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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 17, 2016)
Gigging in Pacii c County Astoria author Matt Love recently toured the Timberland Regional Libraries in Pacifi c County, Washington — and the experience left an impression It was 10:50 a.m. on a Thursday morning in early February. I sat alone in the Ilwaco Library meeting room wondering if a single person would attend my 11 a.m. presentation about my writing and publishing career. At long last, after 14 years and almost 1,000 gigs around Oregon in support of the books, I would ¿ nally suffer the indignity of ]ero atten dance at one of my events. Virtually every author has a “no one showed up at my gig story,” and now mine was about to unfold. See what you get for venturing outside your familiar territory, Matt, I thought to my self. Washington is going to deliver some pain and humiliation. And to make matters worse, two hours after the Ilwaco nongig, I had to drive to the Ocean Park library for another event. I would be the only author in history with backtoback gigs in the same day where no one showed up! 10:55 … room empty … I was walking the plank, a perfect metaphor since Ilwaco is a sea faring town. 6i[ months earlier I had arranged a Pacif ic County tour that called for stops in Ilwaco, Ocean Park, Naselle, South Bend and Raymond during February. I no longer recall what sort of delusional state led me to pitch such an insane idea. In my mind, I had no readership in :ash ington, but the folks at the Timberland Region al Library System responded immediately and happily set up the schedule. I was even guaran teed $50 an appearance, which would just about cover expenses for each gig. At 10:58 a.m., a couple walked in and sat down. A minute later, another person and a li brary employee joined the group. I did the show, a great conversation among friends rather than a show, and sold ¿ ve books. A few hours later, I left the Ocean Park Li brary in a da]e after that presentation. Sixteen people attended, they bought 16 books, and I scored a free, groovy coffee table book from the 1970s about whales. I did a little calculation: the ¿ rst two events of the Paci¿ c County Tour had yielded the high est percentage of attendees to books sold (105 percent) in my career. In Washington? A few days later, seven people attended my evening presentation at the Naselle Timberland I 10 | March 17, 2016 | coastweekend.com Library. The staff provided sugar cookies and strong coffee. I sold 11 books — another sales record for the number of people at an event. I didn’t know what to make of it. The tour ramped back up a couple weeks later with a p.m. Saturday show at the Ray mond library. I had never visited Raymond before and misjudged how long it would take to drive there, so I ended up arriving two hours early. Yes, I had two hours to kill in Raymond, and I killed them with glee. I bought two cassettes from a thrift store, drank a Washington beer in the Pitchwood Inn, and bought a $350 purple electric guitar from a mystic or madman; I couldn’t decide his status. At 1:57 p.m., I sat alone in the basement meeting room of the Raymond Timberland Library, surrounded by a real or fake plant and forlorn bean bag chairs. This was it. The streak was over. It hit me! I actually didn’t want anyone to show up! If someone did, I would tell them to leave. *(T O8T! I need ed the noshow story for my new book about gigging. With one minute to go, two older women walked in the door, and then we were joined by a library employee. The gig was fun, inter active. We shared Raymond stories, and I had one to share. I sold six books and did a little jig heading to the truck. On the way home, I celebrated my success by stopping in at the Dock of the Bay in Bay Center for an oyster burger. The following Saturday, I arrived 90 min utes early in South Bend for a 2 p.m. show at the library. I killed time by hitting an antique shop and buying a double California Jam II rock album and a vintage Hamm’s Beer light. At 1:59 p.m., I was in the library thumbing through my Astoria book, trying to choose what piece to read. Not a single person was in the audience, if you didn’t count the man reading the newspaper in the front row of chairs who seemed oblivious that an author was about ready to read from his work. He asked me, “What’s going on?” I told him. He didn’t care, but he didn’t leave either. Could I count this man as an attendee and continue the streak? Submitted photo At the South Bend Timberland Library, the audience included a man who read a newspaper throughout author Matt Love’s authore presentation. notforsale Photo by Matt Love Astoria author Matt Love recently held a book tour at Timerland Regional Libraries in Pacifi c County, Washington. With 30 seconds to go, a woman walked into the library and sat down in the second row. Then my two close friends, Tim and Angie, showed up in all their medic inal dankness and took up the back row. A couple minutes into the show, another woman arrived and found a seat. The man kept read ing the newspaper throughout the gig, occa sionally dropping it to blast me with invec tives like, “You’re ponti¿ cating,” or, “You’re lucky you have an old dog that will listen to you.” It had come to this: Someone at a gig heck led me about my old husky! I took it all in with a smile and rolled the man into the show. A lively discussion about gentri¿ cation ensued, and a few times I had to reel the man back into the stream of narrative of the event. That was no problem for me. I’m a teacher and do it in the classroom all the time. Tim, a ¿ ne poet who goes to the body of poetry like Rocky did to Apollo Creed’s ribcage, recited one of his poems to end the gig. When the show concluded, Tim bought my rain book for the man and I bought Tim’s book of poetry and gave it to the heckler as a gift. Why not? “Turn the other cheek,” someone once said in an old book. The man seemed enthusiastic to receive the gifts. He told me to keep up my hard work in the classroom. I sold another book to one of the ladies and donated some of my titles to the library, as I had done at all the other stops on the tour. Thank you coastal southwest Washington, for the quirkiest minitour of my literary life. The library staffs were nothing short of wonder ful in their treatment of a local author. I set sales records and walked into some of the best stories in recent memory. I’ll be back. Matt Love teaches at Astoria High School and is author/editor of 14 books. They are available at coastal bookstores, through nestuccaspitpress.com and local libraries. the arts VISUAL ARTS • LITERATURE • THEATER • MUSIC & MORE Story by MATT LOVE
