Events, Authors, and Black Hats

Hello, good morning and a very happy Friday to you all!

I'm writing to you today, partly because I had the night off yesterday, but mostly because there are many exciting things I must tell you! Let's get started!

Tomorrow is the Old Town Book Fair, hosted by Wolverine Farm. I'll keep this brief since my last post was dedicated entirely to this event. The fair will take place in Old Town Square from 10pm to 6pm. There will tons of local authors in attendance who will be signing and selling their books. For full details on the event check out Wolverine Farm's website.

 

Here at the bookstore we have lots of fun events planned for July. 

The first event is a signing with urban fantasy author Kevin Hearne. The bookstore has hosted Hearne before and we are excited to have him back. Hearne is the author of the Iron Druid series. His newest book is titled Hunted. If you're a fan of Jim Butcher or Carrie Vaughn you'll want to stop by and pick up one of Hearne's books. The event will take place on Monday, July 8th at 6:30pm. 

Our third Firehouse Poetry Night will be taking place on Friday the 12th at 6pm. Stop by and enjoy readings from three fantastic poets:  Heather Taylor Johnson, author of Pursuing Love and Death, Cassandra Eddington, an MFA poetry graduate from CSU, and Jason Hardung, our 2013 Fort Collins Poet Laureate! Snacks and beverages will be provided. Come on down and have yourself a good time. 

 

On Wednesday the 17th we will have Shawn Gascoyne-Bowman at the store talking about her new book Beer Crafts. Come and learn some fun things to do with all those bottle caps and beer holders you have sitting in your recycle bin (we know they're there). The event will start at 6pm, which is great! You can grab a beer at The Forge Pub and not feel guilty about it. 

 That's it for events so now I will move on to the Black Hats portion of the post. 

I received some very exciting news this morning from Kelsey. Simon and Schuster are now following our Tumblr page! Yay! A big thank you to whoever maintains the Simon and Schuster Tumblr page! 

To show our gratitude, I'm dedicating a portion of this post to the new Chuck Klosterman book about to be published by Simon and Schuster. It is titled I Wear the Black Hat. 

 

Klosterman is the author of Eating the Dinosaur, Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs and Killing Yourself to Live. He is also a New York Times Bestselling author. Klosterman has been described as, "...the only writer doing whatever it is he’s doing." It has been said that his books “...masterfully blend cultural analysis with self-interrogation and imaginative hypotheticals…” And Klosterman has explored a wide array of topics. 

 

In I Wear the Black Hat, Klosterman explores the modern understanding of villainy. What complexities can be found hiding beneath the negative (or positive) perception we have of the anithero? What makes a "good guy" good and a "bad guy" bad? Discover Klosterman's insights on these questions and more in his new book.

I Wear the Black Hat will be available on July 9th.

If you're in Colorado, you have a chance to meet Chuck Klosterman at the Boulder Bookstore in Boulder. 

The author will be at the store on July 15th at 7:30pm 

Until next time, Firehouse friends. Keep reading. 

Cheers,

~Renee

If you haven't heard...

Hello Firehouse friends. I was lacking in creative juices last week so I allowed myself to fall back on Chloe's lovely review of Sure Signs of Crazy. The author actually commented on the review. Nice one, Chloe!

Today I am here to tell you about the up-coming, second annual Old Town Book Fair. I was totally oblivious to this event last year. But working in a bookstore helps me stay up to date on all of the bookish goings on of Fort Collins.

The Old Town Book Fair is hosted by Wolverine Farm, a publishing house located right here in Fort Collins. The event is a day-long celebration of books and literary culture here in FoCo. But this year, there is even more fun to be had, all week long!

While the actually book fair will take place on June 29th from 10:00am to 6:00pm, there will be other fun activities taking place everyday starting on June 22nd.

These events are as follows:

June 22nd: Literary Costume Party at New Belgium Brewing 8pm

June 24th: The Wheel History Bicycle Ride at The Bean Cycle 5:30pm

June 25th: Workshop: Writing Against Delusion at Old Town Library 7:30pm

June 26th: Words with Hops Redux at Fort Collins Brewery 8pm

June 27th: A Poetic Inventory of Rocky Mountain National Park Book Release Party at Pinot's Pallette 8pm AND Workshop: Make it Loud at Old Town Library 7:30pm

June 28th: Read-a-Thon 10am-5pm Tender is the Night in Old Town (various locations)

For more information regarding these events, check out Wolverine Farm's page on the Book Fair here.

All this fun culminates in the ultimate event on Saturday the 29th. The Book Fair will take place in Old Town Square. There will be events taking place on the main stage, including a puppet show, open mic story time, a story slam, and music.

Both Old Firehouse Books and Fort Collins Brewery will have local authors spending time at their tents throughout the day. Stop by at the right time and you could meet authors such as:

Karye Cattrell
Natasha Wing
Curt Wendelboe
Laura Resau
Stasie John

and a whole bunch more! Again, for information on what authors will be at the event as well as when and where, click here.

All of us at the Firehouse would love to see you come out and participate in this community event.

Until next time, Firehouse friends. Keep reading.

Cheers,

~Ren

Guest Review: Sure Signs of Crazy

Greetings, Bloggers!

Here at the Firehouse we have an awesome volunteer named Chloe.  She does it all!  Shelve books, make signs, set up displays, and that's just the beginning!   She helped out the book store with another of her skills today, and that is the skill of writing!  Check out her review of the upcoming book by Karen Harrington called Sure Signs of Crazy.  It's coming out to the public on 08/20/2013 so get excited!

 

Order a copy here!  

Sure Signs of Crazy

The first thing I thought when I read this book’s title was a crazy person was going to try to kill someone (which happens...). Twelve year old Sarah now lives in a small Texas town with her dad as they try to cope with life after the “incident”.  When Sarah was two her mother drowned her and her twin brother. Luckily Sarah survived. Sarah and her dad are forced to move to a different town every time their true identities are found. She finds this hard to deal with and confides in a plant named “plant”. I think this was a really good book and I would recommend it for 12-15 year olds who enjoyed Everything On a Waffle by Polly Horvath

-Chloe

Shopping local, even if it's not your local

Sorry to have left you high and dry like that my Firehouse friends. I was out of town again. Justin made a valiant attempt to write to you, but alas, it was not to be.

I know it's not Thursday but since it's been a while I figured I would post a little something for you all.

This past week I was away in Boston, for work, not for pleasure, but did have quite a bit of fun. My coworkers and I had our evenings free and we used this time to get out and explore the city. I did have one place I had planned to visit even before we left. Justin told me about Trident Bookstore and lucky for me the shop was only a few blocks from my hotel.

Our first night in town we found ourselves walking down Newbury Street. It was lined with shops and restaurants, all a little highbrow for our taste but lovely to look at. We were on the hunt for a place to eat but as a dear uncle of mine once said, "The only thing better than finding what you’re looking for is finding something you weren't looking for at a great bargin." And that is just what happened.

Suddenly, shinning in the light of the slowly setting sun, the Raven Bookstore sign captured my gaze.

There was a brief moment where I thought I had the strength to walk by without going in, much less buying anything. But then I caught sight of their outdoor book cart and table and I ran down the stairs to investigate.

To cut right to the chase, I ended up walking out with three books. After that little episode of no self control, I decided we should visit Trident on a different night. It's good to pace yourself.

The next day, after all the sessions had let out, my brother and I ventured back into the city to find Trident Bookstore. David (my brother) never saw the inside of Trident. He ditched me for the Brazilian Ju Jitzu center right below the bookstore. In retrospect that was probably a good thing. I'm sure many of you can relate to that nagging relative or friend you drag into a bookstore. "You're taking forever!" they wail. "There are a lot of books!" you reply. So annoying!

I perused the shelves, feeling very much like I was back at Old Firehouse after it had had a serious makeover. Many of the books on their shelves I see several times a week already, but here I had to work even harder not to grab them all off the shelf. I behaved myself though and only walked out with one book. 

Why am I telling you all this? Well, you've heard it from us before: shopping local is very important! Not just to the store you’re buying from but to your whole community, wherever that might be. Old Firehouse sells to many people that are just visiting Fort Collins, and we appreciate their business greatly.

So next time you're out of town be sure to shop local. Just because it isn't your local doesn't mean it is any less deserving of your support. We could all stand to help each other out more. The world would be a much better place if we did.

Cheers,

~Ren