Ahem. To put this coherently, in a mature sort of way: the Audubon Society of Portland held its annual Wild Arts Festival this last weekend. In addition to many wonderful artists, the event also hosts 30-odd writers. We book floggers sat at tables and authgraphed our books as people bought them. It was terrific for me. I sold out and got more books from my car and sold some of them, too. Signing at WAF (as we moss-back Auduboners call it) was a life goal and now my bucket list is happily one item shorter.
But it got even better! On Sunday, I was at the same table as Portland deity and literary lodestone Ursula LeGuin. I have pictures! Well, truthfully, she had her own table because she has so many books, and one author was between us, but still! She is a faithful Audubon supporter and we all remember the sad year she had a bad cold during WAF and couldn't come. It is wonderful to see this smart, talented, aware old lady surrounded by The Dispossessed, Left Hand of Darkness, Searoad, Earthsea Trilogy, and all the other fine books she has written. And if you are a person who thinks she is a science fiction writer and a person who sniffs that they do not read science fiction, wake up and smell the coffee. Try Searoad if you can't bear fictional planets. Those short stories are set on the Oregon coast in very real sand and rain. If you are willing to cultivate a taste for speculative anthropology, go for The Dispossessed and/or Lathe of Heaven. If only I were the stylist she is... If only I had that imaginative vision...
Four days of setting up the event, selling books, volunteering, and helping to take the thing down and now I am lying about eating aspirin and taking naps. But I've got this picture, see, and it was so worth it.
That's her! I am in the background in the blue sweater. Between us is Paul Gerald, a very pleasant fellow, who wrote Breakfast in Bridge Town, about where to find a great breakfast in
Portland.
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