In which we learn that...

we shouldn't play with iTunes when we're very tired unless we really want to listen to Emilie Autumn's version of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." On the harpsichord. We think we do now, but will we still think that tomorrow when we're no longer using the royal or editorial "we"? Probably. :-)

So, Atlanta. Friday night - After dire warnings about the state of the neighborhood, I was standing around at the bus stop by myself watching people gather and the bus not come. There continued to be no bus, but lots of gathering. I asked the woman next to me what the schedule was and it turned out she was going to the event too so we got ourselves a cab and took off. Spent some time in amiable conversation with my new friend, then headed inside for the festivities. Pearl Cleage was absolutely amazing and very, very moving. The Indigos were terrific and Alice Walker was fascinating. The church that was hosting the event sent a fair number of their congregation to the event and it was a jolly time all around. I got to chat with Pearl Cleage briefly and tell her how much her work meant to me. She is every bit as gracious and charming off stage as on, which is a fine thing to be. :-) Afterward, my friend from the bus stop and I hitched a ride with one of the women from Charis Books, who was kind enough to drop us near our respective places for the evening.

Next day dawned bright and early and I headed down to the library for the Atlanta Queer Lit Fest. The high points: heard some excellent poetry by a few of the local slam champions. The table from Outwrite Bookstore and Cafe was well stocked and filled with interesting books. Sat through half of a presentation on archiving your records. I took off for thirty minutes or so to get lunch for later (and coffee for the morning), then came back. By then, it was clear that attendance was quite low and likely to stay that way. In addition, due to the auditorium being unbelievably warm, events in that space were set back about 30 minutes which then became 45 minutes as the morning wore on. Sara Amis, Lara Zielinsky and I started at 12:45 rather than 12PM, each read our pieces and finished in under an hour, which might have been helpful toward rescuing the schedule except that there didn't seem to be any responsible parties around when we finished to inform of that interesting development. We hunted around for a few minutes, then I bought Staceyann Chin's new book, The Other SIde of Paradise but there was still no one around to get the schedule moving as far as we could see so Sara and I took off for lunch. I didn't get a chance to attend any of the other events so I'm hoping they went better than Saturday's. No idea what happened with the rest of Saturday afternoon or why things were the way they were.

At any rate, lunch was delightful. After sushi and sashimi, we headed over to Charis Books and More, which is an amazing bookstore. I acquired Ash by Malinda Lo, Soulless by Gail Carriger, The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You by S. Bear Bergman and tea with literary quotes on the labels. There was cake and chatting. Eventually, I sat down at a table with my books and twiddled my thumbs (also known as playing on my iPhone) for a few minutes. I met author Diana Cage and we chatted briefly. Lara stopped by to chat some more. My friend from the bus stop came by to say hi. I talked to the owners and store staff and a few customers. All in all, it was the jolliest nonsigning signing I've ever done.  Well, they did have me sign their stock just before the ever charming degruy came by to whisk me off to dinner. Dinner was Latin American fusion of a sort and we had a fine time (or at least I did and he faked it well :-). Charis was kind enough to ask me back for a future reading so there was additional warm fuzzies all around.

And from there home without incident. Except for my back being sore from packing along too many books.