The guy who runs Newcity sent out a call-for-entries about the Printers Row Lit Fest. I wrote back that I could put something together about the time I was a featured writer along with Gillian Flynn and some others. He bit. Then I tried to write the thing and it was so bitter and shitty that it wasn’t even worth printing in his rag.

Good thing I have a newsletter…

In 2012, the Union League Club held a kick-off event ahead of that year’s book fair. The Trib was still running the show and selected a few promising young-ish and/or debut authors to showcase their forthcoming or recently published books. The University of Chicago Press had published Hack: Stories from a Chicago Cab the previous fall, and this was an opportunity to get the book in front of a few more eyeballs.

I’d never been inside the Union League Club before. Hell, I doubt I’d ever been inside any private club before and few since. A large room held about a dozen hightop tables, each featuring a single book, its author nervously or enthusiastically hovering nearby to answer guest questions and plug their product. I don’t remember what I said or to whom I said it; I do remember drinking a bunch of free wine, waiting for the thing to be over.

Gillian Flynn, who would publish Gone Girl that year, was at one of the other hightops. I didn’t talk to her or any of the other featured writers. Their career fates likely mirrored mine. Though Hack was optioned shortly before publication, fourteen years later no movie or show has been greenlit. I’ve published eight or nine more books, most of which were enjoyed by the few who read them, but not a one has caused the smallest ripple.

Flynn hasn’t published any novels since Gone Girl but she hasn’t needed to. Movies, TV shows, comic books, and untold other media have kept her off the street. 

Do schmooze-fests do writers any good? Did Flynn say something or meet someone at the Union League Club that helped launch her career? I couldn’t tell you. In the years since, I’ve participated in the lit fest several times to sell my books. I’ve never been part of any talks, readings, or get-togethers organized by the fest.

This year I’m part of two off-site readings. Might not be Sharp Objects or Dark Places but it’s not nothing. I’ll take what I can get.

This Sunday, like a dress-rehearsal for Printers Row, I’ll be at Paper Plains Zine Fest in Lawrence, Kansas. Pop by if you’re spending the dregs of summer in the vicinity.

I made pages for the art from three forthcoming books: The Suicide’s Grave, The World is Not Empty Without Reason, and The Sound and the Fury. Not sure yet when the latter two will appear but you can look at pictures while you wait.