I proposed at the Chartwell, one of Vancouver’s better restaurants, on the Thursday night of the conference. I had purchased a ring with a Canadian diamond in the U.S. and was in the funny position of bringing it back into Canada. Fortunately I didn’t have to answer any questions at Customs.

Less fortunately, on the way to the restaurant we were accosted by an illing junkie whose appeals for money became continually less logical. With the ring in my breast pocket, I was wondered about getting mugged.

Once we passed that hurdle the dinner went very well indeed,and the management sent us on our way with little pastries in honor of the occasion.

That was a good trip.

Bruce - The New Yorker Book Festival is wonderful if you go to see presenters. I’m still swooning after sitting so close to Seamus Heaney and hearing him read about digging potatoes with his gorgeous lilt. If you need to network (I say NEED because who really WANTS to), then AWP’s a better bet. But NYer puts on the better show and pulls out the really big guns.

JD - You better come back and give some details about the proposal!

It’s a great way to see who is publishing what and meet editors with whom one has corresponded, but by Saturday afternoon I’m in sensory and social overload.

The Vancouver AWP is my favorite so far, as there I proposed to the woman who is now my wife.

Pluses

There was a generous conference fee waving program, without which I wouldn’t have been able to afford going. A couple of hours of volunteer work (hall monitor, handing out conference badges to new arrivals etc.) and the rest of the time was my own.

I got to sign copies of my novel at my alma mater Antioch U. booth at the book fair.

Minuses

I couldn’t seem to make the networking thing work for me. The interaction atmosphere felt rather strident–like peer/camaraderie possibilities (bs ing at the bar) were subverted by the need to prowl for publication possibilities i.e., “should I be yakking with you if you’re not on my career track radar screen?” But then I’m a notoriously awkward schmooser.

Was disappointed to find so many presentors reading from a prepared paper. Seemed to squelch interaction with the audience. I could have sent my nephew (an Austin resident) down with a tape recorder.

Not going this year due to a schedule conflict–possible book signing at a joint Mountain Plains and New Mexico Library Associations Conference.

Might consider New York next year, but I’ve always wondered if the New Yorker Book festival held every October might not be a better bet, if one is to make the trip to NY.

I’m glad to see you’re going, Susan. Save a dance for me.

Lance - I’m a definite for AWP in NYC. I’m sending you something today.

Daryl - I think the only thing that makes people scared of going indie is the marketing. But maybe the internet has begun to level the playing field. Indies have always won the battle of being the most passionate.

no AWP yet, and not this year (can’t step away from what I’m doing to go). But…next year looks perfect.

oh yeah, Thanks for helping the Park Terry!!!

xoxo- L.

An Argument for Writers’ Taking Charge by Johnny Temple, publisher and editor of Akashic Books of New York, while written in 2005, is an article that captures the spirit of Indie Presses and Noveltown to this day.

“Today’s indie publishing community is in some ways reminiscent of American punk rock in 1982. In that era, bands took it upon themselves to carve out networks that would connect the punk scene in San Francisco to the one in Phoenix, the one in Lawrence, Kansas, to the one in Washington, D.C., to Amsterdam’s, to Belgrade’s, to Israel’s, to Bangkok’s, and beyond. Working closely with indie labels, bands did the dirty work of booking their own tours and driving in decrepit vans and sleeping on floors and in parking lots—hammering out a vibrant (and, yes, highly flawed) new underground culture where one didn’t exist before. A similar grassroots approach to local- scene building—and to the networking between those scenes—is under way in indie literature.”

to read the rest, you have to go here:
http://www.nlbelardes.com/blogger/2007/02/indie-presses-and-writers-reminiscent.html