Skylight Books Podcast Series

Meg Howrey

Blind Sight (Pantheon)

Los Angeles-based author Meg Howrey comes to Skylight to read and sign her debut novel, Blind Sight. "An engaging first novel filled with the nuance and yearnings of adolescence." --Marisha Pessl, author of Special Topics in Calamity Physics Meg Howrey is a classically trained dancer who has performed with the Joffrey, Los Angeles Opera, and City Balley of Los Angeles. She made her theatrical debut at Lincoln Center, and toured with the Broadway production of Contact, for which she won the 2001 Ovation Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She currently lives in Los Angeles. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS MARCH 29, 2011

Jim Krusoe

Toward You (Tin House)

The wonderful storyteller and local favorite Jim Krusoe returns with a new book! Toward You completes Jim Krusoe’s bittersweet trilogy about the relationship between this world and the next. Bob has spent several years trying to build a machine that will communicate with the dead. He’s gotten more or less nowhere, but then two surprising things happen: he receives an important message from a dead dog, and a former girlfriend, Yvonne, reenters his life. These events make Bob even more determined to perfect the Communicator, as he calls his invention, in the belief that it will change his friendless, humdrum life for the better. In the meantime, Yvonne’s young daughter inhabits an afterlife she is trying to escape and would give anything to be reunited with her mom. Toward You is a poignant story of longing, mistakes, regret, disaster, and, above all, hope. "Krusoe's surrealistically skewed, oddly affecting novel blurs the borders between life and the afterlife, what's real and what's imagined, to highly entertaining effect. . .A seriously strange, funny and affecting novel about imagining another life while being stuck in this one." —Kirkus Reviews Jim Krusoe is the author of the novels Erased, Girl Factory, and Iceland. His stories and poems have appeared in the Antioch Review, Bomb, the Chicago Review, the Denver Quarterly, the American Poetry Review, and other publications. He teaches at Santa Monica College and lives in Los Angeles. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS APRIL 5, 2011.

AMBER BENSON and PATRICK ROTHFUSS

Serpant's Storm (Ace) by Benson; The Wise Man's Fear (Daw) by Rothfuss

Authors Patrick Rothfuss and Amber Benson will be vigorously debating urban fantasy vs epic fantasy, as well at taking questions and chatting about whatever else comes to mind. We're excited to have these two creative folks here at Skylight Books to do one of our rare Speculative Fiction events. Patrick Rothfuss burst onto the fantasy literature scene with the 2007 publication of his debut novel The Name of the Wind.  This first book of a planned three-book epic fantasy series called The Kingkiller Chronicle drew comparisons to the works of several of the top modern writers in the genre as well as the groundbreaking classic The Lord of the Rings. Readers quickly caught on to Rothfuss and as word of The Name of the Wind spread, he developed a cult-like following, attracting big crowds at bookstores and convention appearances. The paperback edition of The Name of the Wind debuted on the New York Times Mass Market Paperback Bestseller List and has been consistently selling ever since. At 700 pages, The Name of the Wind took Rothfuss seven years to write, and readers have been waiting to enjoy its highly anticipated sequel for four long years. The Wise Man’s Fear: The Kingkiller Chronicle, Day Two (DAW) was published on March 1st, 2011 and debuted at #1 on the New York Times Hardcover bestseller list. Patrick Rothfuss teaches at the college he grew to love as a student, and acts as advisor for the College Feminists and the local Fencing Club. When not reading and writing, Pat wastes his time playing video games, holds symposia at his house, and dabbles with alchemy in his basement. Amber Benson's Calliope Reaper Jones series published by Ace Books is an action-packed adventure that demonstrates Benson’s colorful imagination and wit. Not only is she a talented actress and a wonderful writer, she also produces and directs her own work!  She co-created, co-wrote, and directed the animated supernatural web-series Ghosts of Albion with Christopher Golden, followed by a series of novels including Witchery and Accursed, and the novella Astray.  Benson and Golden also co-authored the novella The Seven Whistlers.  As an actress, she has appeared in dozens of roles in feature films, TV movies, and television series, including the fan favorite role of Tara Maclay on three seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Benson wrote, produced, and directed the feature films Chance and Lovers, Liars, and Lunatics. Photo of Patrick Rothfuss by Jamie Rothfuss. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS APRIL 8, 2011.