I had every intention of writing about my Day Four escapades on Day Four, when I got back from the reading I was going to be doing in Nottingham, but when I finally stumbled home, I was a little worse for wine and decided it was best not to do internet things in that state. I'm all good now, though. So...
Day Four was a good one. It began with the words Gott kvöld (good evening) and Góða nótt (good night). This boded well.
Inspired by Josie Long's amazing homemade Kurt Vonnegut t-shirt, I decided I wanted to make one of my own, only with a jumper, and with Richard Brautigan on it instead. (No, I wasn't thinking at the time about how the hell I was going to fit "B r a u t i g a n" across a jumper.) So I got my sewing stuff out
and cut out the letters in turquoise felt.
before deciding that it was "too blue", and so I then cut out some pink letters to make it look prettier. The fun part was trying to get it all to fit on the finished jumper. After various shufflings about, I realised that it would have to be diagonal. I started sewing at four-thirty, and finished just after six, so in the time that I would normally be panicking about reading in front of people, all I could think was: just keep your fingers away from the pins and do big stitches. (Maybe I should do more sewing before reading nights?) Here's the finished jumper...
Hooray!
I wore it for my reading with Hello Hubmarine at Beatnik Guild. As soon as we got there, host Hannah Heartshape gathered us up in a group hug, which was lovely. The Arts Organisation is an amazing open space, filled with big sofas and excellent artwork. They also let you bring your own alcohol, which meant that me and Nath got through both of our "two bottles for £5" wine. Classy.
There was some great open mic poetry and then we did our set, which has changed slightly since the Summer Sundae one. I read an older story, Communion, from the Coffee chapbook. (You can download the PDF for free here, if you like.) And Nath and Jonezy did extra bits to make up for Biff's absence, as he was playing a gig back in Derby. We also had Jo Lewis on singer/songwriter duties, who completely blew everyone away. The crowd was warm and friendly, and I actually felt comfortable on stage, which doesn't happen very often. Huge thanks to James Walker of WriteLion (and LeftLion) for inviting us!
The rest of the night included a horrible dash across Nottingham for a bus, a drunken bus ride, and arriving at Big Blue just in time to watch Biff's (and the Mr's) band play. Day Four was a good day!
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