Peter H. Fogtdal is Funny
Soerine is funny too.
See people are smiling and in a few more seconds they will be laughing because Peter H. Fogtdal is about to start his UCLA reading for them. Laughing with Peter of course...
Hawthorne Books’ author Peter H. Fogtdal recently gave a reading of The Tsar’s Dwarf at UCLA’s The Scandinavian Section and even though it was a sunny mid-day event it was a great turnout.
In his words:
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When you walk around UCLA’s gorgeous campus, you discover that even the buildings are celebrities. I pass Ronald Reagan Medical Center, Herb Albert’s School of Music, and Cher’s Institute for Plastic Surgery. And I marvel how lucky it is that a small time Scandinavian novelist has been allowed to do a reading for this crowd.
Will Jack Nicholson show up, I ask myself? Or do I have to settle for a drunk Charlie Sheen? In my mind I see the crowded auditorium with paparazzi fighting for a photo of Angelina Jolie and me. I picture gorgeous sophomores dragging me to their dorm rooms – against my will, of course.
But unfortunately, I’m not a star. I’m just another Dane with dandruff, so I’m left to babble at The Scandinavian Institute at Royce Hall. In a small room with squeaky chairs and hoarse Norwegians.
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It’s great though.
Thirty people show up. Some of them have to stand in the hall. And hey, most students haven’t even been forced by gun point. However, I don’t count a single celebrity. Their excuses for not coming are so lame. Sandra Bullock said she was practicing her Oscar speech, and Madonna is adopting the country of Malawi. That woman just can’t get enough of anything, can she?
But I’m a humble man. I like people who haven’t been on TV. Unlike everybody else in L.A.
To read more about this and more visit Peter’s blog @ Danish Accent.
Hawthorne Books author Peter H. Fogtdal was born in 1956 in Copenhagen, Denmark and has a degree in playwriting from Cal State Fullerton. He is the author of twelve novels in Danish. Three have been translated into French, two into Portuguese. In 2005 he won The Francophonian Literature Prize (Le Prix Litteraire de la Francophonie) for Le Front Chantilly. The Tsar’s Dwarf is his first novel in English. Peter H. Fogtdal shares his time between Portland, Oregon, and Copenhagen, Denmark.
