This week I was able to do some catching up with Peter Kwong, who writes a regular column for the Burnett Sentinel and is a celebrity chef and restaurant consultant. I don’t get to see the Sentinel often but when Peter wrote for the Inter County Leader, his schtick was to play the ignorant immigrant with “so much to learn” about the USA. In the process of playing that out, Peter was able to show us ourselves in revealing ways and in ways we’d probably never thought about. It was brilliant. Over coffee this week at Pure & Simple (they have my “mangled” fairy tale books for sale) Peter caught me up on Chinese New Years. It is the Year of the Snake and Peter’s columns about that observance deal with the legend of the white and green snakes. It’s pretty complicated so it’s taken Peter two weekly columns of explain the whole story. I enjoyed our “catching up” and look forward to more in the near future.
Last night I read two stories at the Amery Area Public Library. Our host was Trevor Richards, who leaves soon to become the director of the library in Bruce, Wisconsin. Turnout was small–five people, including Trevor–but the response was very positive to my reading The Great Experiment and Little Red Hoodie. Those stories can be found in The First Gathering of The Break Time Stories and The Second Gathering of The Break Time Stories. LaMoine MacLaughlin was one of the attendees, which was an honor for me since LaMoine contributed a positive introduction to each of my story collections and took first prize for fiction/short stories from the Wisconsin State Arts and Letters organization and served as Amery’s first Poet Laureate to boot! Years ago LaMoine told me readings by writers never draw much of a crowd and sometimes I’ve found that to be true. In Amery, a 6 p.m. reading doesn’t draw many people, even with good PR and a history of reading stories at the Northern Lakes Center for the Arts, as a fund raiser to help resurrect the old movie theater, and after several years of having my stories broadcast each month on WPCA-FM radio. However, long ago I decided in church that even if only one person showed up that I’d give them the best shot I could and I do the same for anyone who shows up for one of my story readings. Besides, reading my stories aloud is fun–and I know the author.