Shilling

Got a couple of things coming up I want to mention, because if you can't shill yourself on your own blog there's hardly a point to having one:

On the night of Sept. 14/15, I'll be a returning guest on the Jordan Rich Show on Boston radio station WBZ, part of the CBS Radio Network heard from border to border, coast to coast and all the ships at sea. I'm currently scheduled to spend about a half hour talking comics and graphic medicine with Jordan at 2 a.m. Eastern/11 p.m. Pacific. If you're up late and in an area that doesn't broadcast it, you can listen in live online.

I did Jordan's program once before and had a great time. He's a very good host, and a good egg off the air as well. I don't know if we'll talk about it on the show, but Jordan asked me to contribute to his annual "For the Children" fundraising booklet, which he's done for 12 years to benefit Boston Children's Hospital. I put together a page distilling the optimism and inspiration of WHTTWOT that I think will fit in with the essays, poems, recipes, and other contributions Jordan collects from his guests, some of them quite well known. I'll share that page a little later in the year, when the booklet becomes available.

Then on Saturday Sept. 22 at 1 p.m., I'll be part of a panel on "Novel Storytelling: The Art of the Graphic Novel" at the Sonoma County Book Festival, Courthouse Square in downtown Santa Rosa, Calif. Others on the panel will be terrific comic book artist Brent Anderson ("Astro City"), cartoonist Paige Braddock ("Jane's World"), and artist Justin "Coro" Kaufman (all kinds of stuff, including book covers and movies). I know Brent and Paige, and am looking forward to meeting Coro.

NOTE: our panel will be located a block off Courthouse Square at the Share Exchange, 531 Fifth Street. Because holding it where festival-goers will be gathered and might easily find it would be silly.

I like this festival, which I've attended as just a book lover. It's pretty low-key: booksellers, small publishers and self-publishers set up tables around the town's central plaza, with speakers and panels happening at different times and places. It's a neat regional event that draws visitors and participants from not just the county--which is disproportionately lousy with literary talent itself--but the greater San Francisco Bay Area. It's a nice place to meet some folks and sell some books.

* * *

There's a movie coming out later this month, "Looper," whose premise appears to be exactly the same as "The Adventures of Old Time-Traveling Brian" if old Brian were a mob hitman from the future and young Brian were assigned to kill him.



See?! Exactly the same! I think I'll sue.