Karla Huebner's Blog, page 15
May 3, 2022
Down to the River
Down to the River, by Anne Whitney Pierce, launches May 3rd from Regal House.
From the Regal House website:
Down to the River is a family saga set in the late 1960s in Cambridge, Massachusetts against the backdrop of the Vietnam War. Twin brothers, Nash and Remi Potts, have grown up as entitled, Harvard-educated, golden boys, heirs to an old, but dwindling family fortune. With the passage of time, the gold veneer of prosperity begins to chip away, and their lives begin to falter. We meet Remi and Nash in 1968, in their mid-forties and partners in a sporting goods store in Harvard Square. The twins’ marriages are in trouble. Their youngest children, Chickie and Hen (mistakes, they’re often called….), are coming of age during the turbulent urban wilderness of the late 1960s— school bomb threats, racial tensions, war protests and demonstrations at Harvard and beyond. With all hell breaking loose at home, and any semblance of “parenting” hanging ragged in the wind, the two cousins are left largely to their own devices. Suddenly freed from old rules and restrictions, they head out onto the streets of Cambridge, which become their concrete playground, tumbling headlong into a world of politics, sex, drugs, rock and roll. Chickie and Hen forge an unbreakable bond as they join forces and hearts to stay afloat in the sea of upheaval that surrounds them, the lines of family love and loyalty often blurring.
From the Regal House website:
Down to the River is a family saga set in the late 1960s in Cambridge, Massachusetts against the backdrop of the Vietnam War. Twin brothers, Nash and Remi Potts, have grown up as entitled, Harvard-educated, golden boys, heirs to an old, but dwindling family fortune. With the passage of time, the gold veneer of prosperity begins to chip away, and their lives begin to falter. We meet Remi and Nash in 1968, in their mid-forties and partners in a sporting goods store in Harvard Square. The twins’ marriages are in trouble. Their youngest children, Chickie and Hen (mistakes, they’re often called….), are coming of age during the turbulent urban wilderness of the late 1960s— school bomb threats, racial tensions, war protests and demonstrations at Harvard and beyond. With all hell breaking loose at home, and any semblance of “parenting” hanging ragged in the wind, the two cousins are left largely to their own devices. Suddenly freed from old rules and restrictions, they head out onto the streets of Cambridge, which become their concrete playground, tumbling headlong into a world of politics, sex, drugs, rock and roll. Chickie and Hen forge an unbreakable bond as they join forces and hearts to stay afloat in the sea of upheaval that surrounds them, the lines of family love and loyalty often blurring.
May 2, 2022
To Mail: Ten Advance Reader Copies
And the Goodreads giveaway of ten advance reader copies of In Search of the Magic Theater has concluded! Here's hoping the lucky winners enjoy it very much (and remember, of course, to post reviews)!
And there will be advance reader copies going out to other recipients as well, hence the big box of packaged books.
And there will be advance reader copies going out to other recipients as well, hence the big box of packaged books.
May 1, 2022
Getting Ready for the Bay Area Book Festival!
No, I won't be able to be at the Bay Area Book Festival myself this year, but my books will be! My current writing group, the Thoth Collective, meets monthly via Zoom and as two of the authors live in the Bay Area, they have generously taken on the task of getting us a table at the festival.
In this photo you can see that Dirk van Nouhuys is in the process of organizing our books and flyers to take to the festival, and if you look very closely, you'll see (over to the right) an advance reader copy of In Search of the Magic Theater sitting on top of a copy of Magnetic Woman: Toyen and the Surrealist Erotic. Visitors to the festival can look through both books and take away flyers about them with info on how to order.
In the cardboard box are copies of Jan Alexander's Ms. Ming's Guide to Civilization, which will be available for sale on the spot. Books by members that will be for sale in more limited quantities are Rabble and A Gift for the Sultan, both by Geoffrey Fox; and The Great Pool Jump, by Peter de Lissevoy. I anticipate that there will be unlimited copies of books by Margaret C. Murray as she is the other Bay Area member and can bring as many copies as she is willing to carry.
And so, if you are in the Berkeley area May 7-8, by all means head over to downtown, where the Festival will include many authors, publishers, writers' groups, and events, and make sure to look for the Thoth table where Dirk and Margaret will be showing off all of our books.
In this photo you can see that Dirk van Nouhuys is in the process of organizing our books and flyers to take to the festival, and if you look very closely, you'll see (over to the right) an advance reader copy of In Search of the Magic Theater sitting on top of a copy of Magnetic Woman: Toyen and the Surrealist Erotic. Visitors to the festival can look through both books and take away flyers about them with info on how to order.
In the cardboard box are copies of Jan Alexander's Ms. Ming's Guide to Civilization, which will be available for sale on the spot. Books by members that will be for sale in more limited quantities are Rabble and A Gift for the Sultan, both by Geoffrey Fox; and The Great Pool Jump, by Peter de Lissevoy. I anticipate that there will be unlimited copies of books by Margaret C. Murray as she is the other Bay Area member and can bring as many copies as she is willing to carry.
And so, if you are in the Berkeley area May 7-8, by all means head over to downtown, where the Festival will include many authors, publishers, writers' groups, and events, and make sure to look for the Thoth table where Dirk and Margaret will be showing off all of our books.
April 30, 2022
It's Independent Bookstore Day!
I'm not great at keeping track of obscure holidays and festivals, so I was thrilled to learn of Independent Bookstore Day before the actual day. And yes, it's today, April 30!
My city is sadly devoid of independent bookstores that sell new books for general audiences. Yes, we do have a Barnes & Noble (we used to have two but one lost its lease, which is a crappy reason for bookstore closure and I gather that Barnes & Noble seeks a new location). We also have several stores devoted to used books, which is a wonderful thing. But there is no independent bookstore with a quirky, individual mix of old favorites and exciting newly published titles, and this is a sad thing for the community. It also eats at me as I try to determine where to celebrate my novel's launch in just one month. Will it work out to launch at Barnes & Noble? (Maybe, but they're just now trying to remember how they used to do in-person events.) Could I launch at the library or my local cafe instead? (Maybe, but neither has much of a history of author events to draw in people who don't know me.)
And so I say to you, if you have a local independent bookstore, or more than one, go forth and visit them today. Let them know you appreciate them.
My city is sadly devoid of independent bookstores that sell new books for general audiences. Yes, we do have a Barnes & Noble (we used to have two but one lost its lease, which is a crappy reason for bookstore closure and I gather that Barnes & Noble seeks a new location). We also have several stores devoted to used books, which is a wonderful thing. But there is no independent bookstore with a quirky, individual mix of old favorites and exciting newly published titles, and this is a sad thing for the community. It also eats at me as I try to determine where to celebrate my novel's launch in just one month. Will it work out to launch at Barnes & Noble? (Maybe, but they're just now trying to remember how they used to do in-person events.) Could I launch at the library or my local cafe instead? (Maybe, but neither has much of a history of author events to draw in people who don't know me.)
And so I say to you, if you have a local independent bookstore, or more than one, go forth and visit them today. Let them know you appreciate them.
April 28, 2022
The Goodreads ARC Giveaway Is Almost Over!
The Goodreads giveaway of ten advance reader copies of In Search of the Magic Theater is almost over--it concludes at 11:59 PM on May 1st. So if you'd like to enter to win a copy and have not yet done so, hie thee to the giveaway signup page right now!
Wondering why you should enter to win this enchanting novel (if I do say so myself) narrated by two strong but very different women, one in midlife and the other just entering adulthood? Well, why not live dangerously?
Wondering why you should enter to win this enchanting novel (if I do say so myself) narrated by two strong but very different women, one in midlife and the other just entering adulthood? Well, why not live dangerously?
“A sophisticated, queer-friendly, and feminist take on Hesse’s Steppenwolf. Although loosely set in the late 1990s, Huebner’s meditation on repression, instinct, and the creative drive is fresh and timeless.” —Gabriella West, author of Time of Grace and Once You Are Mine
Montana Legacy
Katie Frey's romance Montana Legacy is a 2022 Debut launching April 26th. Now that Nick Hartmann is the guardian of his orphaned niece, he needs to hire a tutor, and Rose Kelly is the answer. However, not only is he impermissibly attracted to her, but she may not be who she seems. No less than control of his family’s land and legacy hangs in the balance. Will divided family loyalties, a fierce estate battle and Rose’s shocking secret cost Nick everything?
April 27, 2022
The Sleepers
The Sleepers, a thriller by British writer K.M. Kelly, is a 2022 Debut launching April 26th. Sylvie is running--from so many things! From memories of a terror attack in London in which her brother died. From her abusive boyfriend. And from someone who, she's been told, is trying to kill her. Meanwhile, Corran is an undercover agent with a list of names that includes Sylvie's. Is it a hit list connected to the long-ago London attack?
April 26, 2022
When We Fell Apart
When We Fell Apart, by Soon Wiley, is a 2022 Debut launching April 26. When the Seoul police inform Korean-American Min that his girlfriend Yu-jin has committed suicide, he’s sure it can’t be true. Devastated by her death, Min throws himself into finding out why seemingly happy Yu-jin could have secretly wanted to die. As he learns more about her and her family and friends, the more he doubts he ever really knew her at all.
April 23, 2022
Using Overdrive Through Your Library
These days, many of us are reading e-books that we get from our local libraries. I may have been late to the party on this, as I didn't get an e-reader (in my case, a Kindle) until the pandemic hit, when the library became off-limits physically for a significant period. I've found, however, that checking out e-books is really great! They're available in several forms, and I never have to worry about returning the books overdue--they're renewable but unless I renew, they're simply no longer readable on my device. Overdrive, which is the system that my library uses, keeps a record of what I've checked out, so I can easily get a book again if I should have renewed but didn't.
I'm sure the above is old news to many of you. But do you know how to take your Overdrive checkouts to the next level?
If you read a lot of classics plus newer books that are not bestsellers, you may be frustrated that you aren't finding everything you'd like at the library, even via Overdrive. I know that I've found it quite tedious to look up book after book that's on my Goodreads want-to-read list and find that none of them show up on my library's Overdrive. The author's name usually does, but none of their books.
Each library chooses which books it wants from Overdrive's catalog. In other words, when you're on your library's Overdrive site, you aren't searching Overdrive in totality--you're just searching within what your library has decided, in its wisdom, that local borrowers are likely to want. But you can request the library offer books from Overdrive that it does not currently show!
I just did this today, as I'd discovered (via a simple Google search) that my forthcoming novel In Search of the Magic Theater is listed in Overdrive. I wasn't at that point looking to see if it was in Overdrive, I was just looking for any pre-publication reviews that might have surfaced, and discovered that the Somerset County Library (New Jersey) has it listed in Overdrive. So although they won't have the book until it launches June 1, they've already got it in their system. I therefore went over to my own local library's Overdrive site and typed in my name in Search. While my name didn't show up in search, I was nonetheless able to get the e-book of In Search of the Magic Theater to come up as something I could recommend to the library, which I then did.
Therefore, I tell you, go forth to your local library's website and proceed to its Overdrive site (while not all libraries use Overdrive, it is a very commonly used e-book service). Tell it that you recommend In Search of the Magic Theater and whatever else you may be itching to read that isn't already in its catalog!
I'm sure the above is old news to many of you. But do you know how to take your Overdrive checkouts to the next level?
If you read a lot of classics plus newer books that are not bestsellers, you may be frustrated that you aren't finding everything you'd like at the library, even via Overdrive. I know that I've found it quite tedious to look up book after book that's on my Goodreads want-to-read list and find that none of them show up on my library's Overdrive. The author's name usually does, but none of their books.
Each library chooses which books it wants from Overdrive's catalog. In other words, when you're on your library's Overdrive site, you aren't searching Overdrive in totality--you're just searching within what your library has decided, in its wisdom, that local borrowers are likely to want. But you can request the library offer books from Overdrive that it does not currently show!
I just did this today, as I'd discovered (via a simple Google search) that my forthcoming novel In Search of the Magic Theater is listed in Overdrive. I wasn't at that point looking to see if it was in Overdrive, I was just looking for any pre-publication reviews that might have surfaced, and discovered that the Somerset County Library (New Jersey) has it listed in Overdrive. So although they won't have the book until it launches June 1, they've already got it in their system. I therefore went over to my own local library's Overdrive site and typed in my name in Search. While my name didn't show up in search, I was nonetheless able to get the e-book of In Search of the Magic Theater to come up as something I could recommend to the library, which I then did.
Therefore, I tell you, go forth to your local library's website and proceed to its Overdrive site (while not all libraries use Overdrive, it is a very commonly used e-book service). Tell it that you recommend In Search of the Magic Theater and whatever else you may be itching to read that isn't already in its catalog!
Words We Cannot Say
Sita Romero's 2022 Debut Words We Cannot Say launched April 19th, and as this is one I had the opportunity to read pre-launch, I'm delighted to say that this is definitely worth checking out. Three very different women--Penelope, Nia, and Lotus--navigate friendship, motherhood, pregnancy, and loss together. Labor and delivery nurse Penelope doesn't intend to get pregnant herself. Nia, a first-generation American and former model, has three years of fertility treatments and pressure from her family to deal with. Lotus, who has a toddler from her polyamorous and bisexual marriage, tries to keep life sane when her husband's ex comes to stay.
