Portland, Oregon, is my home, a city I love like no other. And last night, my city loved me back.
We had the Hagridden release party at the Independent Publishing Resource Center, a very cool DIY printing workshop/zine library/classroom/event space/living museum of all things indie publishing.
And yes, we had the books by the bar and we had my mother’s guestbook, which has become the official record of my book tour.
By the way, that rougarou print I had out on display (bottom-right of the photo above) was a big hit! It’s by illustrator Shaleigh Westphall, a graduate of Pacific Northwest College of Art, where I teach. It was part of her thesis project on regional cryptozoology last year– I loved the rougarou print so much I bought one!
It was an amazing evening full of area friends and teaching colleagues. We also had a lot of fellow writers — in addition to Monica Drake and Mark Russell, who read with me, we also had Kassten Alonso, Hobie Anthony, Trevor Dodge, and Todd McNamee in the audience, as well as Sally K. Lehman and Jessica Standifird from Blue Skirt Productions!
And, of course, my beautiful wife, to whom the novel is dedicated.
And yes, I did the now-requisite reading selfie:
Mark Russell and Monica Drake killed it with their readings, which were both hilarious and both about sex — perhaps to lighten the mood before all the murder in my book? 😉
For my reading, I tried something new: a “live book trailer,” in which I played background sound effects timed to coincide with moments in the passage I was reading. It was a different experience — I can usually breeze through a reading, and I know how to cover mistakes when I make them, but this thing was dependent on timing, so I had to have a well-practiced pace so I could hit all the right marks, and there was no room for mistakes or even clearing my throat! I think it went over well, though, and my wife tells me lots of people were talking about it afterward.
We got video, but there’s a break in the video, so it’s in two parts. But if I can splice it together in good enough quality, I’ll share it here!
Afterward, I signed a few books and we all hung out and talked shop — writing, reading, reviews. It was a wonderful evening, and I’m so grateful to everyone who came out!
And now I get to take it easy for a week or so — and then it’s off to Ohio and Indiana for the Midwest leg of my book tour, and then I’m back in Oregon for more events in October!
As the Cajuns say, laissez les bon temps roulez!
Samuel Snoek-Brown 
I thought I would share the earworm I’ve had for the past three days.