David Fingerman

For the past four days I’ve gotten maybe three to four hours of sleep per night. I have no idea what’s up – it just happens sometime. Tired and a bit cranky, I still wanted to go to the art fair. Today was the last day. For those not familiar with Minneapolis, there were actually three art fairs going on simultaneously this year. The biggest is the Uptown Art Fair which I avoid at all costs. I went there years ago and it’s shoulder to shoulder mayhem, constant pushing and shoving and still not being able to see much through all of the bodies. I swore I’d never go back. There’s the Loring Park Art Fair which is actually quite nice, but it butts up against downtown and parking is a bit of a hassle. That left the Powderhorn Park Art Fair. Powderhorn Park is 68 acres (I know, I looked it up – I didn’t think it was that big either) located in the heart of south Minneapolis. I wanted to get there early. One, to beat the crowds; and two, it was supposed to get up to 90 degrees with a humidity to match. I wanted to beat that too – at least the temperature, the humidity felt like it was already there. So I hopped myself up on caffeine (I never said I was all that smart), and off I went. Last year one of the booths I stopped at had artwork by a Ukrainian artist named Olga Krasovska. She paints street scenes (or her interpretations thereof) of Russian and European cities. You can check out her website at www.artfromolga.com. Anyway, last year I walked away from her booth empty handed, and have regretted it until today. I had no idea if she’d be back again this year, but I hoped. Well, the art gods were smiling (kinda laughing at me) and I found her booth about half way around the park (as far away from the car as I could be). And just like last year I started to waffle. If I’m going to spend a good chunk of money on myself, I need a reason – like something to celebrate. I could call it a late (or early) birthday present. It’s six months away no matter which direction I go. I could celebrate that I’m still functioning on not a whole lot of sleep – nah, didn’t seem quite the celebration type of thing. It finally came down to, “dammit, I really like that art!” I ended up buying two prints of the streets of Prague.

After hanging up the pictures, I did what most people do now-a-days – I checked my email. There were two messages. One was from a fellow writer, whom not only do I admire, but also quite respect. He lauded me for the book reviews I’ve been doing for www.minnesotareads.com. He also does book reviews for ‘Rain Taxi’ among others, and has been doing them much longer than I. I was floored. After regaining my composure, I clicked on the second – from L & L Dreamspell. They’re the publisher that accepted “Silent Kill.” A few weeks ago I sent them my novel, “Spyder.” I talked to them about it, and to be quite honest, I didn’t have a lot of hope. In the past, I have gotten a lot of raves in my rejection letters of Spyder, but what most of them came down to was they had no idea where to fit him, and no idea how to sell him. My conclusion after today? L & L is smarter than the rest. Spyder has finally found a home. Sometimes time just works backward. I did have a reason to celebrate – I just didn’t know it yet.

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