“These poems are really sad…”
“Yeah…sorry about that.”
The scene is a sidewalk in Kansas City and I’m surrounded by brightly colored flowers and butterflies, a little reminisce of Alice’s trip down in Wonderland, so I guess it makes sense that you’d think that such a whimsical setup would have poems with light-hearted themes.
They, in fact, do not.
Sorry about that.
To be fair, if you’ve read my books you know that they’re not all meant to break your heart, but they might. But they might also show you that you’re not alone and that no matter what Life hands you, you can grow through it. And I hope you do
Lit on Grand – A Boozy Book Festival
This weekend I got to be part of Afterwords Tavern and Shelves 2nd Annual Lit on Grand. If you miss going to the bookfair as a kid, then this was the place to be this weekend. But instead of a juice box, you can get a fancy, literary-themed cocktail (drown yourself in Hade’s Sorrow or experience Ron’s Nightmare in drink form). I drank neither but stuck with my trusty red wine and a shot of tequila post-event.
It was so cool to meet people who have read my books, sign their books, and absolutely terrifying to stand there while strangers thumbed through the pages.
If you’ve been around for a while you know why I say “I hope you hate it” at the beginning of my books. But I forgot that not everyone does, so seeing people’s reactions when handing them a book with “I hope you hate it” was one of my favorite things yesterday.
Here’s a photo dump from yesterday, but first, THANK YOU for coming, stopping by and saying hi, buying my books and just chatting with me.
I’ve been making this set up in my “spare” time for the last month and it was so fun! I was able to reuse a lot of things: old plant containers that I filled with concrete for the bases, recycled paper that I painted for the petals and leaves, and old Sprouts grocery bags for leaf stems and flower centers. The flower stems are made with chicken wire, tape, spray paint and a whole lotta “fuck”s from cutting open my hands and fingers.
tetris level 100 getting everything into my subaru
done
done
post set-up snack
setting up
will squat for signings
drop it low
not a squat, but still relevant
as a mom had to bring chalk for the children (also me, if i got bored)
friends bring friends food
someone’s stunning drink omg
thirsting over motos
art by lauren
discovered that we will not be drinking wine from a can again
also stayed to help clean up my stuff
and huge shoutout to Lauren for being my emotional support human. Even though we are both pretty introverted, it helped having someone more introverted than I am because it forced me to be an extrovert lol.
author Pete and poet Landon
post-event tequila
mirror selfies forever
