"Work Shirts for Madmen is kind of funny and kind of sad," says George Singleton about the new novel he will read from Monday, Oct. 1 at 7:30 p.m. at The Showroom. "Contrary to early reviews, it's not autobiographical. Except for maybe the smuggled anteaters, the heartless republican hitman, the crazy mother, the scary dermatologist, the ex-drinking, the men who fused their elbows together so they couldn't drink, and so on." Please join the Hub City Writers Project as we host a return engagement for one of the funniest writers in America, Pickens County's own George Singleton.

In Work Shirts for Mad Men, renegade artist Harp Spillman is lower than a bow-legged fire ant. Because of an unhealthy relationship with the bottle, he's ruined his reputation as one of the South's preeminent commissioned metal sculptors. And his desperate turn to ice sculpting might've led to a posse of angry politicians on his trail. With the help of his sane and practical potter wife, Raylou, Harp understands that it's time to return to the mig welder. Yes, it's time to prove that he can complete a series of twelve-foot-high metal angels-welded completely out of hex nuts-for the city of Birmingham. Is it pure chance that the Elbow Boys, their arms voluntarily fused so they can't drink, show up in order to help Harp out in a variety of ways? And why did his neighbor smuggle anteaters into desolate Ember Glow? Is it true that there's no free will?