Well, maybe not so much with the B-Sides, but definitely with the rarities. Or at least one rarity in the form of: yesterday I read in the Orange Alert Reading Series with this guy…
…Martin Seay, aka my spouse-person. He’s a fantastic writer, but uncommon is the occasion when he can be spotted performing his work in public. Also performing was John Cotter…
…reading from his brand new book Under the Small Lights, co-winner of the Miami University Press Novella Contest. And if that weren’t enough, also-also performing was Stephen Markley…
…whom you may know from his “Off the Markley” column in the Redeye, or from his recently published book Publish This Book. I read, too, part of “Natural Is Not In It,” the first essay in my essay collection For You, For You I Am Trilling These Songs. It’s about Brazilian waxing, which can be a polarizing topic. There were parents in the audience! I was nervous. But everyone seemed to be into it… …so it all worked out. Thanks to Jason Behrends for organizing the Orange Alert Series, thanks to my fellow readers, and thanks to everyone who came out on a Sunday evening to listen to tales of 1950s street gangs in Venice, California, would-be playrights wandering around Walden Pond, the struggles of a young writer trying to become rich and famous, and the torturous removal of intimate body hair.