Karla Huebner's Blog, page 2

A Finalist for a Readers' Choice Award

In Search of the Magic Theater is a finalist for a Readers' Choice Award--winners are announced at the end of May. At that time they'll publish their full review, but here are some advance tidbits:

"...authentic and intriguing characters, rich and honest dialogue, and a unique and unusual plot... A well written, unique and unusual novel, which will appeal to readers who enjoy theatre, music, art history and classics."

Just Around the Corner on NetGalley

During the month of February, my new novel Too Early to Know Who's Winning will be available for review on NetGalley! If you're a reader and reviewer curious to get an early look at this sometimes grim, sometimes humorous tale of liberal American women approaching retirement during the Trump presidency, the NetGalley e-version should be available starting February 1.

The novel is also available for preorder direct from the publisher. Use the code PREORDER2023 for a 15% discount!

Advance Praise:

“With clear eyes, courage, and wit, Karla Huebner’s Too Early to Know Who’s Winning captures the uncertainty, fear, desperation, and grief of the early Trump era. Through the eyes of her protagonist, professor and historian Jacobine Flaa, Huebner recounts the harrowing days of the new normal, a time in which everyday life seemed otherworldly and the unimaginable likely, in which hate-speech, bigotry, and outbursts of violence began to fray communities, and Americans rediscovered their capacity for protest. From ‘American carnage’ to alternative facts, from the Muslim ban to the Women’s March, from the Russia investigation to Charlottesville, Huebner documents the emotion and psychological fracturing of a nation. Too Early to Know Who’s Winning is also a penetrating exploration of mortality, companionship, mental health, and the search for glimmers of light in an ever-darkening world.”--Fredrick Soukup, author of Bliss and Blood Up North

Longlisted for the Somerset Award

In Search of the Magic Theater is one of an impressive longlist of books in the running for the 2022 Somerset Award, which is given for Literary and Contemporary Fiction as a genre division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).

I'm hoping it will make it to the shortlist and, of course, on up from there!

Getting Ready for Another Goodreads Giveaway

If you haven't yet gotten a copy of In Search of the Magic Theater , I've arranged to do a second Goodreads giveaway--this one of twenty copies of the Kindle edition!

Karla Huebner's IN SEARCH OF THE MAGIC THEATER is a well-told, bittersweet tale that evokes the certainties and uncertainties of youth, as well as the regret at the missed opportunities of middle age, and the possibility of redemption.--Craig Jones, for IndieReader

The giveaway will begin February 13 and go through March 12.

Against the World

Historian Tara Zahra's new book Against the World: Anti-Globalism and Mass Politics Between the World Wars is out!

Prior to World War I, many people enthusiastically envisioned a borderless world—one with unrestricted travel, migration, and trade. International movements for women’s rights and world peace were also strong. Yet reaction was also growing, with strong support for nationalism. There was also recognition that the global economy threatened homegrown and local foods, domestically produced goods, and back-to-the-land communities. The “Spanish flu” heightened anxieties about migration, while the Great Depression intensified demands for economic autonomy. Immigration restrictions and punitive tariffs increased, yet social protections increased, colonialism lost favor, and there were efforts to make the global economy more equitable. Popular revolt against globalization took hold in democracies and dictatorships alike. Tara Zahra’s archival research in five languages will be informative reading for all who seek to understand the anti-global currents of the twentieth century, and today’s battles over international trade, immigration, public health and global inequality.

New Novel Available for Pre-Order!

That's right, I've got a second novel on the way. (I've waited a bit to announce it in order to focus on promoting In Search of the Magic Theater.)

Too Early to Know Who's Winning, a novel of liberal women during the Trump years, is available for preorder NOW, and ONLY from the publisher, Black Rose Writing, at
https://blackrosewriting.com/womens/tooearlytoknowwhoswinning.
If you order before March 23, 2023, use the promo code PREORDER2023 for a 15% discount!

Copies will ship March 23.

It’ll show up on Goodreads, Amazon, and other sites very soon, including NetGalley starting February 1.

Discussion Questions for In Search of the Magic Theater

Book groups are taking an interest in In Search of the Magic Theater , and I'm thrilled!

I've put together some discussion questions to get your book group started talking. (To save these, just right-click and download.)

Oranges for Magellan

Oranges for Magellan, by Richard Martin, launches December 13th from Regal House. From the publisher's website:

Everything good in Joe Magellan’s life—family, teaching career, sanity—has been undermined by his baffling compulsion: breaking the world record for flagpole-sitting. Through the years Joe has made seven attempts at the record, his best effort a measly eleven days. Oranges for Magellan begins on January 20, 1981, the day Joe is ‘cured’ of his compulsion at Dr. Malcolm Kerridge’s ‘Out, Damn Obsession!’ seminar. Alas, the charlatan’s cure does not take. Joe immediately stumbles upon the perfect flagpole, sixty feet high, and, before long, to the horror of his wife and son, he climbs up and settles in on a ten-foot-square redwood platform for one final assault on the record, while Clover and Nate run the little café below. Joe’s pursuit of the pole-sitting grail is disrupted by Clover’s budding artistic aspirations; by Nate’s rebellion at J. Edgar Hoover Middle School; by the seductions of Joe by an ex-seminar mate and of Clover by an art gallery owner; by the commercialization and massive popularity of the pole-sitting enterprise; and by the ruthless Shipwreck Blake, who both terrorizes and inspires Joe with assistance from the spirit of the original pole-sitter Simeon Stylites, the fifth-century monk who dwelt on a pillar for thirty years.

Hemlock Hollow

Hemlock Hollow, by Culley Holderfield, launches December 6th from Regal House. From the publisher's website:

Caroline McAlister, college professor and life-long skeptic, is reeling from the loss of her father and her marriage. Her once promising career has come to a standstill. She didn’t realize her father held onto the family cabin until he bequeathed it to her, and with it, the ghost who haunted her childhood. When she discovers a century-old journal in the attic, she awakens the voice of Carson Quinn. The journal reveals Carson’s love for the same hollow that enthralled Caroline growing up. A little sleuthing uncovers rumors that the kind, curious boy in the journal grew up to murder his brother. Caroline plunges into the project of exonerating Carson, only to find herself in the throes of a personal past she’s spent her life trying to avoid. Hemlock Hollow is about how we forever haunt the places we love and how they haunt us in return.

The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn

Amber A. Logan's 2022 Debut The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn launches November 15th. Grieving her mother’s death, Mari Lennox travels to Kyoto to photograph Yanagi Inn for a client. As she explores the inn and its grounds, capturing images of the old resort and an overgrown, secret garden, eerie weeping that no one else seems to hear keeps her awake at night. Despite the warnings of the staff, Mari searches the building to discover the source of the ghostly sound, only to realize that her own family’s history is tied to the inn and its mysterious, forlorn garden.