Looks like “Things That Never Happened,” a short story of mine which will be published soon in Postscripts magazine, won’t be the only bit of fiction I’ll be reading at Readercon this year. I’ll also tackle Mark Twain’s famous short story “The War Prayer.”

How did this come about? Blame Eric Rosenfield, he of the Wold Newton Reading Extravaganza. I’ve been invited to take part in a special edition of that reading series, to be held before the Kirk Poland Memorial Bad Prose Competition.

Let Eric explain:

Saturday July 16th, before the annual Kirk Poland Memorial Bad Prose Competition, Wold Newton will be engaging in an INCREDIBLY FANCY SONIC ART EXPERIMENT consisting of ESTEEMED LITERARY PERSONAGES (yes, YOU), reading prose, poetry, criticism or anything else you want, in short bursts one after another accompanied by LIVE, IMPROVISED MUSIC. The goal is to create a kind of unbroken MOSAIC of what ReaderCon FEELS LIKE.

To that end, I am inviting YOU ALL, should you choose to accept it, to READ for approximately FOUR MINUTES apiece. You may read ANYTHING YOU
HAVE WRITTEN, in ANY GENRE, FORM or MODE. You may also DANCE or SING or MAKE A GENERAL RUCKUS as you see fit. You may also DISCUSS WITH multitalented musical maestro Brian Francis Slattery what sort of musical musicness you would like to accompany YOU.

Rather than toot my own horn, I’ve decided to honor this year’s Memorial Guest of Honor, Mark Twain.

I last read “The War Prayer” aloud in high school during the Vietnam War. Seems like it’s about time to do it again!