Readers at the Fantastic Fiction at KGB Reading Series on Wednesday 17 September 2008 were contemporary/young adult fantasy authors Holly Black and Lauren McLaughlin. (Black replaced the originally scheduled YA writer, Cassandra Clare.)
The free Series, hosted by Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel, is held on the third Wednesday of each month at the KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street, in Manhattan’s East Village. While well-regarded as a literary venue, and, er, charmingly decorated in Soviet-era propaganda posters, photos, and paintings, there are, regrettably, certain inherent problems with the locale. The room is dark, dimly lit only by table candles and the odd cellphone screen; noisy, making conversation difficult, even without music blaring; and cramped, particularly as audience members scramble to the bar for drinks, and with on-time arrivals relegated to standing-room. (One organizer privately conceded that the Series had long outgrown the space.) That said, once readings began, the audience was perfectly attentive and demonstrably appreciative, and the acoustics were exemplary.
The evening got underway as Matt introduced Lauren McLaughlin, who read from two chapters of her just-published first novel, Cycler. (A film adaptation of Cycler is currently in the works.) The story (and that of its forthcoming sequel)—an inventive twist on Jack and Jill cum Jekyll and Hyde—concerns a 17-year-old girl who turns into a boy 4 days of the month. (Worst case of PMS ever.) McLaughlin’s selections were thoroughly amusing, as the girl, smitten with a certain boy, is the luckless victim of a humiliating skiing mishap, and her male phase introspectively reviews porn mags (sorry, this part didn’t ring true for an adolescent boy) and obsesses about her best girl friend.
After a break, Ellen introduced Holly Black, New York Times best-selling author, renowned for The Spiderwick Chronicles and her graphic novel series, The Good Neighbors. (Note: Black was cited in the Times on 15 September regarding her participation on a panel on “Faeries, Elves, and Ancient Omens” at Sunday’s Brooklyn Book Festival.) Holly read from her entry in the forthcoming Troll’s Eye View. Inspired by her own adolescent misery at being dragged along on sailing trips by her parents, “The Boy Who Cries Wolf” humorously centered on a teen, similarly a-sail, haunted by the idea of finding a white flower that would transform him—or whoever found it before he did—into a werewolf.
At the rear of the room, Mobile Libris sold books.
The KGB Bar’s darkness should spookily suit the 15 October pre-Halloween Weird Tales special event with authors Jeffrey Ford, Karen Heuler, and Micaela Morrissette.
[Edited to add this link to Ellen Datlow’s photos of the evening. See what you missed!]