Maureen Owen and Barbara Henning: Poets on the Road

Poets on the Road – Maureen Owen and Barbara Henning – City Point Press – 9781947951709 – Paperback – 176 pages – $18 – June 6, 2023 – ebook editions available at lower prices

This is a special book by two very special poets. I know I am biased. They are both friends of mine, and Maureen I have known for almost fifty years. This terrific travelog documents an amazing poetic journey they took in 2019, crossing the country in a small car, with stops for poetry readings, visits with other poets, cheap motels and funky meals from Brooklyn (where Barbara lives), first south, then west all the way to California and back to Denver (where Maureen lives).

It was truly an incredible trip, originally documented in a blog they wrote while traveling. This book collects those stories and features photos of the poets and the people and places they visited along the way.

I loved this story so much, I decided to publish it, and consequently this book is a collaboration of the two poets plus the exceptional book designer, HR Hegnauer and publisher City Point Press.

Here’s an excerpt from Pat Nolan’s wonderful introduction:

Although a road trip across North American calls to mind Jack Kerouac’s youthful meanderings of self-discovery, this reading tour was more in the manner of Bashō’s late life journeys through the backcountry of Japan. . . . The road trip was in a sense a pilgrimage of reengagement with their calling as poets, and a chance to reacquaint with like-minded friends, old and new, in a far-flung landscape of American poetry.

Venues would include upscale bookstores, coffee houses, museums, legendary used bookstores, botanical gardens, university classrooms, art centers, and artist coops—in short, a unique sampling of poetry environments tracing an arc across the Southern States, the Southwest, and up the West Coast before hooking back to the Rockies.

Framed as a personal challenge, the poets hit the road much in the manner of itinerant preachers and musicians, lodging at discount motels, funky hostels, Airbnbs, and with friends along the way. Adding a social media touch, Maureen and Barbara created a blog of their tour so that friends, family, hosts, and fellow poets might also share in their adventure.

It’s always a pleasure to spend any amount of time with Maureen and Barbara, so this conversation was truly special for me, and I hope for all of you as well who will be listening in.

As further full disclosure, let me add that we were also in Tucson when she and Barb came to visit, so I am a participant and contributor to the blog and to the book as well, making it even more fun for me to talk to both Maureen and Barb about it here.

Maureen’s most recent book is let the heart hold down the breakage   Or   the caretaker’s log (Hanging Loose Press)

Barbara’s most recent book is Ferne, A Detroit Story (Spuyten Duyvil)

Maureen’s website

Barbara’s website

Buy Poets on the Road here. (this link is to Bookshop.org, sales will support indie bookstores)

Barbara Henning (photo by Miranda Maher)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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William J. Peters: At Heaven’s Door-What Shared Journeys to the AfterLife Teach about Dying Well and Living Better

At Heaven’s Door – What Shared Journeys to the Afterlife Teach about Dying Well and Living Better – William J. Peters – with Michael Kinsella – Simon and Schuster – 978-1-9821-5042-6 – Hardcover – 248 pages – $26.00 – January 18, 2022 – ebook editions available at lower prices

William Peters is a therapist who had worked for many years with people at the end of their lives. In 2000, when he was volunteering at the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco , he experienced something very similar to what mystics describe and what some people who have been close to death have reported, the sense of floating in midair, completely out of the body. In this case, he was with his patient in this “other dimension” and the dying person looked at him and smiled. Peters himself returned to his body, but the patient remained unconscious and soon died.

This powerful experience set Peters off on what has become the journey of his life’s work. He began searching for other people who had had similar experiences. He spent more than twenty years finding people, talking to them, and meticulously categorizing their stories to identify the patterns and characteristics of what he calls the “shared crossing” experience. What is really interesting is how similar all these experiences are, regardless of age, gender, background, cultural origin, etc. Many of these stories are included in this book, as people have had visual and sensory effects that are to them evidence of another dimension, that brought with them powerful emotional after-effects that in most cases stayed with them and completely changed their understanding of reality.

Apparently this kind of experience is known to many in the hospice community and even some otherwise rationalist medical practitioners. The book is filled with stories of all kinds, some are spouses and parents of loved ones lost either suddenly or after long illnesses, and some stories are told by individuals who were simply present at someone’s final passage and were chosen to share the experience, or in some cases to help usher the dying person into the light of this “afterlife” dimension.

After years of research and documentation, Peters has a lot to say about what all of these experiences might mean for us – the living. Regardless of our outlooks and beliefs, we all want to know what will happen to us when we die, and those who have shared in the death experience as reported here might allay our all too reasonable fear and help explain what comes next. Our culture does not embrace the experience of death as many other cultures have done – our medicine tries desperately to stave off death, and we are all so attached to living, with no training or understanding of death, we push it away completely.

It does not matter whether you embrace or reject the stories told here, or the literal descriptions of the “afterlife” and the other dimensions the dying experience. Maybe what we experience at death is just a biological projection, after all. Whatever you may choose to believe, knowing more about death, understanding the end-of-life passage, and better integrating it into our lives is important for our psyches.

William Peters is the founder of the Shared Crossing Project and director of its Research Initiative. He has spent many years studying end-of-life experiences. Peters worked as a hospice volunteer with the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco and as a teacher and social worker in Central and South America. A practicing grief and bereavement therapist, he holds degrees from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and UC Berkeley.

I had a terrific conversation with William Peters. The book, and my conversation with the author have stayed with me and I continue to explore where it has taken me. It appears to be a simple book, but comes with many layers of understanding and thoughtfulness for the attentive reader.

Visit the Shared Crossing website here.

Buy the book here.

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Enrique Salmón: Iwígara: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science

Iwígara: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science, The Kinship of Plants and People — Enrique Salmón –Timber Press — 978-1-60469-880-0 — Hardcover – $34.95 – ebook and audio book versions available at lower prices

This is a truly incredible and hugely inspiring book for me. Enrique Salmón, a member of the Raramuri tribe from Mexico, has spent a lifetime learning and studying the medicinal and cultural properties of North American plants. He now teaches at California State University-East Bay in Hayward, California. His work may place him in academia, but he is fully engaged in the natural world.

Salmon begins his work with the deeply held knowledge that all life-forms are interconnected and share the same breath, which is called Iwígara in the Raramuri tribe.

In this book, Salmón presents us with eighty of the most important plants used by North American indigenous peoples. Of course, plants have always been used as food and medicine by indigenous peoples. What is important knowledge for those who are interested in engaging with a plant centric life are the passed down information about identification and harvest, the nature and applications of plants for food and medicine, and to understand how they have been central to traditional stories and myths for the disparate cultures across this continent.

Salmón honors the traditions and practices of so many different tribes here, and helps us understand the variation across different biomes and cultures of the people who live in them. Some of us learn deeply in a specific place across long periods of time, while others may trade breadth for depth. Native peoples are among the former, but most modern people fall into the latter category. A book like this one helps bridge the two different approaches to knowledge. Salmón recognizes that tension, and manages it well here. He understands that one cannot live in deep connection to the natural world without choosing a place in which to live. But readers need to know where to begin, and this book can be an introduction for anyone who wants to begin their own journey of learning and knowledge about plants, healing and cultural traditions.

I should mention also that the book is beautifully designed and includes many excellent photographs and illustrations, most in color. It is excellent work, combining narrative with references suited to beginners and experienced naturalists alike.

Enrique is also the author of Eating the Landscape: American Indian Stories of Food, Identity, and Resilience (2012).

I was honored to have the opportunity to speak with Enrique Salmón for Writerscast about his work, and hope you will enjoy listening to a truly knowledgeable plant practitioner.

Purchase Iwígara from Bookshop.org

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Nelson Johnson: Darrow’s Nightmare-The Forgotten Story of America’s Most Famous Trial Lawyer

Darrow’s Nightmare: The Forgotten Story of America’s Most Famous Trial Lawyer (Los Angeles 1911–1913) – Nelson Johnson – 9781948122733 – 360 pages – April 20, 2021 – Hardcover – Rosetta Books – ebook editions available at lower prices

One of the great personal joys that working in the book business enables is that I get to work with authors. I’ve done some consulting with Rosetta Books, the publisher of Darrow’s Nightmare, and through the publisher have had the  opportunity to meet and get to know former New Jersey judge Nelson Johnson, who turns out to be a terrific person, as well as a wonderful storyteller, historian, and writer.

I had known of Nelson Johnson mainly because his earlier best-selling book, Boardwalk Empire, became the basis of the excellent HBO series of the same name. Boardwalk Empire documents the tumultuous story of the Atlantic City in the early twentieth century, a time when racketeers and corrupt politicians ran the city. Boardwalk Empire is a terrific book with incredibly interesting characters and clearly, Nelson Johnson knows how to write history that conveys characters and their stories dramatically for readers.

In Darrow’s Nightmare, Nelson turns his attention to Clarence Darrow, one of the greatest trial attorneys in modern American history, in one of the most tumultuous and challenging episodes of his long career. Best known today for his role in the famous Scopes trial of 1925 (and the film, Inherit the Wind), Darrow was actually most famous in his earlier years as a brilliant defender of labor rights, at a time when organized labor was literally battling with business owners across the country for basic freedoms and policies we take for granted today.

In 1911, Darrow went to Los Angeles with his wife, Ruby, at the behest of union leaders there. He was to defend two union iron workers who had been charged with the murder of twenty employees of the Los Angeles Times, whose building had been bombed as part of a major labor dispute.

After he negotiated a plea bargain for the iron workers (with the help of Lincoln Steffens), Darrow himself was indicted for attempted bribery of a juror in the trial. Darrow was fortunate to be represented by the brilliant (though flawed) California criminal attorney Earl Rogers, who was himself one of the most successful trial attorneys in American history and with the help of Rogers and friendly juries, Darrow was able to escape being convicted in two different trials. He returned to Chicago in disgrace, set himself to rebuilding his career, and went on to take on some of what are now the most famous trials of his era, including the Leopold and Loeb case and the important civil rights Sweet case in Detroit, where he defended the right of a black family to self-defense. Looking over the arc of Darrow’s long legal career, the LA trials of 1911-1913 form the most crucial episode of his life.

These trials made national news at the time, but have been mostly lost to history now. Nelson has brought the entire scene to life in memorable prose. He may be one of the few who have read the entire 8,500 page trial transcript. It is quite a story and well worth reading. And Nelson tells the story behind the story in the podcast episode presented here, which I very much enjoyed recording.

Darrow captured the imagination of many Americans in his time in history. I think that reading Darrow’s Nightmare, you might be captured as well, and see him as a flawed hero, a human being much more complex than any film could portray.

“The marks of battle are all over his face” —H.L. Mencken

“A fascinating portrait of Clarence Darrow as we’ve never seen him before—as a criminal defendant. In Darrow’s Nightmare, Nelson Johnson tells the riveting tale of America’s most famous lawyer as he fights for his life, marriage, career, and reputation. I couldn’t put it down.” —Terence Winter, Creator & Executive Producer, Boardwalk Empire

Nelson C. Johnson practiced law for 31 years prior to being appointed to the New Jersey Superior Court. During his final five years on the bench, he was one of three judges in New Jersey assigned to litigation, involving product liability claims. In the early 1980s Nelson represented the Atlantic City Planning Board when the modern casino period was beginning. That experience motivated him to write Boardwalk Empire. He has written two other books about New Jersey history. During the past 15 years, Nelson has made more than 200 presentations on his books before a wide range of audiences.

He lives in Hammonton, New Jersey.

Buy the book here from Bookshop.org. Visit the author’s website here.

 

 

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Gregory McNamee: Tortillas, Tiswin & T-Bones: A Food History of the Southwest

Tortillas, Tiswin & T-Bones: A Food History of the Southwest – Gregory McNamee – University of New Mexico Press – 256 pages – paperback – 9780826359049 – $24.95 – October 30, 2017 – ebook versions available.

According to the publisher, this book is an “entertaining history [of] the many ethnic and cultural traditions that have contributed to the food of the Southwest.” And while I do agree that the book’s style makes it a relatively compelling and easy book to read, I think its author, Greg McNamee, is trying to do much more than entertain. McNamee uses food and cooking as a lens to understanding culture, yes, but also to pinpointing the issues that face us in America as we try to grapple with climate change, to live reasonably and sustainably on the earth, and to work together with our fellow humans. There is no heavy handedness to his approach, but he never lets us forget the driving themes of his work, and his perspective.

McNamee starts off by going back to the earliest periods when humans arrived in the Americas, and takes us through the beginning of agriculture in Mesoamerica, and the ancient trade networks that evolved to connect peoples of the coasts, plains, and mountains. From there, he takes us through the various areas that comprise the loosely labelled southwestern region of America, up through the present day’s fusion of cultures and foodways from so many different areas that defines this cuisine now.

Covering just about everything edible in human cultures in what we consider to be the southwest region (which he defines a bit more broadly than most), from chili pepper and agave, to modern day cuisines that include Frito pie and other cross cultural inventions, McNamee traces a culinary journey through varieties of space and time, to get us where we are today and significantly, what the southwest and its food and people might look like in our emerging future.

Tortillas, Tiswin & T-Bones is indeed, a masterful work of accessible anthropology that was recognized as one of the 2017 Southwest Books of the Year. Since I love the southwest and its food, reading this book was a great pleasure for me.

Greg McNamee is a writer, journalist, editor, photographer, and publisher. He is the author or editor of forty books and more than five thousand periodical contributions. He operates Sonora Wordworks, an editorial and publishing service, and is also the publisher of Polytropos Press.

McNamee is a research associate at the Southwest Center of the University of Arizona, and a lecturer in U of A’s Economics Department of the Eller College of Management. Additionally, he teaches courses and gives talks on writing, publishing, journalism, media and technology, as well as cultural and environmental issues. He lives in southern Arizona. Learn more about him and his work at his website.

It was a pleasure for me to get to speak with Greg, who is a great storyteller and conversationalist, and a I only wish we had been able to speak in person, and for a much longer period of time. And I was very pleased to learn how to pronounce “tiswin” too.

This book feels like sitting down to a dinner with Diana Kennedy and Jim Harrison, tequila in hand and great conversation going long into the night. It’s alive, a love story, a timeless journey. I absolutely loved reading it and will treasure Gregory McNamee’s words for a long time to come.

— Tracey Ryder, cofounder of Edible Communities and coauthor of Edible: A Celebration of Local Foods

Tortillas, Tiswin, and T-Bones sends the reader on a riveting adventure, tracking the origins of Southwestern ingredients and culture to reveal American history through food. McNamee’s prose is deft and authoritative, and this is a highly original, timely book.

—Kate Christensen, author of Blue Plate Special and How to Cook a Moose

 

 

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Elizabeth Farnsworth: A Train through Time – A Life, Real and Imagined

A Train through Time: A Life, Real and Imagined – Elizabeth Farnsworth – Counterpoint – Hardcover – $25.00 – 160 pages – February 14, 2017 – ebook versions available at lower prices

“I began this book with a sense of discovery and finished it in a state of exaltation. Along the way it broke my heart. It has been a long time since I read a book so moving, plain spoken and beautiful. The instant I finished it, I went back to the beginning and started in again.” ―Michael Chabon

This slim – and gorgeously produced – memoir is one of the most striking and memorable books I have read recently. I have to simply echo what Chabon said about it – Elizabeth Farnsworth has written something very special, a book that does not fit easily into our conception of book categories – and that is a good thing. Her book is an exploration of childhood memories of loss and of family life that woven together with more recent stories of her work as a journalist and documentary film maker, are built into a fictional structure. The book forms an almost dream state to carry the author (and the reader) through her story.

Farnsworth interrogates her own understanding of events, real and imagined, to understand the arc of her life. It is a truly magical journey of self and psyche.

A Train through Time is illustrated with the remarkable photo art of Mark Serr, whose works contribute to the ethos and sensibility of the book, as well as providing us with a beautiful and dreamy cover image.

Of course it helps that Farnsworth is a fine writer and a terrific storyteller. I was deeply moved by this book, and really enjoyed having the opportunity to speak with the Ms. Farnsworth about her story, about trains, journeys, and life in general. As an experienced television personality, she is very comfortable in recorded conversation and we had a great talk together, which I hope you will enjoy.

Elizabeth Farnsworth is a filmmaker and a foreign correspondent. For many years, she was the chief correspondent on the PBS NewsHour hosted by Jim Lehrer. During her career, she traveled widely to report on stories in Cambodia, Vietnam, Chile, Haiti, Iraq, and Iran and many other places. Farnsworth grew up in Topeka, Kansas, has a B.A. from Middlebury College, an M.A. in history from Stanford University and now lives in Berkeley, California.

Her documentaries include The Judge and the General (2008) and The Gospel and Guatemala (1983).

You can learn more about the author and A Train Through Time at the Counterpoint website here.

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David Wilk talks with Malcolm Margolin of Heyday Books

 

I think of Malcolm Margolin and Heyday Books as one of the iconic independent publishers of the modern era. Founded in 1974 in Berkeley, then and now a hotbed of independent publishing, Heyday began because Malcolm had written a book about walking in the East Bay called East Bay Out and wanted to publish and sell it himself as a locally based book. Its somewhat unexpected success led to his work on a book called The Ohlone Way, about native Americans of California, and by then Heyday was on its way to becoming an important cultural node that over its forty years has produced more than 350 titles.

 

The history of Heyday is documented in its newly published The Heyday of Malcolm Margolin: The Damn Good Times of a Fiercely Independent Publisher. The book, compiled by Heyday editor Kim Bancroft, is a wonderful collection of oral histories told by Margolin, his family, authors, friends, current and former staffers and some of the many Californians that have been involved with the press and its cultural work for so many years.

 

This book is a must read for anyone interested in the history of independent publishing and especially the inspiring Bay Area publishing movement of the last half century. Malcolm is truly one of the great story tellers of our time. Unassuming and irreverent, he is now experienced enough to have become an elder statesman, much loved by all who have worked with him.

 

Heyday is now a well-run and highly respected nonprofit organization. It has produced a significant body of work, and as an ongoing operation, it reflects the values and beliefs of its founder. Heyday, like Malcolm, is committed to the voices of authors, the beauty and power of California as place, and valuing culture as lived by individuals, more important than institutions. And the quality of the work has always been paramount. Every book produced by Heyday displays a high level of care and attention, learned and practiced over many years.

 

Heyday board member and former staffer Patricia Wakida describes the quintessential image of Margolin getting into his 1997 Volvo to drive to California’s high country to hear yet another story around the campfire. “That’s what it’s all about,” she says. “Forty years of listening.”

 

I’m proud to offer this conversation with Malcolm, which gives you the singular opportunity to hear his wonderful voice and persona, to get a sense of why Malcolm and Heyday are so important and meaningful to so many – and what an impact a truly independent publisher can have.

Running time: 47 minutes. Enjoy!

 

 

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Scott Gummer: Parents Behaving Badly

978-1451609172 – Simon & Schuster Touchstone – hardcover – $23.00 (ebook versions available)

Scott Gummer’s Parents Behaving Badly appealed to me right away – a novel about Little League, what more fun could you want?  Baseball is one of my greatest passions and having been a Little League parent and coach, I was looking forward to reading a novel set in this rich environment that so full of potential for conflict and frustration, as well as great joy.

In any kid sports environment, you have parents’ overwrought desires and expectations, the fraught interactions of coaches and parents, and the difference in outlook between any given 10 year old and any parent is especially fertile ground.  And don’t forget the potential for unexpected romance among the suburban parental set.

Reading Parents Behaving Badly, which is, by the way, laugh out loud funny, did not disappoint in any way.   Gummer is funny and extremely perceptive, and what really makes the novel work is that he tells a good story, writes believable characters, explores their inner lives, and keeps us guessing about what will happen next.

And there’s more here than Little League, fun and sometimes as painful as that particular piece of Americana can be.  His main character is back in the hometown he grew up in, along with his wife, and they’ve been married long enough for them to know each other all too well.  Gummer is very sharp in his depiction of the mid-life married life of modern American suburban couples, especially the challenges they face as their lives become focused on their children at the risk of losing sight of themselves and their relationships.  He uses Little League, small town life, pop culture and thwarted desires as fodder for a wonderful story that ultimately ends better than one might have imagined.

Tom Perrotta gave a great blurb to author Gummer for this book: “Parents Behaving Badly isn’t just a sharp satire about Little League madness; it’s also a shrewd and sympathetic portrait of a mid-life marriage. Scott Gummer writes with equal insight about wayward spouses and conniving coaches.”  Perrotta is among my favorites of contemporary novelists, and I’m happy to say that if you like his work, you will love Parents Behaving Badly, which while in no way derivative, is certainly in the same vein as Perrotta’s novels.

Scott gives a great interview, doubtless because of his years of experience as a working journalist.  He knows how to talk about his work and to present his story vividly without giving too much away.  I recommend his website as well.  He’s also written a couple of very interesting nonfiction books about golf (this is his first published novel).

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Susie Bright: Big Sex Little Death (A Memoir)

978-1580052641 – Seal Press – $24.95 – Hardcover (ebook and unabridged audio book available)

Reading Big Sex Little Death was a big surprise for me.  I’ve known Susie Bright for a long time and have worked with her at various times over the years.  I’ve long admired her work as a sex-positive revolutionist and a terrifically intrepid personality.  I guess I was expecting a sexual travelogue as memoir and a pop culture tone of voice, and maybe some dishing on what it’s like to be a famous sexpert.

In fact Big Sex Little Death is mostly a really well written story that focuses more on Susie’s early years with her very difficult though intelligent mother (and later years when she was able to live with her anthropologist/linguist father), and her very active life as a political radical.  In Southern California in the 70’s, Susie worked on a high school magazine called Red Tide, and later was an activist in the socialist movement of that period.  Where, yes, there was a lot of sex (and sexism).  Her radical political history was all new to me, and is very interesting to read about.

That was all before she became part of the pro-sex feminist movement in the 80’s, worked at the now famous Good Vibrations feminist sex shop, and helped found the now-famous lesbian sex magazine, On Our Backs, which for its seven year lifespan was hugely important in helping women define and own their sexuality.  And in many ways that is what is most important about this memoir, that it connects politics and sexuality and helps us remember where so much of the culture we take for granted today came from.

Writing mostly about her earlier years, Susie leaves room, I suppose, for a sequel where she can talk about her later work as a nationally known sex expert, talented writer, and important editor of innumerable anthologies of writing about sex and sexuality.

As one might expect, we had a great time talking about her book and some of her many exploits as a public sex figure in a bizarrely prudish society.  Ultimately this book should be read by anyone interested in late 20th century American culture, regardless of one’s gender, sexuality, interest in sex, out there or puritanical, it’s well worth your time.   And I am a big fan of Susie’s blog too – and I recommend her latest on “sex positive parenting” to anyone who has ever thought about what they are teaching (or not) their children about their own values.

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Brando Skyhorse: The Madonnas of Echo Park

978-1439170847 – Free Press – Paperback – $14.00 (ebook versions also available)

Brando Skyhorse’s spectacular debut is a novel created from a series of interlocking stories, all of which take place in the mostly Mexican Echo Park neighborhood of East Los Angeles.  Like the rest of Southern California, Echo Park is in a constant state of flux, being invented and reinvented constantly as new populations arrive and are absorbed into the diverse culture of the city.

The opening line of the book sets the stage: “We slipped into this country like thieves, onto the land that once was ours.”

Each of the stories here focuses on the story of one character, and as the stories unfold, we realize that all of the characters we are meeting are entwined with each others lives, and particularly with the central tragedy that gives the book its name, the shooting of a three year old girl during a weekly afternoon Madonna dance party hosted by a group of local moms and their young daughters.

It took me some effort to keep track of all the characters and how they are related (it probably would have helped to have had a family tree), but all of them are so brilliantly written, I ended up caring about them enough not to worry too much about the details of their relationships.  Every one of the characters in this novel experiences pain and loss and redemption.  Each is in one way or another transcendent.  Brando’s love for all of them, and for the community they live in and which lives in them, is palpable.

It’s no accident that this book has so much to say about identity, and how individuals make their own, both because of and in opposition to their surroundings.  The author, Brando Skyhorse, grew up with five different stepfathers.  He grew up most of his life believing he was Native American and only learned he was Mexican as an adult.  Born and raised in Echo Park, Brando graduated from Stanford University and from the MFA Writers’ Workshop program at the University of California, Irvine. For ten years, and until recently, he worked as an editor in New York publishing.

In our conversation, we covered a wide number of issues, the background and basis for this novel, how it evolved over the years he wrote it, and much about the characters and locale of the book.  We talked about identity, and what it means for fiction, for this author.

I really liked this book and recommend it highly to anyone who who likes modern fiction.  And I am not alone – in March, 2011, Brando received the 2011 PEN/Hemingway Award for a distinguished first book of fiction.  I’m looking forward to reading many more of his books.

Visit the author’s website for more information, appearance schedule, etc.

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