When is the “Blue Mountain Rose” launch event and how can I participate?

Q: I hear that a book launch event is a special thing in the life of a book. What’s your launch event, and can I participate?

A: You’re right that a book launch event is special. It can be like a birthday party for a book, and who doesn’t love birthday parties?

Blue Mountain Rose gets to have not one, but two parties to celebrate its release, and everyone is invited. The first event is on the book’s official release date of April 23, 2025. That’s Shakespeare’s birthday. For a book set in a Shakespeare festival, what day could be more appropriate?

April 23: Grand Opening of Beaver Street Theatre

We’re launching the book in partnership with the Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival, the real theater company in my hometown and the one I helped to create (I founded the board).

FlagShakes now has its own theatre for the first time! The grand opening of the Beaver Street Theatre is Shakespeare’s birthday as well, and FlagShakes Executive Director Dawn Tucker kindly invited me to join in their festivities.

As a fundraiser for FlagShakes, it’s a ticketed event that may very well sell out. If tickets are still available, you can get them here.

For the event, I took two short scenes from early in Blue Mountain Rose and turned them into a script. Three wonderful actors associated with FlagShakes will be performing a staged reading:

• Nick Rabe, who was in FlagShakes’s very first production in 2015, is playing Richard James Aloysius Keane, a “lion of the theatre” who is executive director of the Blue Mountain Rose Theatre Company.
• Matthew Windham is playing Peter Dunmore, a British stage actor. Peter recently starred in an American vampire movie called Thirst (think of Twilight) and became a worldwide celebrity overnight. Peter is hiding out from fans under an assumed name as he prepares to play Hamlet at the Rose.
• Becki Zarisky is playing Kate Morales, company manager at the Blue Mountain Rose. Kate is a single mom and Richard’s right-hand person. As she gets to know Peter, she will have to reconsider her long-standing rule against dating actors: “not a player, not ever again.”

I get to be onstage with these wonderful actors when they bring my characters to life on stage. The smile on my face will probably be visible from space.

May 20: A Conversation at Bright Side Bookshop

Flagstaff’s treasured indie bookstore, Bright Side Bookshop, is hosting a free event May 20 called “A Conversation With Julie Hammonds.” Dawn Tucker (executive director of FlagShakes) will interview me. I will also answer audience questions and sign books. Event details are here.

You can learn more about upcoming Blue Mountain Rose events on our events page.