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The SPECULATIONS READINGS SERIES continues monthly, mostly on Wednesdays from 6:30-7:45 p.m. at DreamHaven Books, 2301 38th St E, Minneapolis. Each reading includes a reception with free soda pop and cookies, and a post-reception expedition to a local bistro.
Wednesday, January 18 will be our third annual Round Robin Readings. Writers are encouraged to bring two or three five-minute selections from their work to read out loud, beginning at 6:30. After everyone has had a chance to read a selection we’ll read another round, until everyone has read what they’ve brought or until 7:30, whichever comes first.
On Wednesday, February 22 at 6:30 MICHAEL MERRIAM reads from his work. Michael Merriam is an author, actor, poet, playwright, and professional storyteller. His debut novel, Last Car to Annwyn Station, was named a Top Book in 2011 by Readings in Lesbian & Bisexual Women’s Fiction and his novella, Should We Drown in Feathered Sleep, was long-listed for the Nebula Award. His scripts have been produced for stage and radio and he has appeared on stage in the Minnesota Fringe Festival, Tellebration!, StoryFest Minnesota and over the air on KFAI and Minnesota Public Radio. Michael is the co-organizer of the Minnesota Speculative Fiction Writers and a member of the Artists with Disabilities Alliance, the Steampunk Artists and Writers Guild, and Story Arts Minnesota. Visit his homepage at /www.michaelmerriam.com .
On Wednesday, March 15 at 6:30 p.m. LOIS McMASTER BUJOLD reads from her fiction. (Note the time change from an earlier notice.) Ms. Bujold was born in 1949, the daughter of an engineering professor at Ohio State University, from whom she picked up her early interest in science fiction. She now lives in Minneapolis, and has two grown children. She began writing with the aim of professional publication in 1982. She wrote three novels in three years; in October of 1985, all three sold to Baen Books, launching her career. Bujold went on to write many other books for Baen, mostly featuring her popular character Miles Naismih Vorkosigan, his family, friends, and enemies. Her fantasy from HarperCollins includes the award-winning Chalion series and the Sharing Knife series. Most recently she has been exploring self-e-publishing with the novella-length tales of the sorcerer Penric in the World of the Five Gods. Ten times nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel, she has won in that category four times, in addition to garnering another Hugo for best novella, three Nebula Awards, three Locus Awards, the Mythopoeic Award, two Sapphire Awards, the Minnesota Book Award, the Forry Award and the Skylark Award. In 2007, she was given the Ohioanan Career Award, and in 2008 was Writer Guest of Honor for the 66th World Science Fiction Convention. A complete list may be found here: www.sfadb.com/Lois_McMaster_Bujold Her works have been translated into over 20 languages. More information on Bujold and her books is archived at www.dendarii.com and her blog at www.goodreads.com/author/show/16094.Lois_McMaster_Bujold/blog.
On Wednesday, April 19, at 6:30 p.m., CATHERINE LUNDOFF reads from her fiction. Catherine Lundoff is an award-winning author and editor (and newbie publisher) from Minneapolis, where she lives with her wife and fabulous cats. She toils in IT by day and writes all the things by night. Her recent stories have appeared in Callisto: A Queer Fiction Journal, Respectable Horror, The Cainite Conspiracies: A Vampire the Masquerade V20 Anthology, The Mammoth Book of Jack the Ripper Tales and The Mammoth Book of the Adventures of Professor Moriarty. Her short story collection Out of This World: Queer Speculative Fiction Stories, is now available from Queen of Swords Press and she teaches writing classses at the Loft Literary Center. www.catherinelundoff.com
On Wednesday, May 31 LISA C. FREITAG reads from her fiction. Ms. Freitag, a medical doctor, has frequently done a presentation at SF cons, “Maim ’em Right!” on realistic mayhem in heroic fantasy.
On Wednesday, June 14 at 6:30 p.m. TYLER TORK reads from his fiction. Tyler is a local, not yet famous writer and a frequent panelist at local science fiction conventions. His works include the steampunkish novel Doctor Dead, and the non-fictional “One-Hour Author Website.” Having decided he’s ready to sell out, he’s currently at work on a lesbian candy shop cozy. Tyler grew up in Louisiana, among other places. Little known fact: Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn’t wear pants. Tyler is seeking representation, and has a Master’s degree—in Science!
On Thursday, July 20 (Moon Landing Day), from 6:30-7:45 p.m., MELISSA SCOTT and ELEANOR ARNASON read from their respective works.
Melissa Scott is the author of some two dozen science fiction and fantasy works. Including several co-authored with her late partner, Lisa A. Barnett. Scott’s works are known for their elaborate and well-connected settings. While her works, with the exception of Shadow Man (1996), don’t usually deal directly with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender themes, most of her protagonists are LGBT. She won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1986, and has won several Lambda Literary Awards. Her novels include Trouble and Her Friends (1994), Dreaming Metal (1997), and The Shapes of Their Hearts (1998). She is also the author of Conceiving the Heavens: Creating the Science Fiction Novel (1997).
Eleanor Arnason has lived in Manhattan, Chicago, London, Paris, Washington, DC, Detroit, Saint Paul, and Minneapolis. Since 1973 she has published five novels and over 30 novellas, novelettes, short stories, and experimental short forms. Her fourth novel, A Woman of the Iron People (1990), won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award for gender-bending science fiction and the Mythopoeic Society Award for Best Adult Fantasy. Her fifth novel, Ring of Swords (1995), won the Minnesota Book Award. Her most recent book is the collection Hwarhath Stories: Transgressive Tales by Aliens (2016).
On Wednesday, August 23, ROB CALLAHAN reads from his work. Rob Callahan trained as a broadcast journalist but couldn’t get much work, so he started doing weird short stories to keep his writing chops up. He made his first professional sale in 2003, got his first novel out in 2008, and then spent the next eight years working as an arts journalist. In 2017 he completed a new novel, titled The Devil’s Descent, and is currently planning a sequel, workingly titled A World Within the Walls. If you ask what he writes, he will ask what you’re buying.
On Wednesday, September 20, TERRY FAUST reads fiction. Terry writes, “Born 15 August 1953. My enjoyment of speculative fiction writing developed from my love of drawing, photography, and film making. I’ve earned my living over the past forty years as a still photographer and video producer. My young adult urban fantasy, Bearer of the Pearls, was just released by North Star Press of St. Cloud. I have been an assistant organizer of the Minnesota Speculative Fiction Writers Network since 2005 and assist in the monthly critiques and presentations. Outside of writing, I am a freelance photographer, and an inventor, maker of weather vanes, and folk engineer. I love walking the West River Road Flats of South Minneapolis, where I search for Urban Bigfoot—sometimes referred to as Sasquatch of the Cities.”
On Wednesday, October 18 at 6:30 p.m., S.N. ARLY reads from her work. S.N.Arly writes adult and young adult fantasy, science fiction, and dark fiction from her basement in St. Paul, MN. She has had several short stories published in a variety of magazines and anthologies. She is currently working on novels, with the exception of the occasional short story her brain foists upon her.
On Wednesday, December 13 at 6:30 p.m. BRIANA LAWRENCE and JESSICA WALSH read from theIr respective works. Sixteen years ago Briana and Jessica were two fanfiction writing ladies who geeked out over Gundam Wing boys and Resident Evil. Now? Those fanfiction days have transformed into writer careers that range from published books, freelance jobs, and articles about cosplay and the issues that come up in the community. Briana writes geeky scripts for WatchMojo.com that focus on video games and anime and also has a cosplay column for Twin Cities Geek. She’s also had articles published by The Curvy Fashionista, SyFy.com and various other websites. She has had several books published, including her latest series, magnifiqueNOIR that focuses on black, queer, magical girls. Meanwhile, Jessica has had her work in Apex Magazine, Simplicity’s Cosplay Culture, and has also started writing for WatchMojo. She’s also been noticed by Dreamspinner Press and has a novella published called Ironbound Kisses along with the short “Spiked and Feathered.” Her upcoming book Little Creepers is an anthology of short horror stories and will be released in 2018. Together, the two ladies are also working on a series of urban supernatural books in their “Hunters” series. This series, which has a creature who can change people’s lives with just the turn of a page, has two books so far and there are seven planned altogether. Whether they’re doing solo works or writing together—and somehow not killing each other along the way—they always bring their best so that they can promote their work. Always promoting positivity and always supporting one another, Briana and Jessica are smiling their way through the geek scene.
Speculations is a co-production of DreamHaven Books and SF MINNESOTA, a multicultural speculative fiction organization that also hosts a midsummer SF convention, Diversicon, the 26th edition of which will be held July 27-29, 2018, at the Best Western Plus—Como Park by Bandana Square, Saint Paul, with Guests CHARLIE JAN ANDERS and BRYAN THAO WORRA.
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