Punk; Vaudeville; Markley launch; Pre-Xmas push



That's me in Calgary Public Library's Dutton Theatre on November 6th doing my portion of the Cowtown / Punktown presentation. What an enjoyable experience. We got a good crowd, and Dan Hayes put together a really impressive historical account of ye olden days, which set up my reading from Love Minus Zero perfectly. The part I enjoyed most was taking questions at the end, because you never know what people are going to throw out at you. I think we both had a lot of fun. Drinks and dinner at the James Joyce after with my old punk rock colleagues was fun, too.

Also enjoyable was the Literary Vaudeville event last Thursday night, a joint reading by four local authors: Rea Tarvydas, Ian Doig, Rita Bozi and Ken Cameron. And in spite of the January-like weather we've been having, they also managed to get a good crowd. Congratulations to all the readers -- you put on a great show.

This Saturday is the launch of Jan Markley's new MegaByte mystery Dead Bird Through the Cat Door, 2 PM at Owl's Nest Books. Looking forward to celebrating and perhaps having a cookie with Jan.

Hoping to keep the final pre-holiday push on my new novel going here, much as possible. The weather is helping in some ways -- outside is definitely not a distraction at this point. On the other hand, my mom's ALS continues to worsen (I just think that word 'progressing' doesn't really work). I have to say I'm not impressed with the consistency of care she's getting. It's all right, most of the time, except when they send people who can't deal with her equipment. Or when nobody comes at all, like happened yesterday morning. She would have been lying there for fourteen hours if we hadn't shown up at noon. Nice. So it's onto the phone once again tomorrow (naturally the person I need to talk to doesn't work Mondays). Ah, bureaucracy.

So over and out for now. Want to write while the writing's good.

Old punks live to tell the tale; Literary Vaudeville

Cowtown / Punktown, the presentation I did with Dan Hayes of the Golden Calgarians for Calgary Public Library on Saturday was an absolute blast. We had a great crowd, some even appearing to be under thirty, who asked interesting questions. Dan really outdid himself on his history and set up my reading from Love Minus Zero absolutely perfectly. I have to say, I enjoyed doing this event in a way I have not enjoyed others. As I read, pictures of my seventeen year-old self flashed on the big screen beside me
(a scary experience for a woman my age). I kept thinking, if you told that girl she'd write a novel based on that experience, and be reading from it and talking about those days in front of an audience in the library theatre all these many years later, she wouldn't have believed you. At first. But ultimately she would, because I always knew I would do this, that things like this would happen. Crazy thing, eh? Anyway, that's it for me for public events for a while. Now I can attend to the rest of my life a little more -- events do take up a lot of my energy. Nothing planned for me until Calgary Public Library's Writers Weekend event on Feb. 5. Rona Altrows and I are putting together a program for those of you who write fiction -- more details to follow.

As far as other people's events go, I'm looking forward to Literary Vaudeville, a multi-author reading taking place at dear old Memorial Park Library, 1221 - 2 St. SW, next Thursday, Nov. 18, at 7PM, featuring readings by my friends Rita Bozi, Rea Tarvydas, and others. Should be lots of fun.

Now I'm going to read some Rumi. I deserve it.

Two Virgins; Cowtown / Punktown; Dead Bird Through the Cat Door

That's the Virgin Mary and the Virgin Lori at the grand opening of Shelf Life Books last Saturday, shot by my pal and official photographer Jan Markley. The event was truly a blast -- the readings were great, lots of people turned out and Shelf Life is owned and operated by some great book lovers. And lunch before and drinks after at Boxwood were both very nice. A very good Saturday, all in all.

Speaking of The Virgins, this Saturday Dan Hayes of The Golden Calgarians and myself will be talking about all things old-school Calgary punk in our program Cowtown / Punktown, one of the many interesting programs comprising the One Book, One Calgary event inspired by Aritha van Herk's Mavericks. We'll be in the John Dutton Theatre on the second floor of the Central Library (616 Macleod Tr. SE) from 4:15 - 5:00. Looking forward to looking backward!

Also looking forward to the launch of the aforementioned Jan Markley's new novel, Dead Bird Through the Cat Door, at Owl's Nest Books, 815A-49th Ave. SW (Britannia Shopping Plaza) at 2PM, Saturday Nov. 27th. Jan's last launch was a juggernaut and I expect this one will be no different. Nothing like a good book launch!