Vermont is the Vermont of the Vermont.
Lincolnshire, IL; Toronto, ON; Springfield, VT
Yesterday I drove to Springfield,VT, where I am staying with Hana and Steven at their house-next-to-the-barn-on-the-Christmas-tree-farm rental.
Yes, it's as cozy as it sounds. The roosters have been crowing all day.
Along the way I stopped in Albany to sign stock at both the Barnes and Noble and the Borders, where I had two dramatically different experiences, which is pretty much how it's been going the last few weeks with these visits.
At the B/N I was greeted so effusively I wondered if the staff members were related to me. The store manager - a super cute man wearing a bow tie - found me a special Sharpie, while another employee who was visiting there from the Saratoga store escorted me to a table in the cafe and offered me a drink. They seemed genuinely interested in the book, and the manager told me he had already reordered books once. (Who knew I had readers in Albany? So awesome.) The woman from Saratoga told me that she believes if there's a sticker on a book, it's as good as sold, which was really very encouraging. And before I left, the store manager offered to put my books in a nice position in the front of the store. This is pretty much all an author can hope for in a store visit, and I was really touched by the whole experience.
Down the street at the Borders, the young staff member in the Flaming Lips t-shirt asked me for ID after I told him I was there to sign stock. I opened to the back cover and held up the author photo next to my face. Fortunately, I have been waiting for that moment my entire life, so I didn't care one bit.
"You never know, someone might just come in and sign any old book," he said. He was simultaneously nervous and blase, like any good hipster.
"I doubt they'd actually tell you if they were going to," I said. "It's ok, I have physical evidence. I don't care." And then I added (and I'm not sure even now if I was trying to make him feel better or worse), "You are by far the most security conscious bookstore employee I've met."
But really, who goes into bookstores to sign books that aren't theirs? Did I really look like I was trying to con him? Did he think this was an episode of Punk'd? Dude, Ashton ain't going to no Albany, even if it's the state capital.
Still he was kind of cute. I will be a sucker for men who work in bookstores for the rest of my life.
+++
I got a really nice review over on the Tripwire. I love it when people totally get the book. You do not even understand how good it feels.
"The bracing seriousness of purpose underlying the intermittently fizzy, quip-filled surface provides a backbone to her work that places it rightfully next to some of today's best writers, including Mary Gaitskill, A.M. Homes, Lorrie Moore and Michelle Tea. Like these authors, Attenberg is able to smuggle lasting, resonant moments of pain and clarity along with the humor, like a Popsicle spiked with tequila, smooth and refreshing at first but leaving behind a pleasant sting and a bared soul in its wake."
(07/17/06)