On Friday, March 1st, the Experience Music Project is hosting a book event celebrating the release of the third book of the Mongoliad trilogy, the online collaborative mega-novel about the Mongol Horde written by Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, and others. It's in our readings calendar, but it's not strictly a reading. In fact, Stephenson, Bear, Mark Teppo, Nicole Galland, Joseph Brassey, Erik Bear, and Cooper Moo will present a "sword fighting demonstration" as the main event, followed by an audience Q&A and then an open bar hour, where the authors will mingle with fans over free beer and wine.

It's all free, but the event organizers just added an email that you must RSVP to if you plan to attend. The first 100 people to send an e-mail to 47north-pr@amazon.com will be on the list. The event starts at 5:30, but organizers request that you show up at 5:15 pm to guarantee a seat.

There's a lot of interesting book stuff going on this weekend that I'll Slog about in the days to come, but this is the only one, to my knowledge, with free drinks. And swords. So make of that what you will.