Dear Gentle Reader,

This weekend is Halloween, so if you are looking past the real world to get spooked, please check out our Halloween display. Some unusual titles populate the table, so while tried and true favorites like Poe and Lovecraft are there, we also pulled some unusual titles you might not have discovered.

CRIMESCENE! The announcement is here! Pete has been working very hard and pulled together a strong schedule with a little something for everyone. Per our usual, there is aFriday night cocktail party with the authors in the bookstore (limited to 50 tickets on February 6th) followed by Saturday’s ticketed lineup of panels. Our guest of honor this year is our dear friend Craig Johnson, who will be in discussion with Anne Hillerman. Old favorites and new discoveries fill out the schedule. Cara Black, Michael Bennett, and Malcolm Kempt, a debut author Pete’s super excited about, are a few of the other names coming. Click here for the whole roster, tickets and other info. It’s going to be a great day, and we’d love to see you there!

Next week we hit the ground running– starting on Wednesday November 5th, when writing coach Margot Lester holds her monthly office hours. If you need a nudge or advice on a writing project, she’s here to help! Homework, dating profile, memoir– the sky is the limit for her practical advice (and it is free). This will be her last office hours for 2025, so be sure not to miss it!

Then Thursday night (November 6th at 6:30pm) promises to be a real sparky discussion with two gentlemen with new books. Hal Crowther (Bible Belt Blues: Collected Essays) and Gene Nichol (Now What? How North Carolina Can Blaze a Progressive Path Forward). These are two men not satisfied with the status quo and not pulling any punches.

Saturday, November 8th at 11am, finally Lily King arrives to discuss her novel, Heart the Lover, with former UNC classmate and Executive Editor of Little Brown, Kathy Pories. We have been crowing about this novel for months, so we will turn to the Washington Post’s Ron Charles for his take. “Even I, who married my college sweetheart more than 40 happy years ago, read Lily King’s new novel about what might have been in a state of blubbery longing . . . Heart The Lover is nostalgia distilled in black ink . . . King captures [her protagonist’s] guileless sense of awe with just a dusting of parody that never grows silly or bitter . . . And what’s particularly remarkable is how subtly King ages her narrator, preserving the kernel of that young woman’s openhearted urgency in the older woman’s complex voice . . . Only Lily King could tell a story so steeped in sorrow and so filled with hope.” You and a friend can attend this amazing event, by buying a copy of Heart the Lover from McIntyre’s.

Sunday, November 9th at 2pm, we have another great event planned in the Barn for those middle grade readers with Mac Barnett and Shawn Harris. These two phenomenal creators will present the latest book in their graphic novel series, The First Cat in Space and the Baby Pirate’s Revenge in a full-on Theatrical Spectacular! Order a copy of the new book from McIntyre’s for two to attend the event. Want to bring a bigger group? Purchase another title from the series for each additional kid in your crew!

The Usual Suspects,

Pete, Johanna, Sarah G., Tyler, Amy, Juliana, Sarah C. and Keebe