Event reporting: Demolition Angels

What would you write if nobody knew it was you who wrote it? That was the question that gripped Marc Parent a few years ago, and the result is an intriguing new collection just out from Random House called THE SECRET SOCIETY OF DEMOLITION WRITERS. The premise: take 12 authors ranging from major bestsellers to celebrities to psychologists to journalists, ask each to write a story and guarantee anonymity. So the book jacket features the authors' names, but the stories are anonymous, and will remain so for the forseeable future.

I attended last night's extremely well-populated reading at B&N Union Square for likely the same reasons as everyone else: what was this anthology all about, and how would Parent organize the readings? Along with Parent, several of the anthology's contributors -- Benjamin Cheever, Michael Connelly, Sebastien Junger and Anna Quindlen -- discussed why anonymity freed them to try different types of stories from what they normally wrote.

Not surprisingly, this turned out to be a fairly unusual event, especially when Parent presented each author with his or her very own motorcyle helmet to commemorate the whole demolition derby feel (although to be honest, I kind of missed the whole metaphor Parent presented -- if demolition racing leads to one person left, why wasn't the anthology structured that way? But that's probably a minor point.)

But the audience got into the whole setup from the first, and things got especially jubilant once Parent indicated how the readings would be done: the stories would be picked out of a hat by each author -- so maybe they read their stories, but maybe not. As a result, some readings went off especially well -- Cheever's rendition of "Wonderland" elicited expected laughs while Quindlen had the house in stitches after recounting an exchange with a book reviewer for the Freep who criticized another writer for "Quindlenian" happy endings, even though her last 3 books were essentially tearjerkers -- while others led to humor of the unintentional sort. I would have felt sorry for Junger for being saddled with the unbelievable clunkiness of "An Eye for an Eye" but he read it so poorly that it only made a bad story worse...

But perhaps there was nothing funnier than seeing Michael Connelly read a story that opens with a rather graphic description of the sex lives of preying mantises. (After which he quipped "now you know I wrote that story.") In fact, Connelly was in great form, cracking jokes like how he thought this anthology would be akin to "THE DA VINCI CODE with stock cars." In truth, he was one of the last arrivals to the collection (he said he'd been given a list of all the other contributors when he joined up) and only wrote his story with two weeks to deadline. I have a sneaking suspicion as to which one it is, and if so, it's definitely not his usual fare at all -- which is something he actively strived for because as a mystery writer, he said that it's all too easy to be pigeonholed.

The Q&A revealed just how much of a logistical nightmare DEMOLITION WRITERS could be -- what if Hollywood wants to option one of the stories? As Parent's agent, David Black, pointed out from the back of the audience, Parent would be the point man (since he's the only person who knows who wrote what story) and would quietly let the author know what would happen, but even that didn't take into account whether the author's agent would be involved in the process. Such issues may hold back another edition, but based on the enthusiasm displayed by authors and audience members alike, there's definitely a demand for future volumes.

Afterwards I chatted mostly with the crew from Little, Brown, including a visiting Shannon Byrne (now fully networked from Atlanta), Heather Rizzo and editor Asya Muchnick, who was there as representative of sorts for Alice Sebold (who also contributed a story.) I also spoke briefly with Laney Shapiro, who's handling publicity for the book and expressed some frustration about how major media wasn't biting -- especially considering all the star power involved. But anthologies in general are a difficult sell, and an unusual hook like this could work against it. In fact, reviews of the anthology have been somewhat tentative, almost as if the reviewers don't want to out-and-out criticize a story in case it turns out to be a well-known (or favorite) author.

Still, this was certainly one of the most memorable readings I've attended, and I kept wondering how I could co-opt this idea for my own. Good thing Parent got to it first...

Comments

[Mary]

Darn, wish I had been there. Sounds like a fun evening. Perhaps not as much fun as the Kinky Friedman signing I went to on Monday night, but right up there.

[Graham]

I think this sort of thing, though many would label it a "stunt", is terrific, and a great way to promote short stories. In fact I think it would be cool if we randomly posted the stories for the next blogathon.

[Ray]

As much as I'd like to get excited about this, I haven't heard of half the authors. So as an event, it really doesn't ring with the illiterate. But yeah, always nice to see anthologies getting the press.

As for randomly posting on the next blogathon, I think it'd be pretty bloody obvious who'd written what story. And it's hard enough writing to a common theme without feeling you have to disguise your normal... umm... style.