stories in decatur, ga where allie was having her book launch event on march 26…. only to realize a few weeks ago: um, i should totally GO celebrate WITH her!
*the target audience of “middle grade” books is 8-12 year-olds. and me. hallie. but they don’t typically add my name on the bookstore category signs. ;)
one of my favourite things about this particular children’s bookstore is the great big framed DOODLES along the perimeter from all the author-illustrators who have come for store visits over the years!
it wasn’t my first trip to little shop of stories,* but it was my first author event there!
you know i love a great indie bookstore, no matter where i’m traveling, but little shop has one edge to many others: it’s 90% children’s books!! (there is a wall of grown-up titles; i guess the littles had to get to the store somehow!)
i didn’t know it until yesterday, but in addition to their a life-sized goodnight moon room and harry potter platform 9 3/4 wall, little shop has an upstairs loft for events!
*it was actually my third trip, if you’re counting. haley and i went down to the decatur book festival a few years ago and bopped in for a quick visit; then my IRL friend rea and i stopped in on our way home from the christian siariano exhibit at SCADfash in atlanta a few (?) years ago… ;)
bookish author & inspiration Q&A with allie millington in the event loft at little shop of stories
i cropped (most of) the heads out of this picture to zoom in on author allie for you! that typewriter next to olivetti on the table there? allie raffled it away to a lucky attendee!*
before the event began, i only got to give her heart hands from my folding chair…. she had quite the crowd! but after her chat with the bookseller interviewee & some Q&A from the audience (we’re looking for a grumpy celebrity narrator to champion her 2025 middle grade release; although, yeah, you can’t really top tom hanks as a celebrity sponsor!), i finally got to MEET ALLIE!!
*sadly, neither haley nor i won; and we’d already worked out the agreements of our shared custody. but allie mentioned there’s a typewriter shop somewhere in atlanta, so i’m sure we’ll have to save our pennies and make a return trip to town soonish…
i got my promised hug once i made it to the front of allie’s signing line! THE OLIVETTI (the keep-going-with-your-writing gift from her husband, which not only inspired her debut, but upon which she typed the first draft) was there to make friends, too!
look, ma! it’s me, hallie! and allie! and olivetti! and the book olivetti!!
no, allie’s not spelling my name wrong here. haley got her book signed, too. :)
allie is already a pro. she even had already had some school visits on her book birthday day yesterday! the crowd was full of family and her writing group support gal pals, and of course: lots of new fans. me and haley included!
on the table with the four typewriters she’d brought for guests to meet and try out, allie also had a “guest book”— a copy of olivetti for event attendees to sign!
that signature on the page below mine? yep. that’s THE REBECCA ROSS who, aside from bookish fangirl me, was otherwise anonymous in the crowd. (i said hi and introduced myself, and i think i was mostly sorta-cool about it? she did sit with us for the event, so i guess i didn’t scare her too badly.) ;)
typing on a typewriter was harder than i remember. actually, when i used to play with my grandma’s typewriter, i probably didn’t have the two-hand system down yet. i was probably more of a hunt-and-peck gal at that point in my writing life…
the impromptu poem i attempted to type on a new friend:
This is a poem that
wasn;t here befor e
the ink arrived to say
“hello.”
(we’ll just say the formatting errors were artistically intentional, okay?)
look at my pretty new book!!!!!!
haley and i got home to south carolina near midnight.
all the better for a rainy day drive down to georgia to meet new book friends— in person and on the page.
so thanks to haley for being the best future-author-hallie handler bookish road trip pal there is.
and continued congrats to allie for her BIG debut launch fun.
okay. bye.
i’m gonna go read my new signed first edition now that i’m awake. cool?
xo,
*hallie :)
sidetrip!
because professor haley was done with classes early for the day, we left for the event “early….” and went to the japanese bookstore kinokuniya in deluth before allie’s event at little shop…
lots of cute bags and trinkets and gorgeous stationary and notebooks and pencils and washi tapes and if you’re a manga reader/collector you’d be in heaven…!
my favourite aisle was of course the japanese fiction (in translation) aisle!
i mostly controlled myself, but did get ONE book* and a gift for mom, too. :)
kinokuniya was worth a browse, but i shoulda timed atlanta traffic a bit better, as in, we were cutting it a little too close in making it to decatur on time… (only 23 miles away, but an hour+ in rush hour traffic. oopsie!) ;D
*TOKYO UENO STATION, by yu miri. i was hooked at this backcover blurb: “a surreal, moving story of a homeless ghost who haunts one of tokyo’s busiest train stations.” (right?!) ;D