The navel gaze

Hey all,

I should have posted this days ago, but I've been feeling sick-to-death of the sparkly interweb, the blogger interface, and even the sight of my own face.

That's mostly because I spent a lot of time attending/photographing/reporting on THIN AIR, Winnipeg International Writers Festival for the HOT AIR blog. And when I wasn't composing, I was posting same from 5 other bloggers.

But I think HOT AIR was a marvelous spectacle, almost as good as THIN AIR itself, and it was a handy excuse to spend a lot of time last week listening to people talk about books.

Somewhere amidst the five events at Aqua Books, where I wore two hats (and all the other events, where I only wore one), my Palimpsest Press chapbook, The navel gaze, arrived.

The publisher had sent them to Aqua, which meant that there was someone there to ACTUALLY take them from the mailman and then call and taunt me about same.

When I got to the store, I borrowed a pair of scissors and whisked the parcel upstairs. With my camera, because I'm an ephemera-minded fool.

And...it's beautiful. I mean, I expected it to be beautiful, but it's beautiful!

Thanks to Dawn for publishing it and making it such a satisfying object even while most things animal/vegetable/mineral/mechanical in her life malfunctioned.

I got to spend some time with Dawn at Sage Hill in July, which was lovely. (To sum: we giggled a lot and got into the gin.)

So...tomorrow night's the chapbook launch. We'll have a two-tiered cake and books/tour t-shirts to sell.

And, by way of avoiding thanking people in person, I'm getting four people who supported me during my pregnancy to read poems from the chapbook. Bookended by readings by me, the AUTHOR, of course...

As a final touch, we'll be auctioning off a copy of The navel gaze, with the proceeds going towards the Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry.

Kelly will be hosting and also acting as auctioneer.

He's really tired, given his full workday and then ALSO five THIN AIR events, which means that he'll say HUGELY outrageous things, as opposed to his standard MOSTLY outrageous things.

And then, on Sunday, we'll leave on our week-long tour of Saskatchewan and Alberta.

There are several long days between now and Sunday morning, so I'm not quite enjoying myself yet.

I suspect that Sunday, mid-morning, when we're safely on our way and I've got a cup of tea in my hand and all I have to do (besides navigate) is look out my window and think on the poems I'll be reading that night and the poems I'll be listening to that night, that I'll approach...

Blissed out.

But we'll see. Knowing me, I'm probably due for a cluster of migraines or the first nasty cold of the fall (like Kerry, my tour-mate) or some pustulent rash.

(Don't even ask...oh, the rashes I have known...)

But in the meantime, here's to Dawn at Palimpsest, here's to tomorrow's launch, and here's to Sunday morning!

(Also, here's to all the fond friends and recent acquaintances that helped us to set up this tour! Much appreciated!)