Tuesday, May 05, 2015

Authors for Indies: Epic Books


(Clockwise from top left): Gary Barwin live-writing; Jaime Krakowski, me, Gary & writer Amanda Leduc behind the table of sweets that Epic was providing; the books of all the authors taking part in Authors for Indies; a long-view of Epic, which was all light wood and well-organized shelves.

* * *

I caught a 5:15 am flight to Toronto and then got sort of jammed up, trying to bus & subway to Union Station, where I'd catch a Go Train to Hamilton. (Apparently, one of the major highways had a scheduled maintenance day...)

But I got to Hamilton just in time for my 1 pm shift at Epic Books, having re-read sections of my selected titles—The Studhorse Man by Robert Kroetsch, In the Tiger Park by Alison Calder, and Quivering Land by Roewan Crowe—on the plane.

By the end of Authors for Indies Day, I was largely wordless, powered solely by cupcakes and laughter. Luckily, there was lots of that, given that both the other authors I was hand-selling alongside and the bookstore staff were great fun.

The text that went with this photo, when I posted it to FB, reflects that over-punctuated state:
"Books! Live-writing! Cupcakes!"

So here are a few impressions of the day that are more lucid/considered:

Jaime Krakowski, owner, Epic Books
So I'm still coming down from my earlier sugar high, pixie sticks and bookselling—quite the combination. Anyways, we had a great Authors for Indies Day and would like to thank everyone that visited! It was tons of fun. Of course, we couldn't have done it without the help of all of the amazing authors that volunteered with us. So a great big thanks to Amanda Leduc, Ariel Gordon, Gary Barwin, Gisela Sherman, Sally Cooper, Sylvia McNicoll and Joe Ollmann, who did our fabulous window! Not to get too weepy, the sugar crash is upon me, but thanks also to Lisa my ridiculously energetic staff member that spoils me by being awesome & bringing me yummy treats to start the day with! There, now that wasn't too Oscar-y was it? Maybe a bit, but that's ok.

Authors for Undies, I mean, Indies Interactive Story at Epic Books by Gary Barwin: For Authors for Indies Day I was at Epic Books with Ariel Gordon and Amanda Leduc. I sat in the front of the store and wrote a story. I solicited ideas from customers and the other writers. Some of the content came by asking people to pick a book off the shelf and turn to page 106 and choose the 7th line. For example, there's a line from Lynn Crosbie's new book, Where Did You Sleep Last Night?

And here's the end of Gary's story, which is somehow exactly right:
The phone rang raising a nimbus of dust from its ancient pre-cellular receiver. Without thinking, Avigdor lifted the receiver. The mouthpiece was caked in Paleolithic lipstick, discarded insect carapaces and spit. Avigdor gave the mouthpiece a quick theoretically antibacterial swipe with his sleeve and answered it.
“Hello?” he said. “Hello?”
“There’s a book I need. It’s blue. It was on the radio. It was written by rain.”

2 comments:

Sylvia McNicoll said...

Love the excerpt, so funny! Gary is on-the-spot, great.
Authors for Indies Day made a great excuse to come out and visit with other writers and readers. Next year will be even better.

Ariel Gordon said...

Yes, it was fun, eh? Though I may Author-for-Indie in Winnipeg this time...