Reading Thing Tonight for Philadelphia Noir

If you need to see me this evening, I'll be taking part in a reading of Philadelphia Noir, edited by Carlin Romano at the Penn bookstore at 6 PM. You can read about it here. We're not actually reading from the book, because that would take forever, but I guess we're supposed to say something about the process of writing the story--how we came up with our ideas, etc. I made Dan talk with me about it yesterday so I could try to remember how the idea came about. I was just rereading some of the story, and the narrator just really isn't very likable. The situation too is a bit of a stretch. But I can talk about how I determined where it would be set. I was writing it when I was also looking for a house, and so I got to see the inside of all of these different South Philly homes, and started noticing similarities among some of the places where you could just tell the owners were older. Dark paneling, furniture covered in plastic, Jesus-es all over the place, and, oddly, old-fashioned pencil sharpeners in some of the basements. That stuff went into the story.

Oh, and I just looked up the anthology's review in Kirkus Review and my story got a mention:
"In Aimee LaBrie’s 'Princess,' a humble pug dog gets to foil a homicidal maniac." Is that true? I guess sort of. I think it's more the Virgin Mary statue that saves her. Here's another review from The City Paper (I think?): "Aimee LaBrie writes wrenchingly but with cool detachment of a server at Ray's Happy Birthday Bar, held captive by a local."On another page, I'm a trivia question. That's it. That's my claim to fame. My fifteen minutes of local notoriety.

Also, was paging through a copy of Amy Sedaris' newest book, Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People today at the bookstore and couldn't stop laughing. She has these photos of her doing terrible yoga (to prepare for crafting) that were just so awkward and awful and funny. But don't just take my word for it:

Here's the chapter list:

1. Coconuts
2. Fake Candle Making
3. The Joy of Poverty
4. Handicraftable
5. Safety Meetin’
6. Crafting for the Dead, and Other Celebrations
7. Confectioneries
8. Sick Room
9. Crafting for Jesus
10. Hay Burners
11. Making Love
12. Sausages
13. Teenager Crafts, or Teenagers Have a lot of Pain
14. Unreturnable Homemade Gift Giving
15. Knowing Your Knack for Knick-Knacks

But sure to put it on your list of things to buy me for Christmas.