Just a reminder that I’ll be reading with the Joyland Vancouver crew at The Railway Club, 579 Dunsmuir Street, this Tuesday at 7 p.m. There’s a concert in the place later in the evening, so the readings will start on time!

As a bonus for people who turn out, there will be prizes! Prizes! We’re going to have some sort of giveaway for people, and I’ll be handing out lottery tickets to some of the honourable souls who buy copies of The Warhol Gang — recipients chosen at random. I’m not buying tickets for everyone who buys a book because I’d need to win a lottery to afford that. But hey, what other reading offers you the chance to win $50 million? Even better, there will also be the usual postcard comics I give away to people who buy copies of the book.

See you there!

I lost my job but the government found me a new one. Now the government pays me to pretend I’m a travelling businessman. I fly around the country to imaginary meetings. It’s part of a project to make it look like the economy is doing well. I buy unsold seats on airplanes with fake company credit cards and tell my seat-mates about my imaginary businesses. I tell people beside me on the red-eyes about my bioresearch firm in Houston. I tell people beside me in the airport Starbucks about my contextual advertising firm in Toronto. I tell people beside me at the airport urinals about my air freshener firm in Milwaukee. I give them my email addresses and business cards, but none of these companies actually exist. I see the same people on the same flights again and again. I see the same people sitting at the same airport gates again and again. We introduce ourselves to each again and again, and pretend we’ve never met. We buy each other drinks and sleep with each other in hotel airports. We tell each other about our imaginary families in our imaginary homes. We hold each other in the dark and weep. We keep the country running. We are the economy.

Inspired by this article about renting white guys.

I’ll be launching The Warhol Gang in Vancouver on Tuesday, June 22, with Joyland.ca. It’s gonna be an extravaganza! Details in the poster below.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Toronto event last night. It was great to see you all again, and it was a fun reading. Even if I did miss out on the veggie burgers.

I know there were a few of you I didn’t get to chat with. Sorry about that. Next time!

Vancouver, I’ll see you soon.

Random shot in Toronto

As I mentioned before, if you post about The Warhol Gang, review it, or otherwise mention it online, you’re eligible to win a new, unpublished short story called “We Continue to Pray for Someone to Hear Our Prayers.” The initial reception to The Warhol Gang has been great, and I’ve sent the story out to a bunch of people. But I know I’ve missed a few, so if you’ve mentioned the book somewhere and would like a copy of the story, just drop me an email, tweet, Facebook message, Goodreads message, etc. I’d love to hear from you. I’m trying to entertain a newborn while doing press for the book, so I’m not Googling myself as often these days.

And for those of you planning on attending one of the upcoming readings, I will have small gifts for you if you buy a book there or bring one to the event to be signed. Just a way of saying thanks for attending a real-life event.

Here’s the original post again:

Like most writers, I want to get as many people as possible talking about the book. And if not talking about it, then at least thinking about it. Hell, I’ll settle for people buying it. So as an incentive, I’m offering a new, unpublished story for free to anyone who blogs about The Warhol Gang, writes about in the local paper, includes it in a status update, puts it in their Goodreads reading list, Tweets about it, defaces bus shelters with Warhol graffiti … you get the idea. You don’t even have to own the book to qualify, you just need to help get the word out.

The story is called “We Continue to Pray for Someone to Hear Our Prayers.” Did I mention it’s totally free? That’s right — free! Don’t pay now, don’t pay later!  And it’s only available to people who post/write about The Warhol Gang (for now). Just send me a link or a photo or some evidence that proves you did indeed talk about the book and you’re not just trying to take advantage of a poor writer’s generosity (scoundrel!) and I’ll send you a PDF of the story in a bit (it’s so new I have to wait for the paint to dry. Also, I’m still editing it!).

This offer is null and void if the link/post/comment/review is negative. What, do you think I’m crazy?

Just a reminder that I’ll be launching The Warhol Gang at the Taddle Creek event this Friday, June 11, in Toronto. I’ll be reading alongside Dani Couture, who’s launching her new poetry book, Sweet, so it promises to be a good time. I’ll be in Toronto Thursday-Sunday, so message me if you want to grab a coffee, do an interview, attack a Banana Republic, or some similar thing. I’m partially booked up, but I’ve got a few hours free here and there, and I’d love to hang out.

The Vancouver launch for The Warhol Gang is scheduled for Tuesday, June 22, at The Railway Club — 7 pm. More on that to follow.

Here are the details for the Toronto event:

Taddle Creek’s long awaited Out-of-Towner issue finally launches on Friday, June 11th, at the Jet Fuel Coffee Shop, 519 Parliament Street, beginning at 8:30 P.M. As always, there will be free beer (courtesy of Steam Whistle), a free barbeque (courtesy of no one), and free full-colour magazines (courtesy of a five-dollar subsidy from you).

This historic issue sees Taddle Creek temporarily remove its Toronto-centric restrictions, and features authors and artists from coast to coast in all directions. To celebrate further this one-time-only event, June 11th will also kick off The Taddle Creek Travelling Series of Happenings, a tour that the magazine hopes will see it play to tens of people across Canada and the U.S. this summer and fall (more info to come).

Given the lack of local talent in the summer number, readings will be provided by two regular contributors not appearing in the issue: the special Out-of-Towner guest Peter Darbyshire (Vancouver), who’s breezing though town hot on the launch of his new novel, The Warhol Gang, and the extra special guest Dani Couture. Dani will be launching her new poetry collection, Sweet (Pedlar), alongside the Out-of-Towner issue that evening, so bring some extra cash to buy a book and maybe she’ll get behind the grill and make you a burger.

Damn — another fine, fine review of The Warhol Gang. I’m honoured that people are giving the book such close reads.

This is one of my favourites so far, thanks to great lines like this:

Rarest are those books which drag the reader out of their comfy chair by the hair, pushing them to the ground, kicking them several times before standing — simultaneously — on their throat and groin, demanding, “What do you think of all this?” And they don’t let up until the reader manages to gasp, “I like it, I like it.”