Tonight I'm going to an event called Hugo Works in Progress.  It's put on at The Hugo House (1634 11th Ave., Seattle), which is right here in my neighborhood on Capitol Hill.  This event is the 1st Monday of every month and people go there mainly to read their work out loud and to meet fellow writers.  I'm personally hoping to hear more fiction than poetry.  I have nothing against poetry, it's just that I have heard so much of it in my life and am ready for something different.  

As for me reading my own work, that probably won't happen, at least not on my first time attending the event.  I need to check it out first and see how it all takes place.  I read that there is a 5 minute time limit and if readers exceed it a buzzer goes off.  I would hate to be in the middle of a carefully crafted sentence only to get the buzzer blaring in my ears.  That is like getting gonged out of a talent show or even worse, tomatoe'd in the middle of a performance.  

Another reason I'm excited for this is to see how my own work holds up to local talent.  There is no better way to shrink your ego down a few sizes than to actually get out on the scene.  Right now, I think the fiction I have been working on is OK but who knows, maybe in a few hours I'll be surrounded by greatness and will realize the true degree of my miserable writing.  Hopefully that doesn't happen though, I will cross my fingers and wish for the best.

I encourage anyone living in Seattle to come to this event either tonight or the first Monday of next month.  I've heard many good things about Hugo House.  They offer writing classes which I have been wanting to take.  I was ready to do it last quarter but the class I was interested in was out of my price range at $345.  They lowered their fees a little for the summer quarter though, which is good for a person like me who also has yacht club dues to pay and things of that nature (that was a joke, and if you have to tell people it was a joke it probably wasn't funny in the first place).

Later this week I'll follow up and fill everyone in on how Hugo Works In Progress went. I'm sure there will be thrilling moments when a speaker had the crowd spellbound as well as embarrassing disasters that come from someone trying to read their writing without putting in enough practice ahead of time. Overall I'm just excited to hear other people's work and see what the writing community is like in this city.