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Subject: what that says about lincoln nebraska

Yesterday was my first house reading, in Lincoln, Nebraska. It was organized by Gunter Voelker, who read The Adderall Diaries through the lending library. The event was in Clawfoot House, which is really just his friend Ember’s apartment. She hosts bands that come through town and they play shows in her living room. She’s also a musician, a singer/songwriter, and before the reading she played me the most wonderful song, accompanied by Gunter on a second guitar, a song so good it can only be described in cliches about angels and airplanes and weeping clouds.

There were 30 people, about the same as the book store in Seattle, Washington, but they were more into it. And they bought more books, even though they were poor. I knew they were poor because we talked about where they worked. And they were young. I felt bad, like I should have told them to wait for the paperback, or for the time when you could get the book used on Amazon for a penny, plus four dollars shipping.

It was many levels of beautiful. Some told me this was the only book they bought this year, but they were looking forward to reading it. I read from the book and talked in the front of the living room for about 45 minutes. We talked about memoir, who owns the story, what your responsibility is to the people you write about. I explained that the answer to many of these questions fell into a gray area. That ultimately you had to decide what you felt was right, and stick to it, while understanding other people could feel differently. You wouldn’t be able to please everyone. Artists are selfish, but we should all try to be kind.

I felt very connected to the audience. For a good while after the event we stood around drinking beer and wine and eating Mexican pastries. There was a gay couple there and one of them worked in a Christian bookstore. He promised he would get them to sell my book. There were musicians and music fans who had never been to a reading before.

I slept in a comfortable room on a comfortable mattress set on the floor. There was a bag of coffee on the windowsill in the kitchen next to the machine. Gunter gave me a ride to and from the airport and I learned about his job and his wife who is very stylish and works in the vintage clothing store and how he met one of his closest friends because of a mutual love for the writer Dan Chaon.

I met the most interesting people in Lincoln, Nebraska. I wish I had a camera…

Tonight, I’m reading in Austin, Texas, tomorrow I’m reading in Las Vegas, Thursday Los Angeles.

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These days, Dan Weiss is holding down Morning Coffee on his lonesome. How is he doing?

Skip Horack reviews Going Away Shoes by Jill McCorkle.

Steve Almond introduces us to some serious Tea Baggers (video).

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Thanks for being there.

stephen elliott

p.s. The next Monthly Rumpus in San Francisco is a special night of music and comedy featuring John Wesley Harding, Terra Naomi, and Kyle Kinane. Get tickets while they’re available.

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