The Authors Right before The Fisticuffs.
So, last night I participated in a reading at Shade bar in New York City – Noir at the Bar NYC, to be exact – organized by Thomas Pluck. I joined Tom, Sj Rozan, Cathi Stoler, Tim Hall, Rob Brunet, Albert Tucher, and Angel Colón in reading from our work and giving away copies of our books to the audience, and it was easily one of my fave reading experiences.
I read, of course, from We Are Not Good People and implored everyone to buy a copy on Tuesday like a good little author (Kirkus Reviews calls the book an “insistently entertaining novel”!!). I think it was a pretty good performance, albeit not my best. I did manage to be just drunk enough, which is a fine line when it comes to public speaking.
I also traded books with a few folks (the bartender won a copy of WANGP and was really, really excited about it, which I’ll take as a good sign) – including snagging a copy of Tom Pluck’s Blade of Dishonor, and I actually won a copy of Tim Hall’s Dead Stock:
Nestled inside of Dead Stock, in fact, was a signed original page from the manuscript!
In other words: I won the night. I even got home with a public urination summons, for a change.
Thomas Pluck also read a story of his that I thought was easily the best of the evening (with a close second being Tim Hall’s piece), and told him so, which is rare as I usually only like my own stories. So his must have been good! All in all, a great event. If you missed it, it will likely feature on your list of regrets on your deathbed.