But Will They Speed-Read It?

By Anonymous in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 11, 2005 5:22PM

Yowsas. Show of hands, anybody ever imagine publishing a novel that's been written in the span of only 3 days? Considering our difficulty in imagining writing a publishable novel, like, ever (though, y'know, who knows?), the prospect is terrifying. But that's just what Meghan Austin and Shannon Mullally did with their recently published novel Love Block, and they'll be sharing the craziness tonight at Quimby's.

Austin and Mullally collaborated on their first published novel as participants in last year's International 3-Day Novel Contest, an idea born as a bar bet in 1977. The winner of the contest, which has taken place every Labor Day weekend since its inception, gets their entry published (and, yes, "edited with a light hand").

We're frankly in awe of anyone with the guts to enter (find details about doing so for this year's contest here), so we give huge props to 26-year-olds Austin and Mullally, and look forward to their reading tonight. Graduates of The School of the Art Institute's MFA program, they currently live and work in Chicago, though their collaboration was a long-distance one: Austin was living in Portland, Oregon at the time. Co-written via phone and email conversations, Love Block follows the correspondences of two secret agents searching for a "mysterious cure for the lovelorn." Mullally and Austin will also discuss the unique challenges of co-writing a novel over three days and thousands of miles. We're still trying to wrap our mind around the process, so we're sure tonight's talk will be fascinating.

Love Block by Meghan Austin and Shannon Mullally
Quimby's, Tonight at 8:00
1854 W. North Ave.