All posts tagged Readings in San Diego

VOTM: What’s the most unusual experience you’ve had at a reading?

AGRANOFF: I read a story for 2014 World Horror Convention’s annual gross-out contest. It was nerve wracking reading my story in front of 500 horror writers. I didn’t think my story was funny or gross enough, but it came in second place out of 12 entries and many thought I was robbed. I won a print of a human centipede painting. So that is pretty weird. I also caused two grand masters of horror who were judges to keel over.

David Agranoff is the Wonderland award nominated author of two short story collections and four novels. His novels published by Eraserhead press include Punk Rock Ghost Story, Boot Boys of the Wolf Reich and The Vegan Revolution with Zombies. He writes primarily horror but this summer is releasing his first Science Fiction novel Flesh Trade co-written with Edward Morris.

Come see David read at 3rdSpace in San Diego on Saturday, April 15 at 7pm. 

VOTM: What’s the most unusual experience you’ve had at a reading?

FOWLER: Filming for the short film adaptation/trailer shoot for Beautiful Ape Girl Baby had paused due to torrential downpour and the cast and crew came together in a single room. As the book author, I was invited to watch the entire process. While we waited, the actors practiced their lines in the round. It was great to be seated there, watching my characters come to life and listening to director Lauren Rachel Berman advise on the scene. The best moment for me, because it was so privately amusing, was when the actors made slight adjustments to a line here or there and Lauren said, “Try that again. In the book and adapted script, it reads…” 

I’m a constant reviser–to the extent that sometimes, if reading unpublished work, I’ll even revise right as I read, so it was really fun to have the script kept so sacrosanct even when I myself was amenable to more fluid adjustments. Being an author often open to other people’s creative adjustments but having my exact terms kept precise–definitely memorable. I had to remind myself that the novel had yet to drop (but the edits were done), so Lauren was right. Now I’m writing plays and screenplays, so such things may not happen again in this way any time soon–a play/movie in development can be changed at every turn. 

I welcome the organized chaos to come. Here’s the trailer. These actors are great!

Heather Fowler is a novelist, a poet, a fiction writer, a librettist, and a playwright. She is the author of the novel Beautiful Ape Girl Baby (2016) and the story collections Suspended Heart (2010), People with Holes (2012), This Time, While We’re Awake (2013), and Elegantly Naked In My Sexy Mental Illness (2014). She is also co-author of a collaborative book of poems called Bare Bulbs Swinging with Meg Tuite and Michelle Reale. Her work has appeared in such venues as PANK, Night Train, storyglossia, Necessary Fiction, Feminist Studies, and more.

Come see Heather read at 3rdSpace in San Diego on Saturday, January 21 at 7pm. 

VOTM: What’s the most unusual experience you’ve had at a reading?

SHAW: When my first book came out, I wanted to do a reading in my hometown where the book was set, or at least somewhere in the Imperial Valley.

First I contacted the library, but it had been condemned due to a recent earthquake. Next I contacted the one bookstore that I knew was in town, but it had recently closed. The only other bookstore was the adult bookstore on the edge of town called Books ‘n’ Things. To be perfectly honest, it didn’t have a lot of book. It was mostly things. I considered doing the reading there, but the area in front of the beaded curtain was too small. 

So I contacted a few bars in town. Hot Rods & Beer in Holtville, California is a former garage converted into a bar, and they were more than happy to let me bring a little spoken word to the place. It ended up being a great night with a bunch of people coming out, and now I almost exclusively read in bars. Since I write in bars, it makes sense.

Johnny Shaw is the author of the novels DOVE SEASON, BIG MARIA, PLASTER CITY, and most recently FLOODGATE. His short stories have appeared in Thuglit, Plots With Guns, Shotgun Honey, Crime Factory, Blood & Tacos, and numerous anthologies. He was won the Anthony Award and two Spotted Owl Awards. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Come see Johnny read at 3rdSpace in San Diego on Saturday, February 20 at 7pm. 

Photo by Rose O’Keefe.