First review, Rosalie, etc.

The first review of I Cut My Finger has appeared, by Brian Joseph Davis. Very kind review. Curious to see if this book gets much further attention.

Pretty nervous about Sunday's launch (Clinton's, 8 p.m.). I'm really relying on email invites and blog notices to get folks out.

Though I went to Rosalie Sharp's book launch at the Four Seasons ballroom (!!!) on Tuesday night, and she had printed up 300 copies of my launch invite and put them on s table with her new book, Rifke: An Improbable Life (I argued unsuccessfully for the original subtitle, "Just a Few Steps from the Shtetl"), which I edited for ECW Press. She also said very kind words about me from the podium, as did ECW's Jack David. The launch was unbelievable: must've been 500 people there, or maybe 700. Hundreds of hardcover books sold. Four big buffets of "Kensington market" food. A klezmer band. Garth Drabinsky. And I saw my parents' longtime friends Mike and Sue Feldman there. Hadn't seen them since my dad's unveiling in 2002. It was a little emotional. Their son is my childhood friend Steven Feldman (he, Mark Laba, and I appeared in the Books by Kids collection The Thing in Exile in 1976). Steve released a pretty amazing and strange CD, Living in a Picture Show, which was also reviewed very favourably in eye.

Meanwhile, I'm starting to enter panic mode as I prepare to head west for my Vancouver book launch (May 16 at Pulp Fiction) and for a couple weeks' teaching at elementary and secondary schools in the Kootenays. So much to do!

And just got word that the special editions of the Ron Padgett book are awaiting me at Coach House. I should get those into the mail before I leave. And then, when I return, I can launch the trade edition at the Small Press Book Fair.

Blah blah blah.

Over and out.