Spent an awesome & memorable evening at Wordsmiths Books in Decatur, GA (a suburb of Atlanta). They've moved to a new location on Decatur Square, and this was their last hoorah at the old one. A fine crowd welcomed me and two outstanding musical groups: The Wayne Fishell Experiment, which Wayne describes as "Decatur's only gay indie accoustic folk duo," and the spellbinding Hope for Agoldensummer. These ladies from Athens, led by sisters Claire and Page Campbell, gave one of the best live musical performances I've ever seen, bar none. Their music is hard to describe: a mix of front porch bluegrass (they have a saw and they know how to play it) and folk, sung with haunting simplicity and childlike whimsy. The gorgeous harmonics gave me gooseflesh. The band members obviously revel in every second they're onstage, and do does every member of the audience. After the show, Charles McNair, the literary editor of Paste Magazine (yes, Charles, my review of Ethan Canin's book is coming soon - I promise!) took me out for a drink and a nosh. Charles is the author of Land O'Goshen, set in a fundamentalist near-future America. So is my own next book — how weird is that? Guess I'd better read it.