The Journal of Michael Merriam

Last night's reading went well, I thought. We had a good crowd, nearly 30 people in the store, and Greg had to bring out more chairs for the audience. There were plenty of familiar faces, and some folks I had never met before, which is all to the good.

We arrived early, as is our custom. careswen handled the business end of things, setting up the books, making strips of paper for people to sign for the giveaway prizes, and generally working the crowd. We set the brownies and lemon bars out and Eric Heideman, who runs the Speculation Reading Series, brought drinks. When I bought the gift certificates to giveaway, Greg chuckled about how we really seemed to be organized, and I pointed out that one of the reasons we brought food and gave away gifts was that, even if I sucked, the audience might at least walk away happy from free food and swag.

Eric introduced me, and then I talked to the crowd a bit about what I was going to read. I found myself talking into the bottom of a water bottle. There was a perfectly good reason for this.



Since there were new people and unfamiliar faces, I started by reading from the short story collection, in the hopes we might sell a couple (we did, indeed, sell two copies). I read "Protect and Serve" first, a short, light-hearted piece to help me settle and warm up. I followed with "I Took the Tear," a short poem about love and time dilation. I read it a little too fast, sadly, but it seemed to go over well.

After that I switched to new stuff. I started the new works by reading the entirety of "At the Edge of Twilight, Melissa Remembers Flight." By then I think I had settled down and was reading better, and I was pleased to be reading something new. This seemed to be the piece that received the strongest over-all reaction, with several people telling me after the reading how much they had enjoyed it. I finished with a short action scene from "The Horror at Cold Springs," the Steampunk/Weird West novella that will be coming out later this year. I stopped at a tense moment and had people wanting more. I told them I'd let them know when the anthology it is appearing in becomes available for purchase.



And then I was out of time. I stood around and talked with several folks who had come out, and was pleased to see so many of my friends. (Dudes, there's just too many of you to list by Live Journal names, but you know who you are, and I feel blessed to have you all in my life). I was also pleased that they all seemed to enjoy themselves. After the reading we packed up and headed to The Cardinal, a local sports bar, for after-reading conversation and drinks. I met some new folks and had a great time talking with everyone, staying longer than I thought I was going to, since by then I was starting to feel less than well.

I made some tentative plans to get together with some folks at conventions next year, and to maybe share a signing table with someone. All-in-all, it was good night! Thank you, everyone who came out to hear me read.

All of the photos above are courtesy of and copyright by timprov. Thanks for letting me use them!