Booking Spring Events--A Work in Progress.

Being that we didn't have events today, we were staffed well enough, and I wasn't scheduled to close, I stayed home to concentrate on events, and hope for the spark that would get me to write the email newsletter.

The spark didn't come, but we did get some nice bookings.

--Lisa McMann will be at Shorewood Public Library on Monday, February 11, 6:30, for Infinity Ring Book 3: The Trap Door. We'll have signed book plates for the first two titles in the Infinity Ring series. McMann last came to Milwaukee for her middle-grade series, The Unwanteds ,but I think she's still best known for her teen novels.

--We'll have a ticketed event for Anne Lamott, for the paperback edition of Some Assembly Required on Saturday, April 6, 7 pm. It will be structured just like our Sarah Vowell event last spring. Tickets will include the paperback, but will be priced about 10% lower at $15, including tax. A $10 gift card will be an option. We'll cap tickets at 300. Boswell will close to non ticket holders at 6 pm.

--After several mysteries, Kate Atkinson has a change-of-pace stand-alone novel with Life after Life. There's a lot of buzz on the novel, which harkens back to her earlier books like Behind the Scenes at the Museum, which won the Whitbread (now the Costa) prize. We're hosting Atkinson on Thursday, April 18, 7 pm.

--While we'd already booked Kevin Henkes for his new book, Penny and Her Marble, for Saturday, March 2, 2 pm, we've since gotten the go-ahead to have the popular folk duo, Fox and Branch, open for Henkes. Will Branch is a great friend of Boswell, and we got the idea when we saw him sitting in with Lil Rev.

--Speaking of music, we also just finalized Peter Roller's launch event for Milwaukee Garage Bands. Roller teaches at Alverno, and follows bands like The Stilettos, the Angry Daisies, the Palmettos, the Chevelles and the Violent Femmes.

But of course not everything is fully booked. I went back and forth with one publisher on a very big proposal for an event this summer. It would be another theater event, akin to Michael Pollan at the Oriental for Cooked (April 29).  Big, big! I should note that the author did an event in Milwaukee, but to my knowledge, never at Schwartz or Boswell. However, he did sign at the comic book store on Downer in the years between Websters and Schwartz.

Another author, a first-time novelist from Madison, was tentatively put on the schedule, only I'm trying to have her find her opening reader. Her name is Dale Kushner and she runs The Writer's Place literary center in Madison. The new novel is called The Conditions of Love. We should have that on the schedule soon.

And finally, Stacie set up a meeting for us at Great Lakes Distillery. We're hoping to partner with them for a great event in April for Amy Stewart and her forthcoming book, The Drunken Botanist. Halley's already championing it.

But now it's time for me to read. I've just started a new novel by one of my favorite authors. She's coming to town too. I'm very excited.