Chuck in Spokane

I wasn't at the Spokane one, but I was at the one in miami and it was great, and all of the people were awesome. Did you get any books signed? If so, what did he say in it?

You should have a blog you know, on your website, to let fans keep track of short stories and events etc.
Did anyone get any photos or recordings from this event?

Im glad it went well Monica. Im sure it was a little nerve wracking being onstage with Chuck. You should definitely get back to writing, we need Clown Girl Part Deux!

I didn't get anything signed--but I did sign a few rubber arms and legs!

Nobody I know took pictures, but I saw people with cameras, and if the battery on my own camera hadn't entirely flat-lined...drat. I know. I wish I'd taken a few.
I think I am going to update my website to allow photos and a blog. I'd avoided the blog thing for a few different reasons, but now I'm on the verge of giving in to that impulse. It's a good suggestion.
If you're looking for my work, I have a new short piece on nerve.com

It was nerve wracking, to share the stage with Chuck in front of his sea of fans, but then I warmed up to it and now I can't wait to do it again! Hopefully, Chuck willing and if all else works out, I will.

[QUOTE=Monica;1065778]I didn't get anything signed--but I did sign a few rubber arms and legs![/QUOTE]

Hey Monica! Great to see you here.

HA, you are so funny. So it was cool? Was that your first time reading in public with Chuck, or just since CG came out? Did people dig CG? Damn, that would've been so much fun. I took your book to the Chicago signing, but the lines were so long and the event so mismanaged, I didn't get him to sign it.

How's the writing going? Love to hear what you're working on.

Peace,
Richard

That was my first time reading with Chuck in years and years. I think he and I may have read together in a tiny bookstore a thousand years back, when we were all just starting out and Tom Spanbauer arranged the reading so we could have a little experience. I've been to many of his readings over the years, but not lately.

I'm writing, working--you can find one short piece on Nerve.com, I mentioned that up above, but otherwise I'm working away on a novel. I just wrote something which is, to me, very funny, but I'm sworn to secrecy until the big Feb. 15th unveiling. I's a commissioned piece for the Hugo House (hugohouse.org) based on the prompt "Love is the Drug," and will premier on the Hugo House website in February. I'm reading in Seattle for Hugo House, with Rick Moody (author of The Ice Storm, which became a movie, and a lot of other things) that same month.
That's the latest!
Thanks for asking.
-Monica

[QUOTE=Monica;1065812]That was my first time reading with Chuck in years and years. I think he and I may have read together in a tiny bookstore a thousand years back, when we were all just starting out and Tom Spanbauer arranged the reading so we could have a little experience. I've been to many of his readings over the years, but not lately.

I'm writing, working--you can find one short piece on Nerve.com, I mentioned that up above, but otherwise I'm working away on a novel. I just wrote something which is, to me, very funny, but I'm sworn to secrecy until the big Feb. 15th unveiling. I's a commissioned piece for the Hugo House (hugohouse.org) based on the prompt "Love is the Drug," and will premier on the Hugo House website in February. I'm reading in Seattle for Hugo House, with Rick Moody (author of The Ice Storm, which became a movie, and a lot of other things) that same month.
That's the latest!
Thanks for asking.
-Monica[/QUOTE]

that is all AWESOME - sounds like a lot of fun - kudos

It is a lot of fun. I actually love writing to prompts and with a deadline--so rare, in the world of novel writing. Something I discovered over the past year. Also, it's great to be able to appear next to people like Chuck and Rick Moody, cool writers I admire. I'm thrilled.

Wickerkat--are you writing? Are you in a workshop now? Good to see your words, if only as brief posts here.

[QUOTE=Monica;1065836]Wickerkat--are you writing? Are you in a workshop now? Good to see your words, if only as brief posts here.[/QUOTE]

Thanks Monica for asking. I didn't want to post up in here about it. I am working on my third novel right now (really, my 1st, since the first two were so bad they're probably dead, and since the CCI and your intensive I've gotten so much better) in the Max Barry intensive. He's helped me break through with my daily ritual, and for that, I am eternally grateful.

Any chance you're going to that NYC Writer's Conference? A lot of us are, fellow writers, and general nutjobs from the Cult. Derek, our resident Ireland Cultist is coming over, and it's turning into a party. Stephen Graham Jones may come out with us as well, he's been talking about it over at the Velvet. We may do a reading, people from the intensives that you may recognize.

Chuck is the best, glad you've been able to hang and reunite with him. That workshop back in the day must have just been so cool. Can't wait for more of your work, Monica. Please keep us posted, especially with your 2nd novel.

Peace,
Richard

I have family in spokane, and my aunt called and wondered if she should go and get something for me. She didn't go, unfortunately.

My dad lived in Spokane. He would get up every day around 5am and go to catholic mass. Monday, Tuesday, etc... There's not much to do in Spokane, I gather. I visited him once there. He was dating this woman named Judy, who was also, consequently, my third grade teacher, except much older than when I was in third grade and still as old as my dad or younger, maybe. She had two son's. One was named David. He was an Air Force pilot with a penchance for 80's era Adam Ant. The other son was named Jon. I was just out of Marine Corp boot camp when I visited and my head was still shaved short, and he took me to his room and showed me his Glock pistol. He said it was to shoot niggers with. I remember asking him what he meant. He never really explained to me what he was talking about except that white people are the new black people. I thought he was nuts back then, but now, I do think I am outnumbered, consequently I listen to nothing but hip-hop now. It's not that I don't want to embrace my white heritage, but I really don't know what my white heritage is besides Irish and English and Texan, and I'm not about to turn into an alcoholic leprechaun oil broker...

I've been studying a lot lately to be a certified personal trainer. My vocabulary list is full of things like like trochanter osteoarthritic distals, and occipatal lobe myofibrililating condyloids, and pulmonary occentualating semilunar valves. I just want to be done with the stupid test. CPR class was a joke and now I have to go learn how to difibrillate people with electrodes so I can have the difibrillating id card I need for my new job. I read a lot, but it's not stuff I want to read. Instead of Palahniuk... again... 'cause I read the same three palahniuk books over and over... CHOKE, INVISIBLE MONSTERS, and SURVIVOR, of course... now I gotta read about how to teach people to exercise on big inflatable stability balls. I would never work out on a big inflatable stability ball because I think it is stupid, but I have chosen this profession, so I must vaccilate towards their beliefs in the realm of modern physical fitness training...

The beginning of my text book lays down the law about being a personal trainer by stating that the future of certified personal training lies in dealing with sedentary, morbidly obese people and helping them strengthen their core since they never do anything physical now that we live in a computer age with cars and microwaves and walmart, except it doesn't mention walmart, at least not by it's name, only it's reputation. I dunno. I'm glad I'm not a sedentary morbidly obese person of the future. Learned helplessness... that's the future. Nobody wants to do anything that requires doing something that someone else could do for them. I'm no different. If I could pay someone to take this stupid test for me, I would, but I can't, so I won't. Plus, I never shortcut anything. I always longcut everything. That's why I post like this. Why finish doing something when you could do it forerever is my motto. I don't even have a motto, except that the future holds nothing but an enormous pair of big inflatable stability balls and futility. I don't know what is worse... futility or worthlessness. At least with worthlessness you know where you stand... back to the studying now... long live Palahniuk in Spokane...

[img]http://www.fwweekly.com/files%5C2006-03-29%5Cfeature_pic2.jpg[/img] < the only porn shop I go to since 1993. This is a picture from the Fort Worth weekly. It's actually located in a place called Kennedale which is between Fort Worth and Arlington. Not much there but some liquor stores, some salvage yards, a few trailer homes, a Super 8 motel, and some gas stations. It's in a black neighborhood. When I started going there, they only sold videotapes. Now it's nothing but DVD. I go there because they have this cool trade policy which they always had which is basically if you buy four movies at full price, you are in the trade club forever and can always trade for like $2 to $5 bucks, even on the $60 and up movies. Great deal. It's like crack and nicotine, except it's really addictive...