Rob has already blogged about how amazing the reading was in San Francisco last week. And it was. But I’ll add my two, or three hundred and fifty-three, cents.
There had been some concern that doing it at A Different Light was going to be a problem. Apparently, they don’t do much publicity, especially when compared to Books, Inc., which is around the corner and which prints up huge posters for their readings and has a well-read newsletter announcing said readings to their zillions of bookish readers. But Books, Inc. didn’t want to do a reading because one of our readers, the great K.M. Soehnlein, was already reading there in November and they didn’t want the same “headliner” twice in a month. Yeah, whatever. A Different Light was way more cool–they noticed a bunch of San Franciscans in the table of contents and said, “Yes.” And then Tom Dolby was going to be in town. A second headliner. Ha. And–and this is a big deal–the manager at A Different Light was paying attention to our book. He saw that it was selling out, so he bought the last two boxes. So that he’d have something to sell. And sell he did. So there.
There were at least 50 people at the reading last Monday. The cashier guy said that he’d never run out of chairs before and never seen so many people in the store. Horehound said he hadn’t been at a reading at A Different Light that was so well-attended since the slam poetry revival in the mid-90s. But that was mostly lesbians, who always come out for their sisters, especially when they’re slamming poems and stuff. Apparently, they travel in packs.
By the way, it was awesome to see Michael McAllister and Karl Soehnlein and finally to meet Mike McGinty and Horehound Stillpoint and Tom Dolby. They’re all amazing. And they all read so well. And they have fans. After the reading, Rob and I had drinks at the former Daddy’s across the street with Karl and his partner Kevin and Horehound, who is, well, I guess they’d say he’s a character. I wish we could have stayed up past 11 and joined in the fun, but Rob and I had a plane to catch the next morning.
It was thrilling for us. To have our first reading for our first book at the most important gay bookstore in the world, and to have a huge crowd who responded so well to our amazing writers, well, it was a huge thrill.
Bonus: Joe My God was on Sirius OutQ last week and talked about the book.
