Go back in time. Meet colorful characters. Watch them kill each other.

FROM DARK PAGES

A progressive mystery play at the Morris-Butler House

Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes, Mrs. Lovett, Lizzie Borden and other characters from fact and fantasy return to the Morris-Butler House in Indianapolis during the popular progressive mystery play From Dark Pages. Follow clues from room to room of the 1865 Indianapolis mansion to find out whodunit and why. From H.G. Wells to Queen Victoria, you’ll meet colorful figures from nineteenth-century life and literature along the way.

Performances

October 2009

Every Friday and Saturday

6:30 7:30, 8:30, 9:30 p.m.

$14/person

Reservations required

FOR TICKETS CALL

317-636-5409

Morris-Butler House

1204 North Park Ave.

Indianapolis, IN 46202

(located in downtown Indianapolis, just 1.6 miles northeast of the Circle)

One of the aims of this here BookChoy experiment is to bring together a community of writers. Every year, one event comes close to achieving this goal: the Gathering of Writers put on by the Writers' Center of Indiana. You see literary folk, genre writers, freelancers, professors from all the area colleges, Hoosier ex-pats, editors, and even an agent or two (they're the ones in the nice clothes). It's a great event, and it seems to grow a bit each year. This year should be the biggest ever. The faculty line-up looks great, and there's a hell of a student discount. Here are the deets:

The Writers’ Center of Indiana

presents

Write For Your Life

A Gathering of Writers and Readers Celebrating

the Writers’ Center’s 30th Anniversary

November 7, 2009 at the Indianapolis Art Center in Broad Ripple

820 East 67th Street, Indianapolis

Student Discount: 75% Off!

College and Graduate students w/ ID pay only $25 to register for this year’s Gathering of

Writers. Lunch included!

Join us for a day of community and conversation, with sessions on fiction, poetry, nonfiction,

and publishing, featuring an all-star faculty of Indiana writers and keynote poet Alice Friman.

Non-student registration is $100 for general public/$50 for Writers’ Center members, and can

be completed by phone or online.

Faculty

Alice Friman, Poetry

Kit Ehrman, Mystery Writing

Lou Harry, Collaborative Fiction

Patricia Henley, Fiction

Jim McGarrah, Memoir

Margaret McMullan, YA Novels

Norman Minnick, Poetry

Roger Mitchell, Poetry

Susan Neville, Creative Nonfiction

Donald Platt, Poetry

Robert Rebein, Creative Nonfiction

Kip Robisch, Nature Writing

Andrew Scott, Screenwriting

Greg Schwipps, Writing and Publishing Your First Novel

David Zivan, Editor-in-Chief, Indianapolis Monthly, on writing and editing

Editors of Freight Stories and Booth on publishing online

Editors of Southern Indiana Review and RopeWalk Press on literary publishing

Directors from RopeWalk Writers Retreat on retreats and summer conferences

Find more information at www.indianawriters.org.

Student discount only available by phone. Call 317-255-0710 to register.

Let's face it: some readers are better than others. Some writers come alive on the page, and die at the mike. Then there are the writers who can light up a crowd, but when you buy their book, you find yourself thinking, "I liked this crap?" Then there's the rarest breed of all, the great writer who can give an engaging, funny, challenging reading.

Put Michael Martone in that last group.

If you've been to one of his readings, you know. And if you haven't, come find out. Tuesday, 7:00, in the Ruth Lilly building at Marion College.

"Your favorite booksellers are working their butts off keeping the store open, lining up interesting authors to come visit, receiving new books, paying the bills, and going home at night and reading those new books so they can say something smart when you come in and ask about them."

How to thank them?  Spread the word.  Here's how to do it. 

  

Hey, remember that poetry contest I mentioned, the one with the bus stops?  More details on that are finally available.  See below.  And read carefully, because the requirements are kind of weird.  I'm not just talking about the use of words like "photocatalytic," which I'm pretty sure is made up.  I mean like how previously published work is acceptable.    

The Indianapolis Cultural Trail: A Legacy of Gene & Marilyn Glick announces another public art installation. "Moving Forward,"by Indianapolis-based architect Donna Sink, is a series of three custom-designed eco-friendly bus shelters that will showcase original poetry by published writers. The shelters will be located along the Indianapolis Cultural Trail on the south side of Virginia Avenue near Lexington Street, McCarty Street and Woodlawn Avenue. Each shelter will be comprised of ecoresin panels, which are made using 40 percent post-industrial re-grind content, mounted in a stainless steel frame. The shelters will be installed on TX Active photocatalytic cement pads. These pads will be self-cleaning and will help reduce many pollutants deemed harmful to human health and the environment.

A call for poetry submissions are due Nov. 22, 2009. Published poets living in or with ties to Indiana are invited to submit work based on subjects such as community, neighborhoods, landmarks, shared spaces, transportation, history and the future. Poets must have published at least one poem in a print magazine or anthology prior to submitting work for "Moving Forward." Selected poems may have been published previously.

More info here.  

Cabaret Poe

Indiana has to be one of the best states in the country for celebrating Halloween. October 31st hits and it's always dark and cold and creepy. The trees are the right colors, the pumpkins are scary as hell, and Midwesterners give the best candy. (Just try trick-or-treating in New York or L. A. It's nothing but apples and toothbrushes, and maybe a Chick Tract.)

In the spirit of Halloween, and to celebrate Edgar Allan Poe's 200th (!) birthday, check out Cabaret Poe, playing at the Irvington Lodge. Tickets are on sale now for shows from October 2nd through the 31st. What better way to celebrate the season, honor one of the American Greats, and support the local arts, all for a mere fifteen bucks?

I’m not sure how to describe Masterpiece in a Day, the big event held in Fountain Square every fall.  It’s part community festival, part write-a-thon, part art show . . . let’s call it an explosion of art and community.

If the day is warm and nice, you’ll see artists and writers all over the sidewalks, trying to complete a masterwork in a matter of, oh, about six hours.  If you’ve taken part in MIAD before, you know that it’s a lot of fun.  If you haven’t, you should try it.  Especially if you’re a poet or a flash fiction writer -- the contest favors   short-form specialists.  

Deets on the writing contest below:     

Masterpiece in a Day

When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 19
Where: 1043 Virginia Ave. (in front of Murphy Art Center)
Cost: Free for participants and visitors

The art and writing contests begin at 9 a.m. with day-of registration ending at 11 a.m. Completed artwork and typed copies of writing are due for judging at 3:30 p.m.

Winners from both contests will be announced at about 4:30 p.m. All work must be completed in the Fountain Square neighborhood during contest hours.

The writing contest presented by Second Story features a single combined contest this year for prose writers and poets. The overall winner receives $600, with the second-place writer taking $300 and third place picking up $100.

Total writing prize money: $1,000

Writing judges are Fountain Square writer and Urban Times contributor Connie Zeigler and NUVO critic and poet Dan Grossman.

Download rules for writing contest here.

"Butcher-con" is Catchier

1) We've previous blurbed a little something about the upcoming Bouchercon 2009 World Mystery Convention, soon to be held here in Indianapolis, but it's the kind of event that deserves another mention. Bouchercon (pronounced, apparently, BOWchercon, which is less cool than the meat-carving variation) is a yearly traveling convention that has previously graced cities like Toronto, Baltimore and Anchorage. (Mystery novelists like being cold.)

Besides being a great place to hobnob with mystery writers from all over the country, this is an event jam-packed with cool bells and whistles, like the pre-convention display of a handwritten Sherlock Holmes manuscript. For more information, head on over to the convention's website.

2) If you're the kind of person who appreciates the physical aesthetics of books, you've probably spent a fair amount of time judging them by their covers. FaceOut Books (not to be confused with that other great waste of time, the Social Networking Site That Shall Not Be Named) provides gallery after gallery of cover designs, along with all kinds of cool behind the scenes commentary about how design deicisions are made, who gets to make them, and what impact they have. Cool and fascinating, this site concretely proves what a blight the '70s truly were on book covers.

Some choice sentences from the esteemed Mr. Brown.  Can't get enough?  More here. 

10. The Da Vinci Code, chapter 4: Five months ago, the kaleidoscope of power had been shaken, and Aringarosa was still reeling from the blow.

Did they hit him with the kaleidoscope?

9. The Da Vinci Code, chapter 32: The vehicle was easily the smallest car Langdon had ever seen. "SmartCar," she said. "A hundred kilometers to the liter."

Pro tip: when fleeing from the police, take a moment to boast about your getaway vehicle’s fuel efficiency. And get it wrong by a factor of five. SmartCars do about 20km (12 miles) to the litre.

5. Angels and Demons, chapter 4: learning the ropes in the trenches

Learning the ropes (of a naval ship) while in the trenches (with the army in the First World War). It’s a military education, certainly.

Poetry on Brick Street

Just got a nice update on a pair of events going on with the monthly Poetry on Brick Street:

a) On September 20th, Poetry on Brick Street will be moving into the new basement space of the G. Simone's cafe, an event worth celebrating. Any venue that gives sustained support to the Indianapolis poetry scene is a business worth patronizing. With money, I mean. It will probably do little good to call them and say, "Well, G. Simone's Cafe, I'm sure you did the very best you could."

b) Rusty C. Moe will be doing a reading as the featured poet on October 1st. Moe's written several books of poetry, and he's also a psychotherapist, so you know he's seen some crazy-ass shit.

G. Simone's is at 120 South Main Street in downtown Zionsville, and if you'd like more information on these or other Poetry on Brick Street events you can email info@poetryonbrickstreet.org.

Ah, fall.  It's the time of year that I search out all the local reading series to plug into the Lit Events Calendar (that's the link on the top right corner of your screen that you never click on.  Why do you never click on it?).  I just finished plugging in the events for the IUPUI series, a vibrant and underrated series run by BookChoy pal, Terry Kirts. 

This year they've got all poets, for some reason (my guess?  Terry found out that poets come cheap).  Headliners include Patricia Hampl, Ed Hirsch, and Nin Andrews.  

If you've never been to a reading at IUPUI, you might be surprised when you walk downstairs in their big industrial complex of a library to find a cozy little theater where the readings are held.  You might also be surprised by how damn hard it is to find visitor parking on campus, so come early.  

Terry will tell you that you don't have to worry about parking tickets, that the IUPUI parking police won't actually follow up on the tickets they stick on your car, but this is A LIE.  The IUPUI parking police will dog your ass like you're Dr. Richard Kimble.

Ah, well.  I can take solace in the thought that my $15 parking fine probably paid for at least one of these poets, maybe even two.     

This is hilarious. Here's an email that I just got from The Mystery Company Bookstore in Carmel:

Some guy named Dan Brown seems to have a new book that goes on sale today. It's called The Lost Symbol, and boy is there a lot of desperation out there surrounding this new release. In over twenty years of bookselling, I don't think I've ever seen like this! Folks are falling all over themselves to give the thing away.

It all started with the publisher. Our very nice Random House sales rep contacted us over and over again to get us to take a few copies. I bet we heard more from her about this one title than we did about every other new Fall title combined. (Random House publishes many very fine writers whose work must just sell itself, since we hear so little about those books from them.) If they were spending so much time and energy on The Lost Symbol, they must have been really worried that no one would want it!

I think that stores might have picked up on the publisher's concern because they're doing so very much to get you to buy it from them. Have you been getting all those emails too? The ones from the chain stores and online outlets offering huge discounts on this one title? It just seems weird, doesn't it? These big, big chain stores and even bigger online stores offer thousands of titles yet use so much of their email bandwith to sell you this one title at a price so low that they can't possibly make any money on it. Truly they must be worried that they'll end up stuck with lots and lots of unsold copies.

We did oblige the publisher and take a dozen copies of The Lost Symbol, which will go on sale when we open in a couple of hours at 10:30 a.m. I guess we've caught the bug, and are just as worried as everyone else is that no one will want it. So we'll make this offer, limited to just the 12 copies we have on hand: buy $35 of other books from us in store, your choice, new or used, and we'll give you The Lost Symbol free. If you can't make it in to the store, buy $50 of books from us online or over the phone, and we'll throw The Lost Symbol into the box for no additional charge. As always, we will not add a charge for standard shipping to any address in the US.

We do have lots of other great books in stock right now. It won't be hard for you to find either $35 or $50 worth of books that you really want.

It would be nutty to think that a store like ours could get into a discounting war with all the big guys who are trying to trying so hard to give The Lost Symbol away. But we are just as concerned as they are about being stuck with these things that -- given the signals everyone is sending -- probably no one wants. So we will literally just give it away to the first 12 people, one copy each.

You can shop online beginning now -- www.themysterycompany.com -- or come in to the store starting at 10:30 a.m. If you shop online, be sure to put at least $50 of books into your shopping cart, and just mention "Lost Symbol" in the special instructions box on the checkout form.

I think you'll be fine, Mystery Company. Brown's other books were shitty, and they sold a ton. Why would his readers start to care now?

Dear Book Choy-huahuas.

On September 13th, I'm going to take part in a write-a-thon for the Writers' Center of Indiana, a community-based literary arts organization serving writers and readers throughout Indiana. 

The Writers' Center does a ton of good work. They offer classes taught by published writers; stage a series of craft lectures called "Be a Better Writer;" host the annual Gathering of Writers, as well as the monthly "Evening with the Muse," a free program with a featured poet and an open mic session—really, there are too many programs and partnerships to list all of them here, so I'm not even going to try. Instead, let me tell you a quick story about just one of their special projects. 

This summer, the Center sponsored a memoir-writing project at the Indiana Correctional School for Girls. Under the guidance of a memoir-writing specialist, the girls wrote the stories of their lives. And at the end of the summer, the girls were presented with their own published memoirs. 

For some of these girls, this may be the first book they've ever been given. For others, this project might be the first time someone has welcomed their voices. 

This is just one example of the empowering work the Writers' Center does every day, in places like the Flanner House, the Indianapolis Senior Center, the Indianapolis Marion County Public Library system, among other places. But like most arts organizations, the recent downturn in the economy has deeply affected the Center's resources. This is where the write-a-thon comes in. 

To continue to thrive and grow and serve the community, the Center needs donations. So here's what I'm hoping for from you: a pledge to support my write-a-thon. Donating is easy. It'll take two minutes. Just click on this link to Firstgiving, an online site that specializes in fundraisers for nonprofits:  www.firstgiving.com/bryanfuruness

Then click on the button that says, "Donate to this nonprofit," and you're in business.  

If you'd like to know more about the Writers' Center, please visit them at www.indianawriters.org.  Thanks for your consideration!

-Bryan

Poems & Bus Stops.  An odd couple, to be sure, but what the hell?  Those two crazy kids just might make it.  

"Moving Forward," is a new permanent public art project for the Indianapolis Cultural Trail that will bring three bus shelters, custom-designed by Indianapolis-based architect Donna Sink, to the Trail. Importantly, they become the vehicle for permanently displaying three poems.  Published poets, who live in or who have close ties to Indiana, are invited to submit work to be considered for the project. Subjects may include, but are not restricted to, community, neighborhoods, landmarks, shared spaces, transportation, history, and the future. Each poet selected will receive a $1,000 Prize. 

For more information, keep watching www.indianawriters.org

I'm not a good Hoosier. If I were, I would be able to hum Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust," cite a statistic from the Kinsey Reports, and say something intelligent about Booth Tarkington and Gene Stratton-Porter. But I fail that last test because I haven't (deep breath) ever read Tarkington or GSP.

There. I said it. Please don't tell my mother. As a fourth-grade teacher, she taught Indiana history for thirty years, and if she ever finds this out, she'll whip my ass with a wooden spoon.

But maybe I can redeem myself, starting with GSP-Fest in Irvington. Limberlost? I say LimberFOUND!

Gene Stratton-Porter Festival in Historic Irvington
Indiana Historical Society

Celebrate the 100th anniversary of Hoosier writer and naturalist Gene Stratton-Porter’s classic novel "A Girl of the Limberlost." Films, readings, crafts, art exhibits, presentations and special menu offerings will be available all day at many Irvington businesses and organizations.

More info here.

In the summer, Andy Levy held a reading of his new book, A Brain Wider than the Sky: A Migraine Diary, at Big Hat Books in the Ripple.  I think it was the first reading of his book tour -- the event had a kick-off feel to it, anyway.  And I'm guessing that his reading at Butler this coming Wednesday will have a homecoming feel to it.  Come find out.  

Here are the deets:   

Join the Visiting Writers Series next Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 6 p.m. in the Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall, as we kick off the fall season with Butler’s own Andy Levy. His most recent book, A Brain Wider than the Sky: A Migraine Diary, investigates both the author's own experience as a "migraineur" and the history of migraines as both personal bedevilment and cultural phenomenon. Part memoir, part history and part science, A Brain Wider than the Sky is an extraordinary social study, cultural history and evocative personal story about migraines and how they affect us.

 

Levy directs the Writers Studio and holds the Edna Cooper Chair in the English Department. His last book, The First Emancipator, was cited as a “Best of 2005” by the Chicago Tribune, Amazon.com, and Booklist.  Levy will offer a reading followed by a Question and Answer session.

The semester has started, and somehow I am already in full triage mode.  Reading time?  Gone.  The occasional viewing of a Daily Show or an episode of The Wire?  Gonzo.  My writing sessions? Not that.  That I'm defending to the end.  You can have my laptop when you can pry it from my cold dead hands.      

But someday soon, when things settle down just a bit, the first book I'm going to pick up is Dan Chaon's AWAIT YOUR REPLY.  I'm kind of lusting for it now.  How cool is the book?  So cool that book trailers are being created by fans in tribute.  

Start planning now, mystery-lovers.  

Two Free Events for Writers at the Indianapolis Marion County Public Library 

Indianapolis will host more than 2,000 attendees of the 40th annual World Mystery Fan Convention known as Bouchercon.  In conjunction with this event,  the public will have the opportunity to hear top mystery authors discuss the intricate facets of mystery writing during "Bouchercon's Best:  A Panel of Mystery Authors," on Tuesday, October 13 at 7:00 p.m. at the Glendale Library Branch located at 6101 North Keystone Avenue, Indianapolis (in the Glendale Mall).  Participating authors -who are also attending Bouchercon- include Mary Saums (author of Midnight Hour; Thistle and Twigg and Mighty Old Bones), Beverly Graves Myers (author of Tito Amato Mysteries), Leighton Gage (author of Buried Strangers and Blood of the Wicked), and Naomi Hirahara (author of the Mas Arai Mysteries).  For more information on this event, please call the Indianapolis Marion County Public Library at (317) 275-4410.

Also in connection with Bouchercon, mystery lovers will be enlightened and entertained as author S.J. Rozan explores the craft of mystery October 14 at 7:00 p.m. at Central Library in the Clowes Auditorium, located at 40 E. Saint Clair Street in Downtown Indianapolis.  Rozan, who is serving as the Toastmistress for Bouchercon, is the author of the Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mystery series, the most recent of which is The Shanghai Moon.  Her book Winter and Night won the Edgar, Nero and Macavity Awards for Best Novel.  This program is part of the Writers' Center of Indiana's Clowes Craft Lecture Series, "Be a Better Writer," made possible by a grant from the Allen Whitehill Clowes Foundation.  For more information on this event, please call the Indianapolis Marion County Public Library at (317) 275-4099.

Do you like books?  Do you like free things?  Do you like . . . pudding?  

Me, too.  But this pudding is mine, and you can't have it.  You might be able to get a free book, however, over at Andrew's Book Club:     

Andrew’s Book Club is giving away a copy of Anne Sanow’s Triple Time. Here are the rules.

1. Join the Andrew’s Book Club Facebook group, if you haven’t already.

2. Recruit at least 5 of your friends to join the group.

3. Once you can confirm that those 5 friends have also joined, send an e-mail toandrewscottonline(at)mac.com with their names.

4. Everyone who meets these requirements will be entered in the contest. One random winner will be selected. Please include a mailing address in your e-mail.

5. The deadline for this e-mail is 15 September 2009.