When Attending a Reading…
Litquake, San Francisco’s awesome literary festival, is in full swing. Check the schedule and find an event that works for you.
As someone whose less patient with readings that I’d like to admit, my heart leapt at this fabulous post by my friend Michelle Richmond on proper reading protocol.
Let’s face it, we’ve all been to those readings, at Litquake or
elsewhere, with four or five or six featured readers, where each person
is supposed to read for six minutes and some bozo reads for 15, or 20,
or blathers on for half an hour. No matter how wonderful you are,
unless you’re actually scheduled to read for half an hour, no one wants
you to read that long! The audience is getting antsy, and the other
authors are realizing that you think this is your event and
nobody else’s. And when people talk about it afterward, they’ll be
like, “Did you see so-and-so? I thought he was never going to get off
the stage!”
She’s so much nicer about it than I am. I just get angry at the offending reader and swear to hate them forever.
My Litquake resolution: A dose of Ms. Richmond’s light yet firm touch in dealing with tone-deaf bozos. Better than coming off as a tone deaf bozo yourself.