Last night I made another sojourn down to Orange County. Once again, a trip that should’ve taken an hour tops turned into more like two and a half, as a result of traffic and getting lost. But it was worth it. I went to see a reading by Brad Listi, a recent graduate of the writing program I’m in, who’s promoting his debut novel Attention. Deficit. Disorder. From the book jacket: “Days after his ex-girlfriend’s suicide, Wayne, a recent film school grad, flies to San Fransisco for her funeral. When he learns that she aborted their child, Wayne embarks on a search for meaning that takes him to unusual places and through some of the most influential events of the past ten years.” Sounds like a downer, but the sections Brad read aloud were very funny, and afterward he spoke about how he really wants to write books that deal with serious topics without being depressing. (He mentioned Vonnegut as one model for this.) That really struck a chord with me, as I’ve been wrestling recently with this issue of balancing the downbeat with the upbeat, and will probably be trying to incorporate a greater dose of humor into my fiction.
Anyway, I was sufficiently impressed with his reading to buy his book in hardcover, something I almost never do. I had him sign it, we got to talking, and then I tagged along with him and a friend as they went in search of blog fodder. I took this picture. We popped into a cosmetics store, and Brad asked one of the attractive salespeople if she’d mind posing with a copy of his book. He took her photo, then her boss came over and yelled at us that we weren’t allowed to take photos in the store. We went to a local restaurant for a post-reading reception with wine and hors d’oeuvres, where I met a bunch of friends and family. You can read more about it on Brad’s blog, which is apparently one of the most popular blogs on Myspace.
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