Alex Wilson's Journal: Clarion Week 6: Kelly Link's The Cannon

Clarion Week 6: Kelly Link's The Cannon
August 3, 2006

Alex and Will, posing as Kelly Link. Photo by Livia.

Kelly Link and Holly Black were scheduled to read at Archives last night, but Kelly was under the weather. Robert suggested that I read in her place, and she liked that idea. I still hadn't gathered up the guts to ask her whether she'd heard my narration of Most of My Friends Are Two Thirds Water (recorded with Creative Commons licensed permission), but it turned out she had and she rather enjoyed it. My inner fanboy breathes a sigh of relief.

Kelly suggested a few of her pieces, and, time-wise, the only one I'd be able to read in its entirety was "The Cannon" from Magic for Beginners. I read it for the first time an hour or so before the reading, and, because the piece is structured as a series of questions and answers, I asked fellow thespian-turned-Clarionite Will Alexander to read the questions. (more after the jump)

Alex, Holly Black, and Will answer questions from the audience. Thankfully, noone wanted us to sign anything. Photo by Livia.

As a thank you for this opportunity, Will began an improved bit of fan fiction today, and we wrote it on one of the Magic for Beginners promotional postcards that Kelly brought with her to Clarion:

Q: What is a reading?

A: It is a railroad. A pretend railroad. But once I placed a tiny shoe on the railroad and my sister charged me one hundred dollars in pretend money. When I could not pay, she made me leave her room so she could be alone with her boyfriend, who was older. They made wet sounds through the walls and then he went home by another means of transportation. I don't think it was a railroad.

View Livia Llewellyn's complete photo set of last night (including the Clarion pregraduation ceremony) here.

Filed under Clarion, Journal, News, Pretty Pictures, Prose and Poetry

Comments: Discuss this entry at LiveJournal

Is a "thesbian" a theatrical lesbian? :P

Posted by: Shveta at August 4, 2006 2:11 AM

Thanks for keeping a Clarion blog. It's been fun seeing it from the other side.
My experience has been the lessons keep working they way in for a long time.

Posted by: Tom Barlow at August 4, 2006 1:19 PM

Shveta: err, maybe a "thesbian" is a test-word to see whether my fellow Clarionites are sick of line-editing after six weeks? Corrected to "Thespian." Thanks. (hangs head in shame).

Glad to do it, Tom. It's helped me to process so the only question was whether to make these notes/pictures public.

Posted by: Alex at August 6, 2006 2:29 PM

by Alex Wilson. This is from an online journal/blog I kept from 1998-2009. Back to alexwilson.com.