Events Calendar
Explore family friendly events, theatres, galleries, concerts, nightlife, things to do, and more in the Greenville, SC and Upstate areas.
Interested in adding an event to our calendar? Please click the green “Post Your Event” button below.
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Join us for a book-inspired wine tasting!
We pair the qualities of each wine with a book that shares the same spirit. Your ticket to the tasting, apart from the tastes, includes your choice of one of the featured books. Bottles of the featured wines will be for sale at great prices, too.
This event is a crowd favorite, serving as a great date, a perfect girls night out, or treat to yourself. Buy your ticket now and join us on Tuesday, February 28th!
We are so excited to spend an evening with NYT and USA Today bestselling author J.T. Ellison! With more than 20 novels, this EMMY-award winning co-host of Nashville’s premier literary show A WORD ON WORDS, has millions of books in print, critical acclaim, and several prestigious awards. We can’t wait to hear all about her writing process, especially on this newest novel It’s One of Us! This twisting, emotionally layered thriller explores the lies we tell to keep a marriage together—or break each other apart . . . and we’re pairing it with a killer cocktail. Join us for a night of convo and cocktails!
Your ticket includes admission, a cocktail, and a copy of the book.
BOOK SUMMARY
Everybody lies. Even the ones you think you know best of all . . .
Olivia Bender designs exquisite home interiors that satisfy the most demanding clients. But her own deepest desire can’t be fulfilled by marble counters or the perfect rug. She desperately wants to be a mother. Fertility treatments and IVF keep failing. And just when she feels she’s at her lowest point, the police deliver shocking news to Olivia and her husband, Park.
DNA results show that the prime suspect in a murder investigation is Park’s son. Olivia is relieved, knowing this is a mistake. Despite their desire, the Benders don’t have any children. Then comes the confession. Many years ago, Park donated sperm to a clinic. He has no idea how many times it was sold—or how many children he has sired.
As the murder investigation goes deeper, more terrible truths come to light. With every revelation, Olivia must face the unthinkable. The man she married has fathered a killer. But can she hold that against him when she keeps such dark secrets of her own?
This twisting, emotionally layered thriller explores the lies we tell to keep a marriage together—or break each other apart . . .
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J.T. Ellison is the NYT and USA Today bestselling author of more than 20 novels, and the EMMY-award winning co-host of A WORD ON WORDS, Nashville’s premier literary show. With millions of books in print, her work has won critical acclaim, prestigious awards, and has been published in 26 countries. Ellison lives in Nashville with her husband and twin kittens.
REVIEWS
“J.T. Ellison is one of my favorite authors. I eagerly await everything she writes. And in IT’S ONE OF US she is at the very top of her formidable game. Don’t miss this layered, emotional, and twisting thrill ride.”
— Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author of SECLUDED CABIN SLEEPS SIX
“One of the most compelling psychological suspense stories I’ve read in years.” –Jacquelyn Mitchard, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Deep End of the Ocean
“It’s One of Us is an emotional and thrilling psychological journey through the shadows of the human heart. Just when you think you know what’s coming, prepare to gasp with each new revelation. Through multiple fascinating points of view, layers of secrets, lies, love and loss are revealed. I did not put this book down until the last unexpected and breathless page. Unpredictable, intense and riveting, J. T. Ellison is at her heart-stopping best.” —Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author of Once Upon A Wardrobe
“The perfect mix of edge-of-your-seat tension, deep emotion, and impeccably developed characters, J.T. Ellison’s latest is a masterclass in storytelling. Secrets and lies, love and loss mix flawlessly to create a novel that touches every single emotion. Fans of Lisa Jewell and Ruth Ware will flock to IT’S ONE OF US, and book clubs won’t be able to stop talking about it. Five dazzling stars.” —Kristy Woodson Harvey, New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding Veil
“This gripping, breathless thriller, adds an incredibly unique premise and delivers a novel that’s also a deeply poignant story about our deepest desire for love, family and happiness.” –Hannah Mary McKinnon, internationally bestselling author of Never Coming Home
“An extraordinary, unpredictable, absolutely riveting thriller and a fiercely insightful, emotional journey, this is psychological suspense at its most enthralling and intense.” –Jayne Ann Krentz
“Secrets and lies abound, relationships are tested, and the twists keep coming. Ellison outdid herself, a master storyteller. This is a must read, especially the author’s note at the end, which gutted me.” –Kerry Lonsdale, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post & Amazon Charts Bestselling Author
Join us on Tuesday, March 7th at 5:30 pm for an In Conversation event with Dr. Terry Barr! He’ll be chatting about his newest essay collection The American Crisis Playlist: 2020 – 2021 alongside Dr. Phillip Perdue, assistant professor of communications at Presbyterian College.
This collection features ten songs per week that are based off a collection of essays that Barr wrote for The Riff during “that crisis year leading up to and in the aftermath of the 2020 election.” Come by and hear more about Barr’s journey in making this book and compiling these playlists.
So don’t miss out on this free event!
SUMMARY
Barr has been writing for over thirty years. He believes American Crisis Playlist (2020-2021) will appeal to readers interested in rock, soul, country, and hip-hop music in its “golden oldie” past as well as today’s top artists. Barr states, “The American Crisis Playlist will also appeal to anyone who has followed the political news over the past few years, while having their
lives impacted by the COVID-19 virus. I hope the readers will appreciate my effort to keep myself sane and in good health during the trauma of these past few years.”
Barr comments, “This is the most political book I’ve ever written. Others I have written have included stories about Race and Religion, and though Secrets I’m Dying to Tell You had several stories focused on the #MeToo movement, The American Crisis Playlist addresses my fears related to the 2020 election, attempts by the former President to overturn our republic, and the continuous violence against people of color. But in the process, I also use one of my great loves—popular music—to help me and, hopefully my readers, cope with our ongoing political upheaval. Music, as Don McLean once said, can “save our mortal souls.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Terry Barr’s The American Crisis Playlist (2020-2021) is his fourth essay collection, along with Don’t Date Baptists and Other Warnings From My Alabama Mother (2016); We Might As Well Eat: How To Survive Tornadoes, Alabama Football, and Your Southern Family (2018); and Secrets I’m Dying To Tell You (2020). He is a three-time Pushcart nominee, and his essays have been widely published in national literary journals. His most recent work, “Greyhound Seats,” won first place in Tell Your Story’s Spring 2022 Nonfiction contest. He writes regularly about music and culture at medium.com/@terrybarr, and teaches Creative Nonfiction at Presbyterian College. Barr lives in Greenville, SC, with his family.
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER
Dr. Phillip Perdue, is an Assistant Professor of Communications at Presbyterian College. He got his doctorate from Indiana University and has been teaching full time at PC since 2019.
REVIEWS
“2021 is perhaps a year best forgotten. From a pandemic to political strife, we were a nation at war-with an unseen virus and with ourselves. We were, in short, a nation in crisis. Terry Barr chronicled it all with his weekly American Crisis dispatches. Weaving together playlists with his heartfelt writing, this was more than simple reporting. Each of these posts served as a light guiding the way, helping us remember that even in the darkest hour, there is always hope. Terry Barr’s heartfelt writing beautifully meshes current events with the healing power of music. In an era many of us spent in isolation, Barr’s American Crisis series reminded us that our story is one written collectively. In an era where music consumption is fueled by soulless algorithms, and bots pour fuel on the fire of social discourse, Terry Barr offers a refreshing antidote; writing that is straight from the heart. Weaving remarkable music playlists with his weekly take on the day’s issues, he’s not afraid to share his fears, rage, and joy. He cuts through white noise, reminding us that in the end, all we have is each other.”
-Kevin Alexander, author, Managing Editor of the online music publication, The Riff
“As both a music lover and a human being who was deeply affected by the various American crises in 2020 and 2021, I found a lot to enjoy and relate to in this excellent book by Terry Barr. Not only does Terry share his own experiences and feelings from those challenging times, but he also shares music that helped him, and I’m sure many others, through those very dark days. It’s often been said that the music each person listens to is the personal soundtrack for their own life. If this is true, and I believe it is, Terry Barr’s music playlists in this book have provided each of us with hundreds of wonderful additions to our own personal soundtracks. Music to help make our dark days brighter and our light days even lighter.”
-Pierce McIntyre, Founder and Chief Editor of Plethora of Pop on Medium.com
“Terry Barr’s American Crisis Playlist masterfully weaves memoir with the collective cultural narrative of music to mitigate terrifying, polarizing shifts in the political landscape that obliquely whisper all the way back to his young years in the South. You can pick thread’s of Terry Barr’s life in recurring characters and forgotten faces that come back to haunt like a song. American Crisis Playlist holds vigil through music to cope with the Orange Plague, the ultimate guise of emerging violence, hate, intolerance and fear. Barr offers refuge and a place to relate where music becomes a lens for literature, culture, politics and personal growth. The 520+ song playlist contains decades of eclectic tunes with deep cuts, concert trips, music history and narratives of growing up through music. His playlist sustains, gives us pause and feels as warmly relatable as his voice. Reading Dr. Barr will feel like sharing records in his living room. I can’t think of memoir or diary writing that has the same fidelity.”
-Jessica Lee McMillan, author, What You Exceed
In celebration of Women’s History month, we are bringing together Spartanburg-area Black teen girls between the ages of 12-18 years old in a workshop aimed at amplifying their voices through creative writing and the joy of reading. Participating teens will have a chance to network and dialogue with local Black women writers as well.
During the workshop, attendees will have the opportunity to participate in creative writing exercises, crafting stories and poems of their very own. More than anything, this will be a time to come together to celebrate writing and reading as a source of power, healing, and constant creative inspiration in the lives of Black women and girls. Participants will be encouraged to start or continue their own writing practices.
Come join us and celebrate Black women and girls who share a deep love for writing and reading!
Lunch will be served. Space is limited and registration is required.
This event is hosted by Brenda Lee, author of South of Main, Writer and Editor Desiree S. Evans, visual artist and documentary filmmaker Sarah E. Nixon, and visual artist and Wofford College professor Jessica Scott-Felder. Crystal Tennille Irby, award-winning spoken-word poet and founder of Writers Well Youth Fellowship, will be leading an interactive workshop.
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If you’re a Black teen girl or the parent/guardian/teacher/representative of one, please use this form to reserve a free ticket.
For parents and guardians, please be aware the workshop ends at 2:00pm and we need to be out of the community center by that time. Please have someone there to pick up the girls before the end of the workshop. Thank you!
Time for your poems or stories or essays to be heard? Join us for something new… Open Mic Night!
Work up a 5 minute sample of your literary arts, then grab the mic! The sign-up sheet will be available at 5:45pm at M. Judson.
Get here early. Reading slots are limited!
This is a free event sponsored by our friends at SCGSAH.
Raymond McAnally will lead a virtual writing workshop titled “Using Acting Techniques to Write Clear Characters.”
Have you ever had trouble differentiating one character’s voice or reactions from another on the page? Do characters with strong or surprising points of view seem to evade you? Then spend a workshop with writer/actor Raymond McAnally to learn how he uses his experience as an actor to write new characters and find the decisions and actions that draw us to them.
This workshop is open to writers of all skill levels and is a fun way to find inspiration from a new prompt or revise current work. It is hosted by the Friends of Carl Sandburg at Connemara and will use Microsoft Teams for the virtual connection. A link will be emailed to participants the day before the workshop.
Raymond McAnally is an award-winning actor, a produced writer, and university lecturer. Television acting credits include a supporting lead role in Black Mirror: San Junipero, winner of the 2017 Emmy for Best TV Movie; Guest starring roles on Better Call Saul, Modern Family, Chicago Fire, Rizzoli & Isles, Law & Order SVU, Royal Pains, and 30 Rock; as well as roles on Boardwalk Empire, Nurse Jackie, Mozart in the Jungle, among others. He has film credits too numerous to mention here.
As a playwright, Raymond’s full-length solo-play, “Size Matters,” received its world premiere at Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati in May of 2014. Directed by Tony Award-winning former Cincinnati Playhouse Artistic Director Ed Stern, the show ran for three weeks; garnering outstanding reviews, standing ovations, and sold-out performances. The show was filmed before a live audience in 2015 and is now a comedy special available for streaming on Amazon Prime. Raymond’s short plays, “The Odd Ball” and “Homeland”, have been produced at festivals on both coasts and his short play, “The Next”, will be published the Winter of 2019 in an anthology by New World Theatre. In 2018, Raymond completed a playwriting fellowship with New World Theatre in Concord, New Hampshire. In 2019, Raymond’s full-length play “The Cruelty of Children” was a semi-finalist at the O’Neill Center. From 2010 to 2014, Raymond was the head content writer for the online production company Daily Fiber Films, which produced and distributed over sixty online comedy shorts, written by Raymond, and featured by FunnyOrDie.com, Fullscreen, CNN, New Media Rockstars, and The Food Network. His short comedies also screened at festivals from coast to coast and earned “Best of the Fest” awards at L.A. Comedy Shorts Film Festival and the New York Friar’s Club. In 2017, Raymond’s independent pilot “DPW” was filmed on location in Tupelo, Mississippi.
Raymond is currently a part-time lecturer for the Rutgers Arts Online department, Mason Gross School of the Arts. He has been a lecturer at universities and guest artist at professional training programs since 2005. He holds an MFA in Acting from MGSA, Rutgers University and a BA in Philosophy from Sewanee.
Join us on Tuesday, March 28th at 5:30 pm for an In Conversation event with author Veronica Henry. She’ll be chatting with Yasmin Angoe about the final book of her fantasy series, The Foreign Exchange. Book two of two in the Mambo Reina series, The Foreign Exchange follows a Vodou priestess turned amateur sleuth who, while investigating a ritual murder, is embroiled in an insidious case of corruption that reaches beyond the shadows of New Orleans. We’re excited to have Veronica in store with us and can’t wait to hear all about her writing processes, what inspires her, and ask questions about her book. So don’t miss out on this free event!
BOOK SUMMARY
After solving a crime blamed on Vodou in New Orleans’ French Quarter, Vodou priestess turned amateur detective Reina Dumond has returned to her benevolent work as a healer. But when her friend and enigmatic client Evangeline “Vangie” Stiles comes to her for a spell, Mambo Reina quickly realizes what Vangie really needs is a sleuth. Something is amiss in the Stileses’ marriage. Five thousand dollars has inexplicably appeared in the bank account Vangie shares with her scam-artist husband, Arthur, and she smells trouble. So does Reina. Especially when her investigation into Arthur’s likely new con leads to murder. Considering the manner of death and the signs on the victim’s body, Reina recognizes it for what it is: ritual magic of the vodouisant kind. As Reina digs deeper, she encounters a conspiracy exploiting vulnerable youth―one of whom may have abilities just like hers. With the help of her friends Darryl and Tyka, Reina must hone her ever-evolving skills to uncover a mystery that reaches further than she imagined.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Veronica G. Henry is the author of Bacchanal and, in the Mambo Reina series, The Quarter Storm and The Foreign Exchange. Her work has debuted at #1 on multiple Amazon bestseller charts and was chosen as an editors’ pick for Best African American Fantasy. She is a Viable Paradise alum and a member of SFWA and the MWA. Her stories have appeared, or are forthcoming, in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and FIYAH literary magazine.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Yasmin Angoe is the award-winning, first-generation Ghanaian American author of the acclaimed thrillers, Her Name Is Knight and They Come At Knight. She received the 2020 Eleanor Taylor Bland Award from Sisters in Crime and, in 2021, an Anthony Award nomination for Best First Novel. Her books were listed as Amazon’s “Best Book of the Month” and Editor’s Picks and were optioned for TV which are currently in development. Reviews of Yasmin’s work can be found in The New York Times, OprahDaily.com, Deadline, The Guardian, PopSugar, and Woman’s World. The final of the Nena Knight trilogy, IT ENDS WITH KNIGHT, releases September 2023.
Time for your poems or stories or essays to be heard? Join us for something new… Open Mic Night!
Work up a 5 minute sample of your literary arts, then grab the mic! The sign-up sheet will be available at 5:45pm at M. Judson.
Get here early. Reading slots are limited!
This is a free event sponsored by our friends at SCGSAH.
Join us for a Pop-Up with author Jennifer Ferguson and her book Lenny the Lemming!
BOOK SUMMARY
When Lenny’s peaceful life of foraging for basic needs takes an unexpected turn, he ends up on a journey that ends with a friendship he didn’t know he needed.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jennifer lives in Greenville, South Carolina with her mother, three tabby cats, and a cockatiel. She is on the autism spectrum and is employed part time at a local supermarket. Also, she is an active member of Greenville CAN (Collaborative Action Network). greenvillecan.org
Come meet Jennifer, hear more about her books, and get a signed copy!
Please join us to celebrate the launch of The House is on Fire with Rachel Beanland. A riveting reimagining of one of early America’s deadliest tragedies, the Richmond Theater Fire of 1811, The House is on Fire is told from the perspectives of four characters whose lives are irrevocably altered in the aftermath of the inferno.
Rachel will be on hand to talk, answer questions, and sign books, as we enjoy an incredible lunch at Soby’s! Get your ticket today!
BOOK SUMMARY
Richmond, Virginia 1811. It’s the height of the winter social season, the General Assembly is in session, and many of Virginia’s gentleman planters, along with their wives and children, have made the long and arduous journey to the capital in hopes of whiling away the darkest days of the year. At the city’s only theater, the Charleston-based Placide & Green Company puts on two plays a night to meet the demand of a populace that’s done looking for enlightenment at the front of a church.
On the night after Christmas, the theater is packed with more than six hundred holiday revelers. In the third-floor boxes, sits newly-widowed Sally Henry Campbell, who is glad for any opportunity to relive the happy times she shared with her husband. One floor away, in the colored gallery, Cecily Patterson doesn’t give a whit about the play but is grateful for a four-hour reprieve from a life that has recently gone from bad to worse. Backstage, young stagehand Jack Gibson hopes that, if he can impress the theater’s managers, he’ll be offered a permanent job with the company. And on the other side of town, blacksmith Gilbert Hunt dreams of one day being able to bring his wife to the theater, but he’ll have to buy her freedom first.
When the theater goes up in flames in the middle of the performance, Sally, Cecily, Jack, and Gilbert make a series of split-second decisions that will not only affect their own lives but those of countless others. And in the days following the fire, as news of the disaster spreads across the United States, the paths of these four people will become forever intertwined.
Based on the true story of Richmond’s theater fire, The House Is On Fire offers proof that sometimes, in the midst of great tragedy, we are offered our most precious—and fleeting—chances at redemption.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rachel Beanland is the author of the forthcoming novel, The House Is On Fire, which will be published by Simon & Schuster in April 2023. Her debut novel, Florence Adler Swims Forever, was selected as a book club pick by Barnes & Noble, a featured debut by Amazon, an Indie Next pick by the American Booksellers Association, and one of the best books of 2020 by USA Today. It was also named a New York Times Editors’ Choice and was recognized with the 2020 National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction (Greenberg Prize). To date, it has been published or is forthcoming in nine countries.
Rachel’s writing has also appeared in Lit Hub, Business Insider, Creative Nonfiction, and Broad Street, among other places. She is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and earned her MFA in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University. Rachel lives in Richmond, Virginia with her family.
REVIEWS
“Fully realized characters and gripping prose makes for an excellent, riveting novel that is highly recommended.” —Booklist, STARRED review
“Powerful… Beanland enlivens the smart and suspenseful narrative with fully developed protagonists that illuminate the community’s response to mass catastrophe. Readers will relish this.” —Publishers Weekly, STARRED review
“Propulsive… full of historical detail and full-blooded characters” —Shelf Awareness
“Propulsive. Rachel Beanland’s The House Is On Fire pulls you into a major moment in American history via the lives of four vividly drawn characters.”—Farah Ali, author of People Want to Live
“I could not turn the pages fast enough! An absolutely propulsive feat of storytelling! The House is On Fire reveals the little-known events of an American tragedy of Titanic proportion. In heart-stopping, intimate detail Beanland transports us directly into the souls of a truly diverse cast of Virginians whose varied means of survival during the theater fire and in its deftly-told aftermath, not only paint a rich portrait of 1800s America, but also hold up a timeless mirror to the racial disparity revealed by unexpected loss – and the means through which we must all come together to rebuild. Brava!”—Afia Atakora, author of Conjure Women
Join us on Tuesday, April 25th at 5:30 pm for an In Conversation event with author Matthew Vollmer. He’ll be chatting with about his book All of Us Together in the End.
All Of Us Together In The End is a lyrical examination of transformation after loss, by a writer the New York Times calls “irresistible” and “utterly convincing.” We’re excited to have Matthew in store with us and can’t wait to hear all about his writing processes, what inspires him, and ask questions about his book.
So don’t miss out on this free event!
BOOK SUMMARY
Vollmer’s family memoir shimmers with wonder and enchantment and begins with the death of his mother from early-onset Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Soon after, flashing lights and floating orbs appear in the woods surrounding his family’s home in rural North Carolina, where his widowed father lives. Formative memories of having been raised in the Seventh-day Adventist church resurge in Vollmer’s mind, hastening self-reexamination and reckoning.
He corresponds with a retired geology professor about “ghost lights,” which supposedly occur more in North Carolina than any other American state. He scrolls TikTok. He contacts an eccentric shaman who lives in Spain to have transcendental psychotherapy administered over Zoom. And then Jolene emerges, a woman endeared for decades to Vollmer’s father, holding secrets to their family’s past.
Amidst the turmoil and loneliness of the pandemic, All of Us Together in the End is a poignant and often humorous investigation into belief set in a time where it seems people will believe anything. It is an elegiac affirmation of the awesome, strange, otherworldly ways our loved ones remain alive to us, even when they are out of reach.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Matthew Vollmer is the author of two short-story collections as well as three collections of essays. He was the editor of A Book of Uncommon Prayer, which collects invocations from over 60 acclaimed and emerging authors, and served as co-editor of Fakes: An Anthology of Pseudo-Interviews, Faux-Lectures, Quasi-Letters, “Found” Texts, and Other Fraudulent Artifacts. His work has appeared in venues such as Paris Review, Glimmer Train, Ploughshares, Tin House, Oxford American, The Sun, The Pushcart Prize anthology, and Best American Essays. He teaches in the English Department at Virginia Tech and lives in Blacksburg, VA.
REVIEWS
“Matthew Vollmer thinks too much. I’m glad, for I’m probably not thinking enough most days. All of Us Together in the End is an honest missive addressed to hope, regret, childhood, faith, truth, parenting, and the paranormal. And Love, with all its mysteries. It’s an insightful, beautiful memoir that I’ll remember forever.”
—George Singleton, author of You Want More: Selected Stories
“This engaging what’s-in-the-woods puzzle elegantly probes the questions that characterize deep relationships and deeper mysteries.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
“All of Us Together in the End is an unforgettable record of ‘a purposeful journey’ that became ‘a collision with the ineffable.’” —Rebecca Foster, Foreword Reviews, Starred Review
We are so excited to spend an evening talking about the highly anticipated new thriller from the USA Today and #1 bestselling author of The Perfect Marriage and One of Us Is Dead author Jeneva Rose! Colleen Hoover herself says You Shouldn’t Have Come Here is “Everything I want in a thriller. Sexy, shocking, and tense with an ending I never saw coming.” We’ll enjoy a cocktail as we listen to Jeneva talk about her book and her writing process. Join us!
Your ticket includes admission, a cocktail, and a copy of the book.
BOOK SUMMARY
Grace Evans, an overworked New Yorker looking for a total escape from her busy life, books an Airbnb on a ranch in the middle of Wyoming. When she arrives at the idyllic getaway, she’s pleased to find that the owner is a handsome man by the name of Calvin Wells—and he’s eager to introduce her to his easygoing way of life. But there are things Grace discovers that she’s not too pleased about: A lack of cell phone service. A missing woman. And a feeling that something isn’t right with the ranch.
Despite her uneasiness, the two bond and start to fall for one another. However, as her departure date nears, things change for the worse. What began as a playful romance soon turns into a complicated web of lies. Grace grows wary of Calvin as his infatuation for her seems to have morphed to obsession. Calvin fears that Grace is hiding something from him—including her reason for staying at his ranch to begin with. Vacation flings typically end in heartbreak, but for Grace and Calvin, it’ll be far more destructive.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeneva Rose is the internationally bestselling author of The Perfect Marriage and One of Us Is Dead. Her work has been translated into more than a dozen languages and optioned for film and television. Originally from Wisconsin, she currently lives in Chicago with her husband, Drew, and her English bulldog, Winston.
REVIEWS
“Everything I want in a thriller. Sexy, shocking, and tense with an ending I never saw coming. Jeneva Rose is the queen of twists.”Colleen Hoover, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“A page-turner from start to finish with a whiplash of a twist ending, Rose has cemented her place as a must-read author for fans of domestic thrillers. Sexy, sizzling, and suspenseful.”Jennifer Hillier, USA Today bestselling author of Things We Do in the Dark and Little Secrets
“Jeneva Rose’s latest is a cat-and-mouse thriller, rustic Airbnb style. Throw in sexy romantic tension between narrators Grace and Calvin, and you have an unputdownable story where the suspense accelerates with every page turned. The twist at the end is brilliantly unexpected. This story will make you think twice about your next vacation rental, and about being a host. Sexy, shocking suspense.” Kaira Rouda, USA Today bestselling author
“A dark, suspenseful psychological thriller with a great premise and masterful use of twists. Rarely have I read a book where I have switched allegiance with characters so frequently and still got my prediction wrong. It’s a pitch-perfect sinister read and begging for a sequel.”John Marrs, USA Today bestselling author of The One
“[An] intriguing thriller…A sinister undercurrent runs throughout, and while the reader is privy to each narrator’s thoughts, there are a few land mines buried along the way to the surprise ending. Rose should win new fans with this one.”Publishers Weekly
You want to get into horror but you don’t know where to start. This is your sign. This is an intensive, boot campy, crash course 4 week program that will throw you head first into reading, writing, talking, screaming, digesting, sweating, and bleeding horror content. It’s going to be a blast!
We will meet on the following Thursdays: May 4, 11, 18, 25 from 7-9PM EST. Over those 4 weeks, participants will read a number of stories from various subgenres with the intent to identify tools and techniques used by the author. Implementing lessons and notes from class, students will workshop one story they’re passionate about over the duration of the course. At the end you’re going to have a story you’re proud of, but also you will have had a little tapas of what horror can be. Welcome to the fold!!
Week One: Building the Scary Premise and Your Scared Characters
After introductions we’ll talk about what brought us to this class and what stories (if any) are something we want to pursue. Through a series of generative exercises we’ll make your protagonist and the scary thing for them to encounter.
Reading: TBD
Writing: The first draft of your story!
Week Two: Setting, Secondary Characters, and the Talking about the Monster
We’ll workshop our pieces. Then we’ll go over the role of setting, the importance of characters for your protagonist to interact with, and how information can build suspense about the monster.
Readings after Class: “The Willows” by Algernon Blackwood, “Bulldozer” by Laird Barron
Write: The second draft of your story!
Week Three: The Villain’s Perspective and Your Character’s Agency
We’ll workshop your pieces again. We’ll discuss the importance of the villain’s perspective and how nailing it down can make the conflict clearer. We’ll also go over agency and what it means for your character being agentic vs. passive.
Readings: “The Cabbit” by Maria Dong, “No Matter Which Way They Turned” by Brian Evenson, and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates.
Write: The third draft of your story!
Week Four: One More Workshop
This is the last class! What a doozy! We’ll workshop everyone’s pieces and talk about what techniques and tools we enjoyed, utilized, didn’t quite mesh with.
Should You Have the Time…
Read: “The Jaunt” by Stephen King, “The Boogeyman” by Stephen King, “Rainy Season” by Stephen King, “Hairy Legs and All” by Stephen Graham Jones, “The Moths” by Elina Hawkinsons, “The Coward II” by M. Gira, with more to come.
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Alex Gonzalez is a WGA screenwriter, author, and instructor. He teaches fiction writing at various platforms and teaches MFA level screenwriting at Long Island University. He is one of the creators of PoC satire site Flexx Magazine, horror-zine youarenotalone, and has been published in various magazines and anthologies, with his novel Land Shark debuting in 2020. He has been a consultant on novels, treatments, and screenplays. His feature script Negative Space is currently in development with Extra A Productions (The Giant, Little Woods) and his second novel is on submission through FinePrint Lit.
Join us on Sunday, May 7th at 5:30 pm for an In Conversation event with authors Mimi Herman and Susan Reinhardt where we’ll be talking about their respective books The Kudzu Queen and The Beautiful Misfits.
We’re very excited to have these ladies in store with us and can’t wait to hear all about their lives, writing processes, inspirations, and books.
So don’t miss out on this free event!
THE KUDZU QUEEN
Fifteen-year-old Mattie Lee Watson dreams of men, not boys. So when James T. Cullowee, the Kudzu King, arrives in Cooper County, North Carolina in 1941 to spread the gospel of kudzu—claiming that it will improve the soil, feed cattle at almost no cost, even cure headaches—Mattie is ready. Mr. Cullowee is determined to sell the entire county on the future of kudzu, and organizes a kudzu festival, complete with a beauty pageant. Mattie is determined to be crowned Kudzu Queen and capture the attentions of the Kudzu King. As she learns more about Cullowee, however, she discovers that he, like the kudzu he promotes, has a dark and predatory side. When she finds she is not the only one threatened, she devises a plan to bring him down. Anyone who knows—or has been—a fifteen-year-old girl will understand how a crush can sour, or even turn dangerous. And anyone who’s seen “southern topiary” will recognize how it swallows up whatever stands in its way. Based on historical facts, The Kudzu Queen unravels a tangle of sexuality, power, race, and kudzu through the voice of an irresistibly delightful (and mostly honest) narrator.
ABOUT MIMI HERMAN
Mimi is a Kennedy Center teaching artist, director of the United Arts Council Arts Integration Institute and co-director of Writeaways writing workshops in France, Italy, and New Mexico. She has taught in the Masters of Education programs at Lesley University, served as the 2017 North Carolina Piedmont Laureate, and been an associate editor for Teaching Artist Journal. Since 1990, she has engaged over 25,000 students and teachers with her warm and intuitive teaching style.
Mimi holds a BA from the University of North Carolina and an MFA in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson. She is the author of The Kudzu Queen, A Field Guide to Human Emotions, Logophilia and The Art of Learning. Her writing has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, The Carolina Quarterly, Shenandoah, Crab Orchard Review, The Hollins Critic, Main Street Rag, Prime Number Magazine and other journals. Mimi has performed her fiction and poetry at many venues including Why There Are Words in Sausalito, Memorial Auditorium in Raleigh and Symphony Space in New York City.
THE BEAUTIFUL MISFITS
Eighty-four seconds can change your life. Or destroy it. Josie Nickels is an Emmy-winning news anchor, poised to rise through the ranks of television journalism. On a bitter March evening on live TV, the pressures and secrets burbling behind the closed doors of her ridiculous Victorian mansion explode and the overwhelmed journalist spills family secrets like a Baptist at altar call. The aftermath costs her much more than a career. It robs her of a beloved son—a preppy, educated millennial trapped in the deadly world of addiction. Desperate for a new start and a way to save her son, Josie packs up her pride, her young daughter, and accepts a new job slinging cosmetics at a department store make-up counter with other disgraced celebs. In the gorgeous mountains of Asheville N.C., known for hippies, healings, and Subarus, Josie is faced with a choice for her son: Take a chance on a bold, out-of-the-ordinary treatment plan for her son or lose him forever. This heart-wrenching and, at times, hilarious novel, will delight fans of book-club women’s fiction and inspire and give hope to those with addicted sons and daughters.
ABOUT SUSAN REINHARDT
Susan Reinhardt is a bestselling author and humorist whose latest release, The Beautiful Misfits, publishes March 2023 from Regal House Publishing. Her debut novel, Chimes from a Cracked Southern Belle, won the Independent Publisher Book Award for “Best Regional Fiction,” and Tantor Media recently bought the audio rights. Reinhardt lives near Asheville, North Carolina, and loves her grown kids and her rescue cats. Her quirky talent is riding a unicycle while twirling a baton.
We are so excited to host the writing BFFs behind the Ali Brady pen name: Alison Hammer and Bradeigh Godfrey! Perfect for reading BFFs, we can’t wait to hear more their new book The Comeback Summer, where two sisters have one summer to crush their comfort zones and save their grandmother’s legacy. Hear more about this sweet, sexy, and heartfelt novel, as well as this author duo’s unique writing process as we enjoy a book-inspired cocktail. This is a ticketed event.
Your ticket includes admission, a cocktail, and a copy of the book.
BOOK SUMMARY
Hannah and Libby need a miracle. The PR agency they inherited from their grandmother is losing clients left and right, and the sisters are devastated at the thought of closing. The situation seems hopeless—until in walks Lou, an eccentric self-help guru who is looking for a new PR agency. Her business could solve all their problems—but there’s a catch. Whoever works with Lou must complete a twelve-week challenge as part of her “Crush Your Comfort Zone” program.Hannah, whose worst nightmare is making small talk with strangers, is challenged to go on twelve first dates. Libby, who once claimed to have period cramps for four weeks straight to get out of gym class, is challenged to compete in an obstacle course race. The challenges begin with Hannah helping Libby train and Libby managing the dating app on her sister’s behalf. They’re both making good progress—until Hannah’s first love rolls into town, and Libby accidentally falls for a guy she’s supposed to be setting up with her sister.
Things get even more complicated when secrets come to light, making the sisters question the one relationship they’ve always counted on: each other. With their company’s future on the line, they can’t afford to fail. But in trying to make a comeback to honor their grandmother, are they pushing themselves down the wrong path?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ali Brady is the pen name of writing BFFs Alison Hammer and Bradeigh Godfrey. The Beach Trap is their first book together. Alison lives in Chicago and works as a VP creative director at an advertising agency. She’s the author of You and Me and Us and Little Pieces of Me. Bradeigh lives with her family in Utah, where she works as a physician. She’s the author of the psychological thriller, Impostor.