Speculative Boston Reading Series: K. Chess and Max Gladstone

Speculative Boston is a quarterly event, featuring authors of scifi, fantasy, and horror of all kinds. Join us on August 1st! Our guest authors will be K. Chess and Max Gladstone, who will be talking about their latest works and the wonders of speculative fiction!

K Chess is the author of FAMOUS MEN WHO NEVER LIVED (Tin House Books, 2019). Her writing has appeared in The Chicago Tribune’s Printer’s Row Journal, PANK, Salon, Tor.com and other outlets. Her short stories have been honored by the Nelson Algren Literary Award and the Pushcart Prize. K earned a BA from Vassar College and an MFA from Southern Illinois University. She was awarded a W.K. Rose Fellowship in the Creative Arts. She reads fiction for Quarterly West and teaches writing at GrubStreet in Boston and Rhode Island.

Max Gladstone has been thrown from a horse in Mongolia and nominated twice for the John W Campbell Best New Writer Award. Tor Books published FOUR ROADS CROSS, the fifth novel in Max’s Craft Sequence (preceded by THREE PARTS DEAD, TWO SERPENTS RISE, FULL FATHOM FIVE, and LAST FIRST SNOW) in July 2016. Max’s game CHOICE OF THE DEATHLESS was nominated for a XYZZY Award, and FULL FATHOM FIVE was nominated for the Lambda Award. His short fiction has appeared on Tor.com and in Uncanny Magazine. His most recent project is the globetrotting urban fantasy serial BOOKBURNERS, available in ebook and audio from Serial Box, and in print from Saga Press.


I Just Haven’t Met You Yet–Boston Launch

Harvard Book Store welcomes award-winning author and writing instructor TRACY STRAUSS for a discussion of her latest book, I Just Haven’t Met You Yet: Finding Empowerment in Dating, Love, and Life.

About I Just Haven’t Met You Yet

I Just Haven’t Met You Yet details Tracy Strauss’s dating history and her journey to dismantle the effects and stigmas of an abusive past, break free of destructive relationship patterns, and ultimately conquer her fear of truly being seen by the world, flaws and all. The author shares the transformative lessons she learned and self-empowerment she achieved while passing each hurdle along the way to finding the love of her life.

Tracy Strauss helps readers empower themselves by taking a challenging look at the ways the negative events of their lives, including sexual harassment and abuse, have shaped their self-perception and created obstacles to personal success, and how readers can change that troubled self-image along with their (love) lives.

I Just Haven’t Met You Yet is a modern-day journey of the heart. It is a story about taking big risks, changing old habits and beliefs about dating, and speaking back to the naysayers, especially that internal critic, the inner love saboteur. It is a prime mover and the only epistolary memoir cum dating/relationship essay book of its kind.

Praise

“Tracy Strauss answers the dreaded question “How are you still single?” with a narrative that’s funny, relatable, genuine, thought-provoking, and universal. She’s written more than just a book about dating; I Just Haven’t Met You Yet is a narrative about a person’s need to be seen—and understood.” —Meredith Goldstein, Boston Globe love letters advice columnist

“Tracy Strauss will break your heart. I defy you to put down this disarmingly charming book. A wry narrative turns in and out of light and deep shadow as if she were dancing. Utterly, beautifully honest. It reaches great heights and will make you wish she had always been your friend.” —Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The House of Broken Angels

“In I Just Haven’t Met You Yet, Tracy Strauss reminds us of the power of words and memory and honesty and—most of all—the power of hope. This book has one of my favorite last lines that I’ve read in a long time. But don’t cheat and peek at it. Read every single one that comes before it so that when you reach the end, like me you’ll be smiling and crying in equal measure.” —Ann Hood, bestselling author of The Knitting Circle


Peter Swanson and Diane Les Becquets at Belmont Books

From the hugely talented author of The Kind Worth Killing comes an exquisitely chilling tale of a young suburban wife with a history of psychological instability whose fears about her new neighbor could lead them both to murder . . .

Hen and her husband Lloyd have settled into a quiet life in a new house outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Hen (short for Henrietta) is an illustrator and works out of a studio nearby, and has found the right meds to control her bipolar disorder. Finally, she’s found some stability and peace.

But when they meet the neighbors next door, that calm begins to erode as she spots a familiar object displayed on the husband’s office shelf. The sports trophy looks exactly like one that went missing from the home of a young man who was killed two years ago. Hen knows because she’s long had a fascination with this unsolved murder—an obsession she doesn’t talk about anymore, but can’t fully shake either.

Could her neighbor, Matthew, be a killer? Or is this the beginning of another psychotic episode like the one she suffered back in college, when she became so consumed with proving a fellow student guilty that she ended up hurting a classmate?

The more Hen observes Matthew, the more she suspects he’s planning something truly terrifying. Yet no one will believe her. Then one night, when she comes face to face with Matthew in a dark parking lot, she realizes that he knows she’s been watching him, that she’s really on to him. And that this is the beginning of a horrifying nightmare she may not live to escape. . .


Peter Swanson is the author of three novels: The Girl With a Clock For a Heart, an LA Times Book Award finalist; The Kind Worth Killing, winner of the New England Society Book Award, and finalist for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger; and his most recent, Her Every Fear. His books have been translated into 30 languages, and his stories, poetry, and features have appeared in Asimov’s Science FictionThe Atlantic MonthlyMeasureThe GuardianThe Strand Magazine, and Yankee Magazine. A graduate of Trinity College, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Emerson College, he lives in Somerville, Massachusetts with his wife.

 

 

 

From the national bestselling author of Breaking Wild, here is a riveting and powerful thriller about a woman whose greatest threat could be the man she loves.…

Marian Engström has found her true calling: working with rescue dogs to help protect endangered wildlife. Her first assignment takes her to northern Alberta, where she falls in love with her mentor, the daring and brilliant Tate. After they’re separated from each other on another assignment, Marian is shattered to learn of Tate’s tragic death. Worse still is the aftermath in which Marian discovers disturbing inconsistencies about Tate’s life, and begins to wonder if the man she loved could have been responsible for the unsolved murders of at least four women.

Hoping to clear Tate’s name, Marian reaches out to a retired forensic profiler who’s haunted by the open cases. But as Marian relives her relationship with Tate and circles ever closer to the truth, evil stalks her every move.…


Diane Les Becquets, a former professor of English and MFA director, is an avid outdoorswoman, enjoying backpacking off the grid, snowshoeing, archery, and swimming. A native of Nashville, she spent almost fourteen years living in a small Colorado ranching town before moving to New Hampshire. Breaking Wild, her debut novel, was an Indie Next pick.


Kim Savage at Belmont Books

Join us for the paperback release of Kim Savage’s In Her Skin. 

 

Kim Savage is a former reporter who received her master’s degree in Journalism from Northeastern University. Her work includes the critically acclaimed novels After the Woods and Beautiful Broken Girls. Kim grew up in South Weymouth, Massachusetts, and lives north of Boston, not far from the real Middlesex Fells of After the Woods.

Praise For…


Praise for In Her Skin:

“The mood of this psychological suspense story is appropriately dark and ominous, with a definite gritty edge . . . Obsessive and haunting.” —School Library Journal

“A dark, enthralling tale of truth, lies, and parallel lives.” —Kirkus Reviews

“The mystery of Vivi’s disappearance lends a sinister cast to seemingly harmless interactions. Jo may act rock hard, but her vulnerability and longing are what give this thriller its stakes.” —Booklist

“Savage layers charade upon charade [in] this dark story full of sinister characters. . . An ambitious, twisted story of adopted sisters that raises intriguing questions about privilege, poverty, and morality.” —Publishers Weekly


Speculative Boston Reading Series

Speculative Boston is a free quarterly reading series for science fiction, fantasy, and horror of all kinds. Join us at Trident Books & Cafe in Boston, when our guests will be Julian K. Jarboe, Christopher Golden, and Theodora Goss. The night includes short readings, a lively discussion and Q&A, and plenty of time for signing books and hanging out.

Julian K. Jarboe lives in Salem, Massachusetts. They are an Associate Editor at PodCastle magazine, a graduate of the Odyssey Fantasy Writing Workshop, and most recently a fellow at the Writers’ Room of Boston, where they also sit on the board. Their writing can be found in The Atlantic, Strange Horizons, The Fairy Tale Review, and anthologized in the LAMBDA award-winning Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction series, among others. They also produce and co-host Mothers & Others, “the podcast about maternal figures and mommy issues.”

Christopher Golden is the New York Times #1 bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Ararat, Snowblind, Dead Ringers, Of Saints and Shadows, and many other novels. With Mike Mignola, he is the co-creator of two fan favorite comic book series, Baltimore and Joe Golem: Occult Detective. As an editor, his anthologies include Hark! The Herald Angels Scream, Seize the Night, and The New Dead, among others. He has also written screenplays, video games, radio plays, an online animated series, and much more. He lives in Massachusetts.

Theodora Goss was born in Hungary and spent her childhood in various European countries before her family moved to the United States. Although she grew up on the classics of English literature, her writing has been influenced by an Eastern European literary tradition in which the boundaries between realism and the fantastic are often ambiguous. Her publications include the collections In the Forest of Forgetting and Songs for OpheliaThe Thorn and the Blossom, a novella in a two-sided accordion formatdebut novel The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, and its sequel, European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman. She has been a finalist for the Nebula, Crawford, Locus, Seiun, and Mythopoeic Awards, and on the Tiptree Award Honor List. She has won the World Fantasy and Locus awards.


2018 New England Authors Expo

The New England Authors Expo is the largest grassroots literary event in New England. The NEAE has over 2,000 authors, illustrators, publishers, printers and other publishing professionals on its contact list. By working together we organize book sales and other book-related events throughout the year. We try to keep our fees as low as possible so that every author will be able to attend our events. This event is free to the public.

This event will be held at the Danversport Yacht Club in Danvers, MA on Wednesday, July 25.

11:00 AM – Doors open for librarians, bookstore owners and TV & radio guests

4:00 PM – Doors open to the public.

The event runs till 9:00 pm.


The Palatine Wreck: The Legend of the New England Ghost Ship

New England is the land of history, some of which is still mysterious from lack of recorded information.  For all history buffs out there, take note!  Porter Square Books welcomes author JILL FARINELLI for a reading of her historical nonfiction book, The Palatine Wreck: The Legend of the New England Ghost Ship.

Two days after Christmas in 1738, a British merchant ship traveling from Rotterdam to Philadelphia grounded in a blizzard on the northern tip of Block Island, twelve miles off the Rhode Island coast. The ship carried emigrants from the Palatinate and its neighboring territories in what is now southwest Germany. The 105 passengers and crew on board—sick, frozen, and starving—were all that remained of the 340 men, women, and children who had left their homeland the previous spring. They now found themselves castaways.

Shortly after the wreck, rumors began to circulate that the passengers had been mistreated by the ship’s crew and by some of the islanders. The stories persisted, transforming over time as stories do and, in less than a hundred years, two terrifying versions of the event had emerged.  In one account, the crew murdered the captain, extorted money from the passengers by prolonging the voyage and withholding food, then abandoned ship. In the other, the islanders lured the ship ashore with a false signal light, then murdered and robbed all on board. Some claimed the ship was set ablaze to hide evidence of these crimes, their stories fueled by reports of a fiery ghost ship first seen drifting in Block Island Sound on the one-year anniversary of the wreck. These tales became known as the legend of the Palatine, the name given to the ship in later years, when its original name had been long forgotten. The flaming apparition was nicknamed the Palatine Light.

This event is free and open to the public.

 


Little Fires Everywhere, the latest from CELESTE NG

Porter Square Books is pleased to host local novelist, and best-selling author of Everything I Never Told You, CELESTE NG for a reading of her newest novel, Little Fires Everywhere.

In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned—from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead.

When old family friends of the strict Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town–and puts single-mother Mia Warren and Elena Richardson on opposing sides.  Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia’s past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs.

Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood—and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster.

This event is free and open to the public.


Local nonfiction author POPE BROCK presents Another Fine Mess: Life on Tomorrow’s Moon

Porter Square Books welcomes local nonfiction author POPE BROCK, who has published Indiana Gothic (about the murder of his great-grandfather), and now, Another Fine Mess: Life on Tomorrow’s Moon—a work of what might be called speculative nonfiction.

Now that we’ve pretty much ruined planet Earth—no big secret—science tells us the human race could be doomed. Well, not all science, but some of it, enough to have sparked a lively interest in setting up someplace else.

But where?

The answer is the moon of course, and that’s what this book explores: the many ways in which today’s scientists, entrepreneurs, architects and, yes, a few loonies are working to get colonies established there ASAP. Filled with research, interviews and expert projections, these pages reveal how a web of fantastic new technologies could give mankind a brand new start off-world.

This event is free and open to the public.


Attention fantasy-lovers: MAX GLADSTONE is back with The Ruin of Angels

Fantasy lovers, take note!  Harvard Book Store welcomes MAX GLADSTONE, local author of the Hugo-nominated Craft Sequence, for a discussion of The Ruin of Angels, the sixth novel in the series.

The God Wars destroyed the city of Alikand. Now, a century and a half and a great many construction contracts later, Agdel Lex rises in its place. Dead deities litter the surrounding desert, streets shift when people aren’t looking, a squid-like tower dominates the skyline, and the foreign Iskari Rectification Authority keeps strict order in this once-independent city―while treasure seekers, criminals, combat librarians, nightmare artists, angels, demons, dispossessed knights, grad students, and other fools gather in its ever-changing alleys, hungry for the next big score.

This event is not ticketed.

The most recent The Ruin of Angels novel will be on sale at the event for 20% off.