Village Books announces the following schedule for March 2015. Unless otherwise noted, all events are free and take place in the Readings Gallery at Village Books, 1200 11th Street, Bellingham, WA, 98225. Changes, additions, and cancellations do occur. Please visit www.villagebooks.com for the most complete information about our author events.
Sunday, March 1, 11:30 am – 1 pm
Socrates Café
The Socratic Dialogue is a search for truth by questioning, probing, defining terms and clarifying meanings of important, complex questions. Any participant may propose a question to be discussed using the Socratic dialogue. One question is chosen for discussion during each session. The resulting discussion provides an opportunity to improve our individual and collective skills of civil discourse. We invite you to join in. The group meets the first and third Sunday from 11:30 am to 1 pm in the Readings Gallery.
Sunday, March 1, 3:15 – 5:15 pm
VB Writes…Nonfiction & Memoir Writing Group
We have eclectic tastes that range from biography, history, nature writing, and self-help, but tend to focus primarily on the memoir. Our process is to bring a printed copy of your piece for each member of the group to follow while you read aloud. The group critiques aloud and also writes notes on your print out, and returns the print outs to you for you to keep. Critiquing is honest and encouraging. We ask that new members attend at least two meetings before submitting their own works for critique. This group meets on the mezzanine level of Village Books, near the poetry section, on the first and third Sunday of each month, from 3:15 to 5:15 pm.
Sunday, March 1, 4 pm
Jeanne Matthews, Where the Bones Are Buried – Mystery
American Indians fascinate Germans, as Dinah Pelerin learns when her Seminole mother Swan arrives in Berlin with a cockamamie scheme to blackmail a member of der Indianer Club. When a man is killed and scalped, Swan becomes the prime suspect and long-buried secrets, including Dinah’s, come crashing to the surface. Jeanne Matthews is the author of the Dinah Pelerin mysteries published by Poisoned Pen Press, including Bones of Contention, Bet Your Bones, Bonereapers, and Her Boyfriend’s Bones. Like her anthropologist sleuth, Jeanne was born with a serious wanderlust and sets each book in a different part of the world. Originally from Georgia, Jeanne currently lives with her husband in Renton, Washington.
Monday, March 2, 7 pm
VB Reads…General Literature Book Group
Join Cindi and discuss books from a variety of genres at 7 pm, the first Monday of each month. Authors DO NOT Attend. Everyone is welcome.
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
In boyhood, Louis Zamperini was an incorrigible delinquent. As a teenager, he channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics. But when World War II began, the athlete became an airman, embarking on a journey that led to a doomed flight on a May afternoon in 1943. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion.
Tuesday, March 3, 7 pm
Barry Gough, The Elusive Mr. Pond
While most North Americans won’t recognize his name, Peter Pond was a precursor to Lewis and Clark whose legendary exploits in the fur trade, including opening up the far distant Arctic watershed, elevated him to become a founding partner of the North West Company. These experiences, combined with his implication in two murders and reputed violent temper, make him a compelling historical figure—whose life has been shrouded in mystery. In The Elusive Mr. Pond, Gough re-examines Pond’s surviving memoirs, explorers’ journals and many other sources to create the most complete biography of the man ever published. Leading historian Dr. Barry Gough is well recognized for the authenticity of his research and the engaging nature of his narratives. He is the author of many critically acclaimed books, including the award-winning Fortune’s a River: The Collision of Empires in Northwest America (Harbour, 2007). Gough has been writing for almost four decades. He lives in Victoria, BC.
Wednesday, March 4, 7 pm
Liz Carlisle, Lentil Underground
Liz Carlisle is a fellow at UC Berkeley’s Center for Diversified Farming Systems. She holds a B.A. from Harvard University and will receive her Ph. D. from the Department of Geography at UC Berkeley in May 2014. Before graduate school, Carlisle served as Legislative Correspondent for agriculture and natural resources in the office of United States Senator Jon Tester, an organic farmer from her home state of Montana. A former country singer who once opened shows for Travis Tritt, LeAnn Rimes and Sugarland, Carlisle brings a populist flair to her writing, which has appeared in the Smithsonian Magazine and Harvard Independent. Lentil Underground, which tells the story of the renegade band of farmers she met during her stint with Tester, is Carlisle’s first book.
Thursday, March 5, 5:30 – 7 pm
VB Writes…Poetry Writing Group
Are you a writer in search of a writing group? Village Books is hosting a poetry writing group on the mezzanine level of the store near the poetry section and Book Fare Café. Come meet other writers who can help you get organized, give feedback, and help you with your writing goals. This group is open to newcomers and drop-ins and meets the first and third Thursday of each month from 5:30 to 7 pm.
Thursday, March 5, 7 pm
Randy Henderson, Finn Fancy Necromancy – Fiction
Finn Gramaraye was framed for the crime of dark necromancy at the age of fifteen, and exiled to the Other Realm for twenty-five years. But now that he’s free, someone—probably the same someone—is trying to get him sent back. Finn has only a few days to discover who is so desperate to keep him out of the mortal world, and find evidence to prove it to the Arcane Enforcers. They are going to be very hard to convince, since he’s already been convicted of trying to kill someone with dark magic. But Finn has his family: his brother Mort who is running the family necrotorium business now, his brother Pete who believes he’s a werewolf, though he is not, and his sister Samantha who is, unfortunately, allergic to magic. And he’s got Zeke, a fellow exile and former enforcer, who doesn’t really believe in Finn’s innocence but is willing to follow along in hopes of getting his old job back. Randy Henderson is the grand prize winner of Writers of the Future Award for 2014, a Clarion West graduate, and member of SFWA and Codex. His fiction has appeared in Penumbra, Escape Pod, and Realms of Fantasy, and has been included in anthologies.
Friday, March 6, 7 pm
Marie-Laure Valandro, Nutrition for Enlightened Parenting – Slide Show!
In Nutrition for Enlightened Parenting, Marie-Laure Valandro draws on her deep study of Rudolf Steiner and Spiritual Science, as well as on the works of Rudolf Hauschka and Karl König, attempting to bring greater consciousness to one of life’s most common and vital activities—eating. Food can be the object of instinct, desire, obsession, and even fear. We all want to be healthy in body and soul, and gaining increased awareness of what we prepare and put into our body can become a powerful path toward heightened consciousness. It is one key to taking charge of our life and determining our destiny. Through such an initiation, we can gain the power to read the great Book of Nature through the foods we eat, discovering what stands behind those substances—the spiritual within the material.
Marie-Laure Valandro uses personal stories, words of wisdom from modern spiritual teachers, and observations while traveling the world. She presents an organic picture of how we can take charge of our day-to-day nutrition and become more aware of ourselves and the world around us.
Saturday, March 7, 4 pm
Dave Atcheson, Dead Reckoning
This is the true story of a journey to a seaside town and the always unpredictable torrent of dark escapades that accompany a life at sea. It’s a story of a world peopled by those who often live on the frayed edges of society, who shun the world in which most people thrive. It’s a story in which college students and “fish hippies” work in canneries alongside survivalists, rednecks, religious freaks, and deckhands with damning secrets in dangerous waters, driven by the need to feed an insatiable appetite for adventure. This is the heart of the world Dave Atcheson found himself in at the age of eighteen. Having never even seen the ocean, he took his first job on the “Lancer” with Darwin Wood, a man so confounding, so complex and so frightening, that it’s hard to believe Atcheson walked away from that job unscathed. Forced to buddy up with a murderer in order to cope, Atcheson began to question his deeply ingrained ideas of success and status. The resulting conflict would finally resolve itself fifteen years later, in the least likely of places: on the Bering Sea, aboard a boat in peril, during a night of terror that would reshape the lives of everyone involved. Reminiscent of The Perfect Storm and Into the Wild, Dead Reckoning is not only an intimate look at life at sea, but also an insider’s view into one of Alaska’s small communities, and the myriad of upstarts, dropouts, and rogues that color its landscape.
Dave Atcheson is the author of Hidden Alaska: Bristol Bay and Beyond and the guidebook Fishing Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. He has written for a variety of periodicals, from “Outdoor Life” to “Boys’ Life,” and is a frequent contributor to “Alaska Magazine” and past contributing editor for “Fish Alaska Magazine.” He lives in Sterling, Alaska.
Saturday, March 7, 7 pm
Ryan Pemberton, Called
Called is the humorous, heart-breaking, and refreshingly honest account of one twenty-something’s journey of learning what it means to be called—an adventure that took him to England, C. S. Lewis’s house, and back again—and why it was only in the reality of his worst nightmare that he learned what it means to be called by the living God.
Ryan J. Pemberton left a career in marketing and public relations in Bellingham, Washington to write about life, faith, and God. He has degrees in theology from Duke Divinity School and Oxford University, where he lived in C. S. Lewis’s former home, served as President of the Oxford University C. S. Lewis Society, and co-founded the Oxford Open Forum, an interreligious dialogue group. He has written for Duke University Chapel, Image Journal (blog), Bible Study Magazine, and Relevant magazine. He serves on the Board of Directors for Jesus’ Economy, an international non-profit organization that creates jobs and churches in the developing world. Ryan currently lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and daughter.
Sunday, March 8, 2 – 3 pm
VB Reads…Motherhood by the Book
Motherhood by the Book is led by Claire, VB staffer, mother of a toddler, and stepmother of an adolescent. The book group meets on the second Sunday of every month at 2pm upstairs in the Writers’ Corner for an hour of spirited discussion of books that celebrate the trials, tribulations, and rewards of motherhood, and what it means to be a mother. This group is by no means exclusive to moms with kids still at home, but much of the selection may be geared toward issues that those moms face. We will read fiction, non-fiction, and parenting books. Authors DO NOT attend.
Make Me a Mother by Susanne Antonetta
In Make Me a Mother, acclaimed memoirist Susanne Antonetta adopts an infant from Seoul, South Korea. Her relationship with her son teaches Susanne to understand her own troubled childhood and to forgive and care for her own aging parents. Susanne comes to realize how, time and time again, all families have to learn to adopt one another.
Sunday, March 8, 4 pm
Tracy Weber, Killer Retreat – Mystery
When Kate Davidson gets an offer to teach yoga classes to wedding guests at the Elysian Springs resort, she jumps at the opportunity, even though it means being forced to endure the wedding ceremony of the center’s two caretakers. Avoiding the M-word turns out to be the least of Kate’s problems when a wedding guest is found floating face-down in the resort’s hot tub, shortly after a loud, public (and somewhat embarrassing) fight with Kate. The police pick Kate as their number-one suspect, so she’s forced to team up with boyfriend Michael, best friend Rene, and German shepherd sidekick Bella to find the real killer. But they’ll have to solve the murder before the police arrest Kate, or her next gig may last a lifetime – behind bars.
Tracy Weber is the author of Murder Strikes a Pose and the owner of Seattle’s Whole Life Yoga. Tracy and her husband Marc live in Seattle with their challenging yet amazing German shepherd Tasha. When she’s not writing, Tracy spends her time teaching yoga, walking Tasha, and sipping Blackthorn cider at her favorite ale house.
Monday, March 9, 5 pm
VB Reads…Natural Concerns Book Group
Join us the second Monday of each month from 5-6pm in the Readings Gallery for the Natural Concerns book group. We discuss contemporary and classic writings that explore the issues, insights and inspirations of our relationship with the natural world. With a focus that spans from our Pacific Northwest to earth-wide, you can expect beautiful and challenging non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and more. We are always reading something interesting! Authors DO NOT attend.
The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Freshwater in the Twenty-First Century by Alex Prud’homme
Will there be enough drinkable water to satisfy future demand? As the climate warms and world population grows, demand for water has surged, but supplies of freshwater are static or dropping, and new threats to water quality appear every day. The Ripple Effect is Alex Prud’homme’s vividly written and engaging inquiry into the fate of freshwater in the twenty-first century.
Monday, March 9, 7 pm
Trevis Gleason, Chef Interrupted
Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, Seattle chef Trevis Gleason lost everything, including his job and marriage. Surveying the ruins of his life, he decided to follow his dreams to Ireland for the winter. There he rented a cottage, got a puppy, and discovered there is life after the fall.
Chef Trevis L. Gleason has been an award–winning culinarian, consultant, and instructor as well as a decorated member of the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Goodwill Ambassador to Ukraine. Retired from a distinguished culinary career, Gleason has taken on the challenges of living with secondary-progressive multiple sclerosis since his diagnosis in 2001. He is an ambassador for the National MS Society, an active volunteer for Multiple Sclerosis Ireland and the MS Society of the UK, and speaks to groups, both large and small, about living life fully with or without a chronic illness. Gleason divides his time between Seattle, Washington and County Kerry, Ireland with his wife, Caryn, and their two Irish Soft-Coated Wheaten Terriers, Sadie and Maggie.
Tuesday March 10, 4 – 5 pm
VB Reads…Cover to Cover Adventure: Youth Book Group
Calling all kids! Cover to Cover Adventure is a book group for kids 8-12 years of age led by Hana of Village Books. We meet every second Tuesday of the month from 4-5pm in the Readings Gallery. When we get together, we examine and explore the story we have read through discussions, crafts, activities, and games. Don’t miss out on the fun! Reading encourages thinking and imagination, and the goal of Cover to Cover Adventure is to provide kids the opportunity to completely immerse themselves in the world of a book. This group takes a break during the summer holiday. The last meeting of the school year will take place in June, and we will pick back up again in September. Questions? Shoot an email to Hana at hana@villagebooks.com.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away…so she decided not to run FROM somewhere, but TO somewhere. And so, after some careful planning, she and her younger brother, Jamie, escaped — right into a mystery that made headlines!
Tuesday, March 10, 6 – 8 pm
VB Writes…Spec Fiction/Sci Fi Writing Group
Does your fiction writing lean toward the fantastic? Do any of these terms apply to your stories: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mythic, Magical, Horror, Folk/Fairy Tales, Magical Realism, Slipstream, Steampunk, Urban Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery, Space Opera, Alternative History, or any of the hundreds of other sub-genres of Speculative Fiction? Then come join this supportive group of like-minded writers of this wide-ranging and diverse genre for your creative writing outlet. We meet the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month from 6-8pm on the mezzanine level, near the poetry section and Book Fare Café.
Wednesday, March 11, 1 pm
VB Reads…Afternoon Book Chat
Join Sittrea in the Readings Gallery on the 2nd Wednesday of each month for an open book chat, at 1pm. Authors DO NOT attend. Bring a latte and enjoy! Everyone welcome.
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
Between 1854 and 1929, so-called orphan trains ran regularly from the cities of the East Coast to the farmlands of the Midwest, carrying thousands of abandoned children whose fates would be determined by pure luck. Would they be adopted by a kind and loving family, or would they face a childhood and adolescence of hard labor and servitude? Moving between contemporary Maine and Depression-era Minnesota, Orphan Train is a powerful tale of upheaval and resilience, second chances, and unexpected friendship.
Thursday, March 12, 6 – 8 pm
VB Writes… Fiction Writing Group
Are you a writer in search of a writing group? Village Books is hosting a fiction writing group on the mezzanine level of the store near the poetry section and Book Fare Café. Come meet other writers who can help you get organized, give feedback, and help you with your writing goals. This group is open to newcomers and drop-ins and meets the second and fourth Thursday of each month from 6 to 8 pm.
Friday, March 13, 10:30 – 11 am
Story Time with Claire: My Pet Book
Join Claire in the Readings Gallery for a celebration of our favorite books! Please bring YOUR very favorite book from home and we will make something very special just for that book for you to keep. Participants will receive a one-day-only discount on My Pet Book by Bob Staake.
Sunday, March 15, 11:30 am – 1 pm
Socrates Café
The Socratic Dialogue is a search for truth by questioning, probing, defining terms and clarifying meanings of important, complex questions. Any participant may propose a question to be discussed using the Socratic dialogue. One question is chosen for discussion during each session. The resulting discussion provides an opportunity to improve our individual and collective skills of civil discourse. We invite you to join in. The group meets the first and third Sunday from 11:30 am to 1 pm in the Readings Gallery.
Sunday, March 15, 1:30 – 3 pm
VB Reads…Afternoon Book Chat Encore
We believe in second chances. Did you miss an Afternoon Book Chat meeting? Can’t attend the Afternoon Book Chat during the week? Here’s your chance! The Afternoon Book Chat will now offer an “Encore” meeting. We will meet on the Sunday following our regular 2nd Wednesday Afternoon Book Chats. Same book, new discussion, 2nd chance. Come join Sittrea in the Readings Gallery from 1:30 to 3 pm for an OPEN Book Chat. Authors DO NOT attend.
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
Between 1854 and 1929, so-called orphan trains ran regularly from the cities of the East Coast to the farmlands of the Midwest, carrying thousands of abandoned children whose fates would be determined by pure luck. Would they be adopted by a kind and loving family, or would they face a childhood and adolescence of hard labor and servitude? Moving between contemporary Maine and Depression-era Minnesota, Orphan Train is a powerful tale of upheaval and resilience, second chances, and unexpected friendship.
Sunday, March 15, 3:15 – 5:15 pm
VB Writes…Nonfiction & Memoir Writing Group
We have eclectic tastes that range from biography, history, nature writing, and self-help, but tend to focus primarily on the memoir. Our process is to bring a printed copy of your piece for each member of the group to follow while you read aloud. The group critiques aloud and also writes notes on your print out, and returns the print outs to you for you to keep. Critiquing is honest and encouraging. We ask that new members attend at least two meetings before submitting their own works for critique. This group meets on the mezzanine level of Village Books, near the poetry section, on the first and third Tuesday of each month, from 3:15 to 5:15 pm.
Sunday, March 15, 4 pm
Clover, A Literary Rag Vol. 8 – Multi-Author Reading!
Passion and words make for literary rags. Clover, A Literary Rag is a semiannual magazine featuring stories, poems, memoir, and an occasional review. Based in Bellingham, Washington; the rag hosts writers from the region and the world. New writers mix with seasoned writers–and writers from the Independent Writers’ Studio are featured. Clover celebrates words, and in this light there are no photographs or visual art in its pages. Come join James Bertolino, Shannon Laws, Elizabeth Vignali, Laurel Leigh and the many other writers featured in this issue as they read from their works.
Monday, March 16, 7 pm
David Vann, Aquarium – Fiction
Twelve-year-old Caitlin lives alone with her mother—a docker at the local container port—in subsidized housing next to an airport in Seattle. Each day, while she waits to be picked up after school, Caitlin visits the local aquarium to study the fish. Gazing at the creatures within the watery depths, Caitlin accesses a shimmering universe beyond her own. When she befriends an old man at the tanks one day, who seems as enamored of the fish as she, Caitlin cracks open a dark family secret and propels her once-blissful relationship with her mother toward a precipice of terrifying consequence.
Published in twenty languages, David Vann’s previous books—A Mile Down; Legend of a Suicide; Caribou Island; Last Day on Earth; Dirt; and Goat Mountain—have won enormous critical acclaim. A former Guggenheim fellow, Wallace Stegner fellow, John L’Heureux fellow, and NEA fellow, he has taught at Stanford, Cornell, FSU, USF, holds degrees from Stanford and Cornell, and is currently a Professor at the University of Warwick in England and Honorary Professor at the University of Franche-Comté in France.
Monday, March 16, 7 pm
VB Reads…Speculative Fiction
Come discuss thought-provoking speculative fiction in a group that welcomes diversity. Science fiction and fantasy can be a great escape, but it can also be a great way to examine social issues and alternative viewpoints or identities. Historically, science fiction has often been used as a way of commenting on the biases of the age in which it is written, using metaphors such as the creation of robots, alternative relationships between alien species, and the colonization of other worlds to show contemporary problems or questions in a new light. The aim of this group is to enjoy reading provocative science fiction (and occasional fantasy) stories and discussing the themes they might present, in both the original context and for us as individuals today. This group meets the third Monday of every month at 7 pm in the writing corner on the mezzanine level of Village Books. Authors DO NOT attend.
Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
In trying to create life, the young student Victor Frankenstein unleashes forces beyond his control, setting into motion a long and tragic chain of events that brings Victor to the very brink of madness. How he tries to destroy his creation, as it destroys everything Victor loves, is a powerful story of love, friendship, scientific hubris, and horror.
Tuesday, March 17, 11 am – 1 pm
VB Reads…Sharpen Your Saw Business Book Group
No matter what business or profession you have chosen the most important asset you have to preserve and develop is your mind. Staying sharp is a continuous and intentional process. It takes conscious effort to maintain a practice of renewal. We have partnered with the Bellingham Chamber of Commerce and Sustainable Connections to offer you an alternative approach to keeping your saw sharp and be part of a continuous learning community in the process. Join us the third Tuesday of every month from 11am-1pm in the Readings Gallery of Village Books for a fast paced dialogue facilitated by Mike Cook, local business coach and faculty member at WWU. We promise you your time will be well spent and we’ll all want to know what you have learned. Authors DO NOT attend.
Book Fare Café on the mezzanine level of Village Books offers brown-box lunches for pre-order to anyone interested in having a lunch at the book discussion. Lunches are $12 and are available for ordering through BrownPaperTickets.com. Orders must be placed 24 hours prior to the meeting.
The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) by Seth Godin
Whether you’re a graphic designer, a sales rep, an athlete, or an aspiring CEO, this fun little book will help you figure out if you’re in a Dip that’s worthy of your time, effort, and talents. If you are, The Dip will inspire you to hang tough. If not, it will help you find the courage to quit—so you can be number one at something else.
Wednesday, March 18, noon – 1:30 pm
VB Reads…Engaged Citizens Book Group
Read and discuss a variety of books exploring how to create a more civil and engaged community. Join Mary Dumas on the 3rd Wednesday of the month from noon to 1:30. Authors DO NOT attend. Meetings are in the Readings Gallery — brown bag lunches are encouraged. Anyone interested in exploring their role as an engaged citizen is welcome.
Dignity: Its Essential Role in Resolving Conflict by Donna Hicks
Drawing on her extensive experience in international conflict resolution and on insights from evolutionary biology, psychology, and neuroscience, Hicks explains what the elements of dignity are, how to recognize dignity violations, how to respond when we are not treated with dignity, how dignity can restore a broken relationship, why leaders must understand the concept of dignity, and more. Hicks shows that by choosing dignity as a way of life, we open the way to greater peace within ourselves and to a safer and more humane world for all.
Thursday, March 19, noon – 1 pm
Community Connections Brown Bag Presentation
Featuring Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association
Have you ever wanted to give something back to the community, but you weren’t sure exactly how? Maybe you know there are lots of great organizations doing wonderful things, but don’t know how to connect to these groups. We have had that same feeling, which is why Village Books is partnering with the Whatcom Community Foundation to invite several local nonprofit organizations into our store to share their stories and highlight how you can help them make our community better. This month, we’re featuring the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association. These free programs are held in the Village Books Readings Gallery on the third Thursday of each month, beginning at noon, and a different community organization will be featured each month. Grab a lunch and drink from Book Fare Café or the Colophon Café and bring it to the Community Connections meetings, or bring your own!
Thursday, March 19, 5:30 – 7 pm
VB Writes…Poetry Writing Group
Are you a writer in search of a writing group? Village Books is hosting a poetry writing group on the mezzanine level of the store near the poetry section and Book Fare Café. Come meet other writers who can help you get organized, give feedback, and help you with your writing goals. This group is open to newcomers and drop-ins and meets the first and third Thursday of each month from 5:30 to 7 pm.
Thursday, March 19, 7 pm
Jennifer Adler, Passionate Nutrition
Equal parts cookbook, handbook for healthy eating, and memoir, Passionate Nutrition inspires readers to embrace the power of food, eat well, lose weight, and use food as medicine. Nutritionist and author, Jennifer Adler shares her personal story, outlines abundant eating and explores “the healthy trinity”—digestion, balance, and whole foods.
Jennifer Adler is the founder and owner of Passionate Nutrition, a nutrition practice that uses food—not supplements—as medicine. She is a nutritionist with a Master of Science in Clinical Nutrition and Counseling, co-founder of the International Eating Disorders Institute, and has been an adjunct faculty member at Bastyr University since 2006. She holds a graduate certificate in Spirituality, Health, and Medicine from Bastyr University and was trained at the School of Natural Cookery in Boulder, Colorado.
Friday, March 20, 7 pm
Royce Scott Buckingham, Impasse – Fiction, Book Launch at Book Fare Café!
Stu Stark has lost his mojo. He had a prestigious job as a prosecuting attorney, a classy, ambitious wife, and an inside track to the top spot in the DA’s office. But that was before he was fired for losing the biggest case of his career, a mob-related homicide. Now he’s turning forty, struggling at a tiny law firm, and has nearly given up. So when Stu’s more motivated law partner gifts him a one-week trip to the Alaskan wilderness to rediscover his manhood, Stu admits it just might do him some good. Unfortunately, Stu is no outdoorsman. By week’s end, he’s sick, starving, and on the brink of death. Worse, he realizes that the float plane that dropped him off is not coming back. His only hope is a passing trapper who informs Stu that winter is coming, and he’s not leaving the Alaska interior anytime soon. So begins Stu’s journey to become the man he never was…and to discover who’s been sabotaging his life in this gritty tale of self-examination and revenge.
Royce Buckingham is a fantasy writer and screenwriter with an English degree from Whitman College and a Law degree from the University of Oregon. He’s the author of Demonkeeper, The Goblin Problem and The Dead Boys, which was a Junior Library Guild selection and Sasquatch Award winner for Best Middle Grade Book. He’s also the author of the YA novel The Terminals. Royce lives in Bellingham, WA with his wife and two boys, where he has also worked as a Prosecuting Attorney for nearly two decades.
Saturday, March 21, 7 pm
Dee Dee Chapman & Elizabeth Vignali, Collovium & Object Permanence – Poetry
Bellingham’s own Dee Dee Chapman is proud to present her first chapbook Colluvium. Heavily informed by her childhood moving around the mountains of the Southwest, the sixteen poems of Colluvium address the issues of family, religion, boundaries and personal identity in a complicated and insightful manner. Dee Dee Chapman is a Pacific Northwest transplant who studies Creative Writing at Western Washington University. Bellingham, Washington has been her home for six years, the longest time she’s stayed in one place. She is a cinephile and her favorite animal is the Megalodon shark of prehistoric times.
About Elizabeth Vignali, Bruce Beasley (Theophobia, Lord Brain) writes that “in poems of great tenderness and unflinching honesty, [she] emerges as a permanent figure among the new American poets. After reading this book we are–like the pilgrim in its last poem–“darker, heavier than before, and smiling.”” Elizabeth Vignali is an optician and writer. Her poems and stories have been published in various journals, including Menacing Hedge, Floating Bridge Review, Literary Mama, and Clover, A Literary Rag. Her chapbook, Object Permanence, is available from Finishing Line Press. She lives in Bellingham, Washington with her family and their unlikely Chihuahua.
Sunday, March 22, 4 pm
Carol McMillan, White Water, Red Walls – Poetry
In June 2014, Carol McMillan joined a group of adventurers who rafted 224 miles down the Colorado River. Dr. McMillan documented her trip with poetry, paintings and photographs, which she uses in this book to tell the story of her two week journey. Her book will take you between mile-high cliffs on a fifteen foot raft in a tale told with humor, sincerity, and emotion.
Carol McMillan, Ph.D., is an anthropologist who has ventured across Africa with an entomology expedition, lived with free-ranging rhesus monkeys, and worked with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation’s language preservation program. She is currently a member of several poetry and writing groups in Bellingham, Washington, and is a 2013 recipient of the Sue C. Boynton Poetry Award. As an artist, Carol is a member of the Winthrop Gallery, Whatcom Art Guild, and Valley Arts Group. She lives with her cat, Mr. T.
Monday, March 23, 7 pm
VB Reads…Pacific Northwest Book Group
Bellingham is uniquely situated in one of the most beautiful places on earth, marked by rugged mountains, serene islands, dense forests and dynamic waterways. It is a place of exploration and adventure, but also rest and relaxation. Unsurprisingly, the writers and writing that emerges from this area is also uniquely beautiful. This book club will explore this writing, focusing on writers from the Pacific Northwest and writing set in or about the Pacific Northwest, both fiction and non-fiction. This group meets the fourth Monday of the month at 7pm in the Writers’ Corner on the mezzanine level of Village Books. Authors DO NOT attend.
Cascadia’s Fault: The Coming Earthquake and Tsunami That Could Devastate North America by Jerry Thompson
There is a crack in the earth’s crust that runs roughly 31 miles offshore, approximately 683 miles from Northern California up through Vancouver Island off the coast of British Columbia. The Cascadia Subduction Zone has generated massive earthquakes over and over again throughout geologic time. This fault generates a monster earthquake about every 500 years. And the monster is due to return at any time. It could happen 200 years from now, or it could be tonight.
Tuesday, March 24, 6 – 8 pm
VB Writes…Spec Fiction/Sci Fi Writing Group
Does your fiction writing lean toward the fantastic? Do any of these terms apply to your stories: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mythic, Magical, Horror, Folk/Fairy Tales, Magical Realism, Slipstream, Steampunk, Urban Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery, Space Opera, Alternative History, or any of the hundreds of other sub-genres of Speculative Fiction? Then come join this supportive group of like-minded writers of this wide-ranging and diverse genre for your creative writing outlet. We meet the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month from 6-8pm on the mezzanine level, near the poetry section and Book Fare Café.
Thursday, March 26, 6 – 8 pm
VB Writes… Fiction Writing Group
Are you a writer in search of a writing group? Village Books is hosting a fiction writing group on the mezzanine level of the store near the poetry section and Book Fare Café. Come meet other writers who can help you get organized, give feedback, and help you with your writing goals. This group is open to newcomers and drop-ins and meets the second and fourth Thursday of each month from 6 to 8 pm
Saturday, March 28, 4 pm
Julie Titone, Boocoo Dinky Dow: My Short, Crazy Vietnam War – Memoir!
Grady Myers was an artistic but aimless teenager in 1968, when, desperate for troops, the U.S. Army overlooked his extreme nearsightedness and transformed him into Hoss, an M-60 machine gunner. His illustrated memoir “Boocoo Dinky Dow: My short, crazy Vietnam War” is by turns funny and sobering. Grady recounts his military initiation at Fort Lewis, where there could be a fuzzy line between training and torture. He describes the intensity of Vietnam, where an old man carrying a bundle of sticks posed a moral dilemma and a young man would weigh the burden of his virginity against the dubious pleasures of riverbank prostitutes. Grady’s explosives-happy comrades in Charlie Company sometimes posed the greatest danger. But, in a dramatic ambush, that same bunch of crazy soldiers risked their lives to save his.
Co-author Julie Titone is a Washington writer and photographer whose work has appeared in regional, national and international publications. She has made a personal journey of sharing “Boocoo Dinky Dow” with audiences and honoring veterans since Grady Myers, her ex-husband, died in 2011.
Sunday, March 29, 4 pm
JA Jance, Cold Betrayal
Bestselling author J.A. Jance’s fan-favorite heroine Ali Reynolds goes head to head with a shadowy polygamous cult called “The Family” when a young pregnant woman escapes its clutches and turns up in the outside world. When a lone pregnant woman is hit by a car on a remote road near Flagstaff, Arizona, Sister Anselm, a formidable Taser-toting nun and patient advocate, rushes to the hospital bedside of the unconscious victim and newborn baby. While her scant belongings offer few clues to the young mother’s identity, a volatile confrontation soon reveals that she was a runaway from The Family, which offers no mercy to those who try to leave its ranks. Sister Anselm is shaken by the girl’s predicament, which reminds her of a case she worked years before—when another young girl was much less lucky. Ali and Sister Anselm must race against the clock to uncover the secrets that The Family has kept hidden for so long—before more young girls face another “Disappearing Night.”
J.A. Jance is the New York Times bestselling author of the Ali Reynolds series, the J.P. Beaumont series, the Joanna Brady series, and four interrelated Southwestern thrillers featuring the Walker family. Born in South Dakota and brought up in Bisbee, Arizona, Jance lives with her husband and their dog, Bella, in Seattle, Washington and Tucson, Arizona. She was the American Guest of Honor at Bouchercon 2014.
Monday, March 30, 7 pm
Open Mic with Laurel Leigh
Village Books invites everyone to enjoy local talents as they share their own stories, poems and essays. Published and unpublished writers are encouraged to attend and enjoy a welcoming audience. Bring your musings about saving time or spending time – or any creative work in progress. Open mic is usually held the last Monday of each month at 7pm in the Readings Gallery. Sign up at our main counter on the first floor or call (360) 671-2626. Laurel Leigh, local writer and teacher, will emcee. Read Laurel’s monthly re-caps of the open mic nights, as well as writerly news & updates at www.DearWriters.com.