Touring Part II
So then. Where was I? Still touring. Or rather, returning to it. Just back from a wonderful weekend at Harmony Ranch with my sister’s family, a time of relaxing, frequent naps, general hanging out, and reading. (I devoured Max Gladstone’s Three Parts Dead in two days. A great suck-you-in-can’t-stop-reading kind of book. Just what I needed.)
But okay, what about the rest of the tour (so far)? Well…
First, there were a couple of interviews that popped up online, one e-interview as part of rob mclennan’s “12 or 20 questions” series, and one radio interview with Speculating Canada‘s Derek Newman-Stille. I’ve got to admit, there’s something strange about reading/hearing one’s own interviews. The desire to edit after the fact is… perhaps inevitable?
(Aside #1: In the case of the radio interview, I will restrict myself to just one self-correction. I got it right at first, but then—for no good reason I can pinpoint—I started referring to “The New Weird” as simply “The Weird.” How embarrassing. Mea culpa.)
Then there was Montreal. Ah, Montreal. I have this strange nostalgia for a city in which I’ve never lived. (I’d move there in a second if I could just figure out that pesky how-to-pay-rent thing.) The reading at Paragraphe Books was great, and thanks to Alice Zorn and Linda Besner for wonderful readings from new work, as well as Katia Grubisic for hosting. Amazing to catch up with some of the old Banff Writing Studio crew—hard to believe it’s been 7 years!—and though I felt like the new kid on the block in such august company, I also felt thoroughly welcomed. And of course, the post-reading drinks certainly didn’t hurt.
(Aside #2: Would it be name-dropping to mention some of the writers who came out? Maybe a little. Still, it was great to catch up a bit with old friends—Leigh Kotsilidis, Saleema Nawaz—as well as to meet Joshua Trotter, Jeramy Dodds, Zach Wells, Shelagh Plunkett, and Laurence Miall.)
And then it was back to Ottawa, for another reading with Tom Cho at Venus Envy. Great crowd, more old friends, and it was lots of fun—if a little nerve-wracking—to read from some never-before-performed material from “The Smut Story.” But still. When reading with a full wall display of sex toys as a backdrop, who could resist? And thanks to the audience for helping me pick which bit of (unpublished) smut to read for my finale. I don’t think I blushed too much.
And now? After my little break up at the Ranch, it’s time for the SF portion of the tour. Tomorrow (May 21), I get to read as part of ChiSeries Toronto, along with authors Tony Burgess, Hugh A.D. Spencer, and Dale Sproule (with musical performances by Peter Chiykowski and Kari Maaren, hosted by Sandra Kasturi of ChiZine Publications). Then I’m off to Madison Wisconsin for WisCon (“the world’s leading feminist science fiction convention”), where I’ll be enjoying the convention as a whole and reading with David D. Levine, James P. Roberts, and Lawshawn M. Wanak on Friday at 4.
And finally, though I’m terrible at remembering to take photos, here are a few from the Montreal reading, thanks to the Paragraphe staff and Joanne Muzak. (Thanks!)
Of course, that last photo handing off the signed copy is not at all staged, and it certainly didn’t take three tries to get it right. Because that would be just silly.
-g