Last night, as the picture at the bottom will show, we had a terrific turnout for "Not Your Mother's Book Club" at Books Inc. in San Francisco.All told, it was a remarkable evening/overall experience, particularly the after-event dinner party because I got to connect with new friends, and with a terrific and close friend whom I hadn't seen in nearly 20 years. Amazing.
And I was, as I promised, prepared.
But not to follow Barry Lyga.
Barry started off the evening with a reading from his newest Goth Girl Rising, and it's, like, really funny, so the crowd was all warmed up and chuckly and stuff. And so I'm sitting there, thinking, like, holy crap... how can I do a reading from my intense psycho book after that??? The only thing that could have possibly been worse is if Barry actually gave out Legos.
Wait.
He did.
At least he didn't have a shopping cart full of free Chihuahua puppies.
Luckily, we managed to go boy-girl-boy-girl, etc. and Sara Zarr braved the podium to face the all-smiles-and-laughter crowd with a bit from her Once Was Lost.
All I can say is, thanks for being the set-up-man, Sara... and you write incredibly beautiful prose.
So, yeah... I got to read. And I seriously believe I freaked some people out with my shotgun here's-a-bit-there's-a-bit reading style, not to mention the ultra-creepy content. Oh well... it was fun. I got to sign lots of books, received a free choking-hazard Lego toy from Barry, and got to meet and listen to Allen Zadoff (whose very funny Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have has recently been released), and L.K. Madigan, who read from her Flash Burnout and her forthcoming fantasy (sans title) about surfing and mermaids.
Thank you so much, Books Inc.
