#book-signing — Public Fediverse posts

If you like board games, you'll LOVE this #Tallahassee #bookstore where I'm signing copies of DROWNING IN DECEPTION next month!

I'll be at My Favorite Books, located in the courtyard next to WinnDixie on Magnolia St., from 10 AM until noon, on Saturday, June 13. Stop by and say hi, and enjoy some surprises.

#BookSigning #DrowningInDeception #mystery #event

Next month, I'll be doing a book signing for DROWNING IN DECEPTION in this adorable bookshop/cafe in #Tallahassee, Florida! More details to come.

#BookSigning #EdgyCozyMystery #LilyGallagherMysteries #AmWriting #Whodunnit

Bloom Where You Read: A Springtime Love Letter to Books

There’s something sacred about spring—the way the air softens, the light lingers a little longer, and everything begins again. It’s a season that invites us to stretch, to breathe deeper, to rediscover ourselves. And what better companion for that renewal than a good book?

Reading isn’t just a pastime—it’s a quiet reset. It’s rest. It’s reflection. It’s reclaiming time in a world that so often moves too fast. This spring, let reading be your soft place to land.

Romance in the Ritual

Imagine this: a warm breeze brushing against your skin, a cozy blanket spread across fresh grass, and a novel resting gently in your hands. Whether it’s on your porch, at the park, or curled up by an open window, spring creates the perfect backdrop for intentional reading.

Make it a ritual. Brew your favorite tea. Light a candle that smells like blooming jasmine or citrus. Turn your reading time into a moment that feels like it belongs only to you.

Stories That Speak to You

Spring is also a beautiful time to explore stories that reflect your curiosity and imagination. Seek out authors and genres that expand your perspective—stories that feel immersive, comforting, or even a little transformative.

Whether you’re diving into contemporary fiction, memoirs, romance, or fantasy, let your bookshelf bloom with voices that inspire and captivate.

Reading as Rest, Not Hustle

Not every book needs to be a productivity tool. You don’t have to read to “get ahead.” This season, give yourself permission to read slowly, to reread passages, to pause and simply feel. Let reading be an act of rest—free from pressure, rooted in enjoyment.

Build Your Spring Reading Circle

There’s something special about sharing stories with others. Start a small book club, even if it’s just a couple of friends. Gather virtually or in person. Talk about the characters like they’re real. Laugh, debate, reflect.

Reading together creates connection—and connection is its own kind of bloom.

Let Yourself Be Transformed

Spring reminds us that change can be gentle. That growth doesn’t have to be loud to be powerful. The right book, at the right time, can shift something within you—open your heart, affirm your path, or simply offer a moment of peace.

So step into the season with intention. Pick up that book you’ve been meaning to read. Carve out a moment just for you. Let the pages turn as the flowers bloom.

You deserve this softness. You deserve this space. You deserve stories that stay with you.

Happy Spring—and happy reading.

As an Amazon associate Urbane Renaissance Society earns from qualifying purchases

What’s better than a book set in a tea shop? A book signing in a cozy coffee and tea shop of a book with a tea shop. 😍 Ecstatic and honored to be setting up at Noble Coffee in Noblesville Indiana for my first book signing event for the release of Tea Tale! Come grab my favorite tea latte that inspired a latte in the book, and come see me. I’ll be there 2/19 9-11am and at 10am I’ll do a reading and Q&A. #noblesvilleindiana #booksigning #tea #cozyfantasy #indiana @hoosiersocial

Treat yourself to tea or coffee and a cozy book! Indiana folks, Hamilton County and Noblesville, mark your calendars for 2/19. I’ll be at Noble Coffee with my new book, Tea Tale! Stop in for a latte and get your copy signed of this DnD inspired cozy fantasy book! #booksigning #tea #HoosierMast #indiana

Wrapped up another signing!
The highlight?

Someone stopped by who bought a copy the last time I had an event at this store. He shared his review:

“I loved it! I read it twice.”
❤️💜

Had a great time ☺️

#writingcommunity #books #bookstodon #fantasy #CrownOfHorns #BookSigning

This Sunday, December 7th, I'll be at the Mount Loretto Friendship Club for a book signing from 12-4 PM. The Christmas Fair is the perfect setting to get copies of my Tottenville history books signed—whether you bring one you've already purchased or pick up a copy there. Great for anyone interested in Staten Island's deep roots or looking for meaningful local gifts this holiday season.
#TottenvilleHistory #StatenIsland #LocalHistory #BookSigning #HistoryBooks
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FT1GQPPJ

"I feel like it’s the next vanilla,” says Henry Awayan about ube, the beautiful, vibrant purple root vegetable. Jean Chen chats with Awayan, owner of Whisk Cake Creations and author of "The Ube Baking Book: Decadent and Delicious Recipes with Filipino Purple Yam." Photos by Jenn Heflin. https://alamedapost.com/features/arts/whisk-bakery-owner-shares-decadent-delicious-recipes-ube-baking-book/

#alameda #BookSigning #books #cooking

TOMORROW Saturday! We will have Jennifer Ott visiting us and sharing her YA book of viking adventures and a talking skull. Please stop by and say hello!

#fireflybookstore #keepinitkutztown #lehighvalley #indiebookstore #berkscounty #booksigning #meettheauthor #authorevent

I'll be at the Conference House this Saturday, October 18 at noon for Open House New York when all historic house tours are free. Bring your copy of 17th Century Tottenville History Comes Alive for signing or grab one there. Looking forward to seeing you! #Conference House #booksigning

Meet the author Suzy Shaw tomorrow at Firefly. She sharing her experiences of raising boys. Saturday 10/18 @ 3:30

#fireflybookstore #keepinitkutztown #lehighvalley #berkscounty #booksigning #authorevent @grca

San Diego! I’ll see you Saturday at Scream Diego, talking about monsters on a panel alongside some fab folks. After that, I have a book signing at which I’ll have books for sale, free swag, and handmade bookmarks. Can’t wait!
#horror #writing #screamdiego #books #booksigning

Conference Report – ALA Annual 2025

Hey all. Apologies for the unintended hiatus here and the EXTREMELY belated conference report for ALA Annual this year. For health reasons (and travel snafu reasons I’ll get into later), ALA Annual was extremely hard on me this year, and it took me nearly a month and a half to shake off the ensuing brain-fog and fatigue. THEN everything kind of started happening at once in my life, including buying a condo apparently. But! I am finally feeling better, and finally have brain-space to write this extremely belated report. Unfortunately, due to afore-mentioned brain-fog it will be somewhat shorter than I originally planned since it’s been such a long time since the conference.

Much of my conference was eaten up by attending Council meetings in my capacity as Councilor-at-Large. This was my first time attending Council meetings in person, so that was an interesting experience. As I thought, being there in person allowed for greater access to discussions with other councilors in a less formalized environment. I had some good conversations, and got to see some people I hadn’t seen in person for a couple years. The meetings themselves were long and full of information. The full Council agendas are not yet available to the public, so I’ll just go over what I can remember. Day 1’s Council meeting had a lot of committee reports which I don’t remember, but one thing that came about was we voted to re-unify the Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC) and Young Adult Library Services (YALSC) divisions. It will be a slow transition, but is meant to begin soon I believe. We also heard from the Policy Manual Working Group about Policy Manual revisions, a few of which we voted on, but nothing too ground breaking there.

Day 2 of Council was again committee reports with action items appended. I can’t remember all of them clearly, but one that sticks out is the Information Technology Committee’s report and request that Council create an AI Policy Working Group to formulate a unified ALA Policy on AI in libraries made up of people from all major divisions, Council, and any others who wanted to be involved. I immediately volunteered and was confirmed just recently to be a part of that working group, so I’m sure I’ll bring further news about that here in the future. The Working group is meant to have a draft policy to Council by Annual 2026, but we will see if we get there or have to ask for an extension. That day also saw the report from the Intellectual Freedom Committee, as well as presenting for approval the final drafts of a bunch of Library Bill of Rights Interpretations, some of which I helped draft/edit over this past year. All were eventually approved, though some edits were requested and approval was given the next day I believe. All of those updated interpretations can be seen on the Interpretations page of ALA.Org.

Day 3 of Council was when we finally got to my Resolution, the Resolution Calling for Increased Awareness and Support of the Merritt Fund. I began organizing this resolution almost immediately after the 2024 Election Results were announced. I and others predicted, rightly, that personal and career attacks on library workers would escalate in the coming years, and I asked what ALA would do to support them materially, not just with resolutions and statements. This is when I learned of the Merritt Fund, which is a fund to support library workers who have been

• Denied employment rights or discriminated against on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, race, color, creed, religion, age, disability, or place of national origin;
• or Denied employment rights because of defense of intellectual freedom

This fund is available to all library workers, regardless of affiliation with ALA, and is funded primarily by donations these days. If you’re looking for a good way to support library workers, donating to this fund is a good way to do so. If you find yourself in need and are a library worker, I highly recommend applying for assistance through the Fund. My resolution called on all divisions and Roundtables to make the Fund more known to their members, as most ALA members I’ve mentioned it to, and indeed myself, have no idea it exists. This was my first resolution, though I couldn’t have done it alone. I had a lot of help from a lot of people over the months, especially from my seconder Nick Tepe, and from a host of others including the then-President-Elect Sam Helmick. There are too many to name, but I thank them all very much for supporting this endeavor. The Resolution passed unanimously, the only resolution to do so in all three days.

Day 3 was also the day we looked over and approved the new ALA Strategic Plan. It took a good bit of wrangling and some amendments, including by yours truly, to get everyone happy with it, but we did in the end. That finalized plan has since been released to the public, and is available for perusal on the ALA Strategic Plan page. There was some concern on implementing it as our Treasurer’s report had revealed ALA is currently some $8million+ in the red for a variety of reasons. But those of us who voted for it did so hoping that this plan and its implementation would help alleviate that financial shortfall. Implementation has already begun with President Helmick calling a Special Council session in September for us to vote on some streamlining of how the Divisions and Roundtables operate to cut down on election costs and such. More on that as it happens I guess.

Phew, all that business, but what about the FUN part of Conferences? Well, I did have some fun as well. I participated in a panel talking about my chapter in the new book Censorship is a Drag: LGBTQ Materials and Programming Under Siege in Libraries, which was part of an ongoing ALA series edited by previous ALA President Emily Drabinski. It went very well and I got to talk to a bunch of people afterwards which was nice. I also managed to attend a couple of panels, though not many. Most excitingly for me personally, I got to meet Maia Kobabe and get a copy of Gender Queer signed! I didn’t know it was happening until about an hour before e was due to begin signing at which point I zoomed over to be first in line. I had to get a new copy of the book because I hadn’t brought my special edition, so now I’ve owned 3 copies of that book (I gave one away to a friend though), which is a new record for me. I also spent some time exploring the Zine pavilion, talking to zinesters, reconnecting with people I’ve met or talked to before, and acquiring quite the haul of new zines. All the new zines prompted me to finally decide I needed a better way to store them than tossing them on a bookshelf and praying, so I finally got a preservation grade three-ring box with preservation sleeves to store all my zines in.

Overall it was a very good and successful conference, and having the ability to borrow a scooter every day was hugely helpful in rationing my energy. I had a good time…until it was time to come home. It took me 51 hours to get from Philadelphia to north central Florida, and about the only type of transport I didn’t use was a boat. I probably would have made it home sooner if I’d taken a boat. I ended up taking a train out of Philly to spend the night with my aunt in Washington DC and take a flight from Baltimore the next morning. It was a harrowing ordeal (and given that my mom had two subsequent trips both of which took her an extra day to get home from, I’m feeling a little cursed). When I made it home I had a full on chronic illness crash out and slept round the clock for a full day and a half, and I’ve been battling severe brain-fog and greater fatigue than normal. I also had two subsequent virtual conferences in the first 3 weeks after I was back, which further fatigued me. This has made me seriously consider whether I can travel alone anymore as well, as there were several times where I was stranded unable to get where I needed to go in the various airports due to disability. It has moved up my desire to get an electric wheelchair, and my attendance at ALA Annual 2026 may depend on that eventuality too. But here’s hoping, I really want to attend for the 150th Anniversary!

#ALAAnnualConference #ALACouncil #bookSigning #books #conferences #librarianship #libraries #maiaKobabe #traveling

Gas Giant Gambit releases on Sept. 16th.
On the 20th, I will be at the Oshawa Centre Indigo bookstore, in Oshawa, Ontario, signing copies from noon until they kick me out. If you're in southern Ontario, you should swing by!
I have swag to give away!

#booksigning #writer #Canadianwriter #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #books ##bookcommunity

Two weeks until Gas Giant Gambit's release! And I've got a tiny, tidbit of news to share.

http://esraye.com/2025/09/02/gas-giant-gambit-countdown/

#sciencefiction #scifi #sff #bookrelease #booksigning #book #books

MD/PA/WV/DE foks! I'm going to be signing books this weekend in Takoma Park, MD and Frederick, MD. Come say hi!

#QueerSky #WitchSky #BookSigning

Saturday will be a unique offering: Spring Author Fest! 4 authors with a variety of different stories will be here in the store. Please stop in and meet them and their books! 1-5 pm.

#fireflybookstore #keepinitkutztown #lehighvalley #indiebookstore #berkscounty #booksigning #authorevent

Saturday will be a unique offering: Spring Author Fest! 4 authors with a variety of different stories will be here in the store. Please stop in and meet them and their books! 1-5 pm.

#fireflybookstore #keepinitkutztown #lehighvalley #indiebookstore #berkscounty #booksigning #authorevent

An Evening of Mysteries, Hauntings, and Cryptids with Author Eric Mintel! He will be presenting his casebook from the video program Eric Mintel Investigates. An evening of odd happenings!

#fireflybookstore #keepinitkutztown #lehighvalley #indiebookstore #berkscounty #booksigning #authorevent

Tonight! This will be a fun evening of stories and poetry. So exciting to have Jinx back in the store! Note: Not-kid friendly

#poetry #poetrycommunity #poems #fireflybookstore #keepinitkutztown #lehighvalley #indiebookstore #berkscounty #booksigning #author #booklaunch #meettheauthor #authorevent

Monday night! This should be a fun evening of stories and poetry. Not-kid friendly though, so bring your adult sensibilities!

#poetry #poetrycommunity #poems #fireflybookstore #keepinitkutztown #lehighvalley #indiebookstore #berkscounty #booksigning #author #booklaunch #meettheauthor #authorevent

We are excited to welcome back YA fantasy author L. Ryan Storms for a meet & greet featuring her newest novel, Slip. Her stories explore resilience, self-discovery, and courage. Stop by to get a signed copy and connect!

#fireflybookstore #keepinitkutztown #lehighvalley #berkscounty #booksigning

We are excited to welcome back YA fantasy author L. Ryan Storms for a meet & greet featuring her newest novel, Slip. Her stories explore resilience, self-discovery, and courage. Stop by to get a signed copy and connect!

#fireflybookstore #keepinitkutztown #lehighvalley #berkscounty #booksigning

Here tomorrow! Ali Watkins will be discussing her book The Next One is for You. An amazing story about suppling weapons to the IRA from Philadelphia. It's a tale for those who are interested in the history of The Troubles, & True Crime. #fireflybookstore #keepinitkutztown #booksigning #authorevent