Sold a “Cheesesteak” to another of the café’s literatti. (She had bought an IWKYA previously and I had bought two of her books.) She had been eying my display, and, after I came back from taking a phone call (or peeing), she said, “I’ll take this.” She had asked one of her tablemates, a well-regarded folk musician, and he’d touted it because he’d found my youth in Philly had paralleled his, a few years earlier, in Detroit. (I was flattered by the comparison but I should say our tracks diverged our senior years of college. He had spent his in the Bay Area, returning to Ann Arbor only for exams. I didn’t go to class either, but I never made it out of Waltham.) “See what it takes,” she said. “Word of mouth from someone you respect” – and snapped here fingers.
Sold an IWKYA to Irving (See “Adventure” 275). Before he’d even finished it, he invited me and Adele to dinner. I thanked him but said, truthfully, we didn’t go out much. Like one dinner out with a friend in, I don’t know, the last decade, minimum.
In other news…
1.) A writer pal picked up the lunch check and said, “That’s for your VISTA book when it comes out.”
2.) Speaking of which, M sent the edited/formatted m.s., which I’ve reviewed/revised and returned to him for finalization. So it should be at the printer’s soon. If you want a copy in return for a SASE (or a lunch), get it (or the invitation) to POB postmarked by the end of this week. Otherwise, it’s cash only.
[ALL BOB’S BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE FROM www.theboblevin.com.]
So many Bob Levins on the Internet; I'm the Bob Levin who writes.