Still resting up from this crazy reading tour!  Thank you media sponsors, Giant Robot and Hyphen!

I totally planned and executed the Portland-to-Portland (Maine to Oregon) reading tour, split up over three weeks.

Well, the first reading was an open mike at East Meets West in Boston.  I had envisioned it as a low-key kind of thing, to try out my material for the first time in front of other people, but Alvin Lin (no relation) from Hyphen was there and actually blogged about it.

And then it was off to Portland, Maine, home of the awesome Longfellow Books and the International Cryptozoology Museum.

Bigfoot and I do some sole searching.

I was pretty stoked to meet Loren Coleman at the museum, who gave a guided tour.  As someone with a strong interest in the unknown and unexplained, I had read a few of his books and articles in Fortean Times.

Loren then went ahead and blogged about my wife and I visiting the museum!

We stayed at the museum longer than we had planned to and without a moment to spare, ran off to Longfellow Books.

I love Longfellow Books and their awesome audiences!

Chris Bowe, one of the proprietors of Longfellow Books and a super-cool guy, introduced me although he had literally minutes before been in a serious car accident!

Phyllis in Portland made these chocolate fortune cookies and she is cool!

Then it was back to New York for a few days off, before a slew of readings in my hometown.

Barnes & Noble, Tribeca. The home crowd is supafly dope and it’s great to curse in front of pals from work!

Me, my books and some arm candy.

Sung Woo, author of Everything Asian, who read with me at Sulu Series.  Yeah, Sung!

Catzie Vilayphonh, who is everything Asian, at the mike!

I thought I was staying in a rough part of town in College Park, Md., but this candy machine is suited up to protect itself against the students, who apparently get wasted every weekend and riot on gamedays.  Go Asian American Literary Review!

We used to be punk, man.  Me with Martin Wong.  This is my first day in L.A., about two hours after stepping off the delayed plane.

Eric Nakamura meets a couple from the East Coast.

Just in case this ancient Giant Robot t-shirt disintegrates while I read, Eric will have it on the Flip cam.

In Encino, I am recognized by my biggest fan.

Thousand Oaks, represent!  Mysteries to Die For rules!

Sparse crowd in San Diego, but this was one of my favorite readings.  It was seriously fun.  Thank you, Mysterious Galaxy!

Dude!  It’s Robin Sukhadia and Neela Banerjee at Giant Robot SF!

Claire Light wows the crowd at EastWind Books.

Joel Barraquiel Tan brings it on at Eastwind.

I am shocked by something.  What could it possibly be?

It’s the Cat Whisperer at Seattle’s Pike Place.  Note the man’s tail.

Whenever I get into a new town, I try to poison myself as fast as possible.  These Pike Place donuts will do the trick.

Soya Jung is awesome and was awesome at Elliott Bay Book Co.!

A contemplative moment at Voodoo Donuts, Portland, Ore.

The signature Voodoo Doll Donut.  These things are big.  Remember what I said about poisoning myself?

Do I seem worn out?  The last reading of the Portland-to-Portland tour!  Murder by the Book rules!

I’m not done?  Yes, the readings are over, but there’s one last thing to do. . .

It is awesome getting people into writing.  AAJA-Portland, Thymos and Friends of Portland Chinatown, you guys are awesome!

Last night of the tour with the incredibly beautiful and talented Cindy Cheung.

I know I make it look easy, but I wouldn’t have been able to do it without all of you who came out.  Thank you so much from the bottom of my donut-encrusted heart!

To borrow a title from a Wire bootleg, “A Terrifying Trip to the Past!”

In April I will be reading from Waylaid, my first novel, which was published eight years ago. This will be the first time that I have read from this book on the West Coast and also the first time in many years since I have read extensively from it.

When this book first came out, I was attacked by many publications that decried my “miserable” (San Francisco Chronicle) young narrator who wallowed in sexual fantasy while toiling at his parents’ motel in Jersey. A lit blog that has since shut down called it “garbage.”  I had readings on the East Coast where people would regularly walk out.  A jerk at Cornell essentially called me a homophobe, as if the depiction of homophobia was homophobic.

But the book also found strong support.  I was chuffed to see a nice review in Playboy, and Booklist just loved it to death, as I did and still do.

Now that time has gone by, it’s amazing to me how many Asian American lit classes have included the book or excerpts from it.  In fact, Jessica Hagedorn saw fit to include the first two chapters in the groundbreaking “Charlie Chan Is Dead 2” anthology.  I think someone made a movie out of it, too.  And even my old pal, the San Francisco Chronicle, remarked years later that Waylaid was “well-received” while giving a slightly more positive review for This Is a Bust.

Waylaid has earned its spot as an undeniable landmark in American literature.

Anyway, this is going down only at Giant Robot locations in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Monday, April 26, 7 pm, GR2, 2062 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, (310) 445-9276

Thursday, April 29, 7 pm, Giant Robot SF, 618 Shrader Street, San Francisco, (415) 876-4773

Speaking of Giant Robot, if you haven’t heard, the magazine has been walloped by a perfect storm of the economic downturn along with higher postage costs.

I first read Giant Robot when I found a copy at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop in 1994.  I was knocked out by the visuals and also the quality of the writing, which didn’t do the typical pussyfooting the other Asian American magazines did.  I love everything they do.

I’m sure many of you have similar feelings for Giant Robot.  Please help now.

Cheeky!

Snakes Can’t Run is almost here!  It’s right around the corner!  (April)

I’ve posted some upcoming dates in the calendar, so I think you need to plan accordingly.  If you want to see me in your town, give me a shout-out and I’ll see if I can make it happen.

Dude, the book recently received a starred review in Publishers Weekly:

Snakes Can’t Run Ed Lin. Minotaur, $24.99 (288p) ISBN 978-0-312-56988-4

Set in New York City in 1976, Lin’s accomplished second novel to feature NYPD detective Robert Chow (after 2007′s This Is a Bust) finds the Chinese-American cop, who’s still haunted by memories of his service in the Vietnam War, relegated to undercover work posing as a Con Ed worker. Meanwhile, other officers in Chow’s precinct are focused on apprehending the FALN terrorists who set off a bomb right outside police headquarters. The murders of two Asian men, who are shot and dumped under the Manhattan Bridge, take Chow away from the drudgery of his undercover assignment and onto the trail of the head of a ring of human smugglers known as snakeheads. Lin portrays the police, including his lead, warts and all, and paints a convincing picture of Manhattan’s Chinatown. Readers interested in the integration of Asian-Americans into American society, as well as those who like gritty procedurals, will be well rewarded.

You could pre-order this book on Amazon, but considering the recent spat with Macmillan (parent company of my amazing publisher, Minotaur Books) and the hardball negotiations of Amazon (which employed tactics worthy of China when it “negotiates” with Tibetans), I heavily and heartily suggest that you buy my books at the stores that I will appear at or try IndieBound.

Recently spotted in a Chinatown elementary school.

. . .or maybe kids are merely easily impressionable.

In any case, you don’t have an excuse.  Get out there and vote Tuesday.

No, not for me.  And certainly not for “your candidate of choice.”

Get out there and vote for Barack Obama.

Now I wanna be your God. Left to right: Bassist Mike Watt, Ig, drummer Scott Asheton and guitarist Ron Asheton.

Well, now that a week has passed, I can look at this night objectively.  You know, if there’s one reason to miss the opening of the Beijing Olympics, you could do a hell of a lot worse than seeing a Stooges show.  At this point 61-year-old James Osterberg isn’t about to start performing with a shirt on and although he looks incredible for that age (and still sounds ferocious), some sag is setting in.  Through the course of the evening, he must have gone through a dozen bottles of water, mostly poured all over his body, maybe because he looks bettter wet.

At this point, several years into their reformation, there isn’t really much else to say.  They start out with a ripping “Loose” (“I stick it deep inside. . .coz I’m loose!”) then immediately follow that with “Down on the Street.”  Ig invites the entire crowd to dance on the stage during “Real Cool Time” and about 100 idiots of all shapes and ages oblige.  They remain up there to sing on the chorus to “No Fun.”  It takes about 5 minutes to clear them off.  Then they lurch into “1970.”  A small microphone is set up to the far right of the stage.  At the end, sax player Steve MacKay comes in to play the jazz coda to the song, making the lineup 4/5 of the Funhouse album — 38 years after!  The only one missing was the late bass player Dave Alexander.  But who knew that any of them would still fucking be alive in 2008!  Still, I wish MacKay had been included in “Loose” because that sax sound adds to the manic intensity of that song.

‘James, I don’t want to be on stage until all those idiots you invited up are off.’  At the far right: Steve MacKay on sax and percussion.

For me, the huge surprise of the night was when they whipped out “Search and Destroy,” from the James Williamson-era Stooges, which saw Ron Asheton “demoted” to bass duty (though he was also an incredible bass player).  Gone were the stinging Williamson guitar leads, replaced by Ron Asheton toxic-sludge glop power chords.  It was like hearing a Funhouse version of the song.

If any song from the relatively new album The Weirdness is ideal for the live environment, it has to be “My Idea of Fun.”  The nihilistic sentiment of the chorus (“My idea of fun / Is killing everyone!”) was somewhat undermined by Iggy smiling and waving to people on the first and second balconies, though.  [I like The Weirdness, but the four best songs from those sessions were vinyl-only bonus tracks "O Solo Mio," "Claustrophobia," the cover of the Beatles' "I Wanna Be Your Man" and "Sounds of Leather."]

No opening band and they played about 70 minutes, including one encore, ending the night appropriately with “I’m Fried.”  They executed the show with complete commitment (doing “I Wanna Be Your Dog” twice — without and with MacKay) even though four days before their equipment was stolen from their van in Montreal.  Bully for you!

But, heck, tickets at Terminal 5 were $45 (plus a nice $7 per-ticket Ticketmaster “convenience fee”), so shit, I hope that makes up for the stolen stuff, guys.

I got back home in time to see Yao Ming lead the Chinese athletes into the Bird’s Nest and I wondered how many Stooges fans were in Beijing that night.

Ties add a classy accent to a reading.

Hey guys, check out this radio interview/reading I gave when I was out in Berkeley.

If you want to be crass, skip to 15:55 to go directly to me.

photo credit: Cindy Cheung

Whew, four readings in four different cities in four days. How’d it go? Only one word can describe it: superawesome! My deepest thanks to Mayumi Takada for setting up the general tour and to Neela Banerjee for finessing things in the Bay Area.

L.A.

The L.A. reading was at Book Soup. It’s an offbeat setup because I was in the corner with two aisles of chairs off to my left and right while shelves of books were directly in front of me. At times it was like being a pitcher with runners on first and third. Very cool staff and very cool store!

San Francisco

The Modern Times bookstore is along a strip of other bookstores, but it’s special because it is collectively owned and operated. I totally support that 100%. One other special thing was that my old pal Bushra Rehman came! I have some movie clips from that reading that I may or may not load up. This was also a great store, and boy it sure was a boost to my ego that they ran out of copies of This Is a Bust! Lisa Chen read with me and totally rocked out!

Berkeley

Show you what a New Yorker I am, I had thought Berkeley and San Francisco were basically the same town. Uh ah. Berkeley is a town where one has to suspend judgments while being confronted with the boundaries of one’s own prejudices. Okay — I saw an apparently upper-middle-class person in the street reach into a garbage can, find a half-eaten muffin, smile (!) and then proceed to eat it. Oh, the reading? It was great, man! Eastwind rules! Lisa again read with me and did the Taiwanese people proud! I also did this radio interview that I will link once I got it. . .

Seattle

I like this picture. It was taken by my wife Cindy Cheung. I like how I look like the angel of light up there. Elliott Bay Book Co. is awesome! My first time there. This place is ginormous and has a separate cafe/reading space in the basement. Anna Maria Hong was supposed to read also, but she injured her Achilles tendon and couldn’t make it down the stairs (no handicapped entrance). Rock star Hannah Moon read a short story that adds new meaning to “stinky tofu.” Thank you Karen and Patrick! Hey, check out this review of the reading in The Stranger!

It is awesome to be back home here in New York City. Strangely, my heels hurt, I think, from all the flying around with my long legs bunched up. But hell, I did it for you people, and it was an honor and a pleasure!

You have no choice. You have to come. Ed Lin reading from “This Is a Bust”:

Saturday February 23, 2008, 5 PM

Book Soup
8818 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles
800.764.BOOK

Sunday February 24, 2008, 3 PM

Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia Street
San Francisco
415.282.9246
Fellow reader: Lisa Chen
Co-sponsored by Hyphen Magazine.

Monday February 25, 2008, 7:30 PM

Eastwind Books of Berkeley
2066 University Avenue
Berkeley
415.282.9246
Fellow reader: Lisa Chen
Co-sponsored by Hyphen Magazine and Eastwind Books of Berkeley.

Tuesday February 26, 2008, 7 PM

Elliott Bay Book Co.
101 South Main Street
Seattle
800.962.5311
Special guests: Anna Maria Hong and Hannah Moon.

Gathering of some tribes at the Sulu Series at the Bowery Poetry Club, from left to right: Lisa Chen (author of Mouth), Thaddeus Rutkowski (author of Roughhouse and Techted), Nhan (founding member, Peeling the Banana), Vincent Young (founding member, Asian American Writers’ Workshop), Mr. Excitement himself and Bino Realuyo (co-founder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, author of The Umbrella Country and The Gods We Worship Live Next Door, and editor of The NuyorAsian Anthology).

The readings at Museum of Chinese in the Americas, Sulu Series at Bowery Poetry Club and The Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program at NYU were great and ever so much fun! Thanks to all who came out!

The MOCA reading was on a rather inauspicious night, what with rain mixed with ice. This was the scene outside:

But what a great audience! What troopers! Thanks for having me, Nancy!

By the way, if you’ve never been to a reading before, you don’t have to worry about buying the book from the writer after — they would be grateful for you just showin’ up! Seriously. This one dude told me he had a reading for his book and two people showed up. His sister and a homeless guy. And his sister had to leave!

The pic at the top of the post is from the Sulu Series at Bowery Poetry Club. What a special night that was! For one thing I was reunited with Vincent Young and Bino Realuyo — we probably haven’t been in the same room in about 13 years! It was so great to hear them read again, their voices brought me back to the early days of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, before it had its own space or was even officially incorporated; back to when it was just people writing and reading to each other around a busted table. My new friend Lisa Chen read from her book, Mouth, a collection of poems just published by Kaya. Thaddeus Rutkowski, whose Roughhouse was also published by Kaya, surprised me by reading a section from Waylaid, the part about Thanksgiving with the mummy meat! Thank you, Taiyo, for having us!

Lastly was the The Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program at NYU! The wireless mike was a bust, but I prefer to use a mike stand, anyway. Especially when I don a tie.

What a fun lively crowd! And wow, the people I didn’t know outnumbered the ones I did! Thank you for having me Jack, Laura and Alexandra.

Wow, I can’t wait for the next series of readings comin’ up! See you there!

Left to right: Laura Chen-Schultz (Deputy Director), Henry Chang (author of Chinatown Beat), John (Jack) Kuo Wei Tchen (Director), Mr. Excitement himself, Cindy Cheung, Marilyn Torres, Alexandra Chang (Events Coordinator) and Kola Ogundiran.