The Gladstone Hotel, Launch and Panel discussion

Caucasian male, late 40s, with short grey hair, wearing glasses, black leather jacket, and tan pants.

The New Quarterly, Issue 107 (The Salon des Refusés)

Page 63:

From the short story “Impossible to Die in Your Dreams” by Heather Birrell

Samantha is still talking to the tall man, her eyebrows meeting in the middle of her forehead like something from a political cartoon. Smile, I will her silently. Look into his eyes. There is softness in her, I’ve seen it. Post-Bobby, for an entire year, Annie refused to dress in anything but purple, right down to the skin. Left stubborn rings like bands of grape juice around the tub, in the good mixing bowls. When her mother lost patience, what little she had, it was Samantha who showed up in a lavender pantsuit and mauve eye shadow to intercede.

There was that year that everyone made fun of the actor who only ate orange food. Of course, it wasn’t true, the actor had retorted, was it on some late night talk show, or maybe among the pages of some mens’ magazine, he tried to remember. He opened the freezer, the condensation fogging his glasses, and reached blindly into the rows of tangerine sherbet packed tightly to the back and sides, knowing, after all, what he’d retrieve.