Debauchercon

Goodness, what a night. Frank Bill threw a helluva party for his Crimes in Southern Indiana book launch last night. The back patio area of Beef O'Brady's in Corydon, IN. was packed with folks who'd come in from miles away to states away - Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky. Arlston's books sold out of Mr. Bill's stash before the event even got underway. Once the damn thing started though, it never let up. Rod Wiethop kicked things off with a brief reading from his afterward to the Noir at the Bar anthology and I read Amateurs from Crime Factory: The First Shift. Kyle Minor read an excerpt from The Sexual Lives of Missionaries and Scott Phillips from The Adjustment. Donald Ray Pollock read this flash piece called Life and Frank tapped into The Need. Matthew McBride read Big Darlene, the Sex Machine from the forthcoming Beat to a Pulp: Round Two, and Aaron Michael Morales closed the evening with Rainbow from Drowning Tucson.

Folks spent another hour or more socializing and I got the opportunity to say catch up with Richard Thomas and Stacia Decker as well as meet some badass folks like Chad Eagleton, Chris Deal, Matthew C. Funk, David James Keaton and Crimespree magazine's Tim Hennessey, (who was subjected to me and Scott as probably the most unruly, unfocused interview subjects ever. I feel bad about that. We're gonna catch up at Waffle Hut in a couple hours to see if we can't make it up to him.) I was also pleased to meet Robb Olson and Livius Nedin of the Booked podcast - go check them the hell out. I've really enjoyed their interviews with folks like Anthony Neil Smith, Nik Korpon, Senor Thomas, Stephen Graham Jones and Craig Clevenger (as well as many contributors to the Warmed & Bound anthology).

The evening was kinda like the biggest, baddest N@B evening yet and has got me primed for Wednesday's event with Duane Swierczynski, Hilary Davidson, John Rector, Glenn Gray and probably a lot more just-arrived literary jackoffs, (Greg Bardsley, DH Dublin, Bryon Quertermous) and previous N@B participants like Cameron Ashley, Laura Benedict, Brickhouse McBride, Josh Stallings and Holly O'Neill West (alright, those last two belong to the L.A. veterans chapter). Who knows, we may even see late arrivals from folks who opted to go to the library event featuring Reed Farrel Coleman, Megan Abbott, Christa Faust, Steve Hamilton, Lisa Lutz, SJ Rozan, Peter Spiegelman, Katie Estill and uh, Daniel Woodrell.

Whew. Taking lotsa vitamins.