Community of Writers, March 1

[Full Disclosure: I organized this event & I am the President of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild.]

This program was part of an on-going series sponsored by the Hudson Valley Writers Guild. There were 3 local writers on the program this afternoon in the main auditorium of the Albany Public Library’s Washington Ave. Branch, Keith W. Willis, Mark W. O’Brien & K. A. Laity. Each writer read a selection of their work, then answered questions from the audience.

Keith W. Willis is a member of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild, the Mythopoeic Society, and the Latham/Albany/Schenectady/Troy Science Fiction Association, and his debut fantasy novel Traitor Knight will be released in July 2015 by Champagne Book Group’s Burst SFF imprint. He described his work as a fantasy novel that is not afraid to use humor. He read the first 2 chapters of Traitor Knight, filled with an antique, hiccuping dragon, a maiden in distress & a hero with a sword. Look for announcements in July when it is published.

Mark W. O’Brien (Marcas W. O’ Briain) is well-known around the open-mic poetry scene & in 2014 launched his book of poems Lenticular Memories: (Benevolent Bird Press) at the Fermoy International Poetry Festival in Ireland. Today he read a selection of poems from Lenticular Memories: as well as other poems, often dealing with his parents & siblings, including the just-published (Benevolent Bird Press) poem to his brothers Cowboy Planet. He also paid tribute to the recently gone Voorheesville village character Roger Spencer with a poem intertwined with a the folk tune “Tom Dooley” performed by Gail Allen on guitar.

K.A. Laity teaches at the College of St. Rose & has a raft of publications you can find out about at her website www.kalaity.com, including the forthcoming anthology Drag Noir. She read a short story “30 Versions of Warm Leatherette,” about teenage obsession, sex & murder, built around the rock song “Warm Leatherette,” originally by The Normal, which in turn is based on J.G. Ballard’s classic novel Crash. A punk-noir tour-de-force.

For more information about the Hudson Valley Writers Guild check out the website www.hvwg.org.