Archive for the ‘Events’ Category

My toy camera photography will be featured in the gallery show Puzzles and Solutions. Please come!  Event details are here.

Friday, August 27th

7:00pm – 10:00pm

744 Alabama St (between 19th and 20th)  [click for map]

San Francisco

Live Music from Kelly McFarling and Jhameel.

I promise you will enjoy yourself.

Best literary event in San Francisco?  You decide.

Quiet Lightning happens Monday, August 2, 7:00pm, at the Rickshaw Stop.

(Bring all your friends).

(And what a great way to witness print-on-demand in action!  Every piece read at the event is collected in an anthology and published through Lulu.com.  The books are ready to go the night of the show.  Check it out.)

Last week I entered the nebulous world of online publishing, and I also gave two live readings.  Until last week I’d not posted any of my stories online (aside from my weekly restaurant reviews) because when you put something on the internet, well, it’s out there, and you’ve relinquished all control.  But after talking to a few other writers who have had great success online I posted my story, “The Submersible,” on Scribd.com.  Within a week over 3,400 people had checked it out.

The opposite of sending my story out on the anonymous information superhighways was reciting for friends at a reading.  On Tuesday, I joined the Tuesday Night Writers for “First Draughts, Pints and Prose,” (the Marin IJ wrote about the event), at Peri’s in Fairfax.  Then on Thursday I read my short story “The Submersible” at Inside Storytime, at Cafe Royale in San Francisco.  Inside Storytime was named Best New Reading Series in its inaugural year by SF Weekly and is hosted by Ransom Stephens, Yanina Gotsulsky, and James Warner.  Both readings were a lot of fun, and they each offered instant feedback from a crowd, a chance to share, and a chance to feel people’s reactions.

Now that “The Submersible” is out on the internet airwaves I have received comments and feedback from complete strangers, which, in its anonymity, carries a certain weight that is different than the familiar smiles from my friends at readings.  It’s not better, or worse, it’s just different.  And when I read the story live, I got that immediate gratitude of telling people a good story.  All my hesitations about publishing online are now dissolved, and my eagerness to read to roomfuls of people is even stronger.  Both methods of delivery get back to the heart of why I write: I want to tell people good stories that let them see the world from a carefully developed perspective.

Upcoming reading : Inside Storytime

June 17th, at Cafe Royale. 6:30 – 8:30 PM.

(Oh. And don’t forget to s t r e t c h!)