Michel Gives a Reading of His Own Work

Sorry, not much of note has been happening in our world.  It has been below 25 degrees pretty much since Thanksgiving, so we've been holed up in our apartment except for the required errands, school/work, the occasional trip to our $5 movie theatre, and a few snowy walks to the square.  However, in the last week, Michel officially finished his first semester of grad school, and, to top off all the writing, he gave a reading of one of his pieces with the other first year fiction students at our favorite independent bookstore, The Book Cellar.  So we ventured out of our hobbit hole into the cold and snow.

The Book Cellar is a great place for readings, first of all.  Half of the shop is a bookstore and the other half is a little cafe with delicious drinks and food.  The wall of the cafe is the shop's magazine wall, and it is in front of this that authors usually read their work.  Several rows of chairs are set up from the cafe to the register on the opposite wall, snuggled in amongst the suggested books display.  The shop is all decorated for Christmas and is a wonderfully cozy place to spend a winter evening.

Michel chose to read an excerpt from his piece, "Superheorism and You", a hilarious how-to guide on becoming a superhero written for his creative non-fiction class.  After introducing himself as the world's foremost expert on superheroism, he discussed why becoming a superhero is the only worthwhile course of action upon the discovery of superpowers along with the intricacies of power assessment.  Everyone laughed and enjoyed the piece, and he received a ton of compliments, including from the director of the program.  Pretty cool!  Personally, I think he was the best one, but I may be biased!

The other five pieces were all incredibly different, ranging from an account of a road trip to a fictional letter from a soldier to his father, and the other authors were all engaging readers.  We've been to a few readings, but I have to say, it's much more exciting when you know the authors!  Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures, and I'm not really sure Michel wanted me to anyway.  I mean, it's not so cool when your wife is taking pictures of your first reading and possibly waving and whisper-shouting your name to get you to look at the camera.  Which I would totally do.  So Michel retained his cool status and I left with no pictures.

This may not be the most exciting post, but I think it was a pretty exciting moment, and I'm super proud of Michel!  Here's to many more readings in the future!