On Tuesday, August 15, 2000 Spider Robinson appeared at the University Bookstore in Seattle, Washington for a reading and book signing. Although it was billed as an appearance only by Spider, Jeanne was also present.
I arrived at the bookstore about four hours before the 7 p.m. starting time after a 3-hour drive up I-5 from Portland. I wanted to avoid rush-hour traffic in the Pacific Northwest's largest city, so I had time for a stroll around the campus of Washington University. I still got a front-row seat for the event, not that there were any bad seats in the small area set aside for Spider and his fans.
After a brief introduction, Spider settled in to read the first chapter of Callahan's Key. His voice was a bit deeper than I'd imagined it would be, but he read very much like I expected he would, with all the emotions and humor that's so evident on the page. Are you wondering how he pronounced the names of Jake's nemeses, Nyjmnckra Grtozkzhyni and her nephew Jojhk, the town inspector? Well, the best I can say is that each time those names came up, it was sort of like his mouth was having a flashback to a '60s LSD experience, played in reverse. We all loved the reading, laughing and/or groaning at all the right places. Spider reads the dialog very nicely, adopting appropriate voices for each, without getting ridiculous when doing the voices of Erin and Zoey. I felt like I was right there in the closed-up Mary's Place with Jake, Erin, Zoey, the Lucky Duck, Nikola Tesla, and Fast Eddie.
After the reading came questions from the group of 40-50 people present. During this part, Spider spoke of the Callahan's Crosstime Saloon game from Legend Entertainment (now nearly impossible to find) and the four songs he recorded for it. He tells the story in the Backword of "The Callahan Chronicals," how he asked his guitar idol Amos Garrett for advice on getting a producer, and how Amos asked if he could be the lead guitar player, a request which just about blew Spider away. In the Backword, Spider relates that Amos recommended Danny Casavant. As he spoke, Spider said Danny did a great job, and the recording was everything he could've hoped for. Then, he related, he asked Danny who else he'd produced for. Danny said, "No one, this is my first job as a producer." Spider asked him how Amos Garrett had come to recommend him for the job if he'd never produced before, and Danny replied, "I dunno, I was kinda hoping you could tell me."
Spider, with some help from Jeanne, spoke of the new website, www.spiderrobinson.com . Plans were afoot for a CD to be offered on the website consisting of the four songs recorded on the game CD, perhaps more songs, plus a reading, which Spider said we'd just heard. That CD, Belaboring the Obvious, is now available.
He also spoke of the plight of mid-list writers, something he's addressed in (very rare) posts to alt.callahan's. It seems the modern publishing industry is so focused on the big names that mid-list folks like Spider have a hard time getting noticed. Lack of advertising and promotion of a mid-list writer's latest work often results, not surprisingly, in slow sales. The bean counters in the publishing offices look at this, and for the writer's next work, decree that fewer copies should be printed. Again, not surprisingly, fewer copies are sold, "justifying" further decreases. Spider related this to a character in Donald Westlake's latest novel, The Hook, in which a mega-writer with a case of writer's block meets a mid-list writer with a manuscript he can't sell because of modern publishing's decreasing interest in his work. The megawriter offers to split his $2 million advance with the mid-list writer. There's just one small catch, Mr. Midlist must kill Mr. Mega's wife.
After the speaking part, it was time for the signing part. Being right up front, I was the second person to get Spider's autographs. I'd brought three books with me: my hardcover first edition of Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, The Callahan Chronicals, and Callahan's Key. While he signed, I mentioned my connection with the Delphi Callahan's Saloon. He said, "I'm afraid to go there. That way lies bankruptcy." I understood completely, since he's said before he refrains from getting involved in online versions of Callahan's because he's afraid he be "sucked into a black hole." I mentioned my role as a Punday Night Referee, to which he replied, "You have a lot to answer for!" (I have since moved on from Callahan's on Delphi to Jake's Bar on MSN.)
Of course, I took my digital camera along, and took a few pictures - enough to get a few decent shots, but not enough to be annoying. It can be hard to autograph books if you have after-images of flashes dancing over the pages. Here's the results:
In Spring 2001, I got an e-mail from the folks at www.spiderrobinson.com asking if they could use some of the photos from this page. I said they could, so if any of these photos look familiar, that's why. So check out that website!
