<—- IS THIS IT?!

If I find the time, I may also read at a book store. The cinnamon roll quest is scheduled around the following divine cinnamony space-time manifestations:

Portland, OR – Powell’s Books, March 16th, starting at 5:00pm. I’m part of Powell’s Smallpressalooza put on by Kevin Sampsell of Future Tense, so there will be a lot of readings this night. Here’s the full list and it looks great:

5:00 Starlite Motel (“Night Bomb”)
5:15 Zachary Schomburg (“The Pond”)
5:30 Tim Sproul (“How to Leave Your Hometown for Good”)
6:00 Ronault L.S. Catalani AKA Polo (“Counter Culture”)
6:15 Emiko Badillo (“Broken Hipster” zine)
6:30 Matt Briggs (“The End Is the Beginning”)
7:00 Moe Bowstern (“Xtra Tuf” zine)
7:15 Karen Giezyng (“Bumpstart” zine)
7:30 Lia Cunningham (“The People I Love Best” zine)
8:00 Molly McNett (“One Dog Happy”)
8:15 Benjamin Parzybok (“Couch”)
8:30 Evan Schneider (“Boneshaker” zine)
9:00 Samuel Ligon (“Drift and Swerve”)
9:15 Jeff Stewart (“March of Time & Skin”)
9:30 Riley Michael Parker (“Our Beloved 26th”)
9:46 – 12:01 – Dionysian cinnamon roll engorgement!

Should be a great night. I have no idea what I’ll read, but there certainly seems to be quite a few books in the store to choose from.

The rest of the schedule may be seen in detail here: http://booktour.com/author/benjamin_parzybok

March 17th – Olympia, WA – Orca Books!

March 18th – Tacoma, WA – Garfield Book Company at PLU

March 19th – Seattle, WA – Seattle Public Library – Ballard Branch (via Secret Garden Books)

March 21th – Bellingham, WA – Village Books

March 23rd – Missoula, MT -Fact & Fiction

March 24th – Dillon, MT – The Bookstore

March 25th – Spokane, WA – Auntie’s Books – oh look, an Ugly Couch Contest at Auntie’s! – click to see fullsize:

Please help me find the perfect cinnamon roll.

Yours,
Ben

I will be at The Willamette Store tomorrow in Salem, OR. Here’s the event on Facebook if you’re on there, or on Book Tour. And then I’ll be at the Waucoma Bookstore in Hood River, OR at 5pm on Friday [facebook, booktour]. Please come and say hi if you’re in the area.

Here are a couple of blog reviews of Couch:

Rat’s Reading – a very cool seeming book review site, said:

“A strong debut novel, and worth reading. Bring an appreciation for the absurd, cause you’ll need it.”

Stephen Granade of Live Granades: (home of, among other things, the awesome LOLTrek) felt less enthusiastic about the belief in magic in opposition to science, citing two specific character’s speeches. In the end, Stephen said:

“Absent those speeches, the story is strong and affecting.”

Thanks, both!

Apparently Couch is now available on the Kindle, if you’ve got one of those gizmos, and can be previewed in Google Books.

Can you believe this is December? It’s been lovely here. This cell phone photo from today.

Speaking of LOLcats – Kitty Carper is asleep on my lap. It’s nice to be home.

Several people have pointed out the children’s book “He Came with the Couch” by David Slonim. It’s great fun.

I have a ping pong table now! I think it’s inevitable that I’ll be watching Balls of Fury. Honestly, it looks terrible – but Christopher Walken!

Tomorrow? Some exciting news…

At any rate – these were all lovely audiences, smaller than the incredible ones at Elliot Bay Books and Powell’s, but certainly no less sharp.

Amherst Books (note: in the end neither I or Amitav Ghosh showed for my proposed duel, as I’d described in this post. It’s for the better, as I really only had one performance shirt and it would have looked sad with a hole through it.)

I was on Amherst College radio too and that was a blast.

This is what the window of Raconteur Books looked like when I arrived. So cool.

The reading was dark and intimate and there was free wine!

Take a look at this dictionary that was there with an opening letter to the KING – I photographed the first page (click for large view). I post this for ‘the happinefs of the people’:

And then finally I read (presumably) at Pandemonium Books in Cambridge, MA:

There are some incredibly nice people in this photo.

Many thanks again to all.

And now I’m home – where I seem to have caused an altogether impressive amount of havoc by introducing slide whistles to the children, and vice versa.

- Funny story there. I watched a great, small production of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline in Manhattan with my good friends Ned & Bronwen.

The theater was set up so that you had to walk past the stage to leave – the entire audience faced the door. Since there was another play that followed, the whole audience was still seated.

This was very clear in my mind – that it was as if I were on stage, as I leaned against that which very much seemed to be a stable wall near the exit.

When that  stable wall  began to move, I did my best to try to arrest its fall by frantically clutching at it with my finger nails. Then the entire set collapsed with a great boom and all eyes in the theater turned as one toward me. Oh Jesus! The theater manager said, several times. I tried six or eight apologies in rapid succession, and then I ran for the door.

Here’s Sylvie, who seems to have changed somewhat in my 12 day absence. I haven’t been able to locate the rest of the family – except the cat, who was locked up in the keep. 

I’ll post the last three audience pics and some errata in the next day or so. Happy Thanksgiving!

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.

“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!