I couldn't make it to the Greek Islands last month so Lux Lotus pal Evi Labropoulou was kind enough to send a report of her recent reading (see also: her Lux Lotus interview and an exclusive excerpt of her work):
Where did you get your shoes from?/
Have you done the things you describe in your books?
I had been avoiding to do a reading in Kavala, my hometown, cause, well, it’s my hometown. However, I recently did. As expected, everything went wrong.
First, the main speaker called to report he was about to cry cause he was going to let me down as something terrible had just come up. (He was chasing a taxi containing his precious laptop, which he had packed in order to bring to Kavala.) That was two hours before the event. Then the second speaker called to say she was approaching Kavala in her car, alias sunstroke and dehydrated. Her exacts words were, ‘I am coming if I manage not to faint”. When I arrived at the crowded bar, the gay guy who had been coordinating the excerpt readings, told me that one of the actresses had just sprained her ankle and would not come!
That was a good moment for me to faint. Yet, I remained cool. That was the third and the last evil thing, I thought to myself.
Then the male director declared I was not to worry, he was going to read the female excerpt himself, to prove that this was a unisex scene. This guy was not going to miss the opportunity to play the role of a woman. So I sat there wanting to throw my (heavy) shoe at his head while he was slaughtering my excerpt (he read in the most pompous way possible).
And then the lights were on me.
I was expected to entertain 150 heavily sweating people – see, a huge heat wave was happening, and there was no airconditioning.
I felt as if someone had pushed me on a theater stage.
I said, “I was planning to hide behind the main speaker, cause he is a very big guy. But I can’t hide now.”
“Great, they said, we have come here to see you, not him.”
“Ok, I said, any questions then?”
“Tell us something about your books”, they said, since obviously nobody else was going to.
“I can’t talk about my books”, I said, “Next question.”
“Have you done what you write about in your books?”
“What, you are asking if I have done drugs and had sex in airport toilets? I can’t reply to this question, I said, my mom is here. And when my mom is here, I have never had sex at all.”
They laughed, and I kept them laughing for a while, and then I was signing books and listening to people tell me how fabulous I was (no shit! This has never ever happened to me before) and then I woke up in the morning cause it was all a dream. And although one newspaper said I would be right to be totally pissed, and several people said I should be pissed pissed pissed, I was not. I was all good vibes and good drinks and I hugged and kissed people, and I drank a lot, and it was the best, the messiest book event I have ever had. An ex-boyfriend was actually there.
A girl asked “May I ask you an indiscreet question?” and I thought she was going to ask about my age, but then she said: “Where did you get your shoes from?”
Visit Evi at hyper.super.
great shoes great job as a professional enjoyed the letter
Posted by: mom | September 12, 2008 at 10:25 AM