Vera in Dallas, Miami and Toledo
With Culinary Notes
The Vera tour continues as I eat and drink everything in sight (pictured above the dirtiest martini in the Dallas Tap Room, Sylvania, Ohio).
I landed in Dallas on Tuesday and it was game on in terms of brisket and pulled pork at the Pecan Lodge in Deepest Ellum.
The juices dribbled down my chin in the 96 degree heat, but this is what dedicating your life to food means — always be eating.
The wonderful Slavophile and publisher of Deep Vellum Press Will Evans joined me on stage at the Dallas Art Museum and we found at least on reader who has read ALL SEVEN of my books. Hats off; I am not worthy.
If you’re wondering how much of a Slavophile Will is, I direct you to his arm:
Yup, that’s Mayakovsky over there, along with Gogol and Pushkin. By the way, people in Dallas really know how to dress.
And then it was off to Miami to my beloved Books and Books in Coral Gables. Listen, no one has done more for indie book stores than the Don of Indie Lit Mitch Kaplan. He was my supporter from my first book, Russian Debutante’s Ball (I always get the title wrong), and he’s going strong twenty-three years later.
I seriously love this man. Miami readers are super lovely (I hugged so many people, it might have been illegal) and they own the craziest watches like this Universal Geneve White Shadow (a really, really deep cut for horologists).
Look at that bracelet!
And then it was on to Ann Arbor where I signed a whole bunch of books at the venerable Literati and of course pigged out on corned beef at Zingerman’s.
Next, Toledo, or to be more precise the cute town of Sylvania right by the Michigan state line. I went to school in Ohio (Doberlin College), so it was wonderful to be back.
I somehow signed audio books and was given this incredible poster of dachshunds to commemorate the most recent addition to my family, Bernie the Weenie Dog.
I am now about to fly home to cuddle with said woof-woof, but next week it’s the Mark Twain House in Hartford on the 23rd and the Brattle Theater in Cambridge on the 24th. Please come on down! There’s lots of crazy fun to be had.
Is it wrong for me to write a book because my 5th English teacher had us look up words in the dictionary, and I learned that my dad was using words incorrectly.
I have my own personal copy of Little Failure. I nearly finished Russian Debutante's Handjob and also Asurbdustan.
I did the retarded Jordan Peterson writing exercises. Only because I am poor and can't afford a computer. Not because I think that he gives good advice. I can't take a man who sounds like Kermit the frog seriously. And from doing that writing, I think that I sound terrible. I hate my stories. No one wants to read stories that sound like a female Charles Bukowski. I quit drinking and become suicidal after terrible encounters with broke, dusty men. No one would want to read this shit.
Enjoying your latest, “ Vera” and have been reading everything that you write since a co-worker handed me a paperback copy, held together by a rubber band, of “ The Russian Debutante’s Handbook”.
The New Yorker article of Oct 4, 2021, paragraph four……
The cover of Vera, with the young girl's head shaped very much like……
The bow tie that looks like a gift bow…..
Surely I am not the only person to comment..