Last night I had the pleasure of hearing two of my friends read at the monthly NYRSF reading. William Shunn guest curated this month, and we got to see Andrea Kail and Lauren McLaughlin. Andrea read her short story, which is forthcoming in Fantasy 6, and also from a novella. Lauren read from her upcoming debut novel, Cycler, due out in Fall ‘08. This image to the left is James Trimarco. No, he’s not sleeping, even though he told us he only had 2 hrs of sleep in 72 hours when this photo was taken. He was actually in deep concentration, listening to the stories. I saw his pose and just had to take a shot.

Both readings were excellent. I already have a subscription to Fantasy, but I most definitely will be buying Lauren’s book. (Though, there was some post-reading talk about getting our hands on the raw manuscript.) Also, we finally got to meet Jon Armstrong, whose new novel, Grey, is just out in stores. Below are some photos I took. I apologize for the grainy quality. Even though the lighting seemed okay to my eyes, my camera thought otherwise. I would have gotten up to take a closeup, but Devin Poore said I reminded him of the passenger he sat next to on his last airplane trip.

William Shunn Love the beard!	Jim Freund All in one piece (thankfully)!
Andrea Kail Braving the flu to read!	Lauren McLaughlin “I am a girl!”