Noir At The Bar L.A. - The Recap

So last night, Eric Beetner, Mystery Dawg and I hosted the first L.A. Noir At The Bar over at The Mandrake on La Cienega.

And it was one kick-ass evening.

The room was packed. I mean, sure it's not a huge place, but we had thirty or forty people crammed into it. I was astonished at how many showed up. Beetner ran a loop on the wall behind the readers of old film noir trailers that was really cool.

We kicked it off with Beetner reading scenes from his story SAFETY, about a gun lesson that goes horribly wrong, and from a work in progress about a guy getting the drop on his captors in a rather... imaginative way.

I followed up with a reading of my story LIKE THAT JAPANESE CHICK WHAT BROKE UP VAN HALEN from the anthology UNCAGE ME about a bassist in a garage band who's a little too naive, a little too stupid and a little too stoned for his own good.

Holly West read next from her unpublished historical mystery set in the 17th Century, DIARY OF BEDLAM that I can't wait to see on the shelves.

After Holly we had Josh Stallings who read a scene from his novel BEAUTIFUL, NAKED & DEAD about Moses McGuire, a suicidal strip club bouncer who's having some rough times.

And then we had the main event, Duane "Wishes He'd Learned To Chew Through That Ballgag" Swierczynski, who read from a work in progress about a guy standing outside a motel room door with a brick in one hand and a baseball bat in the other.

I got a chance to meet some new people and hang out with some ones I haven't seen in a long time.

We're planning another one for October-ish. Details as soon as we can line them up.

Overall, the readings were fantastic, the crowd was nice and drunk and nobody threw a bottle at my head. If that's not the mark of a successful evening I don't know what is.