My good friend David Naimon, who is a member of my writing group, had a piece published in Zyzzyva this month. It’s his first fiction in print and it’s a great and very funny story. 

You can read an excerpt of The Golem of Orla Shalom, or subscribe to Zyzzyva here.

It’s so cool (and inspiring and satisfying and pride-filling and validating) to see something go through the writing group process and then make it into the larger world to see. Our group is called the Super Dangerous Writers, incidentally, since there was already a group in Portland called the Dangerous Writers, and because the group thought that my suggestion of calling it the Extra Super Duper Dangerous Writers was a bit too wordy. 

I received my copy of Zyzzyva yesterday and I love the cover - especially the back:

David doesn’t have a blog per se, but does blog on Walker Tracker.

Congratulations David!

In case you can’t read it, it says:

Together, we can

Cure Confusion

wtf? I think you mean ’spread’, not ‘cure’. This seems more like an ad that the Black Magic Insurance Agency would run rather than a health insurance provider.

The agency had its first serious meeting in three years:

Keep your schedules open and your ears to the ground.

I’m finally getting caught up on email and the like - here’s a quick newsy post:

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…

To finish out my battle madness set of photos I will, as promised, post photos of the readings here to prove to myself that I attended these events, in some form or another. I am working under the assumption that I took these photos, since they came from my camera, and not some doppleganger that filled in while I lay fainted on the floor. 

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.

Thanks to all who came to a reading or provided a couch to sleep on (fitting!) or who resisted the temptation to mob me after I’d knocked down the entire set of their play.

- 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!