I'm ensconced in a Starbucks now with my venti chai latte, hoping to work for a while. Then Avi and I are planning on meeting for lunch, and then I'll head downtown to putter about NY for a bit, then probably find another cafe and work some more until my reading at 7:30...
Here are some quick photos from the reading in S.F., or rather, from Trader Vic's, the slightly scary tiki-themed restaurant a bunch of us went out to afterwards. I was really pleased that we had several people from DesiLit Bay Area at my reading; so happy to know that that's still going strong. Their monthly potlucks sound like so much fun -- we really need to get those going in Chicago too, once Kriti's over. The reading itself went really well -- about 35-40 people, I think, an attentive crowd, even if they were a bit scared of the big mic that came over every time they wanted to ask a question (because it was being recorded for local NPR). Read "Monsoon Day." Very sweet bookstore folks; I'd be happy to go back there anytime -- and in fact, I think I promised to come back when I had a new book...
Sadly, I don't remember everyone's full names -- hopefully someone can fill those in for me. In order, it's Sunita (with a gardenia in her drink!), me, Mahmud Rahman and Jessie, Pireeni Sundaralingam, and Minal Hajratwala (with lovely cherries in drink and on shirt). There were more folks at the other end of the table, including Cliff, Auros, Harry, and two more DesiLit folks, but I didn't get a good photo of them, because I suck. I didn't even get a photo of Sandip Roy, who was sitting right next to me. Weird.
