Shameless PR Hucksterism is exactly what it says, but with the added awkwardness of me squirming against an ingrained antipathy toward all things self-promotional. Fun!
As I close in on several theoretical release dates for Privilege (the publisher lists the date as November 1st, while on-line retailers, both indie and evil, come in at a slightly less optimistic November 15th), and dutifully race to my mailbox on the daily (shoving aside, Costanza-style, the condo complex’s less mobile elderly residents) in anticipation of the arrival a boxful of material hard copies that I cannot wait to hold in my sweaty meatspace hands; a package apparently still winding its weighty way across the prairies despite having been posted two weeks ago from Winnipeg en route to Calgary (Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night, but, y’know, when we fucking feel like it…), and after the first of several forthcoming waves of spam has already hit the inboxes of friends and family and colleagues and acquaintances and unlucky strangers whose e-mail addresses were for some reason stored in my contacts, and as I gear up to join the late 90s / early aughts by launching a full-fledged web site on the Internet (ushered laboriously into being by my kind friend and fastidious cousin-in-law-in-law, Bradley Arthur Fox), I’m starting to get… um… what’s that emotion that’s the opposite of the omnipresent dread that pervades waking (and oftentimes dreaming) existence? Oh yeah! Excited.
It feels, in the moment, like a feast of plenty. As with every feast, an enormous amount of work and build up, only to be devoured in a matter of minutes.
One of the more delectable side dishes spilling out of this particular horn is a legit, bona fide book launch, co-hosted by Great Plains Publishing and the Writers’ Guild of Alberta. The offish Privilege launch is happening on October 30th at 7pm at WURST (2437 4th Street SW), a wicked Bavarian-style sausage and beer haus in Calgary’s Mission neighbourhood. You can find out more details about the launch HERE, and RSVP to the event through the WGA Facebook page HERE. What is entailed in a “Social & Celebration”? What constitutes the “formal program”? Let’s find out together!
If you don’t live in Calgary, or can’t attend the launch, or in any event prefer to send felicitations from afar, please remember that I prefer candy bouquets to flowers. Better than these romantic gestures, order a copy of the book and review (i.e., rave or rant about) it over at Goodreads and Amazon.
There. Brand burnished. Now back inside the burrow.
