February 7th
5:32 am LAX airport.
I’m tired and thirsty. Flew through security like it was nothing. Plenty of time to kill. Wish I could sleep, but we board the plane relatively soon. Realized my black bag doesn’t have any straps or wheels. Didn’t realize this until I had to lug it around the airport this morning. The weight of books is so much more than you known, but these are my literary babies birthed over the last 15 years.
8:36 pm Hotel Lotus
Alcohol is surging through my bloodstream. Only two drinks, but I feel these creative juices from a microbrewery. E. Rathke
who is typing god knows what on his computer to the right of me scooped me up from the airport this morning. This is the first time we’ve met even though we’ve corresponded digitally for years. I think a shared love for Kanye’s music and writing initially forged our friendship.“What are you writing over there?” I ask.
“Ah nothing, really,” as Eddy types away in the chair seated in the corner of the hotel room.
After the airport pickup, Eddy and I went to grab some bbq at Arthur Bryants. I had some ribs and a full order of fries which was much more than I anticipated. Felt like a small town bbq joint you see in a movie with black cooks, slabs of meat slammed on the cutting board, and a table full of cops gossiping. Food was great though. Made me bit sleepy and gave me the itis.
The next stop was the Kansas City Convention Center. Somehow we ended up at the Performing Arts Center, lugging around heavy boxes of books. Doors locked. Other people wandered around pulling on doors. A security guard looked at us strangely and said “the book thing” is across the street. We go across the street and find some sort of ballroom entrance. Security was wrong. These doors are locked as well. We drive around the building and we see people go in and out. Doors are locked. Multiple people wander around in confusion.
Someone tells us the convention center is right around the corner and there is only one entrance. They say this dramatically, emphasizing how there is only one entrance. We drive around the corner, park, and we can’t believe we missed the actual convention center. We grab the boxes which feel like the eighth time and we haul them through the center, up an escalator, and grab our badges. We find the table and set up shop while assisting a couple girls who need extra help with their setup as well cause we’re gentlemen.
After this, we check into the hotel which seems to take forever. A guy with overalls, weathered skin, and a snakeskin wallet somehow gets a room and leaves before we’re done. The room’s simple. Nothing too crazy. Me and Eddy talk about life and then we go to a microbrewery for dinner. Parking is always easy to find in KC and there’s never much traffic. We eat some Thai chili chicken wings with some fries and talk some more. We go to a CVS so I can grab some toiletries and the parking lot is dead. I’ve NEVER seen a CVS parking lot so bare before. It was somewhat unsettling.
We go back to the hotel room and chill as we patiently await
’s arrival who is supposed to be bringing J. David Osborne and Rios de la Luz with him. Is that blood or makeup on the lampshade? Who knows…Maybe I’ll work on Project Bunny Bloodbath, but I feel exhausted. Only time will tell.
February 8th
12 pm Convention Center
, Rios De La Luz, and J. David Osborne came through around 1 am knocking on the hotel door. I get up and let them, sleep heavy in my eyes, but I hype to see them. I haven’t seen JDO and Rios since AWP in 2016 and this is the first time meeting Kelby in real life.Everyone comes in and we talk life while JDO cracks a million inappropriate jokes and Rios playfully scolds him for it. The room is hot as hell and the AC only blows out cold air. We open up a weird window with no screen. Might as well be a suicide hatch. The majority of us fall asleep while Rios and Eddy excitedly talk about the show Community and how great it is.
Running off fumes, we bundle up in Kelby’s big ass truck and hit the gas station and then the convention center. We help haul boxes up books to the table and get ready for day one of the book fair.
Eddy is a great salesman. He projects his voice across the hall, hitting passerbys in the chest with a kettlebell-sized invitations to our table.
“Do you like weird books?” He opens, sometimes leaning back on his heels to catch people who’ve already turned the corner. They pause, thinking the question and come over.
We hit them with comps and genre labels. “This is Startrek meets Firefly, this is magical realism in this corner, this is Jordan Peele meets Hellraiser, this is animed influenced cyberpunk, this is The Wire meets Lovecraftian horror, this is hoodrat noir…”
People are intrigued and begin buying books. Somehow God’s Leftovers sells out while I do a lap around the bookfair. I’m somewhat shocked, but not shocked. We all sell books and play musical chairs with the two chairs we have. It’s interesting watching what books people gravitate towards. You can start to see what type of people will like our books from a mile away.
The only people who don’t fuck with us are people who want poetry or something less weird or more literary.
I run into Christoph Paul from Clash Books and we catch up on life briefly before I head back to the table.
7 pm Hotel Room
The day was a success. The whole crew was selling boatloads of books. The room is still hot as well. We’re recording a new podcast episode of Agitator talking about the convention and a short film we plan to shoot tonight. Unfortunately yet, fortunately, I have a date tonight with a Kansas City girl at Afterword, a literary-themed bar downtown. I never tried travel mode on the dating apps (Bumble) before but I said fuck it why not? Let’s go into unknown waters and have some fun. First date of the year…
February 9th
8:30 am Girl’s apartment
I’m sipping water and petting my date’s dog on her couch. She’s playing Kacey Musgraves and talking about how she cried to this song the other day. This feels like a movie or a book and I tell her I might use this in something since it paints a picture.
“Cool,” she says sipping water. She’s hungover and her head hurts.
We drank A LOT last night. It was espresso martini night, but I drank moscow mules. She tells me about her life as a sex therapist (my ex is Spain in a sex therapist) and I tell her about being a author and tarot reader ish. Eventually, the bar closes at 11 pm and we made our way outside and ended up at this cool jazz bar called the Green Lady. Red lights, dark vibes, and great music. We made fun of the finance bros behind us and drank some tequila mixed drink. After this, she requested I walk her to Town Topic which is a hot spot for drunk people to grab food. She orders a burger and fries and we share it on the walk back. Somehow we end up at her place.
What happens next? This is a secret part of my lore that only the Broken River Books crew knows.
4 pm MCI aiport
I was tired as hell today. Barely any sleep in KC. Cuddling with my date, my body was in one of those weird positions where my shoulder hurt. And I just couldn’t sleep. I think I got an hour if that. Kelby and company picked me up from her apartment and we went to the convention center. I update them and we sell more books. But I’m barely there. I drink a ton of water and eat some pizza to get some life, but it still doesn’t work. I tell Kelby I need to take a nap in his truck and he hands me the keys.
I set an alarm on my phone and pass out in the backseat. I wake up, check to make sure the doors are locked and the alarm goes off. A guy thinks I’m robbing the car and circles back to lock his doors and hurries away. I have to go meet up with Charlene Elsby at a coffee shop and almost interrupt a book reading in the back. We get chai lattes and talk shop outside and I apologize for being so damn tired.
I return to the bookfair, use the restroom, come out and run into Kyle Seibel. You probably remember him from the Literary Death Match I wrote about. I sell some more books feeling somewhat better, but then I have to go the airport. I hug everyone and say goodbye and Kelby takes me to MCI and drops me off. All in all, major success.
Currently Watching: Love, Death & Robots Season 3 & True Detective Season 4: Night Country & Ballers Season 5
Currently Reading: Cosmic Horror Monthly #3 and Pedo Island Bloodbath by Duncan Ralston & Less Than Zero by Brett Easton Ellis and Bedlam by Charlene Elsby
Currently Smoking: 8-Bit Buds Pre-Roll
Listening: The Danny Brown Podcast, Back from the Borderline, The Higherside Chats, Agitator, Mutual Aberration Society, Victory Light, and Lost Xplorers
Boat gets in his hiphop bag and it’s fire.
Beautiful song by Kanye & his daughter North. I love how it switches over to Ty Dolla Sign and his daughter on “Once Again.” Love it.
In honor of my date, I decided to throw this Musgraves song up here. She played this in her apartment, which set a certain mood, but it’s cool that Musgraves sings about her Saturn Return. This is dope though.
Until next time…
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