The Philadelphia Poe road trip

[ellen_datlow]

It was fabulous! John Langan and Laird Barron picked me up Saturday morning 10:30 and we drove down to Phillie directly to the German Society, where the first event was to take place. We were about 45 minutes early. The auditorium was large and I was very nervous that no one would show up. The people who run the German Society were very nice--Laird helped move the piano to the side of the stage and put the podium in the middle and brought some folding chairs up for us. Greg Frost showed up with a case of wine. People started showing up--some I knew: Gardner Dozois and Susan Casper, Michael Swanwick and Marianne Porter, Tess Kissinger and Bob Walters, Tom Purdom, and others from the sf community...and many other we did not know. There were at least 60 people total. We each did our thing, with Edward Pettit talking about Poe's life a bit and me just introducing the three readers.

Afterwards 20+ books were sold and inscribed and the remaining five were taken by the Poe Society to sell in their gift store.
The wonderful Helen McKenna then gave some of us a tour of the Poe House (photos linked below).

A bunch of us went to a pub to drink for awhile and then a much smaller group went over to Greg and his lovely wife Barbara's to eat her delicious lasagne. I stayed over. Laird and John stayed at a hotel nearby.

Sunday, we met at Greg and Barbara's and all went to a breakfast place where Laird could sate his obsession for blueberry pancakes. We then drove to Between Books, a very large bookstore jampacked with great stuff--in Claymont Delaware (not far from Phillie). There, our most excellent host, owner Greg Schauer, had a Poe cake in honor of the book. About 20-25 people were a very attentive audience. All the Poe books on hand were sold out. And other titles by me and Greg also sold. We hung around to answer questions and then Laird, John, and I left around 3:30 for part south. I cannot believe I ate at McDonalds on Saturday and Burger King on Sunday--ugh. I usually eat at one of those places once every two years. McDonald's is better and cheaper though ;-)

John dropped me off at Alice Turner's apt with my bag so I could watch the Academy awards with her. I finally got home around 12:30.

Here are photos from the two events

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Ellen,

Is there a mass market version of POE available? I haven't been able to locate it, but would prefer it to the trade.

Thanks,
Jeff P.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

The mass market is the UK edition. The trade pb is the US edition. I have seen a few people with the mass market so perhaps they ordered it from amazon uk.

[misplacedmind.livejournal.com]

Lovely photos! I am a big fan of the Poe house in Philly; I have some amazing pics of my kids in the clothes from the dress-up trunk they have there.

I absolutely adore that Poe bobble-head that shows up in some of your pics. I have to get one! The figurine is nice, too. Looks, all in all, like a great time :)

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Isn't the bobble head cute? The other one is an action figure that was a gift from a friend. The bronze is owned by Ed Pettit.

[kaaronwarren.livejournal.com]

Wonderful pics! I love that Poe house. Did you get a secret tour?

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Nah. Just the regular one but it was great!

[kaaronwarren.livejournal.com]

I was really impressed with the venue. Even their brochures are cool!

[imago1.livejournal.com]

"Laird and John stayed at a hotel nearby."

Yeah, we just needed some "us" time.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

So did you have enough "quality" time together? :-)
You got home ok I see.

[birdhousefrog.livejournal.com]

I bought my copy at Boskone from Larry Smith. Wish I could have been there at the reading. I read Greg's story last Thurs and it was downright scary, the emotion was so raw, so spot on. I'm hearing good things about all of the stories.

Oz

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Yeah--it's a good one. I hope you enjoy the rest--thank you for buying it.