The Girls Are Back in Town

I don't know who is more tired tonight, me or my dog. It seems to take a lot of out of him when I go away. He's not content unless I'm here. I worry about the spring when I move. I'm hoping he adjusts to not having me around. He's snoring up a storm right now. And speaking of storms -- I'm back from Freddy . . . yeah, I know . . . we probably should have stayed home. The drive over was TERRIBLE! But I don't know, Environment Canada was not reporting any of the craziness in the Fredericton forecast. Miramichi and Blackville were fine, the storm had passed, the wind died down. When we drove into Doaktown everything changed. A blizzard came out of nowhere. We thought it was just a squall and we'd drive out of it, but no such luck. We were in it all the way. Unbeknownst to me Terry and Gordie from work had planned to come as well. Gordie was in Grand Falls and the drive in from there was even worse than the one from Miramichi, so he didn't get into the city in time for my reading. Terry, on the other hand, caught up to us in Boiestown when we stopped to gas up. So we drove the rest of the way together, which was good.

The reading went great. About 20 people were there. We probably would have had a better group if not for the weather. I'm sure many people thought it was cancelled. There were five readers and wouldn't you know it we read alphabetically . . . so I went last. I was nervous but Stacy said people who didn't know me would never have known. She was sitting in the back row and actually didn't think I was that nervous at all . . . but people closer to the front could see my papers trembling I'm sure. Overall it went fine. I really enjoyed everyone else's readings. I wasn't familiar with Biff Mitchell before the event -- Man! What a character! His reading was hilarious. His ideas are so out there, I loved it! I'll be looking into his work further for sure. He was the main organiser of Read an Ebook Week in Canada this year so he started the evening with a bit of discussion on eBooks that I found particularly interesting. Terry did too. I see Mighty eBooks in our future for sure. Joe Blades, who initally invited me to this event, read a few poems from his various publications in keeping with the theme of electronic publishing. I have all the books he read from. It certainly adds another level when you get to hear the poet read his works himself though. He also read some new work that I really liked. I particularly liked the phrasing about a winter indoor tan. His sarcastic wit always make me smile. Another interesting reader was Chris Owen, who writes homo-erotic literature. Her eBooks are selling like crazy. She couldn't read much of her work obviously, given the racy nature of her genre. But apparently sex really does sell. An Argentinian Canadian author, Nela Rio, read a couple of her poems. She read one in Spanish and then read the same poem translated into English. Foreign language poetry is so touching and beautiful when recited in its native tongue. Her poems were vivid and gut wrenching though about the terrible things that have happened in her country, particularly to women. I followed her and I felt like my story was trivial in comparision. I would post it here for you to read, but I still have hopes that if I ever get off my big fat ass and actually send things out they will get published (and I will get paid! Although a meagre sum I'm sure) So, if I publish it here that eliminates all the first rights markets. But for those who might know it, I read The Lost, which is the story about the little girl in the store with her father, who talks WAY too much and listens to nobody . . . hey, they say write what you know, right? :-) I think it was well received and it wasn't too Miramichi.

After the reading, we went to Mexicala Rosa's so Stacy could have a margarita. Gordie met up with the Mighty crew there and Joe joined us as well. Had a great time! Terry picked Joe's brains about the publishing biz. I could see the cogs spinning there. I'm ready at any moment to receive an email from him with all the details about our first eBook. I'm sure it won't be long. He's already sent me a bunch of information about copyrights and legal stuff since he got back to the Miramichi today. We had lots of spicy food and I drank tons of wine (even though it was from a box) and ended up closing the place, which wasn't that late on a Wednesday night, only 11pm. We didn't go any place else because my Mighty co-workers all had early morning meetings scheduled.

Stacy and I stayed in Claude's apartment because he was house-sitting for his boss. We went back to the apartment and got ready for bed. The place was freezing!! I had a t-shirt and sleep pants on and I had to put on a sweater. We turned up the heat and sat on the heater . . . but it didn't seem to be blowing any heat no matter how high we turned it. Stacy went in the bedroom and discovered the window was open 6-8 inches! On the coldest freaking night of the year!! We shut that and figured we'd get warmed up pretty quick but still the heater didn't seem to be throwing much heat, even though we cranked it to 90. We frigged with that awhile and watched some tv then decided maybe we'd warm up if we got into bed. We went to bed dressed -- sleep pants, tees, sweaters, socks -- and found that the bed was no warmer. Honest to God the cold seemed to be seeping into the bed from the floor up through the mattress. I rolled onto my side so as little of my body as possible was against the mattress, curled into a tight ball and pulled the covers up over my head. I may have slept 3 hours total in that way. Stacy drifted right off though. She's not as cold-blooded as I am.

In the morning I stayed at the apartment while she went to her meeting then we went to Coras's for breakfast. Had the usual waffle with apples and caramel and cream. YUMMY!! Then we picked up a parting gift for Claude and went to his work to return his keys. Ended up staying there the rest of the afternoon, having supper, and then going shopping with him after work. We went to Winners and I bought a great bag to carry my books and notebook. Good for the days when I meet with my writing workshop. Also good for the days when I go into the office for work. The best buy was when we went to Victory Meat and bought lots and lots of meat at knock-out prices! That was pretty exciting. We drove home in the dark, but the weather was clear and Stacy had a rental car (a 2005 PT Cruiser) so the frost heaves were a breeze -- talk about a nice car on the road! We're all big PT Cruiser fans now.

And so I'm back, none the worse for wear and feeling really good about my writing, really energised to continue work on my novel, though extremely tired at this moment.

Mood: Pleasantly Tired
Drinking: Tea
Listening To: I've Got to See You Again, Norah Jones
Hair: Slick (We need to discuss this in detail, more soon)