launch!

Props to Books&Books in Coral Gables (especially Mitchell Kaplan and Emily D'Amour for making everything flow so smoothly).

My eight-year-old niece, Cassie, says, "I don't know where you're supposed to sign." I flipped over to the title page (smeared with chocolate fingerprints) and drew a smiley face.

Everybody kicked back with a beverage-of-choice on the patio (except me...even when Scott encouraged me to chug a cold one like Bukowski).

My friend, DJ LeSpam, played funk and soul records. His old-school turntables are plastered with a collage of crazy bumper stickers (exactly what his music looks like). Cool to see him trading tips with a couple of high-school DJs (the B&B boys) who followed his set. They huddled over their glowing laptops as if casting a magic spell.

Ryan (aka The Wheelbarrow) screenpainted graffiti-inspired tees and totes.

The kids in a band called The Corrupters rocked the courtyard with punk classics by Nirvana and the Misfits.

Marlon's animated TCO promo flickered on the wall. I wanted to jump into the movie (like a certain music video from the 1980s). Eventually, Emily pulled me inside the bookstore and I stood in front of a flock of folding chairs. I read from Fin's Diaryland blog and explained how her diary entries are based on true experiences. I included a scene from the cutting room floor--a section that was deleted from the book, along with an encounter with Carlos D, the bassist from Interpol, DJ Swamp's crowd-surfing tumble on Washington Avenue, and a silver fox who materialized on the lawn after a Chuck Palahniuk reading.

I noticed some of my students in the audience and told them, "Remember what we talk about in class? Writing is all about revision!" I reached into my purse and pulled out my notebook and read a few random scribbles and bits of dialogue that I cobbled into the book.

The kid from The Corrupters sat in the second row. He asked a lot of cool questions. Most of all, he wanted to know why I like to write. I said, "Sometimes I feel like nobody sees things the way I do. I feel alone. But when I share what I've written and people say: I feel that way, too...I don't feel so alone anymore."

He grinned and said, "Rock on."