Las Vegas for Vegans by A.S. Patric

Tonight I went to a book launch at Readings St Kilda, and had the pleasure of hearing A.S. Patric read from his new collection of short stories called Las Vegas for Vegans.  I haven’t read the entire collection yet, but I’ve read enough to know that Patric is a most interesting author and I want him to finish his novel, please!

Paddy O’Reilly, author of The Fine Colour of Rust and The Factory, launched the book with some interesting thoughts about risk-taking for novelists.  She said that risk-taking is satisfying, but that asking readers to explore difficult terrain where they may not like the answers needs good technical skills, that is, at the sentence level: the selection and arrangement of words. It takes precision but it’s worth it because the world we live in is always being challenged, and small things can make or unmake us.  (I hope I’m not…