So last night was my last hoorah. I read at the fabulous Jessa Crispin's Bookslut reading series here in Chicago (the only city I've read in thus far, period, since I was already 8 months pregnant when my novel came out), and finished up the night feeling generally lucky that my water hadn't broken while I was standing in front of a room full of people--without even so much as a podium to shield my gigantic stomach! I read something a little kinky, per Jessa's request. The evening was great--it was a thrill to meet Kathryn Davis (The Thin Place), whose coat tails I've been riding since our novels were linked together on Bookslut last month (never thought I'd be so grateful to the Little, Brown publicity engine, but since Bookslut and now even Amazon.com have linked us, what's good for Kathryn is good for me, so thank you Little, Brown, and please keep spending your corporate bucks on Kathryn!) Meeting Kathryn in person made me nostalgic for Vermont, where she lives and I hung out for a few years in the early 90's. Why do people in Vermont just have better sweaters than everyone else? She's a lovely person and it was a perfect finale to my brief month of whirlwind readings. Because while it's really, really funny to listen to a super-pregnant woman reading an S/M scene, it'd just be kind of freaky in a bad way to hear the same woman reading the same scene while toting a newborn in a Baby Bjorn carrier . . .
Thanks Jessa and Kathryn for making last night a blast for me.
If you live in Chicago, be sure to check out Bookslut's next reading on March 1st. It's got a food theme (because Jessa Crispin isn't busy enough; she had to start a food blog too) and the Hopleaf in Andersonville, where the series is held, may just look like a bar from the front but actually has amazing food. If you plan to kiss anyone later in the evening, don't get the mussels, which come with a garlic sauce that's delicious but deadly. Perfect for eating when you are 5 days away from delivering a baby, however, and so uncomfortable that you would kill anyone who tried to touch you anyway.
Cheers.
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