Dears,

The Big Apple is very Big. And I am Small Potatoes.

I have always found New York City to be intimidating, but never so much as in the last few weeks while looking for a venue to launch to Brain in a Jar.  I literally (pun intended) could not get a single bookstore to call or email me back. Neither could I get any bar, known for hosting such events, to call or email me back.

Oh wait, wrong. One did respond.

“Let me get this straight,” she said. “You want to rent the entire Village Underground to launch a book? Have you ever been here? This place is huge, it’s for bands.”

Oops.

Finally, I made contact with someone who was nice to me, and actually allowed us to have continued contact. I just told her the truth. I said I was a small potato but my book was bigger than me. It has the potential to be a large Idaho Russet. I told her that I could probably get lots of people to come, but that I had no money. She took pity on me, or else there is a potato famine in New York.

Long story short, sweet dear Ali at Le Poisson Rouge (which means the Red Fish and where such authors as Salman Rushdie have read from their work) offered me the following deal:

• $500 for one hour instead of the standard $2500.

I wrote to my super cool Greenwich Village cousin, Pamela Scott Arnold, to ask if she would serve as co-cost. She said yes, and offered to kick in half of the fee! 

So what’s the lesson here? Don’t take no for an answer? No, that’s not it. Be sure you have a cool cousin? That’s awesome, but it’s not the lesson. You can’t control whether your cousins are cool. I am blessed with about 20 extremely cool cousins. You can borrow one if needed.

The lesson is that even Big Apples are suckers for the truth. And because I was willing to be forthcoming, this small potato will be reading at the Red Fish on Thursday, May 2, from 5:30-6 p.m.

Come buy me a drink, and heck, while you’re at it, buy the book too.

Love,

Gal