The Stories In Between
Between Books, an independent genre bookstore, has been in business (despite intense competition from area “big box” chain stores) for 30 incredible years. If you are in the tri-state (PA/NJ/DE) area on SAT, NOV 14th 2-5PM, please consider dropping by to show your support. <indie support rant-mode on> Indie booksellers are the midlist author’s best friend in the business. The best indie bookstore owners & employees hand-sell books to their customers because they KNOW their customers and they know their customers’ tastes in reading material. The big stores display pyramids of bestselling authors’ books and let volume make up for the anonymity of the sales experience. Years after publication, you’ll still find copies of my books in Between Books, compared to the two-to-three-months’ shelf lifespan they are granted in the chains.<indie support rant-mode off>
I’ve known Greg Schauer, the owner, since about 1980 and have been going to his store since that time. WITHER, my first published novel — the one that won the Bram Stoker Award and that Columbia Pictures bought feature film right to in a pre-emptive bid — was born in the aisles of Between Books, where I met and became friends with Joe Gangemi (J.G.), my WITHER co-author, who was then an employee of the store. I also met my wife through that connection. I’ve held ALL my book launches at Between Books since that first one in 1999.
When Greg announced he was going to produce an anthology (THE STORIES IN BETWEEN) to celebrate the 30th year of the store, and that the authors in the anthology would be chosen from those who had held signing events at the store, my first reaction was, “I need to make my contribution a Wendy Ward (from WITHER, WITHER’S RAIN, etc.) story.” I wanted it to be a special Wendy Ward story. The result is the approximately 17,000-word novelette, “Blood Alone.” It’s the longest Wendy Ward story I’ve written since the three novels, and it is a “game changing” story for Wendy.
AUTHORS IN THE ANTHOLOGY: Joseph Gangemi, Lawrence M. Schoen, Lawrence C. Connolly, Maria V. Snyder, Don Bethman, Gregory Frost, Patrick Thomas, John Passarella, Mike McPhail, Jonathan McGoran, Jonathan Maberry, Henry Long, Jeffrey J. Mariotte, Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Walter Ciechanowski, CJ Henderson, and Catherynne M. Valente.
ARTISTS FEATURED: Steve Ressel, Marcella Harte, Nathaniel G. Sawyers, Mickey Freed, Allen Koszowski, Blair Webb, Don Bethman, Brian Thomas, Mike Oreszczyn, Baron Von Reign, Joe del Tufo, Nora Schaefer, and Burt Hopkins
CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS/ARTISTS SCHEDULED TO ATTEND TO SIGN COPIES: Jonathan Maberry, Gregory Frost, Maria V. Snyder, Jonathan Mcgoran, Lawrence M. Schoen, Danielle Ackley-Mcphail, Henry Long, John Passarella, Patrick Thomas, Lawrence C. Connolly and others. (Subject to change)
THE PARTY AFTER THE LAUNCH PARTY: After the signing, local hotspot Mojo 13 will host an evening of music to finish off the anniversary celebrations. The Miles, The Scatologists, and The Bill Riccio 5 are scheduled to perform. Doors open at 8pm. There will be a cover charge of $5.00. 21+ only
The event is listed here and is open to the public:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=168751924445
Thanks for reading!
John “Jack” Passarella