Up in Ontario

Sunday at the JBI

Event number one in support of the launch of my novel, Up in Ontario, is scheduled for Sunday, November 2nd at the James Bay Inn in Victoria, BC. I will be reading with Beth Ryan and one other writer. The reading is described in the following way by its excellent organizers:

Sundays at the JBI is a weekly reading series that brings spoken word (poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, script) to the relaxed environment of the James Bay Inn Pub in Victoria, BC.

Organized within three-week cycles, the series hosts two consecutive Sundays featuring three invited readers, reading 20 minutes each with a short intermission between readings. The third Sunday in the cycle hosts an Open Mic and Poetry Slam.

The series was launched by Roy McFarlane in September of 1999 and quickly became a success with both writers and audiences. The series now boasts a list of over 200 past feature readers.

After the disappearance and accidental death of Roy McFarlane in May 2001 friends and supporters of Sundays at the JBI kept the series going. Jill Margo is now honoured to be producing the series and carrying on with the work that Roy was so truly passionate about.

The event is open and free and everyone is not only welcome, but heartily encouraged, to come. Some individuals will even be conscripted to come. If you know anyone in Victoria, you should tell them to come. If enough people show up, I might tell the cleanest joke in the world, which revolves around a Duck and a grape. If we pack the place, I will tell the chicken joke that Howard Blatt told for 17 consecutive years at the PigFeed in Winnipeg. Sadly, the PigFeed, whose motto was "A moment on the lips, forever on the hips," is no longer an annual event, though the motto can still be seen on faded t-shirts and stained coffee mugs. And the chicken joke lives on in memory.

Full information about the reading and a map to the James Bay Inn can be obtained on the Sundays at the JBI website.