VOTM: What’s the most unusual experience you’ve had at a reading?
INGALLS: A friend’s marriage had unraveled the week before I had planned to stay with him for a writer’s conference in Seattle. He said I should still stay with him; I promised to help him fight his way “out of the grief cave.” It was an unfortunate cave; his spouse had left him for the singer at their wedding, a slight man with a sharp-planed face who we named “rat-fucker.” I also had another friend who I hadn’t seen in years wanting to meet up after the conference’s panels were done. Several Manhattans later, I found myself on an L-shaped couch between my divorcing friend, my long-lost friend, and the trifecta of lust, opportunity, and booze. Being something of a lightweight, I abruptly fell asleep on the couch; but when I awoke, I realized I had become an inadvertent match-maker. Miraculously, I made it to my 9 am panel without waking anybody up.
Julia Ingalls is primarily an essayist. Her work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Guernica, Salon, and The LA Weekly among other publications. She’s into it.
Come see Julia read at Book Show in Highland Park on Friday, November 11 at 7:30pm