This is part three of an indepth account of the Shabby Doll House Conference that took place a couple of weeks ago in Lisbon. For part one click here or part two, try here.
Day 6, Thursday: Lunch meeting at Boulangerie before Cascais
Strava says I ran 6km on Thursday morning, although I couldn’t remember this happening at all until I checked the app. I wrote, ‘difficult to fit runs in this week, cut this one short because I wanted to give myself enough time to get ready for class instead of rushing around. Hopefully this is better than nothing though, and we did climb a mountain on Tuesday so maybe that counts for something. will try to fit a slightly longer run in tomorrow [farm girl emoji].’ At this point, my weekly mileage was plummeting in direct correlation with the amount of fun I was having.
I taught a few classes and then we had another meeting. This time it was supposed to be publicity and marketing part two, and we returned to the cafe overlooking the Ancient Art Museum instead of the Upper Terrace because we needed to give Phil some time in the apartment to rehearse for his special guest performance at Friday’s event.
In this meeting, to be honest I think we immediately lost track of the publicity and marketing thing and just started talking logistics. We began planning for the cover reveals, which I concede sound ridiculous but everyone agrees such things are vital. And also our covers are amazing, so it does feel like something to make a show about. So in order to reveal the covers, we need to have some other stuff in place, including a pre-order setup and a website update. I’ll need to make new webpages for both books featuring:
front covers
book descriptions
blurbs
bios
author photos
social media and other associated links
And they’ll need to be designed in accordance with the general aesthetic that comes from the covers. So this is a substantial amount of work. Some of which will be tedious (setting up the pre-order situation) and some of which will be fun (experimenting with the way the website looks) and some of which will be meticulous (editing the book descriptions). What we tend to do when it comes to deadlines is to decide a date for when the end result needs to happen, and then work backwards setting other deadlines for when the smaller details need to fall into place. Perhaps this is a standard practice for dealing with life? I wouldn’t know.
It’s a little overwhelming, even thinking about this now. As I sit here writing, I feel like I should probably be doing something more practical. But truth be told it’s 12:32 on Friday night and I probably just need to relax and enjoy writing.
We also had a conversation about book pricing during this meeting and managed to decide quite quickly how much the books are each going to cost. I remember last year we talked and thought about this issue a whole lot more when we were publishing SALMON and THE MOAN WILDS, but this year we were able to agree upon the numbers almost immediately.
This is largely down to Oscar and Kristen simply being decisive. But I think it’s also what happens as I repeat this publishing process multiple times, I’ve already thought certain aspects of it through. I’ve already had this internal conversation about knowing your worth vs subverting capitalism and I don’t currently need to have it again. So it means there’s more time available to deal with new problems. For example, now I need to get better at understanding publicity and marketing…
After the lunch meeting we headed back to the apartment to drop off our computers and collect Phil. Our afternoon plan was to take the suburban train out to São João do Estoril, walk along the Atlantic coast for an hour or so, and then take a train back from Cascais. We were also supposed to discuss a podcast series we’ve been planning as we walked, but by the time we actually got there, I was feeling mentally fatigued and requested for this conversation to be postponed. Instead we engaged in some humourous literary criticism/character assasination. We talked about how one of the books in Rachel Cusk’s Outline trilogy is set at a literary conference in Lisbon, although for some reason the city is never actually named.
Imagine writing about a literary conference.
By this point in the conference, we were all starting to feel tired, starting to talk wistfully about spending time alone at our computers. We were still having fun, but the pressure of constant social interaction, not to mention meetings, was beginning to take its toll. On the train back from Cascais, everyone just read their books quietly and rested.
In the evening, we met Francisca, Pete and another friend of theirs at a Cape Verdean restaurant with live music so loud that it was almost impossible to have a conversation, which felt like a relief.
Day 7, Friday: The reading!
Given the level of exhaustion permeating the group, we tried to keep a light schedule on Friday. I worked in the morning and then Kristen and I had a Zoom meeting with Tim, who is doing the design work for LOG OFF. We relayed the relevant deadlines that we’d set this week and he gave us some updates on where he’s at in process. He showed us a version of the cover which was almost finished and I felt very excited. We asked each other questions and I tried to say thank you as often as I possibly could.
I hope we’ll be able to see each other in person on the summer tour.
After the meeting, Kristen and I headed to the supermarket Pingo Doce to buy supplies for the big event. At this point, the expected turn out had risen from 0 guests to around 20, and we had decided to stream the readings on Instagram Live. Why not?
We walked up and down hills with our empty backpacks on and I felt nostalgic for when I had stayed in this same neighbourhood and frequented this same supermarket five summers ago, just before the pandemic. Before I knew how to publish books. Before I’d written my last two books. Before I’d learned a lot in general.
I hoped it wouldn’t be another five years until I come back to Lisbon.
I kind of love these before-the-reading moments when you have no idea of how the evening’s going to pan out. Before you know if anyone’s going to show up, or what kind of crowd it’s going to be.
It makes me think about last summer when we did the big backyard launch party for Caroline’s book, THE MOAN WILDS and we spent the whole day driving around, picking up groceries and drinks and the incredible cake she had commissioned. When I painted custom bookmarks with lines from the poem on while Oscar made a challengingly spicy noodle salad and Caroline prepared for her big moment. When we drove across state lines just to buy sparklers. And it was worth it!
The way my brain kicks into high gear when I’m trying to figure out how to frame the moment. I’m the host of a lot more events than I read at, these days, and I want it to be something I’m good at.
Anyway, I enjoyed the experience of being in the supermarket with Kristen. And again, this is something you can’t do on Zoom. It was fun to select the wines and the cheeses and to scour the shelves for gluten-free crackers. It feels fulfilling to do the shopping for a party, knowing that you’re planning for a good time.
When we got back to the apartment, Oscar had just returned from a yoga class and informed us that he had somehow met a girl there who was also a writer and wanted to attend tonight’s reading, might bring a friend. We laughed nervously thinking about the growing guest list and the small living room. Shabby Doll House in Lisboa was going to be amazing.
Later, Kristen and Phil went to a nearby cafe and Oscar and I went for another run. Kristen texted this paparazzi-style photo to our conference group chat.
When we had been running for about half an hour, it started to rain heavily and I suddenly remembered that our laundry, including the clothes we were intending to wear that night, were almost dry on the drying rack, outside on the Upper Terrace!
I called Kristen in a panic but she was handling it.
When we got back, we used the hairdryer to ensure total dessication.
I got dressed and put my make-up on, rehearsing everything I wanted to say in my head. I went up to the Upper Terrace to phone my grandma because I’ve been trying to make a habit of phoning her on Fridays, but she didn’t answer. I went down to the kitchen and packed a few bottles of wine and some snacks, put my coat on. Phil and I walked the ten minutes over to Francisca and Pete’s, talking about our expectations for the evening and how amusing this was.
When we arrived at the apartment, Pete had just stepped outside with his dog, Wally.
Wally had recently taken some kind of dog xanax, apparently, to help him cope with the anxiety of the occasion. And he was also wearing a nice jacket. Phil and I went upstairs and immediately started moving furniture around. We considered doing the reading in the kitchen because the kitchen was technically bigger than the living room, although its shape was more unusual. But then Francisca suggested we just move the couch out of the living room and so we unscrewed the legs, lifted it up and squeezed it through the door and out of sight, accidentally chipping some paint off the door frame to our chagrin. The room was suddenly empty, save for a rug on the floor and an iPad in the doorway playing a Shabby Doll House in Lisboa graphic that Pete had designed. We moved the lamps around to make the lighting soft, threw cushions on the floor, chopped some carrots, elevated some hummus, laid out a cheese board, filled some mini pepper halfs with cream cheese and cooked them. Phil put on some music. Beers were opened. Kristen and Chris arrived and we all had one final meeting in the living room. I barely remember what we said at this meeting, although I think it was me who did most of the talking. We must have run through the order. Said something vaguely inspiring. Toasted to an excellent conference, and whatever happens tonight is simply a bonus.
A few minutes later, the apartment was full of people.
We put a sharpie by the paper cups and asked everyone to write their name on theirs, partly because we didn’t have that many cups, and partly so we could try to remember who everyone was.
I overheard one of the guests say to a friend, oh I didn’t expect this to be in an apartment. And I thought, yeah I didn’t expect any of this in general! I listened in to conversations and learned that there were people from Portugal, Spain, France, Greece, Austria, Switzerland, Venezuela, the United States, Russia, Germany… oh, and me, England! Kind of amazing. Everytime I started talking to someone, I was like, you should be friends with this other person I just met who also lives is Lisbon!
One person told me there’s not much of an active literary scene in English in the city, but that there are a lot of people who read and write in English and feel like they want one, which is why they came tonight.
Once we started the reading, I asked Francisca to welcome everybody in Portuguese too.
And yeah, what can I tell you about the readings? They were all wonderful. Our special guest Pete opened the event by showing three short animations that made everyone laugh and really warmed up the audience, who frankly had no idea of what to expect. Francisca read some new poems (in English) that felt perfect for the international crowd. There was one line about drawing a straight line to a storage unit on another continent where your things are that I thought this room especially would relate to. Oscar read next from THE ISLAND and I think it was one of the best readings I’ve ever seen him do. Very intense and controlled and not really what I was expecting. It was exciting to watch the audience take it all in. This was the first time he and Kristen had read from their books since we knew they were going to be published. And Kristen knocked it out of the park too with LOG OFF. She had everyone laughing so much. I loved it.
It was a thrill to see how the two books complemented each other. They’re totally different but they work really well together, which is amazing news going forward into the release tour. And also, after a week (and months) of meetings about details, it felt really great to get back to the point of what we’re actually doing this for, and why.
As Caroline texted me after she watched the livestream:
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1baa5ecd-6677-49e4-a533-0f940339f1e2_4032x3024.jpeg)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fead2d631-c0a3-4208-ac04-095ee92359c4_374x501.png)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F73b7b754-7877-4278-9e32-884d6a327c77_1536x2048.jpeg)
There was only one thing that could have made this evening even more exciting and that was a special guest appearance by the outrageous, visionary rock star, Beef Gordon. If you’re not yet familiar with his work, then I highly recommend it. His performance of hit single, Unabomber, was the perfect way to close the conference.
I hope we can convince him to join us again at future readings.
Thank you for reading over 6000 words about the Lisbon conference. I hope you enjoyed reading. We’re looking forward to doing more events when the books come out. Hope to see you there.
<3 Lucy
love this sh*t. obsessed with yr potential podcast series.