Monday, February 12

In New Orleans, Carnival begins on the Twelfth Night of Christmas, with revelries building to a chaotic climax on Fat Tuesday (Feb. 20th this year).

Join us for one of Twilight Tales’ most treasured annual theme nights.

With masks, beads, and other decorations from New Orleans, an authentic King Cake baked by Jody Lynn Nye (with raspberry filling this year), and readings by:

Jay Bonansinga
author of the brand new novel: Twisted
In the heart of New Orleans, a killer is at work. The victims are offerings, surrounded by objects as mysterious as the French Quarter itself. And every kill coincides with a powerful storm.

Tina L. Jens, author of:
“She Sent Her Arms Skyward to Comfort the Child” - coming soon from Weird Tales:
Eliza went to New Orleans to drink herself to death after losing a husband, a job, and a child… but the voodoo loa have other plans for her.

“Soggy-Bottom Ghost” - As Hurricane Katrina threatens the city, the ghost of Baby Beederbeck comforts a child who may have more disturbing magic than she.

Ed Moore - author of “The Stripper’s Miracle”
When a small town stripper finds Jesus, the church’s parishioners have mixed feelings about their newest witness testifying for the Lord.

Jody Lynn Nye, author of the novel Myth-Gotten Gains
with Robert Asprin
Aahz’s first vacation in years is interrupted by a plea from a magikal sword to find his companions in the fabulous Golden Hoard. Aahz finds is thrown into a treasure hunt to save not only the Hoard, but the most famous dancer ever hatched.

November’s Shop Talk will focus on getting published.

* How to find the right market for your story

* Proper submission format

* Contract clauses to avoid

* Surefire ways to annoy an editor

Come learn the tips and tricks of getting published.

Come help us rejoice in an ill-omened birthday as Twilight Tales turns 13!

Here’s a chance to talk with your favorite authors, as we celebrate our anniversary with a cocktail party and silent auction.

The event and appetizers are free and open to everyone.

Authors and other industry professionals will receive 2 complimentary drinks, courtesy of the Red Lion Pub.

Bring your checkbooks to take part in the silent auction that will feature books, movies, gift certificates — even a BBQ grill.

(Email she@TwilightTales.com if you’d like to donate an item for the auction.)

I hope you’ll all come out tomorrow night (Monday, Nov. 13th) when Max Allan Collins and Matthew V. Clemens come to town to read from MY LOLITA COMPLEX AND OTHER TALES OF SEX AND VIOLENCE.

Come hear some great readings and get your own personalized copy of LOLITA, which just received a wonderful write-up in the Chicago Tribune books section, today.

CRIME WATCH
New, old stars shine in latest offerings
By Dick Adler

Published November 12, 2006

New in paperback: Since 1993, Twilight Tales has sponsored the reading of some lively stories on Monday nights, now at the Red Lion Pub on North Lincoln Avenue across from the Biograph Theater. Twilight Tales also publishes books, with Midwestern authors getting extra attention, and its latest, “My Lolita Complex, and Other Tales of Sex and Violence” ($12.95), is a collection of nine inventive suspense stories by Iowa colleagues Max Allan Collins, who writes everything from the excellent Nathan Heller historical mysteries to the graphic novel that became “Road to Perdition,” and Matthew V. Clemens, who has collaborated with Collins as co-plotter and forensics researcher on several “CSI” novels and many short stories.

You can see the whole article at the Chicago Tribune website or in today’s paper in the book section.

Reviewer Rod Lott says:

This is a saucy, satisfying collection of crime shorts a little more lurid, more dangerous and – perhaps most importantly – more fun than the usual fare. If you like your mysteries slightly skewed and unafraid to dip their toes in the wild side of the pool, it’s time you get a COMPLEX.

Check out the entire review on Bookgasm.Â

Wired magazine is running a piece compiling six-word short stories written by genre authors they’ve solicited.

The effect is not unlike a haiku, but even shorter, with the added (implied) task of getting a story arc in there.

A few of these are simply breathtaking and a few are hilarious, but all of them are quite good.

Check it out here: http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/sixwords.html

The Mystery Writers of America have chosen Stephen King to receive the Grand Master award. More information is available at MWA’s site: http://www.mysterywriters.org.

Two friends of Twilight Tales, Alan Beatts (Borderlands) and Del Howison (Dark Delicacies) are prominently featured in a very interesting AP article entitled “Genre Bookstores Hold Off Big Chains.” Check it out!

7:30 PM, at the Red Lion Pub (2446 N. Lincoln Ave.)

• Joe Weintraub: “The Bielski Brothers Build the Eighth Wonder of the World”
  Wonderment! An original piece by Joe, plus the next Dino Buzzati story.
• Dave Kemper: “The Whispering Tribe”
  The author - and hero? — of Sisyphus in Khaki is back!

Twenty-two people turned out to hear the “three coast” triple feature at Monday’s post-Midwest Literary Festival Twilight Tales show.

Longtime Twilight Tales mailing list regular, Kim Richards, traveled from California to read a tale about an Avon-type saleswoman who discovers that while beauty may only be skin deep, vanity transcends the grave.

Moving eastward, Chicago, the Third Coast, was ably represented by Charlie Brown, and “The Science of Manny Madonaldo”, which told the bittersweet, funny story of how a young man, orphaned by the state penal system and sexually frustrated by a chaste girlfriend (promiscous with others), is lured into a life of porn.

Traveling from NYC, David Thomas Lord read from his second vampire novel, Bound in Flesh, and added a bonus Celtic revenge story of a young boy and his cold-hearted grampa, “Da’s Boy”.

A music jam followed the the readings.