Thursday, June 30, 2022

Blithedale Canyon

Blithedale Canyon, by Michael Bourne, launches June 30th from Regal House. You can order it in either paperback or a special-edition hardback. From the Regal House website:
Trent Wolfer has blown it, in every possible way, over and over and over. And now he’s blowing it again. Fresh out of rehab, he’s back in his hometown working a dead-end job at a fast food joint and cutting out on his breaks to sneak airplane bottles of vodka and gin when he looks up from his register one day to see Suze Randall, his closest friend from high school, now a radiant blonde single mother of two. Set in a small, sun-drenched Northern California town shifting from hippie haven to moneyed paradise, Blithedale Canyon asks whether a man who has spent his whole life screwing up can stop long enough to avoid destroying the woman he loves. Michael Bourne’s funny, edgy debut is a literary love story for every man who has ever wondered why he keeps smashing up the things he cares about, and for every woman who’s ever wondered just what was going on in the head of that guy she spent her twenties trying to fix.

As a former inhabitant of Mill Valley myself (Blithedale is a main road), I'm eager to read this and see the author's take on the area!

Wednesday, June 29, 2022

Podcast with Yvonne Battle-Felton Coming Up!

This afternoon I had the pleasure of recording a podcast episode with writer Yvonne Battle-Felton. Yvonne, the author of Remembered, is an American writer living in the UK whose writing has been published in literary journals and anthologies. Remembered was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction (2019) and shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize (2020). She also writes for children and has three titles in Penguin Random House’s Ladybird Tales of Superheroes and three in the forthcoming Ladybird Tales of Crowns and Thrones. A Lecturer in Creative Writing and Creative Industries at Sheffield Hallam University, Yvonne is very involved in hosting and chairing events, interviewing authors, giving workshops, and collaborating on interesting projects.

For her Book-Able Space podcast, Yvonne asked me some questions about my writing, and asked me to read three short selections from In Search of the Magic Theater. I'll be posting a link to the podcast once it's live!

It's 1910 and Philadelphia is burning. Spring's son has been beaten by police for a crime he may or may not have committed. In order to lead her dying son home, Spring, with the help of her dead sister, must relive a painful past in order to bring her dying son home. It's a story about motherhood, mothering, family, community, identity, and the trauma of slavery.

Remembered, Yvonne Battle-Felton's debut novel, is available in hardback, ebook, and audio.

Tuesday, June 28, 2022

The Bartender's Cure

Launching June 28th, The Bartender's Cure, a 2022 Debut novel by Wesley Straton, tells the story of Samantha Fisher, a reluctant young bartender at beloved Brooklyn bar. Should Sam return to San Francisco and her law-school plans, or is her new life in a welcoming community the better choice?

Monday, June 27, 2022

An Interview with Christina Consolino

Novelist Christina Consolino has been doing a very interesting series of interviews of fellow authors, and has kindly done one with me about In Search of the Magic Theater. You can read it at https://christinaconsolino.com/2022/06/27/the-fun-of-fiction-an-interview-with-karla-huebner/!

Friday, June 24, 2022

Signing at Crepe Bohème This Morning!

Don't forget, if you're in the Dayton area and want to get a signed copy of In Search of the Magic Theater, just stop by the Second Street Market and Crepe Bohème between 9 and 11 o'clock this morning! (You should also buy a crepe or two--Sabine and her crew make many fabulous kinds!)

A Bit of Summer Camping

Hard though it may be to believe, my life does not entirely revolve around reading, writing, and publishing (or even rabbits!). And so here's a photo of a recent campsite.

Thursday, June 23, 2022

Odd Hours

British writer and artist Ania Bas's 2022 Debut social comedy Odd Hours launches June 23rd. Nearly-thirty Gosia Golab works as a cashier in a well-lit budget supermarket and lives in a badly-lit flat share. In her spare time she's busy writing poetry and ducking both her prying flatmate and her sparring Irish mother and Polish father. There's a man who appears to prefer her check-out to the others, but is that real or all in her head?

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Coming This Saturday!

If you're in the Dayton area, don't forget to join me on Saturday, June 25th from 9:00 to 11:00 for my book signing at the Second Street Market's Crepe Bohème! I'll be signing copies of my first novel, IN SEARCH OF THE MAGIC THEATER, which has just come out from Regal House, a small press located in North Carolina. As you might guess from the title, this is a novel about the arts, particularly music and theater. Its two narrators, Sarah and Kari, both seek to find their callings in these worlds, but in very different ways. For more info on the book: https://www.regalhousepublishing.com/product/in-search-of-the-magic-theater/
Check out Crepe Bohème's Instagram and discover a Dayton favorite!

We Shall Not Shatter is Available in Audiobook Today

The audiobook release of Elaine Stock's We Shall Not Shatter is out today from TantorAudio, narrated by Dina Pearlman. You can find it on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3xrqu3d

Monday, June 20, 2022

Next Up: Signing at Crepe Bohème

Readers in the Dayton area have a couple of ways to get a signed copy of In Search of the Magic Theater in the coming days.

First of all, there are signed copies at the Beavercreek Barnes & Noble (and also signed copies of Valerie Nieman's In the Lonely Backwater, Erin Flanagan's Deer Season and Blackout, and several titles by local mystery writer Jess Montgomery).

But if you'd like your signed copy of In Search of the Magic Theater personalized, and want to meet me and chat, Sabine of Crepe Bohème at Dayton's Second Street Market is hosting me on Saturday, June 25th, from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. So come and get your crepe and I'll be seated at the counter signing books!
Sabine and her crew make fabulous crepes!

Sunday, June 19, 2022

And a Good Time Was Had in Beavercreek...

The multi-book signing Valerie Nieman, Erin Flanagan, Jess Montgomery, and I did at the Beavercreek Barnes & Noble on Saturday was actually the first author event the store has had since covid-19 hit, so staff were excited to have us and we were pretty thrilled too. It's kind of tricky setting up bookstore events these days, as there's no way to know (unless it's your local store and you go in regularly) whether the store is not yet having in-person events or whether they are already booked up for a long time into the future. Valerie and I have been finding that it tends to be one extreme or the other. So we were extra glad to have the chance to sign books in a real, and fairly busy, bookstore!

It was splendid to see some friends and colleagues come who had been out of town or otherwise unavailable for my earlier events. Naturally, I encouraged them to buy copies of each author's books!

The bookstore staff also requested that we sign all of the remaining copies at the end of the event, which we were glad to do. If you're in the greater Dayton area, by all means stop in at the Beavercreek Barnes & Noble (near Wright State) and pick up signed copies of books by all four of us! (I'm afraid my photos are all of Valerie's and my area, but I'm hoping to get some of Erin and Jess's space from them.)

Friday, June 17, 2022

Book Signing Today at the Beavercreek Barnes & Noble!

Today I'll be signing copies of In Search of the Magic Theater at the Barnes & Noble store in Beavercreek, Ohio, just across the freeway from the Wright State campus. I'll be joined by three other authors--fellow Regal House author Valerie Nieman, fellow Wright State professor (and Edgar winner!) Erin Flanagan, and Jess Montgomery.

In Search of the Magic Theater follows the lives of its two narrators, Sarah and Kari, who both live in Sarah's aunt's house and both pursue careers in the arts but who are otherwise very different people.

Valerie Nieman's most recent novel, In the Lonely Backwater, tells the story of a high school girl who falls under suspicion when a classmate is found dead at the marina where she lives with her father.

Erin Flanagan's Edgar-winning first novel, Deer Season, is set in 1980s small-town Nebraska, where a mentally disabled young man is suspected of killing the flirtatious high school girl he hoped to win.

Historical mystery writer Jess Montgomery is the author of the Kinship series, which is set in 1920s’ Appalachian Ohio.

If you live in the Dayton area, this is a great chance to meet us and take home signed copies! If you belong to a book group, consider adding some of these to the group's schedule!

The Wild One

Launching June 14th, Colleen McKeegan's 2022 Debut thriller The Wild One is a coming-of-age novel in which a deadly summer camp secret binding three women threatens to destroy their adult lives. For over a decade, grad student Amanda Brooks has hidden what happened that summer at Camp Catalpa, when a man died in the woods. Fellow campers Catherine and Meg were there too, and in the years since, not one of them has ever spoken about what happened that day. But then Amanda slips up...

Thursday, June 16, 2022

How to Fake it in Hollywood

How to Fake it in Hollywood, a rom-com by Ava Wilder, is a 2022 Debut launching June 14th. A Hollywood starlet and a reclusive A-lister agree to enter into a fake relationship for very different reasons . . . and discover that their public chemistry might be more than a PR stunt.

Wednesday, June 15, 2022

The Beach Trap

Ali Brady is the pen name of writing duo Alison Hammer and Bradeigh Godfrey, whose 2022 Debut rom-com, The Beach Trap, launches June 14. When twelve-year-olds Kat Steiner and Blake O’Neill meet at camp, they have an instant connection, but when they learn they’re half-sisters, their friendship crumbles. Fifteen years later, Kat and Blake discover their father has left them a joint inheritance: the family beach house. The two are instantly at odds about what to do with the property, and spend the summer coming to grips with their shared past and learning how to be sisters.

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Duende

Alex Poppe's novel Duende launches June 14 from Regal House, where you can order it in either paperback or a special-edition hardback.

Sixteen-year-old Lava lives peacefully enough with her imperfect mother, Lila, and their boarder, Cody, an Iraqi war vet suffering from PTSD. Lava’s ex-addict father, Jesse, is released from prison, and Lava’s life in Detroit is upended when Jesse pressures Lava for her urine, so he can pass his mandatory drug tests. After an altercation, Lava is sent to live with her mother’s cousin Lola in Seville. Lola is a larger-than-life flamenco dancer who teaches Lava the language of flamenco dance; Lava’s life opens outward as she becomes fluent in flamenco’s structure, giving her new modes of expression as she experiences first love, friendship, and betrayal, and uncovers family secrets. Rich with lyrical, sensual prose, Duende is a coming-of-age novella about mothers and daughters, about legacy, about self-expression, about defining a way to live.

Monday, June 13, 2022

Four-Author Signing Saturday at B&N!

I'm delighted to say that Erin Flanagan, Valerie Nieman, Jess Montgomery, and I will all be at the Beavercreek, Ohio, Barnes & Noble on Saturday signing books from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
Barnes & Noble's Instagram post announcing us.

Saturday, June 11, 2022

Four Ways to Wear a Dress

2022 Debut author Gillian Libby's rom-com Four Ways to Wear a Dress launched June 7th. Millie Ward has been fired again, and she's tired of feeling like a failure, so she jumps at the chance to visit her best friend, who has an appealing brother named Pete--whom she has to persuade that pretending to be her Instagram Husband will help bring new business to his struggling hotel and help her launch her influencer career. Sounds like no shortage of trouble in store there!

Thursday, June 9, 2022

Talk on Toyen at the High Street Gallery Today!

Yes, I've still got events happening for Magnetic Woman: Toyen and the Surrealist Erotic! This evening at 7pm I'll be giving a talk about Toyen at the High Street Gallery in Dayton, Ohio, home of the Dayton Society of Artists.

Copies of both books will be available for sale at the talk.

Her Dying Day

Her Dying Day, a 2022 Debut mystery by Mindy Carlson, launches June 7th. Aspiring filmmaker June Masterson has high hopes for her first documentary, about the disappearance of famed mystery author Greer Larkin. But June's investigations lead to treachery, murder, and long-buried sins.

Wednesday, June 8, 2022

What Ben Franklin Would Have Told Me

Donna Gordon's novel What Ben Franklin Would Have Told Me launches June 8 from Regal House.

In a cruel genetic twist, thirteen-year-old Lee, afflicted with Progeria (a premature aging disease) speeds through the aging process and approaches death. Fascinated by the life of Ben Franklin, his final wish is to visit the Franklin Institute and White House in Philadelphia and Washington DC. Due to a family mix-up that keeps his single mother in Newark, Lee’s new caretaker Tomas—a survivor of Argentina’s Dirty War—agrees to take Lee instead. Lee, fighting the acceleration of time, and Tomas, fighting a past filled with memories of imprisonment and torture, help each other pursue a final quest—for Lee it is the ghost of Ben Franklin, for Tomas his missing family, “disappeared” in the war and possibly living in Philadelphia. One heading inevitably towards death, the other fleeing it, Lee and Tomas share their unsettling truths with each other.

Tuesday, June 7, 2022

As Seen on TV

Meredith Schorr's 2022 Debut rom-com As Seen on TV launches June 7th, and tells the story of a city girl who goes in search of small-town happiness, only to discover life—and love—are nothing like the TV movies. New York journalist Adi finds that Pleasant Hollow isn’t exactly “pleasant.” There’s no charming bakery, no quaint seasonal festivals, and the residents are more ambivalent than welcoming. The only upside is Finn Adams, but he works for the company she’d hoped to bring down...

Monday, June 6, 2022

Upcoming Events

Yesterday's launch party at the Ghostlight cafe was lovely and lots of fun--thank you to all who attended and also to the Ghostlight managers and baristas who helped!
My next book events are also in the Dayton area.

This Friday, June 10th, I'll be giving a talk on Toyen at the High Street Gallery (home of the Dayton Society of Artists) at 7pm. Copies of both Magnetic Woman and In Search of the Magic Theater will be available for sale.

On Saturday, June 18th, I'll be at the Beavercreek Barnes & Noble to sign books from 1:00 to 3:00 along with Erin Flanagan, Valerie Nieman, and Jess Montgomery.

Friday, June 3, 2022

Launch Party Coming Up Sunday!

It's been a fairly crazy week and a half, as just a little over a week before In Search of the Magic Theater came out, a family emergency required my travel out of town and taking up home health aide-like duties. The patient is expected to recover fully, but I clocked quite a few hours in the hospital and rehab facility, and the rabbits were not very happy about being taken on a long car trip or spending days in an X-pen in my mother's living room.

Fortunately, before I left town I was able to finalize plans for a launch party on June 5th at Dayton's well-loved cafe Ghostlight, and the boxes of books I ordered arrived in a timely fashion despite fears of supply-chain delays!

I have another couple of Dayton-area events lined up but I have just reached home and the rabbits need their evening treat, so stay tuned...

Thursday, June 2, 2022

The Candid Life of Meena Dave

Namrata Patel's 2022 Debut novel The Candid Life of Meena Dave launched June 1st. Meena, a nomadic photojournalist without family, suddenly inherits an apartment in a Victorian brownstone in historic Back Bay, Boston, which changes her life in myriad unexpected ways.

Wednesday, June 1, 2022

It's Launch Day for My Novel!

If you haven't yet ordered your copy of In Search of the the Magic Theater, you can get it in paperback, e-book, or special edition hardcover from the Regal House website! There'll be a launch party Sunday at the Ghostlight cafe on Wayne in Dayton, and other opportunities later in the month to get signed copies directly from me in the Dayton area.

And here's a lovely review from Goodreads:
In Search of the Magic Theater weaves the lives of Sarah, a very particular Cellist, and Kari Zilke, her aunt's new lodger. Sarah is at first resistant to the presence of Kari but before long she finds herself taking an interest in her life and their lives become unexpectedly intertwined. Sarah has been hiding behind her music, whilst Kari avoids her theatrical past, but both women will find their lives disrupted by a new presence.

This is a novel of self-discovery. It's clever, it's layered, it's fun. Heubner gives us a real sense of the generational tensions, from Sarah's feeling towards people her own age, to Kari slipping through the gaps of time. The story is drenched in theatre, art and music, and we even get a glimpse into the theatre piece at the end.

I'll be thinking about this one for a while.

--Puddles
Many thanks to Puddles and other early reviewers for their thoughtful comments, and please, if you enjoy this (or any other) book, by all means leave a review or short comment on Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and/or wherever else that might help other readers discover good books. In a publishing environment when several thousand books come out each day, and internet algorithms are king, happy readers are crucial to helping books find other interested readers.