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The Waterstones auction happened. The J.K. Rowling Harry Potter un-prequel card went for a bit less than the $10 million that some newspapers were predicting (about $9,951,000 less), but I don't think the auction was really being run to raise money as much as to raise awareness -- of the charities and PEN and of (most importantly) the existence of the upcoming all-profits-to-charity-and-PEN 5 pound-a-pop postcard book, and I think it did that and did it well...
Read the stories at http://www.waterstoneswys.com/
(You can pre-order the postcard book here -- limit of 2 per person.)
And the answer to my puzzled wondering of how on earth did Ms Rowling squeeze a reported 800 words onto that card? I was pushing to write a legible short story in about 300 words... was revealed. She turned it over. Fair enough. (Richard Ford also cheated and used two cards.)
There's a full report over at The Guardian:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2284857,00.html
As I said, you can read all the stories at http://www.waterstoneswys.com/. I've not read them all yet, but my favourite of the ones I've read so far was the Tom Stoppard "Idiomatic Farm" one. I was interested in the Atwood one when I read that,
Margaret Atwood appeared at the ceremony via videolink from Paris, wielding her celebrated LongPen - which reproduces handwriting remotely via sophisticated electronics - to handwrite her card "live". Her story, which she said she had struggled to condense into a form barely more capacious than a simple joke, provides a fresh spin on the Canute story, working in both domestic and ecological politics.
Which it may well do, but I found it more or less unreadable and cannot tell if this is because of her handwriting or the way the LongPen reproduces it.
Mine went for about $2500 to someone who really wanted it and was thrilled to get it, so I am happy, and most of all I like the idea of people actually sending the stories to each other through the post. (
Using, I hope, classic Hammer Horror stamps. Or better still, the Carry on Screaming stamp...)
When they first asked me to appear on WAMC's The Roundtable, I assumed I would be going to this stately building:
After hammering down the details, I discovered I would be going to this less stately storefront:
However, what I quickly realized is that some of the best work is produced in less-stately places. Heck, BIG SLICK was written in my dining room which is not stately at all.
Upon arriving, Sarah LaDuke, the associate producer, welcomed me and got me a much needed water. Then I sat around and listened to a good portion of an interview with Phil Donahue. Yes, this Phil Donahue:
Then, out came President/CEO of WAMC and political pundit, Alan Chartock, along with his dog (who looked quite a lot like Tin Tin's dog, Snowy). We chatted a bit about my book, about Albany and about the state of media today. Although we only talked for a few minutes, I could tell he was an interesting guy.
During the Donahue interview, they whisked me into Studio A where I begged a few photos from the hosts of the show. Here I am with Joe Donahue and Julia Taylor (Julia is the one on the right):
I think the interview went really well. If you are interested in hearing it, just click on this link and click on the little mp3 button. Keep in mind that it might take a few minutes to load up depending on your connection speed. Let me know what you think!
