Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Event Previews--Jean Reynolds Page, Kelly O'Connor McNees, Thomas Frank, David and Kristin Finch, Derek Anderson, and Gemma Tarlach.

Fortunately the press covered our Peter Geye event yesterday with some flourish. Jim Higgins wrote a fine review/profile in the Journal Sentinel, while the Shepherd Express featured The Lighthouse Road as their book preview for the week.The uphill battle of this evening cannot be stressed--it was the last Obama/Romney debate, a baseball playoff game, Monday night football, and even a Bucks game.

Whereas I don't normally worry about sports beyond a Packers game and the Super Bowl affecting attendance, Geye's got a base that has a good amount of guys that you can imagine are sports fans.The good news is that Geye is doing a series of events around the state. He's at Anderson's of Naperville tonight (October 23), Oconomowoc's Books and Company on October 24, and St. Paul's own Micawber's on October 25.

And despite several relatives last night grounded by a bug that had taken multiple kids, we still beat his attendance at Boswell over our event for Safe from the Sea.

Tuesday, October 23, 7 pm:
Kelly O’Connor McNees, author of In Need of a Good Wife
and
Jean Reynolds Page, author of Safe Within.

Here's Sharon on In Need of a Good Wife:
"The author of The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott has produced another delightful novel about resourceful women. Things are not going well for Clara Bixby in the fall of 1866. Her husband has left her for another woman, she has just lost her job, and she has very little chance of getting either another husband or another job. By chance, she learns about an unusual town in Destination, Nebraska, which is made up of almost all bachelors. Clara hatches a plan to collect women from Manhattan City, who might be interested in becoming wives to the lonely inhabitants of Destination. The journey to get to Nebraska is almost as interesting as what happens once the women arrive."

McNees is reading with Jean Reynolds Page, a North-Carolina-to-Madison transplant who is doing her second reading at Boswell.  Her new novel, Safe Within, is about Caron and Elaine who've returned to their childhood home North Carolina.  Carson is terminally ill at 49 and has picked his wife's tree house (well, a cabin) for his final days. The problem is that Carson's mom, Greta, has no use for either Elaine or her grown son Mick. And why? Well, that's the question of most books, isn't it?

Wednesday, October 24, 7 pm:
Thomas Frank, author of Pity the Billionaire and What’s the Matter with Kansas.

We wrote a proposal for Mr. Frank's hardcover release tour, but we've noticed often that these proposals serve double duty, and more than once, it has gotten us onto a paperback tour. Mr. Frank's new book contemplates how the financial collapse let to, of all things, the rebirth of an energized Republican right. Per Steve Weinberg in USA Today:

"In his latest book, Frank makes the case that money grabbed via a free-market economy is the secular religion among corporate executives, lobbyists for the one percent, elected legislators, and executive-branch policymakers. He's argued the case in his irregularly published magazine The Baffler, in columns for The Wall Street Journal and Harper's, and throughout his books, such as One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism and the End of Economic Democracy."

Thursday, October 25, 7 pm:
David Finch along with Kristin Finch, author of The Journal of Best Practices.
  
From Abbe Wright at O Magazine: "Though David and Kristen Finch had been friends since high school, it wasn't until after they married in 2003 that David's repetitive rituals, bursts of anger, and stunted social skills convinced Kristen that something was seriously wrong. In 2008 Kristen, a speech therapist, followed a hunch that led to David's being diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. In his new book, The Journal of Best Practices, David, a onetime audio engineer, chronicles how he and Kristen set out to make him a better husband, father, and person." Read the rest of the article here.

We had a great event for David Finch in hardcover, and together we chatted about how we could switch it up for the paperback. Mr. Finch noted that Ms. Finch had started doing some talks too, and folks were very interested in her perspective.So that's what we've got from you this Thursday.

Frday, October 26, 4 pm:
Derek Anderson, illustrator of Waking Dragons, Little Quack’s New Friend, and Hot Rod Hamster.

"Author/Illustrator Derek Anderson drew the very first picture he can ever remember drawing when he was in kindergarten. It was a picture of the Easter Bunny. When he finished it, Derek gave it to the principal of his school who hung it on the wall of his office for the rest of the school year. Derek's fate was sealed. From then on, he knew he was going to be an artist." More here.

Mr. Anderson is appearing in conjunction with two school visits and an evening event at the Betty Brinn Children's Museum's Not so Scary Halloween. At all his visits, he'll be sharing the new book Waking Dragons, where his illustrations accompany Jane Yolen's text. 

Friday, October 26, 7 pm:
Gemma Tarlach, author of Plaguewalker.

From the Third Coast Digest interview, on why Tarlach is inspired by historical fiction: "I was inspired by two museum exhibits that happened to be co-located when I was living in Germany several years ago. One exhibit was on the Black Death. The other was on the role of the executioner in medieval German society, which is fascinating. The two topics seemed to go together, but I filed them in the back of my mind for a few years before the character Marcus came to me and tied it all together. Although the setting is historical and the theme is a classic journey from evil to redemption, Marcus himself was inspired by two pop culture characters: my childhood idol Darth Vader (yes, really), and a professional wrestler known as The Undertaker.

Gemma Tarlach's work has appeared in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, TimeOut New York, The Dallas Morning News, Rolling Stone’s Schools That Rock and numerous other publications.

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