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Another in the Academia.edu series, in which I make up poems for the titles of articles that adademia.edu thinks might by me.

Why I Can’t Use Someone Else’s Eggs

I mean, for cakes, sure, I’ll use the neighbours’. If I’m out. If I need a cake.
My own eggs drop from one side,
one a month.
Maybe they’d work fine.
It’s not that someone else’s eggs give me the willies.
I don’t have anything against someone else
or her eggs.
I just can’t use them.
There.
Now you know.
I’ve explained
myself
fully.

This month I’m one of nine writers Shaun Smith at Open Book Ontario polls on how reading other people’s fiction affects their writing.

After reading Anakana Schofield’s entry, I’m reminded of Eudora Welty saying “Indeed, learning to write may be part of learning to read. For all I know, writing comes out of a superior devotion to reading” and wish I had included that in my answer.

Thanks to all who made it out to the Vancouver launch of Gay Dwarves of America. As promised, there were ukuleles and word games, but as it turned out, the word games stayed in the bag. Everybody was too busy to play games. Maybe some other night. I worked up a special bonus verse to that good ol’ Canadian novelty classic, “My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors” (‘who’s on the ladder? it’s Caroline Adderson!’ etc.) and recruited friends to be up on stage with me to lead everyone in singing it, another friend to hand out song sheets at the door. Wonder of wonders, everyone sang! It was excellent. I had toyed with the idea of also recruiting audience members to read “Thirty-One One Word Stories,” the last piece in the book, and had gone so far as to print out and cut up the stories/words to hand out. In the moment, I thought, Nah, keep it short, so I just read a section from “Thorn-blossoms,” a story about a hockey mom who likes to adopt different personas at hockey arenas dealing with her mother’s dementia. But then, in the Q and A afterwards, Zsuzsi Gartner asked about the one word stories, so I went ahead and handed out the snippets of paper. The result was fantastic. It’s way better hearing the stories in many people’s voices than in one.

Mark your calendars. April 25, 7 pm, at Our Town Cafe at Broadway and Kingsway and Main. Word games! Ukuleles! Readings!

The cover’s below and this link here’s the invite.

Still working on the details for the Vancouver launch of Gay Dwarves of America, but in the meantime, I can let you know about some other dates.

Wednesday, May 2, 7 pm
Brockton Writers Series, with 2 or 3 other writers
St. Anne’s Church
270 Gladstone Ave.
Toronto, ON

Thursday, May 3, 7.30 pm
Virus Reading Series, with Ken Sparling and Glen Downie
Patrick Sheehan’s Irish Pub
St. Catharine’s, ON

Friday, May 4, evening
East Village Coffeehouse
London, ON

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