The big, unspoken question at The Novel: Live! launch party at Elliott Bay Book Company last Sunday night seemed to be: Can 36 authors (including Garth Stein, Stacey Levine, Jennie Shortridge, and Erik Larson) write a good novel in six days? Here's the answer: No. Of course not. Even though the novel—which will be written in the cabaret of the Hugo House every day through Saturday, October 16—will be edited before it's finally released in e-book form, there's no way to squeeze quality from that many voices in such a short time.

This is not to say that The Novel: Live! is meaningless. Proceeds from book sales benefit the very worthy Writers in the Schools program, and with the entire ­writing process being broadcast live, keystroke for keystroke, on a large screen at the Hugo House and online at www ­.thenovellive­.org, it's a unique opportunity for aspiring writers to witness the writing process. Like catching someone masturbating on the bus, you can't look away from the gory awkwardness.

Besides that, it's fun. Nancy Pearl auctioned off character-naming rights at the launch party; someone paid $70 to name a love interest who "will definitely experience romance" over the course of the novel. (The name chosen: Linda, instantly outing the female protagonist as a lesbian.) After the auction, audience members shouted potential locations and supporting characters for the novel: Suggestions included "the guy who does Spanish lessons at Green Lake," and "the Ballard [sic] troll."

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That same night, an excitable crowd packed the Can Can for the inaugural Seattle edition of the Bushwick Book Club, a monthly event wherein songwriters read a book and respond to it in one or two songs. The debut novel was Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-­Five, and the variety of music was impressive, from Wes Weddell's earnest country ballad to Bucket of Honey's '60s sci-­fi-­musical introduction to Tralfamadore (including a diorama of Billy Pilgrim having hot zoo sex with Montana Wildhack) to Melissa Montalto's sultry monologue from Wildhack's point of view.

It was heartening to see such lively responses to a work of fiction. Moe Provencher wanted to write a happy song, but she found the book to be too depressing, and so she wrote a beautiful dirge instead. Andrew Nuñez complained about the audiobook version, which was narrated by Ethan Hawke ("They couldn't get Morgan Freeman?"). Even questionable critical responses—Vince Martinez saw "apathy in Billy Pilgrim's character," which doesn't seem quite right—were entertaining when set to music. And the music gains meaningful context from the book, too: There's probably no other musical event in town where the climactic, impassioned chorus of Mike Votava's song—"Cancel the optometrist's convention"—could almost move a room to tears. recommended