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Authors @ DCL - Jason Gray and Allan Harris


Today, we (also) taped a session with Jason Gray (owner of the Crowfoot Coffee Shop) and Allan Harris (a financial analyst for Wells Fargo at his day job, but hard working author, too) about their book, And We Fished Some More. (Jason is on the left, Allan on the right.)

This first collaboration between the two is mostly based on stories from Jason's life. It's a mix of short stories, recipes, and tips on throwing a good dinner party. It's also about the relationship between Jason and his father -- a story not of victimhood, but gratitude. It's the sort of thing that makes you realize the challenge, not to mention awesome responsibility, of libraries. We assign a call number and subject heading -- in this case, 799.1, and "Fishing -- Alaska -- anecdotes." But it could have gone in the cooking section, too. But because I bet we were first to catalog it, we set the bibliographic record for the world.

Just for fun, I had Jason read one of his recipes as if it were a poem. (It kind of looks like one on the page.) That clipping might well wind up on Youtube -- the folks at DC8 are eager to put up these snippets of authors reading their works. (This is also true for Liz Holzemer.) I like that: a good way to create a digital archive of Colorado authors.

But I got Jason and Allan talking about their collaboration. "And We Fished Some More" was just their first book. They've clearly matured in their partnership, and are tackling far more complex works. For tips on how to team up with somebody, and how to self-publish through a web-service (lulu.com), watch for this one.

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