STUFF!

I'm running out of clever ways to announce a post with a bunch of miscellaneous snippets in it.  That's assuming, of course, that any of the other titles have been clever!  Debatable, to be sure.  Regardless (I was just reminded by Grammarly that irregardless is not a word), here are a few bullet points of (potential) interest:

1.  Alina Sayre, author of the fantasy, middle-grade series, The Voyages of the Legend, came to Recycle this past Sunday morning to sell, sign, and promote her 2 books, The Illuminator's Gift and The Illuminator's Test.  It was a great morning.  And Alina will be coming to Recycle for the RBC on January 21.  We're going to have a bunch of 9-14 year olds at a regular book club meeting.  I'll meet with the kids from 6:30-7:00, and then Alina will come to answer questions and sign more books.

2.  Saturday, November 29, was Small Business Day.  I was able to get to Books, Inc. in Palo Alto.  Typically, authors come for part of the day and help sell books.  I didn't have any idea who was going to be there.  It turns out that it was Ann Packer.   I had never met her and hadn't read any of her books.  She's written 2 novels (plus some short story collections).  After a lot of discussion with her, I finally picked Songs without Words.  I finished it today and liked it a lot (review to follow).

3.   Last Tuesday night, the 2nd, Natalie Baszile, author of Queen Sugar, came to Recycle Books for our December RBC meeting.  She was terrific.  But equally important, everybody loved her book.  If you want to see my review, I posted it on August 28.  It's definitely one of my favorite books of 2014.

4.  An up and coming publisher in Southern California, Balcony 7, is starting to get a lot of notice.  Randy Morkved, the owner, is being very aggressive about adding authors.  In fact, he's already signed 3 from our very own area:  Tyler Draa and Ann Bridges and ____________.  (An announcement will be made about #3 early next week).  An online magazine, Forward This Week, just wrote an article called The Best in the West, the Indie Alternative to NYC.  Here's the link:

http://clicks.skem1.com/preview/?c=37812&g=797&p=

5.  I was at Recycle Books a couple of Sundays ago and was approached by Helene Morley.  She is in charge of the Camden Literature Group, which is part of the Camden Senior Group.  Why did she approach me, you wonder?  Well, she asked if I would let everybody know that they're looking for new members.  They've got a couple of members who have moved and a couple who have, unfortunately, passed away.  The only requirement is that you must be at least 50 years old (except she said that this is not even an absolute must).  They've got some great books lined up for the 1st part of next year, including Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, Still Life with Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen, and God's Hotel (I reviewed this one on 4/15/12) by Victoria Sweet.  If you are interested in looking into this book group, you can leave me a message, and I will privately give you Helene's phone number.

C'est tout, people.