book talk

My book talk at Third Place Books in Ravenna went, in my opinion, quite well! Good turnout, mostly friends, friends of friends, and family, some of whom hadn't seen one another for years, and were stunned, as they admitted later, at how everyone had aged. The audience seemed pleased with the powerpoint pictures, particularly the one of Stevo -- Stevo's was the missing face in Lola's Luck. Stevo's studio portrait was taken by an agreeable gay couple who once had a studio on University Way -- they loved his arms and draped them fetchingly beneath his chin. My low-pixel camera shots of Machvaia, taken by a cheap camera, suffer from the comparison with Stevo's finely rendered studio shot. The only way I could bribe Stevo to patiently sit and be posed was to promise him a pitcher of martinis. The camera clicked as I came through the door with his reward and he beamed. Enticingly.