Noir at the Bar Los Angeles - a swell evening!

Belatedly, I am posting on my fantastic evening at Noir at the Bar Los Angeles.  The reason for my tardiness: that horrible distraction called "paid work" has been interfering ever since I got back to Sydney from our wonderful US visit.  (And my thoughts on America in another blog shortly).

Noir at the Bar LA on the 7th of July at the Mandrake Bar on La Cienega was a swell evening.  It was the 8 year anniversary of the Noir at the Bar events in LA, all arranged by Eric Beetner.  Having read some of Eric's work, and seriously enjoyed it, meeting him was a real treat.  His passion for the art form was inspirational, and you couldn't ask to meet a more down-to-earth and lovely person.  He's also incredibly productive as an author (about 22 books so far), so I'm all up for his habits rubbing off on me.
​And then I got to meet all the other authors reading that evening: Glen Erik Hamilton, Michelle Gagnon, Martin Jay Weiss, Wendy Heard, and Paddy Hirsch.  I loved their readings and chatting to them during the evening.  Getting to read alongside this talented lineup was an honour indeed.
​And following only a week after joining the Switchblade authors for the reading evening at Skylight Books, I began to feel really at home in LA.
​I will say that the collegiate feeling I had with the other indie crime authors in LA was both awesome and motivating.  The encouragement and positivity of my new American friends was wonderful.  I'd love to feel that way here - will work on that, and, on that note, I'm organising Noir at the Bar Sydney for the very first time!
Photos at left are of me reading at Noir at the Bar LA, and the first one is of our host, Eric Beetner.
Love your work, Eric, and thank you again for the invitation to join you all for that great evening.

Cheers,
ABP