Skate Culture event – Ovenman reading

Jeff Parker will be reading from his novel, Ovenman at Mississippi Pizza Pub on August 30 from 6-8 p.m. as a cosponsored event with Powell’s Books. We were originally talking about this as a benefit for Skaters for Portland Skateparks but it will be a free event and the beer and pizza will be free. We may have a donation jar or sell sweatshirts or something.

I met the editor from Tin House at Pier Park where she was soaking up some skate atmosphere shortly after opening day. She asked me if I would be interested in reading a skateboarding related novel they were working on.

Here’s the blurb from the publisher:

JEFF PARKER’S uproariously funny debut novel follows When Thinfinger – skateboarder, pizza
slinger extraordinaire, and general ne’er-do-well with a slightly tarnished heart of gold – through his travails in a small town in Central Florida. He is a singer in a local band, but his bandmates only let him sing their name, “Wormdevil.” He has a girlfriend who dreams that he murders her and decorates their apartment with the skulls of small animals. His mother and stepfather haven’t spoken to him since he covered his arms in bad tattoos, and his newly surfaced Biodad sends mysterious letters full of lies. But after being fired as a cook at the local barbecue and landing a job at the hippest pizza joint in town, When becomes the leader of a disheveled crew and seeks a new nirvana in mopping floors, tossing dough, cleaning ovens, drinking too much beer, and stealing just enough from the Man. When’s philosophy is that anything worth saying should fit on a Postit note and, following his beer-soaked nights, he learns to rely on notes to himself to serve as memory. It doesn’t take long before things really heat up for Ovenman.

I read a draft and enjoyed it. Ovenman is an interesting story with engaging characters and funny situations and some good eighties skateboarding flavor. The event ought to be fun.