Staying at David's now (while Kev runs around helping his sister with pre-wedding stuff). We drove up to Berkeley and stopped by Cody's (where I signed the three copies of BiM they had, still in the new arrivals, yay), and then went to Sushi-A-Float for lunch, where I missed Karen. I also spilled miso soup all over myself -- pretty much a full bowl, what a mess! Drying off your clothes with a bathroom hand-dryer is a slow and inefficient process. And you still smell like miso afterwards. We stopped at Other Change of Hobbit as well, where I bought seven books and signed two copies of BiM, which they had in new arrivals, yay again. So if you live in Oakland/Berkeley and you haven't bought my book yet, now you have no excuse! :-)
Today had a radio interview in the city with Sandip Roy for KALW, for which HC hired a media escort to pick me up and drive me around. Cool. Of course, the costs of that come out of my publicity budget, so it just gets taken from somewhere else, but still, cool. Very efficient.
The interview went well, I think -- Sandip is a sweetheart, a very charming and disarming interviewer who tempts you to reveal more than you perhaps think you ought, just because he's so soft-spoken and inviting. He'll let me know when it airs, and I will let you know. We talked a lot about sex and South Asian parents. :-) He also did the print interview with me for SFGate, which I think will go live tomorrow; will see. He loved the book and said he was planning on coming to my reading tomorrow, which is so kind of him. Very much appreciated.
Tonight, David's making Thai food for dinner with me and Holly and Alistair and Heather and Tim, and I bought Ben & Jerry's for dessert (something very chocolatey in the way of ice cream, and mango-lime sorbet), so it's all good. :-)
I’m not able to make it out to the reading tonight 🙁 But Sandip did a good interview! Congratulations!!!
The print version is on the *front page* of the Chronicle website – http://www.sfgate.com.
D’oh, I think I see a typo. “Wet and Aqua Erotica,” it says. Were they not two separate anthologies?
But congratulations, wow! I’m a serial sfgate.com reloader when I’m bored at work and was happy to see your photo and accompanying story show up.
And here’s a more permanent link: “Sexing Sri Lanka: How a Tamil immigrant girl grew up to become an erotica queen and new voice in South Asian literature.”
I like when Sandip Royis refers to her “sheltered von Trapp family life”. How anyone can come up with that line is just beyond me. Good article Jed.