Monday Musings: A local author holiday book expo at Atomic Empire on Saturday December 7; and miscellaneous news

Monday Musings: A local author holiday book expo at Atomic Empire on Saturday December 7; and miscellaneous news

Posted on 2013-11-18 at 16:3 by montsamu

Monday, November 18, 2013: The big news today is that after thinking about it and half-planning to do it for a number of years now, this year we’re actually going to have a local author holiday book expo where local authors will be on hand to sign and personalize their books. So far, the lineup includes:

• Natania Barron (Geek Mom and Pilgrim of the Sky)
• Clay and Susan Griffith (Vampire Empire paranormal Steampunk alternate history adventure book trilogy, various graphic novels)
• Matthew Ross (The Secret of Ji epic fantasy book series, books one and two)
• Bully Pulpit Games (Fiasco and Durance)
• Eryk Pruitt (short horror film Foodie and the forthcoming 2014 Southern neo-noir novel Dirtbags)
• James Maxey (fantasy series starting with Bitterwood and second fantasy series starting with Greatshadow, along with superhero novel Nobody Gets the Girl, among other books)
• Nathan Kotecki (young adult paranormal series with books The Suburban Strange and Pull Down the Night)
• Gabriel Dunston (comics and graphic novels, and the picture book The Castle on the Crag)
• Jacob Foxx (science fiction series The Fifth World)
• Ariel Djanikian (dystopian novel The Office of Mercy)
• Jay Posey (post-apocalyptic novel Three) -- from 3 to 4 pm
• Stuart Jaffe (The Max Porter Paranormal-Mysteries and post-apocalyptic fantasy series The Malja Chronicles, among other books)
• Diana Bastine (author of the Young Adult fantasy novels The Source, Shapeshifter and Selkie)
• Debra Killeen (author of the 5-volume award-winning fantasy series, The Myrridian Cycle)
• Gray Rinehart (writer and musician, recent CD Truths and Lies and Make Believe will be on sale and we may even get a musical performance!)
• Bridget Ladd (author, The Lotus Effect)
• Zack Smith (writer, Adventure Time and Regular Show comic scripts)
• Jeremy Whitley (writer, Princeless) -- tentatively, the second half of the expo
• ... and of course Bull Spec magazine individual copies and 4-issue sets
• And! The trusty Underwood manual typewriter which has made a few appearances over the years will be in attendance for a special community holiday fiction project.

And I say “so far” both because I have a pile of invites out to other people, and because this is pretty open-ended. Local author? With a new book in 2013? Let me know and we’ll see if we can fit you in. Absolutely no exclusion intended, just want to make sure that, hour by hour, we don’t have 20 people, then 2 the next. Time slots and other info still to be determined, but right now it looks something like “3 pm to 8 pm” for the overall thing, which is being held at Durham’s Atomic Empire. So, there’ll also be board games, collectibles, and yes, beer, for your holiday shopping pleasure. More info later as it develops, and there’s also a Facebook event to help spread the word.

Next, there’s just under 24 hours to go in Bull Spec art director Gabe Dunston’s Kickstarter for his graphic novel Purgatory Pub, and he’s only about $300 short of his $3500 goal. Go check it out and nudge him over the finish line!

Third, Durham author Mur Lafferty’s podcast of The Shambling Guide to New York City, fresh off a nomination for RT Book Reviews’ best urban fantasy for 2013 which I mentioned on Friday, reaches “the end” — I hope you’ve enjoyed listening as much as I have, and remember that the podcast goes away on Dec 15 so get listening.

Getting excited about illogiCon 3: The search for Schrodington’s Gold on January 10-12, 2014, with guests of honor Mary Robinette Kowal and Lawrence M. Schoen, along with John Kessel, Laura Anne Gilman, Gail Z. Martin, and many others? Yeah, me too. As part of their Saturday night entertainment plans they’ve announced SROS LORDS AT ILLOGICON!!!!!!!! which may feature fewer exclamation points eventually, but certainly does feature SROS LORDS : SLIMER-NETIC PUNK ROCK. More info on illogiCon at: http://www.illogicon.com/

Lastly, the World Book Night 2014 booklist announced, and several local bookstores are as usual involved as well. More info and how to sign up to give books away: http://www.us.worldbooknight.org/

-Sam

PS: Whew. Still no holiday regional book gift guide yet — stay tuned! It’s bound to finally get finished up soon.

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