Kevin's Watch

i go to readings and signings as often as possible.
it's san francisco so a lot of authors do come around
and theres lots of books stores.

does anybody else do this? do you take pics when you go?
i never have before but with my digital cam i think i will now.

anyway, post readings you've gone to or are going to and pics if you've got em and websites for good bookstores in your area (in case i'm ever in your town ) and author websites and stuff like that.

i'm going to see Andrew Vachss on October 8th at Book, Inc.
walking distance from my house

www.booksinc.net/NASApp/store/IndexJsp? ... tId=357802

here also is the wiki on Vachss. he's an interesting man. i've met him at a signing once before and found it a good reading.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Vachss


if i had to fit Vachss into a slot, i'd say he's neo-noir detective fiction. i was in a very b l a c k period when i first read him and his tone and style have a spare bleakness that appealed to me.
i was reading jim thompson, david goodis, and crumley at the time and Vachss was definitely right in there with those guys in tone and style sensibility.

here's the link to his site as well:

vachss.com/

Down in the Zero is my favorite and frankly, it was such a werid period for me (gravely ill loved one), that i have never read it again for fear of well...you know...going back "down in the zero" myself. ugh. not a period i'd like to remember all that much.

He was at his writing peak, at that point, i'd say. (just my
opinion, not carved in granite.)
he's also got an "agenda" with his work and that's an interesting aspect of his writing. layers, if you will. he's not purely depicting a place and time, so much as he is advancing a point of view with his work.

Cyn, you should check out Borderlands Books, in Oakland I think, they have regular series of bringing SF/F genre authors to the area.

For myself I do enjoy the author appearance and signing at local bookstores and other venues. Seen Jennifer Stevenson, Kelly Link, Nicola Griffith, Laurell K. Hamilton, Julie Phillips and others.

I've only been to two book signings and the first one changed my life forever for the better.

I found out he was coming to Borders in Stonestown about a week before the actual event. Julie proclaimed me official spokesperson. I was a wreck. I wracked my brain for clever ways to bring up the show without seeming like a crazy woman. I gave up trying. I decided it was all or nothing. The evening approached. Julie had made a set of dvds. I had my ancient tattered copy of "Lord Foul's Bane" which my Dad had given me as a teenager. The cover was almost completely torn off, the pages yellowed and well worn. I thought I had everything covered. We arrived at Borders and I purchased a copy of ROTE. He gave a delightful reading and question and answer session. Afterwards everyone lined up to get their books signed. We tried to hang back in the line and ended up with only two guys with armloads of books behind us. The wait gave me more and more time to get more and more nervous as we approached. I was first with Julie behind me, then Tadhg and Steve and Karen followed. Terry was to film it all with her tiny secret camera. We were given yellow sticky notes to write anything we wanted personalized in the signing. I wrote that I wanted him to sign my copy of LFB to "Cameraman Jenn." It was finally my turn. I handed him my tattered book with the note in it.

He looked at me a bit oddly and said, "I assume there is a story behind this."
I smiled and said, "Of course, this is the copy of LFB that my Dad gave me as a teenager and so therefore it has great personal meaning. We heard a rumor that you might have heard about us. I am Cameraman Jenn from The Fantasy Bedtime Hour and we do a parody show that is solely dedicated to "Lord Foul's Bane."

He slumped back and I think he may have blushed a bit and smiled sheepishly and said, "Yes, I have heard about you but I confess that I haven't seen the show."

I said, "We heard another rumor that you aren't all that internet friendly so we brought you some dvds of the show, in case you want to see it."

He smiled, again sheepishly, and thanked me. I told him that I wanted him to know that we love doing the show and that we hope that he found us funny and that I wanted him to know that we make the show out of love for his book. Julie piped in with the line that I had been meaning to say and that she memorized from my forty seventh time of making her listen to my introduction speech.

"Parody is the highest form of flattery, Celebrity fame isn't complete until they have been parodied such as on Saturday Night Live." Julie quoted from my original speech.

I introduced the group and when I introduced Steve and said that he is our Thomas Covenant, Steve looked him up and down and said, "You are much better looking than I ever pictured Thomas Covenant to be." We all laughed.

As he signed books and made small talk I breathed deep and gathered my courage. "We have a dream, that you would come on the show as the guest expert for the final episode."

"Oh, well, I think something could probably be arranged." he responded. I couldn't believe it. I thought I was going to have to beg and plead.

A woman that was hovering in the background of the whole signing leaned forward towards Steve and piped in something about making sure there were no copyright infringements or some such stuff. He smiled at her and looked back at me and said, "I am sure we can work something out. Is your contact information in here?" he asked, gesturing towards the dvd stack.

"Oh CRAP!" I blurted out, "I knew I forgot something." He smiled and handed me a post it and a pen. My hands were shaking so hard over him saying yes that I am frankly shocked that he could even read the information. We thanked him again. He thanked us for coming. We left and once outside of the front door proceeded to melt down into a squealing and screaming celebration that I am sure he must have been able to hear, complete with Julie smacking me with glee so hard that she bruised me.

About a week later we got what I then thought was the most wonderful surprise ever, an email from SRD saying that he loved the show so much he was bringing the dvds with him on the European branch of his tour in order to keep himself sane. The rest is history. That two hour booksigning changed my life forever for the better. Go to book signings people!

Great story, CJ.

Think of the ripples Dlb. That meeting inspired email dialogue between SRD and myself and led to his first appearance on the show in disguise. That episode was what really got the interest of people on Kevin's Watch which in turn snagged Jwaneeta's attention so much that she came on the show as an expert. During her visit I met Lucimay and between the two of them they convinced me to join the watch. Because I joined the watch I have a bunch of fabulous new friends, friends that have now been in my home and laughed and hugged and enjoyed each other and continue to do so. Friends that I have talked to on the phone. Friends that I pm and im and interact with regularly. My life has been enriched and continues to be enriched every single day thanks to that one booksigning. I might never have heard your sexy southern drawl if not for that booksigning. I might never have had the joy of becoming a friend of SRD if not for that book signing. I certainly wouldn't have become a reader for him if not for that book signing. Ripples, big ones, small ones. All of them spreading out making memories and smiles and inspiring me. And it's not just me that felt the benefits of those ripples. Danlo and Lady Tam would not have had the reason to revisit their honeymoon place in SF. That is something that many people helped to bring about but wouldn't have happened had the ripples not spread as they did. Those ripples are still reaching out and touching the lives that wade in their paths. I am not exaggerating when I say that single event changed my life for the better.

OK, first of all, I've just read some of the banter between you and Cail in Vespers, and "ripples" is not the word that I'm seeing in that post.

*snort*

I love Jenn's story regarding meeting SRD though.

julie met Tommie Chong, he had just released a book about being in prison for selling bongs. she handed him one of my unit's hats. he got a kick out of it asking if i would get in trouble. she assured him it was fine. he signed a copy of his book for us.

julie also met Ken Burns, he signed one of his baseball books for me.

(i was at work both times.)

sgt.null wrote: julie also met Ken Burns, he signed one of his baseball books for me.

I'd love to meet Ken Burns!

Wow, I sure can't top CJ's story... We're all glad you went to that book signing, too.

For awhile there, we had quite a run of cool authors coming through DC for book signings. A lot of them were kids' authors. The girls and I have met Brian Jacques (the Redwall books), Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Shiloh), and Tamora Pierce (the Alanna books, and if you know tween girls and you haven't made them sit down and read this series, there is something seriously wrong with you).

I once went to a book signing by Anne Rice. That was a total production line -- she just signed one book after another, smiled, maybe stopped for a picture, and that was it.

A year or so ago, we happened upon a reading/signing by Orson Scott Card at our local Borders. MagickMaker missed almost the whole reading, searching for and buying one of his books so she could get him to sign it.

I met a couple of other folks when they came to speak at my MA program: Madison Smartt Bell, Robert Stone (who wrote Outerbridge Reach), and several others who were faculty members and who nobody outside the program has ever heard of.

oh NO!!! you didn't have to listen to madison smart bell READ did you???

oh lordy!! i read Waiting for the End of the World and A Year of Silence (both of which i highly recommend) so when Soldier's Joy came out i went to hear him read. o m g. the poor man reads TERRIBLY!!!! i wanted to rip the book from his hands and say "HERE let ME!!" hahhahaahah!!!

While it's undeniably cool to meet a favorite author and maybe even get a book signed, I don't see the point of book readings (aside from the public exposure that they supposedly provide for the author). Lucimay's comment above about that author who did an awful reading makes my case for me. I buy a book to READ it, not in order to sit around and hear the hapless author fumble over his own words due to nervousness in a public setting.

I feel sorry for writers (at least those less well-established) who are forced to do readings just to appease their publishers. Writers tend to be insecure about their own work, yes? As well as introverted? So, you put these innate introverts into a public place surrounded by complete strangers, and somehow you expect them to perform flawlessly? And then you're shocked when they don't? Sure, I guess if some of them had egos the size of Anne Rice's, they'd be able to pull it off without breaking a sweat.

I'm embarrassed to say that my town has one of the biggest Literature festivals in the world, every year, and that I rarely make it to see anything!

I did go to a reading and signing by Roddy Doyle, one of my favourite irish authors (he's the one responsible for 'The Commitments' etc and 'Star Called Henry')

And I went to see George Macdonald-Fraser, he of the Flashman books.

And I went to Bristol to the SRD q&a and signing, a couple of months ago.

That's it!

www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire/content/a ... ture.shtml

There are other parts of the lit fest that I do try to see every year - the Poetry Slam is usually fantastic, and they have the occasional off-the-wall dramatic performance that tickles my fancy.