Last reading in 2024

Yesterday was the last reading for this year. I read together with Axel Aldenhoven at the Phantastische Bibliothek Wetzlar, the one and only library in Germany where they stock all German language Fantasy+Science Fiction+Horror literature plus adventure stories for kids.

Not many listeners, unfortunately. St Nicholas must have lured off our audience, since all the parents with children preferred to wait for him and Krampus and stuffed footwear rather than listen to our unusual heroes. A mistake, albeit an understandable one. Depriving children of their St Nicholas feast just because their parents want to go to a reading is probably not a nice thing to do. I know what I would prefer, but then I don’t have any children so my opinioin probalby does not count.

Nevertheless, we had a good time. After the reading, we had dinner together – Indian, very tasty. The Wetzlar Indian Take-Away can do ‘spicy’ better than our Frankfurt Indian restaurant, where you usually have to assure the waiter ‘…and I mean spicy. Hot. Really.’

I would like to thank the Phantastik-Autoren-Netzwerk e.V. and the library and its wonderful staff for the great evening. Thanks to Klaudia and Ralph. Special thanks also to Lara Lorenz, who hosted us and Jörg for taking pictures. And I thank fate or the Deity of Choice for the fact that there are so many amazing and impressive people to meet. Now, of course, I wish for Axel’s wide-ranging talents on the digital and many other fronts. Hey, Nikolaus, it’s your day off: could you copy Axel’s skill set and send it to me? I’m quite happy to do without boots or socks. Or Krampus, for that matter.

Today I drove home through pouring rain. But at least there was no ice or snow on the road. I’m grateful for that too, and for the fact that my windscreen wipers just about managed to grant me a bit of visibility.