Karla Huebner's Blog, page 3

Leave the Night to God

Leave the Night to God, by R. L. Peterson, launches November 8th from Regal House. From the publisher's website:

Twelve-year-old Frankie Walker’s whole world is baseball, Daddy, and foxhunting. Daddy’s stroke forces Frankie to learn to survive on his own—or become a permanent resident of the Missouri Orphan’s School and Residence. With the help of a fellow orphan, Frankie bolts the orphanage and hooks up with a Black barnstorming baseball team and their young, female pitcher, Linda. Frankie soon learns, nothing good lasts. When Linda drops him at the bus station, so he can join Daddy in Kansas, he’s mistaken as Linda’s child and abducted by the Ku Klux Klan. Facing death by torture, Frankie is saved by Paul. When Frankie and Daddy finally reunite, Daddy’s stroke has left him stiff and silent as a tombstone. There’ll be no more nights chasing their foxhounds, but Frankie has learned on his long and harrowing journey that he’s a survivor. Set in America’s Midwest of the 1950s where racial injustice still has a tight grip, Leave the Night to God proves that kindness may be found in unexpected places, that “family” is not about the color of one’s skin, and to remain true to one’s values is what it means to be a man.

Daughter of Spies

Daughter of Spies, by Elizabeth Winthrop Alsop, launches October 25th from Regal House. From the publisher's website:

As a child, Elizabeth Winthrop Alsop, along with her five brothers, was raised to revere the tribal legends of the Alsop and Roosevelt families. Her parents’ marriage, lived in the spotlight of 1950s Washington where the author’s father, journalist Stewart Alsop, grew increasingly famous, was not what either of her parents had imagined it would be. Her mother’s strict Catholicism and her father’s restless ambition collided to create a strangely muted and ominous world, one that mirrored the whispered conversations in the living room as the power brokers of Washington came and went through their side door. Through it all, her mother, trained to keep secrets as a decoding agent with MI5, said very little. In this brave memoir, the author explores who her mother was, why alcohol played such an important role in her mother’s life, and why her mother held herself apart from all her children, especially her only daughter. In the author’s journey to understand her parents, particularly her mother, she comes to realize that the secrets parents keep are the ones that reverberate most powerfully in the lives of their children.

A Knit of Identity

A Knit of Identity, by Chris Motto, launches October 18th from Regal House. From the publisher's website:

“When Dennis died, I heard a sound, and then in a matter of seconds shit hit the fan, but then I heard it again, and for the first time I heard the sound of the sky talking to me. Floating in the middle of it, wrapped in the center of it, I learned that the sky not only has a very distinct voice, but it has a lot to say.” Danny Fletcher’s life has never been great. Her father was on the road driving big rigs, and her mother was always left waiting. As soon as she was old enough, Danny followed in her father’s footsteps, deciding never to be the one waiting. From that point on tragedy followed her everywhere. The death of a friend, the death of an enemy, the death of her parents. All this sorrow on top of being constantly alone, Danny is left struggling to find her identity in a world that doesn’t want her. That is until she stumbles into hole-in-the-wall bar in a small South Carolina town. There she meets Jesse. A friend? A partner? A reason to stop running? Can she face her demons, or will Jesse become just another reason to run?

In the Running for a Stonewall Award

I'm pleased to announce that The American Library Association's Stonewall Book Awards have requested copies of In Search of the Magic Theater for consideration.

Each year, the Rainbow Round Table (RRT) of the American Library Association (ALA) honors books of exceptional merit with significant LGBTQ+ themes with its Stonewall awards. Eligible books must be new publications in North America in English copyrighted in 2022. The Barbara Gittings Literature Award Committee evaluates adult fiction as defined as any novels, short stories, poetry, and dramas/plays.

Titles for adult 2023 awards and honor books will be announced at the ALA/RRT Social during ALA’s 2023 January Midwinter Meeting. The books will also be honored at the Stonewall Book Award Presentation during the ALA Annual Conference in June 2023. Awards consist of a commemorative plaque and a cash award of $1000; winners of honor books receive a certificate.

The award is announced in January and presented to the winning authors or editors at the American Library Association Annual Conference in June or July.

Self-Portrait With Nothing

Self-Portrait With Nothing, a 2022 Debut by Aimee Pokwatka, launches October 11th. Abandoned as an infant on the local veterinarian’s front porch, Pepper Rafferty was raised by two loving mothers, and has married a stable, supportive husband. She’s never told anyone that at fifteen she discovered the identity of her biological mother--the reclusive painter Ula Frost, who's famous for claiming that her portraits summon their subjects’ doppelgangers from parallel universes. Pepper can’t help but wonder if there's a parallel universe in which she was more confident, more accomplished, better able to accept love--a universe in which Ula decided she was worth keeping?

The Call of Cassandra Rose

The Call of Cassandra Rose, a 2022 Debut by British author Sophia Spiers, launches October 13th. In this thriller, Annabelle seems to have it all, but she's actually trapped in an unhappy marriage, failing at motherhood, and unable to break free of a traumatic working-class childhood. Feeling she doesn't belong in her new wealthy milieu, she turns to old habits: drinking and self-harm. When she meets the alluring and charismatic hypnotherapist, Cassandra Rose, she's offered a way out. But Cassandra Rose is not the saviour. She isn’t healing Annabelle. She’s destroying her. Will the call of Cassandra Rose be the last thing Annabelle ever hears?

Attribution

Attribution, a 2022 Debut by art historian Linda Moore, launches October 11th. Full of art world revelations, betrayals, and twists, this novel draws on the author's background in Hispanic art and follows an aspiring art historian who leaves her troubled parents to study in New York where she struggles to impress her misogynist advisor— until she discovers a hidden painting and flees to Spain to prove it’s a masterpiece.

Delphic Oracle, U.S.A.

Delphic Oracle, U.S.A., by Steven Mayfield, launches October 11th from Regal House. From the publisher's website:

It is 1925 when a love affair between enchantress Maggie Westinghouse and con man July Pennybaker upends the small town of Miagrammesto Station, tumbles it about, and sets it back down as Delphic Oracle, Nebraska. Will their love fulfill its destiny? The narrator of this wry, entertaining novel, Father Peter Goodfellow, weaves back and forth in time to answer that question. Along the way, he introduces the Goodfellows, the Penrods, and the Thorntons—families whose members include a perpetual runaway, a man with religion but no faith, a man with faith but no religion, a boy known as Samson the Methodist, a know-it-all librarian who seems to actually know everything, a quartet of confused midsummer lovers, and a skeleton unearthed in a vacant lot. Funny, poignant, and occasionally tragic, their histories are part of how a place at the confluence of the Platte, Loup, and Missouri River Valleys became home to the long-lost Oracle of Delphi.

Exciting News Is In the Offing...

I'm on a roll, and not only have I had two books published just lately (Magnetic Woman: Toyen and the Surrealist Erotic, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020; In Search of the Magic Theater, Regal House, 2022), but I'll be having a second novel coming out in the spring of 2023, this one from Black Rose.

I'm waiting a little before putting out a big announcement, since I'm focusing on promoting In Search of the Magic Theater right now, but if you enjoyed In Search of the Magic Theater, you might also like the new novel. It's rather different than In Search of the Magic Theater (more political, for one thing), so not everyone will like both novels equally, but I'm guessing that many readers will enjoy both. So keep your eyes peeled for more news on the new novel!

If You Couldn't Get to Yesterday's Reading...

It's always neat to be able to attend an author's reading, hear selections from the book, have the chance to ask questions, and even get autographed copies. But of course we can't always attend readings by authors who interest us--we may not be in town the day of the reading, or may have a schedule conflict.

When the reading occurs at a bookstore, there will usually be signed copies left after the reading--it's standard that any copies that didn't sell during the event will be signed by the author and remain in the store, so you can still get a signed copy even though it won't be personalized.

Readings at other locations (libraries, fairs, specialty stores) may not mean that there will be copies available for sale at the site later on, but if the reading is at a library, then there will be copies available to check out, and you can see whether you want to buy a copy of your own.

If you're near Dayton or Cincinnati, Ohio, the Dayton Barnes & Noble and the Cincinnati Joseph-Beth bookstore may still have some signed copies of In Search of the Magic Theater in stock.

No matter where you live, you can ask your favorite bookstore to order a copy of In Search of the Magic Theater (or any other traditionally published book, and some self-published books)--they'll just put that order in with all their other orders from that publisher's distributor, and you'll soon have your copy, while the bookstore will learn that there's interest in the book, so they may order additional copies.

You can also order In Search of the Magic Theater directly from Regal House, and if you would like a hardback copy, this is the only way to get one. (The hardbacks are very nice, but it's not financially advantageous for Regal House to sell them wholesale to bookstores.)

And, when you're done reading a new book you've enjoyed, it's very helpful to the author if you can let the world know in some way. That could mean writing a short review (even just a sentence) on Amazon (if you've bought at least $50 of stuff from them in the past year), on Goodreads, on Barnes & Noble's website, and/or elsewhere. It could also mean showing a photo of the book on Instagram or Pinterest, or mentioning it in a Tweet or on Facebook, or just telling friends that they should read it. Think about whether the book you've just enjoyed would be a good birthday or holiday present for a friend or relative--books make great presents for so many people!