Entries Tagged 'couch' ↓

I’m in Northampton, Massachusetts and am about midway through my little book tour. It’s been tremendous fun. 

Powell’s in Portland was my first reading – it was a lovely time with many friends in attendance. It was there that I realized that I suffer a taste of battle madness. Battle Madness – popularized by vikings – is when you go into battle and perform admirably with your axe, and then can’t remember a thing about it later. So it was in Portland. I remember being very graciously introduced by a Powell’s employee Amber, and then I came to in the Under Wonder Lounge with a pint in my hand and my axe at my feet. Sure there are a few fleeting images here and there, and I remember thinking – ah, I’m getting Theo’s voice right, but that was about it.

Thus by the time I read at the Elliot Bay Book Co.  (introduced by Anthony – thanks!) in Seattle I’d decided to start photographing the audience at the beginning to prove to myself later that I’d actually been there. Here’s the evidence (click for full view):

I had to take it in three shots – there were so many awesome, awesome people there, thanks in no small part to the review in The Stranger. I should also admit that I prefaced the photo-taking by saying I would not post it to my blog with nude photos of myself. True! Lucky for you, there are no nude photos of me. The reading was just incredibly fun (what I remember of it) and they sang me happy birthday at the end. I love you Seattle! The next day I got on a plane and flew over the surface of Jupiter:

Which was unexpected. And then landed in Russia:

Where I read with Caitlin Kiernan at the Fantastic Fiction reading series hosted by Matthew Kessel and Ellen Datlow - which was, apparently, just a great, great time, from what I remember of it.

Incidentally, one of the symptoms of Battle Madness is foaming at the mouth. So I’m told.

Tonight I read in Amherst at Amherst Books and tomorrow in New Jersey – if you have friends in the area I’d be grateful if you let them know, as these might be a bit on the quieter side and then what am I to do with my axe? My tour schedule is here.

Incidentally – Amitav Ghosh also reads from his book Sea of Poppies at Amherst tonight – I tried to find something to link to here for time/place but  the intertubes failed me. It looks like just a great book, which is a shame, since I suspect that after our simultaneous readings we’ll have to joust or something.

I asked a friend advice on giving a reading, since I do my first tomorrow and he said:

“At an early reading in the 70s at my publisher’s house in Vancouver, B.C., I was so anxious I drank a little too much, took off all my clothers except under shorts in front of the audience and about a third of the way through threw my loose-leaf manuscript out over the heads of the audience screaming that it was a bunch of fucking shit and lies…the adrenalin of some fear is good, gives you an edge.”

In case you were wondering what to expect should you happen to attend a reading.

I remember seeing Dave Eggers read – he had the audience diagnose a problem with his leg (night tremors) and then he brought an exercise coach out and we all did a bit of a workout. That might be more my style. I’ve been calling around town to see if I could get a therapist to travel with me, in case we need to diagnose any madness in the audience. I also might play a game or two of bingo, or challenge someone to leg wrestle. No one can beat me at leg wrestling. No one. I’m just saying.

Why does a search for podium aerodynamics turn up almost nothing?!

Peter Fogtdal - who is on tour now – is an impressive reader. I would classify it as about 38% insane, contradicting himself schizophrenically every third sentence. It was a great performance.

Laura bought me a black button shirt with little pin stripes that mesmerize me. So that’s probably what I’ll wear, and subsequently remove at the pinnacle of the performance. I’m also considering a hat, maybe this, or this?

If anyone else has any reading tips for me – please say!

A couple of things related to Couch:

Here’s an interview with me done by Dmae Roberts on KBOO – plus a picture of me reading the book on air she took. Dmae Roberts runs MediaRites and has done many other incredible projects.

Thanks, Dmae!

Paul Constant of The Stranger gave a great, generous review of Couch. In a review with a title I love:

One Couch to Rule Them All
How a Novel About Moving a Couch Saved a Genre

“Couches have a weird totemic power. There aren’t nearly as many pieces of art about desks, for instance, and songs and poems about chairs generally have to do more with the lonely person sitting in them than the chair itself. And there’s some pain mixed in with the pleasure, too: Just about any adult who’s lived on their own knows the mundane agony and awkwardness involved with moving a couch from one apartment to another, or the vexation involved with getting rid of a ratty old couch when no thrift store will take it as a donation.”

“…by making the magical MacGuffin a beloved household item that nearly everyone has a complicated relationship with, he gives the story the depth and allure of the best modern literary fiction.”

Thanks, Paul!

Read the whole review

nah, f_ it, turn it off. I still hear that Rage Against the Machine song in my mind just about every time I hear the word radio. And also Mexican Radio, great song. 

In any case! I will be on KBOO tomorrow at 10:30 am with Dmae Roberts talking about and reading from Couch. Tune in if you’re around.

The miniseries has come to an end, and we await the climax. Hooray!

And now, for a bit of Couch news you can read between refreshing your poll trackers…

- My publisher is having a Couch carrying photo contest
- There’s an excerpt of the first 10k words of Couch up at Book Spot Central
- and also a contest there
- Powell’s is selling signed copies of Couch. Who signed them? I have no idea – I hope it’s a special robot with a calligraphic flare living in the basement. Named Robert. Who hums while he signs. But if you like signatures at the front of your book, that seems like a good way to get one if you’re not going to be in one of these places.

That’s all for now. Go vote and be merry.

Incidentally, we so voted for Omar.

(oops, fixed some mistakes)

Here are a bunch of Couch tidbits – of which there will probably be no small quantity of in the next few weeks. I’m trying to get a hang of how to be an author-y type person out in the world with a first book – and there are no lack of great, well-seasoned authors whom I’m leaning on for guidance. Here’s a post by Justine Larbalestier on Self Promotion, and here’s a somewhat depressing article by Stacy Sullivan on more or less the same. Oh, and I see Tobias Buckell talks about marketing and new writers today in a podcast.

OK – Couch is making its way out there!:

There’s an interview with me at Porter Square Books

I created a sort of soundtrack type thing for the very cool Large Hearted Boy’s great Book Notes series.

And there’s a very flattering review at the “Me and My Big Mouth” blog:

“It is an upholstered Odyssey unlike any other you are likely to read.  It is funny, confusing in places, wild and anarchic.  It is part Quixote, part Murakami, part Tom Robbins, part DFS showroom. …. It has cult hit written all over it.”

Read the whole review here

awesome. I’m perfectly ok with cult hit.

And finally – a fan drew this as a prospective cover for Couch before it had one. I love this piece. I think the 3 roommates in the water is visually one of my favorite parts of the book.

And yes – the ‘fan’ is my mother. Thanks, mom!