June Newsletter: Manly Wade Wellman Award nominees, new books and events and news, details for Chuck Palahniuk at The Regulator, Thomas Olde Heuvelt's NC events, and more!

June Newsletter: Manly Wade Wellman Award nominees, new books and events and news, details for Chuck Palahniuk at The Regulator, Thomas Olde Heuvelt's NC events, and more!

Posted on 2016-06-30 at 19:18 by montsamu

Vol 6 No 6. Thursday, June 30, 2016: It’s been almost two months since the May newsletter went out, and there’s plenty of news to to pass along, along with the usual monthly haul of new books and new events to pass along.

First off, there’s still time to place your final votes for this year’s Manly Wade Wellman Award for North Carolina Science Fiction and Fantasy, as nominations do not close until late on Friday, July 1. If you missed the news earlier this month, the nominees were announced at ConCarolinas for the third year in a row, and this year’s 6 nominees are:

• Raising Hell by John G. Hartness (Falstaff Books)
• The Mussorgsky Riddle by Darin Kennedy (Curiosity Quills)
• Iron and Blood by Gail Z. Martin and Larry N. Martin (Solaris Books)
• Vendetta by Gail Z. Martin (Solaris Books)
• War of Shadows by Gail Z. Martin (Orbit Books)
• Castle Hangnail by Ursula Vernon (Dial Books)

Speaking of ConGregate, this year’s “Geek Summer Camp” themed gathering runs July 15-17, and features writer guest of honor Steven Barnes, artist guest of honor Lindsey Look, and special writer guest A. J. Hartley, along with a great lineup of literary guests including David B. Coe. (Who is, as it happens, also doing a group signing in both Charlotte and Concord on his way to High Point.)

While of course the full event listings are further below, here’s some of the other highlights coming in July and (very) early August, pictured above:

• On July 13 (Wednesday) at 4 pm, The Regulator Bookshop hosts a signing-only event with Chuck Palahniuk, “Fight Club 2 – Graphic Novel”. See the link for the complete details, but in brief, this is a signing only, not a performance or a reading, this is a ticketed event with tickets including a hardcover copy of the graphic novel, but Mr. Palahniuk will sign up to 2 additional items and happily pose for photos with fans.
• On July 15 (Friday) at 6 pm, The Streets at Southpoint Barnes & Noble in Durham hosts Asheville author Robert Beatty for Serafina and the Twisted Staff, book two in his 1890s Biltmore-set series for young readers after Serafine and the Black Cloak, out from Disney-Hyperion.
• And then to close July and begin August, North Carolina is fortunate enough to be hosting several events for Hex, the English language debut of the bestselling Dutch novel from Thomas Olde Heuvelt, a Hugo and World Fantasy award nominated author. On July 30 (Saturday) at 5 pm, Asheville's Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe presents Heuvelt as part of the now nearly-annual SHARED WORLDS reading & signing. "MC'd by Shared Worlds founder Jeremy L.C. Jones, this event will feature authors Jeff VanderMeer, Ann VanderMeer, Asheville's Nathan Ballingrud, Tobias Buckell, Julia Elliott, Terra McVoy, Thomas Olde Heuvelt and Leah Thomas, who will each be reading from their personal favorite passages for an event that promises to be strange, fast-paced and even a little competitive." On July 31 (Sunday) at 2 pm, Heuvelt visits Charlotte's Park Road Books; and on August 1 (Monday) at 7 pm he visits Raleigh's Quail Ridge Books. Don't miss it!

And don’t blink too long on August, as The Postmortal author Drew Magary is in town on Tuesday, August 2 for a reading at Flyleaf Books from his new novel The Hike. Magary’s appearance is one of a bevy of new events since the last newsletter, many of which I singled out in the late-May Friday Quick Updates, including (also pictured above) Thursday September 22, as The Regulator Bookshop presents a free event at The Durham Armory with Colson Whitehead, on tour for his forthcoming novel The Underground Railroad, a fantastical retelling of the historic slave escape routes as if they were really underground subways. Check the full event listings below for these and other “NEW” events including Marie Lu and A. J. Hartley.

There are also some events for writers coming up, which I don’t include in the event calendar below. Samantha Bryant (Going Through the Change) is teaching a class on Writing Speculative Fiction in Pittsboro on July 9th and 30th, and John Claude Bemis (former Piedmont Laureate for children’s literature) is teaching a children’s literature writing track at Table Rock Writers Workshop this August. Interested? See the links for details.

NEWS AND NOTES

Stuart Jaffe’s book is already out in some places (Scribd for example) with the paperback release due July 5, in time for ConGregate. We have a little longer to wait for Rysa Walker’s The Delphia Effect (due in October) and even longer for John Kessel’s The Moon And the Other, due out in March of 2017.

It has also been a good month for announcing not just story sales but book deals — and even Netflix adaptation deals!

• Gwendolyn Clare's stories "The Other Lila" and "Call Down the Snow" appeared in Bull Spec over the years, and the sale of her first novel was just announced in Publishers Weekly: "In a deal at Macmillan Children’s Books, Erin Stein acquired world rights to Gwendolyn Clare’s YA novel, Ink, Iron and Glass, for her new imprint, called Imprint. Ink, Iron and Glass, which is Clare’s debut and is scheduled for a winter 2018 release, features a 17-year-old named Elsa who is living in an alternate version of 19th-century Italy. Azantian said the novel follows Elsa as she is forced to leave her home in order to “enlist the help of a secret order and a handsome mechanist to save her mother and protect a powerful object—a book with the power to edit the real world.”
• Netflix announced it has purchased the rights to adapt Durham author Mur Lafferty's The Shambling Guide to New York City, her Manly Wade Wellman Award-winning urban fantasy about a travel writer for the undead
• Jay Requard announced the sale of a sword and sorcery short story "The Shimmering Scale" to Bards and Sages Quarterly for publication in 2017
• Bill Ferris announced the sale of his short story, "My Enemy, the Unicorn" to this year's Unidentified Funny Objects anthology

• "Worms of Titan" by Brian Biswas appeared in Perihelion SF
• Gray Rinehart's "For the Sake of the Game" appears in the new Bryant Thomas Schmidt-edited anthology from Baen Books, Galactic Games; Gray was one of the guests on the June 10 Baen Free Radio Hour Podcast to talk about his story
• Gwendolyn Clare's "Nothing But the Sky" appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies
• Monica Byrne's "Traumphyisk" was just published at Tor.com
• David Drake's "Cadet Cruise" at Baen.com, a standalone prequel short story in his ongoing Lt. Leary series; Drake was himself on the Baen Free Radio Hour Podcast's June 3 episode, which also begins a serialization of the audiobook for The Sea Without a Shore, and discusses Death's Bright Day

• John Hartness announced some upcoming releases from Falstaff Books including Emily Leverett, Natania Barron, Nicole Kurtz, Jaym Gates, and more; Hartness also announced the planned endowment of the Joyce and Jim Lavene Memorial Scholarship to help first-time guests attend ConCarolinas
• A. J. Hartley was in the blogosphere quite a bit supporting the release of his new novel Steeplejack, including a guest essay on "The Lost Art of the Steeplejack" for Tor.com and a very positive review from Cory Doctorow in Boing Boing
• James Maxey was interviewed at ManyBooks about "a lot of dragons" which, considering Maxey's forte for flying reptiles, is a great line of questioning
• David Drake is the subject of a fascinating interview about the World Fantasy Convention in Providence in 1975
• Alyssa Wong's "Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers" and Ursula Vernon's "Pocosin" are finalists for the 2016 Eugie Foster Memorial Award for Short Fiction, to be awarded at DragonCon; Wong's "Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers" also won the Nebula Award, you know, no big deal or anything. (No, seriously, congratulations, Alyssa!)
• Season Two of Bookburners launched, with Durham's Mur Lafferty as one of the authors of this ongoing serial fiction
• Jay Posey had a guest post on the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi blog on "Writing the Warfighter and Getting it Right"
• Gabriel Dunston launched a new webcomic DoodleCard.net
• Durham Magazine featured Hillsborough author John Claude Bemis about his new novel Out of Abaton, a fantastical/alchemical retelling of Pinocchio; the book also just received an "outstanding" review by the Association of Children's Librarians of Northern California
• An absolutely fantastic interview with Richard Dansky was published on War is Boring, with the instant classic (and appropriate) title "This Man Lords Over Tom Clancy’s Expansive Fictional Universe"
• Rachel Pollack's sci-fi costuming work was featured in a WRAL segment, ahead of the costumes being placed on public display at the Museum of Science Fiction in Washington D.C.
• I was completely and pleasantly surprised to find Bull Spec named "Best Place to Get Lost in Local Sci-Fi and Fantasy" in this year's Indy Week Best of the Triangle Awards

NEW BOOKS AND AUDIOBOOKS

Argos: The Story of Odysseus as Told by His Loyal Dog by Ralph Hardy (which he launched at Chapel Hill’s Flyleaf Books last month) and This Giant Leap by Edmund R. Schubert (a new short fiction collection, out from Charlotte based Falstaff Books)

Divine Descendant by Jenna Black (latest in her Nikki Glass series, for which there is also a new omnibus edition of the first 4 books, Descendant: The Complete Nikki Glass Series) and The Final Death: A Deadly Curiosities Adventure by Gail Z. Martin (the 8th novella-length adventure in this series set in the world of her Solaris Books-published Deadly Curiosities novels)

The Last Great American Magic by L.C. Fiore (a retelling of the story of Tecumseh, set in an American magical realist milieu between the US Revolution and the War of 1812) and Artifacts by Pete Catalano (published by local publishers Month9Books)

Cinder: Book Four of the Dragon Apocalypse by James Maxey (an eagerly anticipated return to the world of his high-magic fantasies Greatshadow, Hush, and Witchbreaker) and The Hunt by Megan Shepherd (sequel to her YA dystopia The Cage)

Modern Magic: Twelve Tales of Urban Fantasy from Falstaff Books (“12 complete book-length works by masters of dark urban fantasy … a walk on the wild side, into the shadows, where things go bump in the night and the hour of the wolf never ends. Featuring NY Times Best-Sellers, USA Today Best-Sellers, Bram Stoker Award Winners, Nominees, and Amazon Best-Sellers like Christopher Golden, Rick Gaultieri, Jennifer St. Giles, Julie Kenner and Gail Z. Martin.” Includes NC authors James Maxey, John G. Hartness, Stuart Jaffe, and Nicole Givens-Kurtz) and Death’s Bright Day by David Drake (a new novel in his nationally best-selling military SF series from Baen featuring Leary and Mundy)

Steeplejack by A.J. Hartley (a new YA fantasy series set in South Africa) and The Shadowed Path: A Jonmarc Vanhanian Collection by Gail Z. Martin (collecting her previously self-published prequel novellas to her Chronicles of the Necromancer series)

BULLSPEC.COM

• The Exploding Spaceship reviewed Their Favorite Anthologies and Short Story Collections from 2015, as well as A Whisper of Southern Lights by Tim Lebbon, Runtime by S.B. Divya, Spear of Light, Infomocracy, and Like a Boss (by Brenda Cooper, Malka Older, and Adam Rakunas), and Steeplejack, Return of Souls, Spells of Blood and Kin, and Pride’s Spell (by A. J. Hartley, Andy Remic, Claire Humphrey, and Matt Wallace)
• Paul Kincaid’s From the Hardest Part, April 2016: Clarke Award shortlist, Nick Wood, Jenni Fagan, Ali Shaw, and Jurassic London’s Extinction Event, and Paul Kincaid’s From the Other Side, May 2016: Baxter and Reynolds, Asher, MacLeod, McAuley, Rajaniemi, Cornell, Gaiman, and more

-Sam

UPCOMING EVENTS

5 — Local author book release day for The Dragon Hammer by Tony Daniel (Baen), beginning a new young adult fantasy series, in which “the sixteen-year-old third son of a duke in an alternate Viking-like medieval America must face invasion by confederates of a colonial Roman empire based on vampiric blood slavery.”

5 — NC author book release day for Killing Machine: Nathan K, #2 by Stuart Jaffe — “When a brilliant hacker calling herself Robin Hood steals proof of a corrupt Senator and hides it away, those who will be exposed go on the warpath after her. Nathan K is her only hope to survive the relentless attacks and escape death.”

5 — Local author book release day for Arctic Dawn (The Norse Chronicles #2) by Karissa Laurel (Red Adept Publishing) — “Alone and exhausted after her month-long sojourn as a shooting star, Solina Mundy flees to southern California to lie low, recuperate, and plot a survival strategy. The one person she trusts to watch her back is her best friend, Skyla Ramirez. But Skyla has been missing for weeks.”

NEW: 6-10 (Wednesday to Sunday) — Durham Comics Fest 2016 at the Durham County Library with George O’Connor, Keith Knight, Eric Knisley, a Cartoonist Networking Night, and more.

7 — NC author book release day for Directive 17: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller by Scott Nicholson (Haunted Computer Books, July 7), Book 4 in his “Next” series.

11 (Monday) 10 AM — Carolina Book Beat with Mur Lafferty and Samuel Montgomery-Blinn welcomes Durham author Jay Posey to talk about his recent science fiction novel Outriders.

12 — NC author book release day for Serafina and the Twisted Staff by Robert Beatty (Disney Hyperion), sequel to Beatty’s Biltmore-set debut Serafina and the Black Cloak.

NEW-NEW: 12 (Tuesday) 11 pm — Ultimate Comics (6120 Farrington Rd, Chapel Hill) hosts a Civil War 2 #3 midnight launch party. “This Tuesday night we are opening at 11:00pm till 12:30! Why? Civil War 2 # 3 comes out with a rumored big “Death”. For you DC lovers all the New Dc Rebirth Titles will go on sale at midnight as well. We will also have some raffle prizes throughout the party.”

NEW: 13 (Wednesday) 4 pm — The Regulator Bookshop hosts a signing-only event with Chuck Palahniuk, “Fight Club 2 – Graphic Novel”. See link for details.

NEW: 14 (Thursday) 3:30 pm and 7 pm — “TWO Multi-author signings on Thursday July 14 at: Charlotte, NC Arboretum B&N from 3.30-5.30, then the Concord Mills, NC BooksAMillion from 7-8. Yay! Come visit AJ Hartley and David B Coe / DB Jackson and Faith Hunter.”

NEW: 15 (Friday) 6 pm — The Streets at Southpoint Barnes & Noble in Durham hosts Asheville author Robert Beatty for Serafina and the Twisted Staff, book two in his 1890s Biltmore-set series for young readers after Serafine and the Black Cloak, out from Disney-Hyperion.

15-17 (Friday to Sunday) — ConGregate 2016 in High Point with writer guest of honor Steven Barnes and special writer guest A. J. Hartley, along with David B. Coe, Gail Z. Martin, and many more.

NEW-NEW: 16 (Saturday) 11 am to 1 pm — Ultimate Comics Raleigh hosts a MILLAR WORLD ANNUAL #1 signing: “Join writer and artist of the American Jesus story in the new Millarworld annual this Saturday the 16th at Ultimate Comics Raleigh from 11am-1pm! Steve Beach and friend-of-the-store writer Cliff Bumgarner join us for the signing of the brand spankin’ new MILLARWORLD ANNUAL!“

18 (Monday) — Cary’s Koka Booth Amphitheatre hosts Flight of the Conchords.

19 — NC author book release day for A World Without You by Beth Revis (Razorbill).

20 — Local author book release day for The Chronos Files: Time Trial, a comic book adaptation in Cary author Rysa Walker’s The Chronos Files series.

NEW: 21 (Thursday) 7 pm — The Regulator Bookshop hosts Julia Franks, “Over the Plain Houses”. (Fiction.)

24 (Sunday) 6 pm — 11th annual Can’t Stop the Serenity charity screening of the Firefly film Serenity. Raffles, costume contests, and the usual fun goings-on. A limited number of tickets are still available.

NEW: 28 (Thursday) 7 pm — Quail Ridge Books to host release party for Tony Daniel’s YA fantasy The Dragon Hammer. “Prolific fantasy author (Guardian of Night) Tony Daniel visits on Thursday, July 28, at 7 pm with The Dragon Hammer, the first installment of the saga of Wulf von Dunstig, the 16-year-old third son of a duke destined for an uneventful life as a ranger. But when destiny comes calling, there is only Wulf to answer. After a devastating invasion of his native land, Wulf must rally the peaceful valley of Shenandoah, and free his family and land from the grip of intruders controlled by vampiric evil. It’s time to grow up. It’s time to fight for what is right. It’s time to wield the Dragon Hammer. For ages 14+.“

29 — NC author book release day for Heaven Sent - a Quincy Harker Novella (Quincy Harker Demon Hunter Book 5) by John G. Hartness (Falstaff Books).

NEW-NEW: 29 (Friday) 7 pm — The B&N of Durham’s New Hope Commons hosts local comics writer Jeremy Whitley for his newest graphic novel Princeless: Raven the Pirate Princess Book 2: Free Women.

NEW: 30 (Saturday) 5 pm — Asheville’s Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe presents SHARED WORLDS reading & signing. “MC’d by Shared Worlds founder Jeremy L.C. Jones, this event will feature authors Jeff VanderMeer, Ann VanderMeer, Asheville’s Nathan Ballingrud, Tobias Buckell, Julia Elliott, Terra McVoy, Thomas Olde Heuvelt and Leah Thomas, who will each be reading from their personal favorite passages for an event that promises to be strange, fast-paced and even a little competitive. Now in its ninth year, Shared Worlds is an interdisciplinary program for middle and high school students that emphasizes problem solving, collaborative creation, and experiential learning through the exploration of speculative fiction genres.” (Yes, Asheville’s a drive, but this one’s worth listing!)

NEW: 30 (Saturday) 10 pm until 1 am — Midnight release parties for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at Quail Ridge Books, Flyleaf Books, The Regulator, and surely other bookstores as well.

NEW: 31 (Sunday) 2 pm — Charlotte’s Park Road Books hosts Hugo and World Fantasy Award nominated Dutch author Thomas Olde Heuvelt for his new novel Hex. “A 17th century woman accused of witchcraft puts a curse on the town before being put to death. Now in the 21st century, the townspeople must keep their secret or face death themselves. To ensure that the residents conform, a team monitors input from 24/7 surveillance. But is the town really safe, especially in the age of social media?  This new voice in dark fantasy will have you keeping your lights on if you read this at night.”

AUGUST 2016

NEW: 1 (Monday) 7 pm — Quail Ridge Books presents Hugo and World Fantasy Award nominated Dutch author Thomas Olde Heuvelt for his new novel Hex. “A 17th century woman accused of witchcraft puts a curse on the town before being put to death. Now in the 21st century, the townspeople must keep their secret or face death themselves. To ensure that the residents conform, a team monitors input from 24/7 surveillance. But is the town really safe, especially in the age of social media?  This new voice in dark fantasy will have you keeping your lights on if you read this at night.”

2 — Local author book release day for the 20th Anniversary Edition of Redliners by David Drake (Baen, August 2) with an all-new introduction by the author.

NEW: 2 (Tuesday) 7 pm — Flyleaf Books hosts Drew Magary discusses his new novel The Hike. From the author of The Postmortal, “When Ben, a suburban family man, takes a business trip to rural Pennsylvania, he decides to spend the afternoon before his dinner meeting on a short hike. Once he sets out into the woods behind his hotel, he quickly comes to realize that the path he has chosen cannot be given up easily. With no choice but to move forward, Ben finds himself falling deeper and deeper into a world of man-eating giants, bizarre demons, and colossal insects.”

NEW: 5 (Friday) — Chapel Hill’s Forest Theater hosts the debut of Paperhand Puppet Intervention’s 2016 show The Beautiful Beast. “At the Forest Theatre, Chapel Hill, NC: Aug 5-7, 12-14, 19-21, 26-28. Sept 2-4. Labor Day: Sept 5. Matinees Sun: Aug 21, 28 & Sept 4. All shows begin at 7pm with a 6:20 pre-show, except for matinees that start at 3pm with a 2:20 pre-show.”

5-7 (Friday to Sunday) — The Carolina Theatre of Durham’s Retro Film Series presents a special screening series of the original Star Wars Trilogy.

8 (Monday) 10 AM — Carolina Book Beat with Mur Lafferty and Samuel Montgomery-Blinn welcomes Hillsborough author John Claude Bemis to talk about his recent young reader fantasy Out of Abaton: The Wooden Prince.

NEW: 9 (Tuesday) 7 pm — Flyleaf Books hosts Adam O’Fallon Price discusses his debut novel, The Grand Tour. (Fiction.)

21 (Sunday) 10 am to 4 pm — Raleigh Comic Book Show at the Hilton Garden Inn Crabtree (3912 Arrow Dr, Raleigh). Free admission.

NEW-NEW: 23-25 (Tuesday to Thursday) — The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts 2016 NIAC Symposium at the Sheraton Raleigh Hotel, 421 S. Salisbury Street. Attendance is free but registration is required. Registration can be done in advance or same-day registration can be done at the event itself. “All are invited to attend this Symposium which will introduce our Phase I and Phase II Fellows’ multidisciplinary research. NIAC concepts cover a wide range of innovations in many sciences. Many produce breakthroughs that hold the promise of accelerating NASA’s progress toward its goals of exploration beyond low-Earth orbit, missions to an asteroid and Mars and other priority areas in all of NASA’s mission directorates. Exciting keynote presentations will be given from experts in aeronautics and advanced technologies and further information will be discussed regarding the latest news about NIAC’s exciting progress and plans.” For those who cannot attend the event, the 2016 NIAC Symposium will be streaming LIVE via Livestreamhttps://livestream.com/viewnow/NIAC2016.

SEPTEMBER 2016

NEW: 1 (Thursday) 7 pm — The Regulator Bookshop hosts Robin Kirk, “Peculiar Motion”. (Poetry.)

NEW: 6 (Tuesday) 7 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts Sabaa Tahir for A Torch Against the Night, “the highly anticipated sequel to her acclaimed debut, An Ember in the Ashes. The follow-up novel continues Tahir’s suspenseful tale of rebellion in a land of oppression and fear. . Catch up to the action with Ember, a captivating tale with ”… the addictive quality of The Hunger Games combined with the fantasy of Harry Potter and the brutality of Game of Thrones.”— Public Radio International. For ages 14+.“

6 — Local editor book release day for Things From Outer Space edited by Hank Davis (Baen Books)

NEW: 8 (Thursday) 7 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts Ron Rash for The Risen. “The author of Serena returns with a suspenseful and evocative tale of two brothers whose lives are irrevocably altered by the events of one long-ago summer—and one bewitching young woman—and the secrets that surface decades later.” (Fiction.)

NEW: 8 (Thursday) 7:30 pm — The Regulator Bookshop presents (at Motorco, ticketed event) Dave Barry, “Best. State. Ever: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland”. (Humor.)

NEW: 9 (Friday) 7 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts Jacqueline Woodson for Another Brooklyn, the award-winning children’s author’s first new adult book in 20 years. (Fiction.)

9 (Friday) 8 pm — The Durham Performing Arts Center hosts “Weird Al” Yankovic‘s “The Mandatory World Tour”.

19 — Local author book release day for A Rebel’s Stone by P.T. McHugh (Glass House, September 19, 2016).

NEW: 22 (Thursday) 7 pm — The Regulator Bookshop (The Durham Armory) Colson Whitehead, “The Underground Railroad”. Whitehead is the author of the brilliant post-apocalyptic zombie novel Zone One. Here: “Prize-winning, bestselling author Colson Whitehead comes to The Regulator to discuss his new book, The Underground Railroad, a magnificent tour de force chronicling a young slave’s adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman’s ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage, and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share. This event is free and open to the public.” Note for the curious: in Whitehead’s retelling, the Underground Railroad is indeed an underground railway of tunnels and train cars. Don’t miss this!

OCTOBER 2016

NEW: 7 (Friday) 7 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts Emma Donoghue – ‘The Wonder’. “The author of Room and Frog Music visits with a powerful psychological thriller.  Emma Donoghue shares The Wonder on Friday, October 7, at 7 pm.  An English nurse is brought to a small Irish village to observe what appears to be a miracle – a girl said to have survived without food for months.  She soon finds herself fighting to save the child’s life in a tale of two strangers who transform each other’s lives, and a story of love pitted against evil.”

7 — Durham author book release day for Now and Then We Time Travel: Visiting Pasts and Futures in Film and Television by Fraser A. Sherman (McFarland and Co, October 7).

11 — NC author book release day for The Perilous Journey of the Much Too Spontaneous Girl by Leigh Statham (Month9Books, October 11), a follow-on to The Perilous Journey of the Not So Innocuous Girl.

11 — Local author book release day for The Delphi Effect by Rysa Walker (Skyscape, October 11) first in a new series called “The Delphi Trilogy”.

NEW: 14 (Friday) 7 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts Marie Lu for The Midnight Star concluding her Young Elites series. (Teen.)

NEW: 14 (Friday) 7 pm — Quail Ridge Books presents Jodi Picoult – ‘Small Great Things’ (ticketed off-site event). (Fiction.)

15 (Saturday) — The Charlotte Mariott City Center hosts Carolina Book Fest 2016 with a huge author lineup, followed by the annual “Monster Mash” dance party.

NEW: 17 (Monday) 7 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts Karim Dimechkie – ‘Lifted by the Great Nothing’. (Fiction.)

18 — Durham author book release day for Six Wakes by Mur Laffert (Orbit Books).

18 — Pittsboro author book release day for Hamster Princess: Ratpunzel by Ursula Vernon (Dial Books).

18 — NC author book release day for Scepter of Fire by Vicki L. Weavil (Month9Books, October 18), Book 2 in her Snow Queen Saga.

20 (Thursday) 7:30 pm — The Durham Performing Arts Center hosts astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, presented in partnership with UNC’s Morehead Planetarium and Science Center.

NEW: 21-23 (Friday to Sunday) — Cosplay America 2016 at the Sheraton Chapel Hill Hotel (1 Europa Dr, Chapel Hill).

NEW-NEW: 23 (Sunday) 4 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts A. J. Hartley for Steeplejack, his first in a new YA fantasy for Tor. “Set in a 19th-century South African fantasy world, Hartley introduces a dynamic, complex and likeable new heroine who combines wits, skill and courage to face deadly challenges. Steeplejack is the first in a new YA fantasy series. We loved his Darwen Arkwright series for younger readers. If you’ve never heard him present, you’re in for a treat. For ages 13+.“

25 — Raleigh author book release day for The Flash: The Haunting of Barry Allen by Clay and Susan Griffith (Titan Books, October 25), a “crossover” novel with The CW’s Arrow.

25 — NC author book release day for Into the Fire (Night Prince) by Jeanine Frost (Avon).

NEW-NEW: 28-30 (Friday to Sunday) — Military science fiction convention HonorCon returns to the Hilton North Raleigh/Midtown with author guest of honor David Weber, authors Charles Gannon, Christopher Nuttall, Greg Cox, Steve White, and more, and special media guest writer/producer/actor Claudia Christian from Babylon 5.

NOVEMBER 2016

NEW-NEW: 4-6 (Friday to Sunday) — The NC Writers Network’s Fall Conference in Raleigh. “The Fall Conference attracts hundreds of writers from around the country and provides a weekend full of activities that include lunch and dinner banquets with readings, keynotes, tracks in several genres, open mic sessions, and the opportunity for one-on-one manuscript critiques with editors or agents. Conference faculty include professional writers from North Carolina and beyond. Held every year in a major hotel, the conference rotates annually. Registration opens on or around September 1.”

11-13 (Friday to Sunday) — NC Comicon 2016 at the Durham Convention Center with Gerard Way, Marley Zarcone, and many more.

NEW: 18 (Friday) 7 pm — The Regulator Bookshop presents Community Conversation with Roy Scranton, “War Porn”. Scranton is the author of Learning to Die in the Anthropocene, and this is his first novel.

DECEMBER 2016

4 (Sunday) 10 am to 4 pm — Raleigh Comic Book Show at the Hilton Garden Inn Crabtree (3912 Arrow Dr, Raleigh). Free admission.

27 — Local editor book release day for If This Goes Wrong… edited by Hank Davis (Baen Books)

JANUARY 2017

13-15 (Friday to Sunday) — illogiCon with author guest of honor Daniel Jose Older.

FEBRUARY 2017

24-26 (Friday to Sunday) — MystiCon in Roanoke, Virginia with guests of honor David Weber and Joe R. Lansdale.

MARCH 2017

7 — Raleigh author novel release day for The Moon and the Other by John Kessel (Saga Press, March 7, 2017) — “John Kessel, one of the most visionary writers in the field, has created a rich matriarchal utopia, set in the near future on the moon, a society that is flawed by love and sex, and on the brink of a destructive civil war.”

18-19 (Saturday and Sunday) — Oak City Comicon 2017 at the Raleigh Convention Center.

MAY 2017

23-28 (Tuesday to Sunday) — The Durham Performing Arts Center presents Finding Neverland, which “tells the incredible story behind one of the world’s most beloved characters: Peter Pan.  Playwright J.M. Barrie struggles to find inspiration until he meets four young brothers and their beautiful widowed mother. Spellbound by the boys’ enchanting make-believe adventures, he sets out to write a play that will astound London theatergoers.”

JUNE 2017

1 — NC author book release day for The Sweetest Burn (A Broken Destiny Novel) by Jeanine Frost (HQN Books).

JULY 2017

14-16 (Friday to Sunday) — DeepSouthCon 55 at ConGregate 4 in High Point, NC with author guest of honor Barbara Hambly.

– END –

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