Blame VanDemeer (even if it is Resnick’s Fault)
21. Nov, 2009 
4 Comments
I managed to make it to Jeff’s reading/signing at the Boston Borders last nite.
The event ran about an hour and a half – which is about how long it took me to get there – not counting the time it took me to get lost and found trying to find the bookstore.
City driving in Boston is not like city driving in NYC. Fairly frequently you can’t just make a right, right, right, left to head back the way you came (or left, left, left, right). Noooooo. You have to keep going and going and going to somewhere way out in the suburbs where they’ve finally deigned to provide an exit that offers a discernible path back to the way you really want to go.
Clue for Boston? Always take the local streets and never the highways. Clue for Google Maps? Go update your fuckin self!
Jeff (reading from Finch) was accompanied by David Anthony Durham (reading from The Other Lands) and Paul Tremblay, (reading from The Little Sleep); Jeff explained that the readings would progress from noir, through fantasy noir to pure fantasy (Paul, Jeff, David), though from the reading I think that Paul should have been described as ‘comedy noir’…
All three were personable, well-read and didn’t come across as ‘dopey’ (which one of them expressed as a concern). All three were gracious hosts and gave plenty of time and attention to the thirty-some odd fans that showed up.
I’ve got each of their readings on “tape” and will be fixing that up and getting it on-line within a couple of days.
Jeff also reminded everyone that all three authors are guest-blogging on the Borders Books Blog Bablefish (which unfortunately recommends readers to IO9. No Bablefish. If you want them to be fans rather than mindless drivelreaders, send them to SFSignal. Nah, can that remark. Of course Borders wants mindless money-spenders. Silly me.)
~~~
Mike Glyer goes off on Mike Resnick’s going off on Worldcon. Lots of discussion and maybe (just maybe) the issue of Worldcon attendance has finally risen high enough on the radar screen that something will really be done about it.
Probably not, but one can always hope that ten years from now five of us won’t be sitting in a Motel 6 somewhere east of Podunk saying “who’s turn is it today to say ‘those were the good ol days’?”
Read Mike’s piece here
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IIRC, the way to get around getting lost in Boston is to drive on the sidewalks and such. At least that was the way it was when I worked “in the area” and had to travel there for various work-related things.
Picked up the VanderMeer, several VanderMeer’s. Can’t quite figure out if I have all the “Ambergris” books or not. Wikipedia is a tad vague.
Great meeting you last night. Looking forward to the audio!
And driving in Boston (even for this Bostonian) does indeed suck and make no sense.
Paul,
thanks for stopping by: I enjoyed your read – it had me snickering. I enjoy the homage as well, with the (now explained) double entendre in the title.
Driving in Boston is always a pain, I’ve taken to parking at the handiest outside of Boston T station and taking the subway in. I actually got to the reading on time thanks to this stratagem.