A.S. King comes to town; we celebrate her love

Last night, at Children's Book World in Haverford, PA, A.S. King blew in through the back door (or perhaps she bobbled slightly) and that was it:  we were already in stitches.  Kate Walton and I had already arrived, claiming first-in-line privileges at this Ask the Passengers signing.  We'd been hearing all the good things—the many starry, best of things—about this newest King novel, and we were eager.

A.S. had been warned not to make me laugh (think of the damage to my gum graft stitches, I implored her), but she's unstoppable.  She roved, incautiously, from venison to rad eyeball wear to root canals to Rohm and Haas photography (yes, A.S. and I were working for this chemical giant at the same time, bizarrely) to chocolate pretzels (they're part of the root canal story) to streetwalkers to Poe to roach motels to wrecking balls to her electrical engineering talents to unventilated dark rooms—and the night hadn't even started.  She broke her don't-be-funny promise several times.  She read from Ask the Passengers and her forthcoming Reality Boy, and it was good.

But what was also good, or riveted to the good, was the feeling at Children's Book World, one of the best stores anywhere.  Kelly Simmons and Jenn Hubbard were also in the house.  The tried and true CBW entourage.  We had plenty of time just to sit and appreciate a writer who writes (in her gnarly radiating, radioactive ways) about love.

Now to clear away the corporate maelstrom that has had me down and out for weeks and find some time to read.