This Week's Events, Part II: Jane Kelley, Gordon Korman, Sharon Guskin, and Korby Lenker, only one of which is at Boswell.

As you may have heard, the next Democratic debate takes place in Milwaukee on Thursday, February 11, at UWM. What happened to the Saturday night debates? They finally have the debates on a night when people are primed to watch, and we have three competing events that night. It's against my religion actually to have three events on any night, certainly in February, when I don't even want two competing events, but all these dates fell into place without much control on my part.

Amusingly enough, when the Republican debate was in Milwaukee, it was downtown. Of course we had an event three blocks away, our first event at Turner Hall. It's fate, I guess. On the other hand, the weather hasn't been event weather for the past few days, and that's good, because we didn't have any events. As Jen and I said every time something went eerily well* at our recent gift show trip, "Lucky penny!"

We could have rescheduled John Hagedorn's orginally-in-January event for February 11 and then we would have had to reschedule it again. But right now, his talk in conjunction with The In$sane Chicago Way stands at Friday, February 19, 7 pm, at Boswell. And now onto this week's offerings!

Tuesday, February 11 event #1, 6 pm, at the Frank L. Weyenberg Public Library:
Jane Kelley, author of The Book of Dares for Lost Friends and Mary Jemison: Native American Captive, tells "The Story of a Book."

Kelley chronicles the writing and publishing process, from the idea lightbulb going on through writing, agenting, publishing, and marketing. She has written numerous books for kids and now has her first nonfiction book out under the pseudonym E.F. Abbott. Kelley's other books include Nature Girl, The Desperate Adventures of Zeno and Alya, and The Girl Behind the Glass.

The Frank L. Weyenberg library is located at 11345 N. Cedarburg Rd., just north of Mequon Rd.

Tuesday, February 11 event #2, 6:30 pm, at the Shorewood Public Library:
Gordon Korman, author of Masterminds #2: Criminal Destiny and many other books like Ungifted.

This free event features a talk about Masterminds and its sequel, Criminal Destiny, as well as the life and work of Gordon Korman, the beloved children's book author. Masterminds is a great series where a bunch of kids in a sleepy New Mexico town discover they are part of a grand experiment - they are the clones of great criminal masterminds. So will they turn evil or not, especially when they realize that they have to be more than average, they have to be heroes? Two Boswellians, Barb and Todd, are fans of this series. As to how this places out, I'll bet this series goes for at least one more volume, so we'll see what happens. Some of Korman's other popular books are Schooled, The Hypnotists, and the Swindle series.

The Shorewood Public Library is located on 3920 N. Murray Ave., just south of Capitol Dr.

Tuesday, February 11 event #3, 7 pm reception, 7:30 talk, at the Lynden Sculpture Garden:
A ticketed event with Sharon Guskin, author of The Forgetting Time.

The Women's Speaker series, produced by Margy Stratton at Milwaukee Reads, presents the debut of Sharon Guskin's The Forgetting Time. This is the first fiction release for the great Amy Einhorn, editor at Flatiron Books. At her own imprint at Putnam she is best known for publishing Kathryn Stockett's The Help, but she also published Jenny Lawson, Liane Moriarty, Eleanor Brown (The Weird Sisters), Suzanne Rindell (The Other Typist), and Sarah Blake (The Postmistress). Great stuff, right? We're kind of groupies.

Our own Sharon Nagel was an early fan of The Forgetting Time, noting: "Even though a novel may be beautifully written, it will remind you of another book you’ve read. It’s so rare to find a novel like The Forgetting Time, which takes you in a direction that you never expected, on a journey that you could not have foreseen." And here's Tracy Sherlock, book editor of the Vancouver Sun: "The Forgetting Time is a great read - Guskin combines a thought-provoking idea with a well-written and compelling story that ensures readers will stay with it, whether or not they believe that souls live on after death. This novel is both engaging and riveting. It will make you think about what really matters and how best to spend the time we have."

The Lynden Sculpture Garden is located on 2145 W. Brown Deer Rd in River Hills. Apologies to those for a mistake in our flier - the talk is at 7:30, not 7, so now you won't be late. Tickets are $30, $25 for Lynden members, and includes wine and light refreshments from MKE Localicious, and a copy of The Forgetting Time. The event is sponsored by Bronze Optical.

And for Friday, February 12, 7 pm, something completely different at Boswell:
Korby Lenker, author of Medium Hero.

Lenker is a folksinger from Bellingham, Washington, who is hitting the road on a book tour for his first collection of short stories. Kirkus Reviews called the book "a quick, pleasurable set of short stories" noting: "Lenker’s debut story collection presents vignettes of relationships between friends, family, and significant others. These stories straddle a border between an Everyman’s search for meaning and a highly specialized look at modern Americana."

Other fans of note include Tim O'Brien, Medium Hero is "distinctive, disarming, entertaining, and completely convincing" while Apple Computers co-founder Steve Wozniak called Korby's stories "clever and well-crafted, with a tendency to linger in your mind long after you've finished reading."

Lenker will be reading with a little music playing thrown in. As a performer, Lenker has opened for Willie Nelson, Susan Tedeschi, and Nickel Creek, among others. This event is free. Visit Korby Lenker's website for more info.

*My favorite example of this was when we went to pilgrimage to Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn, one of my favorite shops (we went to six bookstores altogether on our trip), I put us on the wrong train and we had to turn around, delaying us about 30 minutes. I looked down at my phone and had a text from Delta, telling us our flight out had been delayed another half hour.

Oh, and don't forget about our event with NBCC-nominated author George Hodgman, appearing for the paperback release of his memoir Bettyville. He's at Boswell on Wednesday, February 10, 7 pm. Here's all the details on yesterday's blog.