AUTHOR UPDATE: Small Business Saturday at the Raven: Local Author Book Signings!
Happy Small Business Saturday! While you’re hanging out on Mass St., shopping at all of LFK’s great local businesses, and giving all of the shop cats head scritches, don’t forget to come see us (and Dashiell) over at the Raven! Not only will we have new Raven sweatshirts (yes, this is a new merch alert!), but we’ll have a book signing table with a rotating cast of some outstanding local authors! Check out the roster:
- 10 a.m.: Tessa Gratton, author of Moon Dark Smile, Star Wars: The High Republic Path of Deceit, Strange Grace, and more
- 11 a.m.: Susan Kraus, author of When We Lost Touch, Fall From Grace, Insufficient Evidence, and All God’s Children
- 2:00 p.m.: Megan Bannen, author of The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy, Soulswift, and The Bird and the Blade
- 3:30 p.m.: Amanda Sellet, author of By the Book and Belittled Women (forthcoming)
Unfortunately, Erin Jeanne McDowell is sick and had to cancel her SBS signing. But catch her at the store on December 10 at 12:30 p.m. for her rescheduled signing time slot!
About the Authors
Tessa Gratton is the author of adult and YA SFF novels and short stories that have been translated into twenty-two languages, long-listed for the Otherwise Award, and several have been Junior Library Guild Selections. Her most recent novels are the dark queer fairy tales Strange Grace and Night Shine, and the queer Shakespeare retelling Lady Hotspur. Her upcoming work includes the YA fantasy Chaos and Flame (2023), and novels of Star Wars: The High Republic. Though she has lived all over the world, she currently resides at the edge of the Kansas prairie with her wife. Queer, she/any. Learn more about Tessa here.
Susan Kraus has been a therapist for over three decades, a mediator for two, and a writer since she first held a pencil. She has written advice columns for women, too many self-help features to count, and published in Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, Family Fun and other magazines for women and families. She published dozens of book reviews in the Kansas City Star, Women's Review of Books, Journal of Feminist Family Therapy and the Journal of Social Work. Her travel writing has appeared in Hemispheres (United Airlines In-Flight), My Midwest (Midwest Airlines), Kaleidescope (Tokyo), Family Fun, Kansas!, San Franciso Chronicle, K.C. Star, Topeka Magazine, Lawrence Magazine, Sunflower Journeys...and more. She received the top writing award from Society of American Travel Writers (Central States) in both 2008 and 2009. Learn more about Susan here.
Megan Bannen is a former public librarian whose YA debut The Bird and the Blade was an Indies Introduce Summer/Fall 2018 pick, a Summer 2018 Kids’ Indie Next List pick, and a Kirkus Best YA Historical Fiction of 2018 pick. While most of her professional career has been spent behind the reference desk, she has also sold luggage, written grants, collected a few graduate degrees from various Kansas universities, and taught English at home and abroad. She lives in the Kansas City area with her husband and their two sons. Lean more about Megan here.
Amanda Sellet is a Gen X ex-journalist who wrote for The Washington Post, NPR, and VH1 before jumping ship for young adult fiction with her 2020 debut By the Book: A Novel of Prose and Cons. On the comedy/tragedy question, she is Team Comedy all the way. She lives and writes in Lawrence, Kansas. Learn more about Amanda here.
The fate of an Empire lies with a headstrong Heir and a restless demon in this lush young adult fantasy that’s a “tapestry of self-discovery, redolent with vivid imagery…[s]ensual and strange” (Kirkus Reviews) for fans of Laini Taylor and Girl, Serpent, Thorn.
Ever since she was a girl, Raliel Dark-Smile’s best friend has been the great de
Set in the world of the High Republic, 150 years before the storytelling of Phase I, an era of change brings new hopes and possibilities . . . but also new dangers.
“Gloriously dark and romantic.” —Roshani Chokshi, New York Times bestselling author of The Star-Touched Queen
“An alluring and seductive fairy tale.” —Justina Ireland, New York Times bestselling author of Dread Nation
“Horrifying, heartbreaking, and heartwarming, a lush fairy tale rooted in a moral quand
Some Marriages End with a Bang. . .
Grace McDonald feels blessed - she has a strong marriage, healthy kids, and satisfying work as a therapist. And she has no idea how easily it can all be lost.
Some Marriages End with a Whimper. . .
At her very first fraternity party, college freshman Hannah is thrilled with the attentions of Logan, a good-looking senior. They talk and flirt.
And then it all goes very wrong.
An Innocent Child is Caught Between Fundamentalism and Family...
When therapist and mediator Grace McDonald returns to Kansas after a ten-year hiatus in Alaska to be with her daughter and autistic grandson, she expects a tough adjustment. But what Grace cannot anticipate is being assigned the mediation case from hell.
"A uniquely charming mixture of whimsy and the macabre that completely won me over. If you ever wished for an adult romance that felt like Howl's Moving Castle, THIS IS THAT BOOK." —Helen Hoang, author of The Kiss Quotient
Hart is a marshal, tasked with patrolling the strange and magical wilds of Tanria.
A dark, epic fantasy about a girl who must rethink everything she believes after she is betrayed and hunted by the religion that raised her—from Megan Bannen, author of The Bird and the Blade. Perfect for fans of The Winner’s Curse and The Girl of Fire and Thorns.
A sweeping and tragic debut novel perfect for fans of The Wrath and the Dawn and Megan Whalen Turner. This young adult novel is an excellent choice for accelerated tween readers in grades 7 to 8, especially during homeschooling. It’s a fun way to keep your child entertained and engaged while not in the classroom.
In this clever YA rom-com debut perfect for fans of Kasie West and Ashley Poston, a teen obsessed with nineteenth-century literature tries to cull advice on life and love from her favorite classic heroines to disastrous results—especially when she falls for the school’s resident Lothario.
Sharp and subversive, this delightfully messy YA rom-com offers a sly wink to the classic Little Women, as teenage Jo Porter rebels against living in the shadow of her literary namesake.
The new novel from Lawrence author Susan Kraus!
Grace, a family therapist, returns from a cruise to find that life has been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic. Her daughter's graduate program goes virtual, and her grandson on the spectrum is home 24/7 with school by Zoom. Her best friend, Katrina, contracts the virus early on but isn't recovering. On top of that, Grace is called to facilitate a COVID grief group, whose members express rage and sadness at the senseless deaths of people they love.
Meanwhile, Molly and Mike forge a long-distance friendship over Zoom. A young couple, Zed and Cherry, finds validation and connection in QAnon. And on another front, Theo, a respiratory therapist, questions the ethics of keeping oxygen-starved patients alive.
When We Lost Touch is contemporary historical fiction set during the first 18 months of a deadly pandemic. Ordinary people lose touch with friends, family, reality, and truth as they're caught in a war zone where most of the casualties are taken down by friendly fire. Kraus expertly weaves stories that portray life during a pandemic, providing a gripping, nuanced look at political, social, and medical challenges.