N@B Recap & Announcements

I ever tell you how much I love this gig? Hosting N@B I get to hobnob with some of the swellest people on the planet and meet folks whose talent I am no-shit working on a way to extract and harvest, and to top it all off, they, the hell, come to me. Yeah, I sit back and send out the odd email - 'hey, you wanna drag your carcass to St. Louis and have a party?' - the rest takes care of itself. Anyhow, huuuuge thanks to the readers and spouses who made Saturday's event possible and to all the warm bodies who showed some HuSTLe City love to the readers.

This is how it went... We cast lots for reading order and then I said, "Bullshit, this is my fucking event. Who ever invited you to read anywhere, except me? Who? To whom do you owe tribute on this most awesomest night of your lives? I will take your silence for your chicken-hearted ascent. I am reading first." And I did. Read first. Read an especially brutal passage from Fierce Bitches in fact. It were fun.

Then I called upon Frank Wheeler Jr. who responded by fictionally shooting a few folks at very close range. Wasn't even a passage from The Wowzer. But holy hell, did he make his point. He's not to be fucked with. I've begun listening to the audio edition of The Wowzer, btw. Nice way to revisit one of my favorite books of 2012 and I'd recommend you do the same if you get the chance. Good narration by Eric G. Dove. (And to hear Frank read his own material, check out his story Slick Texas Money on the CrimeWav podcast.)

Clayton Lindemuth didn't flinch, though. Stood the fuck up and read chapter 33 of Cold, Quiet Country. Fucking rocked. Fucking patricide. Fucking beautiful. If you've read CQC, you know the insistent rhythm that builds around the mantra 'Fuck him' during the larger-scale scenes of violence and mayhem. If you haven't, well take my word for it, it's a great fucking mantra and a snappy cadence-keeper. Try it on for size next time you're in a shoot out. And for gosh sake buy a copy of his book (Subterranean Books still has a few signed copies!)

When you want to end an evening on a memorable note, friends, here's my advice: find yourself a Matthew McBride or a David James Keaton if you haven't got a Josh Woods to do the job. Good thing I had a Woods on hand - he closed the evening by righteously smiting just south of a hundred thousand combatants in his VS. Anthology contribution, Jesus VS. Thor, and 'The Lamb came a-tromping' was probably the evening's most quotable line.

Good to see friends and past participants like Sonia L. Coney, David Cirillo, Matt Kindt and Brian Hurtt too. Great night, and I was very excited to announce...

NOIR AT THE BAR - Saturday, May 4 with N@B favorite son Dan O'Shea returning to the ample bosom of his portly, profane brethren on the occasion of the publication of his first novel Penance (released April 30th!), with immoral support delivered by Little Rock's own John Hornor Jacobs. It's gonna rawknshit.

Aaaaand that's not all:

NOIR AT THE BAR - Friday, May 17 features two returning N@B alum with two very strange crime books to tout. Matt Kindt in support of his brannew graphic novel Red Handed and David James Keaton making the first of two St. Louis appearances for his new collection Fish Bites Cop.

That is going to be a great month to be in St. Louis. So do it. Y'know... be there. Here.