COLDEST night, HOTTEST party: Thank You!

First, only this:

It was such an incredible night… I didn’t at all care the books were still stuck in Texas. Because you were amazing.

And now, I know you’ve been dying to see the photos, so here are all of them.

Well, almost all of them. A LOT of them. Almost too many of them. 😉 But you were all so beautiful.

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You can also check out the photo album on my Facebook at: Tell Me: Calgary’s Steamiest Book Launch Documented. & do Facebook-connect either via my personal profile or the author page.

HER: Hey, I never got a book at the book launch. Do you have any…

Me: All the books that are coming to me are already spoken for and pre-sold. But they are now in stock in Canada (and other places around the world) at both Chapters and Indigo:

Tell Me at Chapters–and you can still get it in time for Christmas, hint hint nudge nudge.

Tell Me at Amazon.ca (24 hour shipping with Prime 🙂 )

HER: And CUNT versus PUSSY?

Me: I think I have a dozen books from the special Rough Draft Confessions run left. CvP isn’t available for sale yet, but if you sign up for ROUGH DRAFT CONFESSIONS, I’ll kick you an e-copy in January.

OK. Enough with the schilling. Most important: If you missed my LIQUID GRATITUDE post on Tell Me: Calgary’s Steamiest Book Launch, here it is:

I have so many thank yous, I don’t know where to begin, so I will begin, of course, with YOU—thank you so much for coming. And on the coldest night EVER. And for dressing up for me. I noticed every dress, suit, and pair of killer shoes, I promise.

(Yes, I forgive those of you who showed up in sweaters and sorrels. I’m demanding, but not evil. But next time, I’ll host the party in June—and then, no excuses.)

I’m liquid gratitude at the moment, and I first want to pour it into my parents—who were the two gorgeous people serving you champagne and treats all night. At their core, all my stories—Tell Me, the Cunt versus Pussy essays, the new novels—are really about trying to figure out what love is. And you know what love is? Love is SHOWING UP when the people you love need you. Everything else is icing. Mom and Dad, THANK YOU.

Next—a river of gratitude to gravitypope, for giving us such a marvelous space to play in, and to Sidewalk Citizen Bakery for the luscious desserts at “we have no budget—can you please help?” prices. Ditto Renaissance Wine Merchants Ltd for the beautiful sparkling wine, which they generously provided at cost.

Speaking of beautiful women—a GIANT thank you to Valerie Stephenson, who was selling you books all night! And thank you again—selling a book that isn’t actually PHYSICALLY there is a daunting task, and you actually, like… bought it. So, some more smooches for YOU.

(Valerie rang through $1275 in sales Tuesday night. Because you are awesome! BTW, if you’re curious about what that means for me, financially—in six months, I’ll get a cheque for $95.65 from my publisher. Writers are STUPID. I say that with lots of self-love. Stupid in an adorable, compelling way, right? Anyway. Moving on…)

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Crystal Moontree and her lovely love Laurel Elizabeth for working the “YES! I need more LOVE letters in my LIFE!” raffle/newsletter sign up station all night.

In case you’re wondering what the deal with my obsession with your email addresses was: the newsletter mailing list is the only direct, unmediated way writers and artists (as well as businesses!) have of communicating with their readers/audience. Facebook plays games, and all other social media is, really, ephemeral: your (consensually obtained) email address is the only reliable bridge I have to you.

(And you want me to have that bridge, so that I can run across it and tell you… “Hey… I’m having another fabulous party. Wanna come?” Don’t you? 😉 )

(This is the newsletter/mailing list sign up, btw: ROUGH DRAFT CONFESSIONS)

More thank-yous to Dorrie Derbowka for delivering desserts to you all night. God, those desserts. I wish I had time to eat more than one! So I hope you enjoyed every bite, on my behalf.

I know you enjoyed the Tarot card readers—I’m sorry if I cut you off mid-reading, but I needed Janine Morigeau of Tarot By Janine and Sean Lambert of AspectTarot to enjoy a bit of the night too! But were they not amazing? I am so grateful they donated their time and talent to the event, and ya’ don’t wanna know what they usually charge per hour. (Actually, you probably do—so go check out their websites and make an appointment for a full reading, and hire them for your next party. It’s a pay-it-forward thing, right?)

Also—immense thanks to Sean Lindsay, my soul mate, my mirror, my fellow traveller on life’s complicated journey—for designing all my pretty things, including the event posters and the cover of Cunt versus Pussy (the night before I decided I was going to send it to the printers, while he had stomach flu). Darling, I know living with my anxiety over the launch made living with me during the crappy parts of the writing process look like a honeymoon. Thank you for loving me and supporting me when I’m stressed, self-absorbed, borderline narcissistic, and a general pain-in-the-ass… as well as when I’m fabulous and shining.

(Also, thank you for the DRESS. Fuck me. It was perfect.)

The original invitation you received, btw, was salvaged from my amateur cluttered design by the talented Golriz Rezvani at midnight after a long day’s work—so many kisses, lady—who also raced to the party straight from the airport. You made me feel so loved and important—thank you!

So—were not the dancers beyond fabulous? Thank you, thank you, thank you to Daisy DeVille and to Keely Kamikaze for sharing their talents with us!

Dasiy and Keely were there because… their presence was my visual representation of what I try to evoke when I write: when you read me, I want you to feel the way you feel when you watched them perform… I want you to drown in a woman’s—a human’s—empowered sexuality and sensuality—I want you to feel you can OWN completely who and what you are.

I think Keely and Daisy did that in every move and flutter.

Sexy. Powerful. Fabulous. Thank you!

And thank you to Paola Galindo and Cathy Brehaut Snell for sponsoring the dancers as a Christmas present to me. I spent much of the night getting shock after shock of love, and that was an intense one, and an amazing gift. Thank you, my beautiful friends.

I also need to thank Paola one more time—always, forever—for “producing” the event for me, keeping me organizing, and reminding me about logistics such as, you know, renting champagne glasses. And noticing the desserts need spoons.

(I was totally going to make you use your fingers, but she said, no. Spoons. Classier.)

(My mom delivered the spoons at the eleventh hour, btw. Because she SHOWS up.)

Hugs and gratitude also to Lindsay Ross for putting together a magnificent and sexy playlist for the night on barely a day’s notice!

My support team and street team is almost all mamas with little people of their own, and so I also want to thank all the partners, daddies and mommies who stayed home with the littles so I could have YOU with me on Launch Night. Smooches to you all, especially to Harold Cardona and Ross Findlay. I wish you had been there too… but I’m so grateful you made it possible for the women I love to be there with me. Thank you!

Finally… I’m not sure if I’m allowed to tell you what she did. But, fuck, Cheryl Heilman. My love for you is unconditional and always will be—there is a reason you were my first beta reader when I wasn’t sure what the fuck it was I had written and whether it was worth reading—and it’s not that any act of kindness and generosity from you would surprise me… you are love poured into a human body… but waking up to THAT on Wednesday floored me. Woman. Friend. Love of many lifetimes. Thank you. I’m still crying.

Liquid gratitude.

Thank you, everyone.

mjc

(clearing the floor)