Stuffing Stalker

Last eve was the Writer's Guild of Alberta and Wordfest Christmas Party at the Rose & Crown Pub. Fun fact: the R & C used to be a funeral home. The party was also a reading-- Julia Williams and Melanie Little each gave a stellar reading and there was also an open mic.

Melanie read first, and she read a story called "Certain Things About My Mother," a short story which appears in a 2003 Annick Press anthology by the same name. I really liked the story and thought MY mom might like the story for Christmas. Melanie underestimated the demand for a Little literature though, and had only brought along her collection Confidence, which I happily bought instead. I think my Mom will ike that one too. The WGA presented Melanie with a family skating pass as a gift, which was very nice.

Julia read poetry from The Sink House. It's been a while since I have heard her read from that and I really liked hearing her voice with those words. She also read new stuff from her agoraphobic paranoid hypergraph project (see my December 7th post) and ended with the line "One day I will stop writing, even imaginary writing, and then even I will know I am dead." Good stuff! Samantha of WGA presented Julia with a skating pass too, which suited Julia just fine as she admitted she jumped at the chance to read alongside Melanie as she's stalking her. Heh.

I think we're all a little in love with a Little. Melanie sold some books to the WGA crowd, which was great! But Julia's book took a walk and Dave of the WGA had to track it down and threaten an elderly woman in order to get it back, prompting Julia to quip that her book doesn't make much of a stalking stuffer... er... anyway it was brilliant last night.

Fun facts: Peter and Melanie are staying in Calgary after the Markin Flanagan W-inR term is up! Peter is fond of punning to a degree only witnessed in db previously in this town-- so I think we need to lock the two up together in the Rose & Crown basement for an evening so they can work that stuff out of their system.