11/03/2007: "Italian Tour"

Hi All,

So, slowly gearing up for my tour in Italy to promote THE FIGHTER. Leave on the 7th, back on the 16th. I know there's a festival in there, the Umbrialibri Festival, and after that stops in Rome, Milan, Turin and perhaps one in Bologna or Florence. So, lots of traveling but that's great. Never have I been to Italy, pitiful provincial that I am, so I'm looking forward to it.

I've been in touch with a fellow named Danilo there, who really was the first person I ever spoke to in Italy regarding my writing. He says he's going to take me out drinking, to which I said sure, and also we'd eat a local dish involving cooked pigeon and I said sure again, based on the idea that the Italians are such good cooks I'm sure they can make even gutter bird taste good. And besides, pelicans love them:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNNl_uWmQXE

... so, y'know, if pelicans can eat them, so can I. And happily so!

Anyway, Danilo didn't originally contact me with an offer to eat pigeon. Initially he contacted me out of the blue asking if I had a story that he might have translated for the first issue of his magazine, Eleanore Rigby:

www.eleanorerigby.com

... if you want to see my story, click on "Ultimo Numero" and mine's called "Deterioramento progressivo." Of course, if you'd like the the English version, you can read it care of my buddy Brett Savory's publication, ChiZine, where it was published as "Failure to Thrive"---ye gods, you can't! I went to try to find it and indeed, it's gone! Into the ether! Well, Chizine maybe had to purge some of its files. It was initially pubbed back in 2003, as Patrick Lestewka, so it's lost to the gauzy mists of time. It was later published in Sub-Terrain and later in the Journey Prize Anthology, making it my most published story and probably I broke a few contracts in the process but nevermind all that!

But you can still go check out ChiZine, because it's a cool mag:

www.chizine.com

And on that same note, you can go read Brett's latest---or actually, his debut---column at Broken Pencil online. I smell what Brett's cooking:

http://brokenpencil.com

and specifically:

www.brokenpencil.com/indieartist/view.php?indieartid=12

plus go buy his book why don't you? (or what are you, a gutless worm or something?):

www.amazon.ca/Down-Brett-Alexander-Savory/dp/1897142269/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/701-8935674-8331515?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1194135034&sr=8-1

All best,
Craig "Pigeon Lover" Davidson *

* [and by "lover" I mean, more accurately, that I love to eat them. Or I'm sure I will shortly].