I don't have a publicist. Nor do I have an agent, manager or anything like that. To make matters worse, I'm terrible at keeping in touch with people. So, unless you happened to read this blog sometime last week or you are on my MySpace list and happened to be reading posts today, you might not know that I'm reading tonight at the Mountain Bar in Chinatown. Allow me to present my own last minute quasi-press release about this event.

Liz Ohanesian (spell it like it's Armenian, say it like it's Irish) will be reading her story "Last Night at the Fair" that was published in Razorcake issue #31. Those of you schooled in the ways of Morrissey should know that the title is a reference to The Smiths' brilliant song "Russholme Ruffians." Those of you who didn't know that need to get yourself a copy of Meat is Murder STAT. (Tower is liquidating, you can get it for cheap.) "Last Night at the Fair" is not so much an ode to the (formerly?) Celibate Sex God so much as it is a testament to what happens when you stick Smiths albums in the hands young girls well-versed in the ways of Jane Austen heroines and the dramatic arts. No less an authority on the subject than Ohanesian herself says that it's "If I were a 5'6" willowy blonde who shared a Fiat Spider with my twin sister, it would totally be like Sweet Valley High." Oh, and, also unlike Sweet Valley High, "Last Night at the Fair" is indeed a true tale, so true that Ohanesian opted to change the names of everyone but herself. If we're lucky, one of the characters will be in the audience.

Here's the official stuff:
Sunday 10/08/06 8 p.m.
Mountain Bar
475 Gin Ling Way (Chinatown)
Los Angeles, CA
90012-1712
*Also reading: Joe Meno (author of Hairstyles of the Damned), Todd
Dills, Mickey Hess, and Liz O.)
Vermin on the Mount is pleased to announce the book release party for
Todd Taylor's novel Shirley Wins. Joining him are a trio of
Midwestern writers: Mickey Hess (Big Wheel at the Cracker Factory),
Todd Dills (Sons of the Rapture) and Joe Meno (Hairstyles of the
Damned, The Boy Detective Fails). The Mountain is located at 475 Gin
Ling Way (directly across from the Wishing Well) in Chinatown. Fun
starts at 8 PM.