Andrea Hoffman Goes All In

Launching August 30th, Diane Cohen Schneider's Andrea Hoffman Goes All In is a 2022 Debut about Andrea, who's an overeducated, underemployed, and unmotivated recent college graduate until a robbery suddenly blasts her out of her funk and into a job in the finance world of early-1980s Chicago. Andrea's strong work ethic brings her success, but she also adopts a new, fast life of cocktails, cocaine, and casual sex. At some point, she gradually realizes, she’s going to have to decide what success really means to her...

Out Stealing Water

Roxanne Doty's novel Out Stealing Water launches August 30th from Regal House.

From the Regal House website:

When the city turns off her family’s water, seventeen-year-old Emily begins to understand why her uncle Dwight thinks the government should keep its hands off people’s lives, property, and the things they have a right to—such as water. Set in the greater Phoenix, Arizona area in the summer of 2010, Out Stealing Water tells the story of Emily’s increasingly bold schemes to get enough money to leave Phoenix for good. She and her cousin, Paula, begin stealing. At first, it’s T-shirts and gym shorts from the university gym, but it soon escalates to stealing cell phones and IDs. When they accept an offer from the shady friend of her uncle Jay to steal suitcases from Sky Harbor Airport, they may have crossed a point of no return. Meanwhile, Dwight struggles to hang on to the family’s ramshackle two-acre property located in the heart of a rapidly growing university town by accepting help from an armed anti-government group. In the wake of a tragic shootout, Emily has to choose: stay in the place she calls home or find a new life for herself?

Interviewed by Joy E. Held

I'm delighted to report that another author interview with me is posted--this time with Joy E. Held as part of her interview series Books By My Friends. Check it out here!

Joy has an M.F.A. in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She has published in newspapers, literary magazines, and specialty journals that includeg Yoga Journal, Dancer Magazine, Dance Teacher Now, and Juggler's World. She's also a yoga teacher and a journal facilitator for Journal to the Self/Center for Journal Therapy. Joy resides in West Virginia.

Joy's book Writer Wellness: A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity (Headline Books, Inc., 2020) provides an award-winning, customizable approach for writers of all genres at any stage of development. The book is designed to help writers cultivate a healthy lifestyle and a satisfying career.

(Not) Your Basic Love Story

Not Your Basic Love Story, by Lindsay Maple, is a 2022 Debut rom-com launching August 23rd. Independent city girl Becky doesn't expect that her vacation fling will turn serious, but when she and Dev return to Vancouver, they begin to realize how different they really are. Can a wine-drinking urban carnivore find happiness with a teetotal vegetarian Sikh who lives with his extended family in the suburbs?

I've Made a List of Books at Shepherd.com

My first list of five recommended books is now live at Shepherd.com. Take a look to learn more about these novels that bear much in common with my own in their themes of creativity, self-discovery, and (re)invention. All (including my own In Search of the Magic Theater) are available for order through Shepherd.com's affiliate links to Bookshop.org and Amazon.com. And while you're on the site, you can explore for other authors' lists of favorite books on pretty much any topic or theme!

I'll also be creating a list of recommendations related to Magnetic Woman, but first I've got to decide whether the theme linking them will be surrealism, Czech modernism, or something else!

Have You Heard About Shepherd.com?

Shepherd.com is a relatively new site designed to help readers find books on topics or themes that interest them. Founded by entrepreneur Ben Fox, this startup is intended to provide a more satisfying way of discovering books than that offered by Goodreads or other existing sites.

How does it work? It's kind of an exciting concept--authors create curated five-book lists on a theme connected to their own book and say something about the five books, their own book, and themselves. The staff at Shepherd.com then get to work and create a page for each list with links for readers to be able to buy each book at either Bookshop.org or Amazon.com.

Readers can browse by Wikipedia topic or favorite book or author, and can also see the latest new lists or go to "shelves" of lists arranged by larger topics like France, Family, or African Americans. As more and more authors create lists, the more different kinds of old and new books readers can discover on the site. Here are some lists that caught my eye:

Mitch Horowitz's Best Books on the extra-physical potentials of the mind (because you know you want to know more about consciousness and ESP, right?)
Karen J. Hasley's The best Regency books that showcase women who have more on their minds than romance (not that romance is eschewed here)
Stacey Levine's The best fiction that writes against narrative convention (I want to read everything on this list!)
Tamsin Mori's The best middle grade children’s books with wonderful weather magic (isn't this such a cool and unexpected list topic?)
Hussein Fancy's The best books that capture the paradoxes of medieval Spain (because medieval Spain is fascinating, in part because Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived together in peace)

My first list will be appearing early next week! It's called The best novels about creativity, self-discovery, and (re)invention.

"Discovering a new book should be a magical experience where the search is part of the fun. ... We give readers fun ways to find amazing books."

Some Reader Comments

Reader reviews of books can show up in a wide range of places--Amazon.com, Goodreads, LibraryThing, Barnes & Noble, publisher websites, blogs, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok... to name just some of the major places! Here are a sampling of the nice things people have said about In Search of the Magic Theater so far.

• "This is a novel of self-discovery. It's clever, it's layered, it's fun."
• "I enjoyed the author's writing voice a lot, and appreciated the contrast between both women."
• "I especially liked its depiction of creative partnerships, which are a major element of the text."
• "One of the most unusual novels I've read in ages! Hard to describe but absolutely engrossing and memorable. ...If you’re tired of the same old types and themes in novels, this is the one for you."
• "…offers up sharp observations and prolonged meditations on art, sexuality, relationships, and grief. … If you're interested in cogitations on art and culture, as I am, you would love it."

And here are some of the photos readers have posted of the book!

Have you read In Search of the Magic Theater yet? I'd love to see your photo of the book "in the wild!"

Regent's of Paris

Phillip Hurst's novel Regent's of Paris launches August 16th from Regal House.

From the Regal House website:

Regent’s of Paris takes place in a struggling small-town auto dealership during the tumultuous week leading up to the annual Memorial Day sale—a week rife with doomsday warnings about the Obama Administration’s corporate bailout of General Motors, and the week which will ultimately seal the dealership’s fate. Paul Stenger’s thirtieth birthday is looming and selling cars is soiling his conscience, complicating his love life, and killing his songwriting ambitions. But Paul’s problems pale in comparison to those of Jennylee Witt, a young mother navigating her workplace’s rampant sexism, a chronically-ill daughter, a deadbeat spouse, and a crisis of faith—not to mention the wealthy local photographer with a penchant for cozy test-drives. Finally, Kent Seasons, the sales manager, has come to suspect his long-promised ownership stake is being stolen from him; worse yet, his teenage daughter has seemingly fallen for the suave owner of a rival dealership. In the cutthroat realm of the American car lot, even our most cherished dreams get the hard-sell, and nobody knows this better than those whose livelihoods hinge upon closing deals and sending rubber down the road.

More Details on My Upcoming Signing at Joseph-Beth

I'll be signing copies of In Search of the Magic Theater at 11 a.m. on September 17th at the Joseph-Beth Rookwood bookstore in Cincinnati. If you're in the Cincinnati area, please come and say hi (and, of course, get a signed copy!).

I'm pleased to report that Judith Turner-Yamamoto, another Regal House author, will also be at Joseph-Beth in September. Judith is the author of Loving the Dead and Gone, and you can meet her at 7 p.m. on September 7th.

You can see Joseph-Beth's full calendar of events here. They have author events most days of the week and I am delighted to be able to be on their calendar!

Surrealist Sabotage Coming in Paperback

Abigail Susik's timely study Surrealist Sabotage and the War on Work will soon be out in paperback, making it much more affordable! As a friend and colleague of Abigail's, I can say that her hard work and devotion to the study of surrealism has been paying off splendidly in the past year. Not only did she publish Surrealist Sabotage and the War on Work (Manchester University Press, 2021), but we've also sen her two edited volumes come out: Radical Dreams: Surrealism, Counterculture, Resistance (with Elliott King, Penn State University Press, 2022), and Surrealism and Film After 1945: Absolutely Modern Mysteries (with Kristoffer Noheden, Manchester University Press, 2021). Well done, Abigail!

Bend Toward the Sun

Jen Devon's 2022 Debut romance Bend Toward the Sun launches August 9th. Two emotionally wounded professionals--the botanist Rowan and the obstetrician Harry, unexpectedly meet when taking time out at a neglected Pennsylvania vineyard. Neither expects to meet someone they could love while they're away from home healing...

The Book Eaters

The Book Eaters, by Sunyi Dean, launches August 9th. Out on the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of people for whom books are food, and who retain all of a book’s content after eating it. To them, spy novels are a peppery snack; romance novels are sweet and delicious. Eating a map can help them remember destinations, and children, when they misbehave, are forced to eat dry, musty pages from dictionaries. However, one of the book eaters bears a child born with a hunger for human minds rather than for books...

A Couple of Upcoming Events for the Calendar

I've been taking a bit of a break from author events (I have a conference paper to write for SECAC and a new novel coming soon), but I'm not done with events for In Search of the Magic Theater (or even, potentially, Magnetic Woman).

On September 17th I'll be signing books at Joseph-Beth in Cincinnati starting at 11 a.m. Joseph-Beth, which also has a store in Lexington, Kentucky, is one of the major bookstores in southwest Ohio.

On October 8th I'll be doing a reading and discussion of In Search of the Magic Theater at the Bernal Heights branch of the San Francisco Public Library.

There will be more to come!

Long Past Summer

Noué Kirwan's Long Past Summer is a 2022 Debut launching August 2nd. New York lawyer Mikaela Marchand, happy in her present life, finds her small-town Georgia past coming back to whack her when an old photo of her with her former best friend ends up on a major magazine cover and not only does her ex-friend sue but Mikaela must defend the magazine and win the case to be promoted. Not only will Mikaela have to face her former friend, but she has to work with the photographer--her former lover and her friend's ex-husband!

The Potrero Complex

The Potrero Complex, by Amy L. Bernstein, launches August 2nd from Regal House.

From the Regal House website:

Journalist Rags Goldner is battle-scarred and heartbroken after covering a devastating pandemic that rages in Baltimore for five years. She leaves the city with her partner in search of a simpler life in small-town Maryland—only to discover nothing in Canary is simple. A teenager is missing, and it falls to Rags to fight the forces of apathy, paranoia, and creeping fascism to learn the shocking truth about Effie Rutter’s fate—and the fate of thousands like her.

All the Girls in Town

Actress, screenwriter, and now novelist Staci Greason's All the Girls in Town is a 2022 Debut launching July 26th. Dani, Red, and Sasha have nothing in common, except the trail of tears rocker Peter left in his wake.The three unite to take him down and discover the power of friendship in Los Angeles as they heal and bond.