The great and powerful Toby Carroll asked me some good questions the other day, and my attempts at decent answers follow. Check it out, if you like.

But mostly, I’m interested in how digital and print can interact.

Big ups to my buddy Pat Somerville, who celebrated the release of his new novel, The Cradle last night at the Book Cellar. Colleen O’Brien, whose mini-book will be up on the featherproof site later this month read, and I had a ton of fun reading. My pal Eamon Daly lifted a bucket of rocks with his beard for charity, raising $155 for Chicago’s oldest Boys & Girls Club, the Off the Street Club. Just a blast in one of the country’s greatest bookstores. Check out Pat’s book, which the New York Times loved despite itself.

Last night was also crazy for basketball, with the Bulls and Heat hitting two overtimes, before Dwyane Wade stuck a ridiculous three at the buzzer. I checked the box scores last night, and was happy for my boy Ben Gordon, who went 8 for 11 from beyond the arc, racking up 43 points to D-Wade’s 48.

Then I watched the highlights on ESPN.com. Incredible. You would think that no one on the court had a good game except for Wade. It’s such an annoying ESPN move, the persistent need to create these mythical tales around a select few players. In a double-overtime game there are only two Bulls possessions featured. It’s hilarious. Check out ESPN’s highlights, then MaxaMillion711 (this YouTube genius who turns NBA games into NFL Films). Are they even taken from the same game?

Featherproof has really been rolling of late, so posts here have been a little infrequent. AWP was very good to us—just such a great experience meeting so many folks with whom we’ve chatted online, and getting to see what great work so many presses are doing right now. Very energizing, particularly given all the doom-saying about publishing. I simply didn’t feel it.

Lots going on with the ‘proof. To wit:

• Grow is now out and about. If you like children, you’ll like giving them a copy. Even if they’re strangers.
• Paper Egg, our new subscription imprint is soaking up subscribers like crazy. Currently working on Christian TeBordo’s The Awful Possibilities, our first title. And if you haven’t already, subscribe, and get a free copy of Amelia Gray’s AM/PM!
• The Featherproof Remix idea has generated some buzz, as has the contest attached to it. We’re remixing Scorch Atlas, Blake Butler’s novel-in-stories that arrives this fall.
• Reading tonight in Hyde Park at Series A. Planning on reading a new and an old piece.
• Release party for Patrick Somerville’s The Cradle on Monday night, with another mini-book release, and a beard-lift. It’s going to be some action.

After all of that, more posting here, not much going on until May, more sleep till Brooklyn.

Been away, largely because I’ve had loads of writing assignments over the past few weeks. One of them came to fruition last night at The Encyclopedia Show, a very cool show put on by Robbie Q. Telfer and Young Chicago Authors. I think it may be the first time I’ve read to someone in high school since the tour. A great night.

Monday night is the famed No Love for Love, which I’m hosting, and which Peter Sagal is headlining. A couple of years back, I performed there, and did a quiz show called “Guess the Context”, in which I recounted the many terrible things girls have said to me over my lifetime, and the audience had to guess the context of those statements. This time, it’ll likely just be a story, because now I’m married, and my wife is really nice.

After that, it’s all AWP, all the time. We have a big release party planned for AM/PM on Friday the 13th, and The Dollar Store will be a part of that. Here’s the poster, below (click (maybe twice) to make it bigger). Michael Renaud made it. It’s incredible. More soon!

Tonight, I’ll sit down with Rick Kogan at the brand new Chicago Publishers Gallery at The Chicago Cultural Center. The Gallery is a permanent exhibition, showing off the city’s ever-expanding literary output. That opens up at 5, and the program begins at the Cassidy Theater at 5:30.

On Tuesday, October 14, I’m reading a 55-word story as part of a fund-raiser for Quickies!, one of the coolest reading series in the city. I’ll join 29 other writers, all reading these ridiculously short short short stories.

And then the big one, on Wednesday, October 15, is a reading as part of Writers & Cartoonists for Obama, a huge fund-raiser for our guy, with a ton of great writers on the bill, including Stuart Dybek, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Sara Paretsky and others.

Back from Omaha, and the (Downtown) Omaha Lit Fest. I dare say it was even more fun than last year. The reading at the Slowdown was a blast. Slowdown is a gorgeous venue, the kind I wish we had here in Chicago (i.e. there’s a stage AND windows). And I met loads of cool people, including Starlee Kine, Hesse McGraw and Jonis Agee.

So now I’m finally trying to catch up on the collapse of our economy, which is a funny thing to be behind on. The entire dialogue is blowing my mind, how the Treasury is acting as though we owe it to the bailed-out banks, and they should be allowed to hold us hostage. This is a really unformed opinion on the matter, at the moment, largely because I’ve never really understood anything more than savings accounts.