Sumiko Saulson

Local Author’s Month in November

We have three interviews coming next month, two of them with writers I have been so fortunate as to enjoy the opportunity to hear read this month as both Howard Brad Halverson and Rain Graves are among the writers I was at readings with this past month. All three of the writers I’ll be interviewing are local, and reside here in the Bay Area. That is exciting for me because it means I have the opportunity to see about some face-to-face interviews and perhaps videotaped segments.

Here’s the line up:

Howard Brad Halverson

The Writer:

Howard Brad Halverson

Author of “The End and the Echo” (on The Passion of Abolition press) a novella that bridges the genres of Modern, Fiction, Literary, Experimental, Cultural Criticism, and Romanticism. A recent graduate from San Francisco State University with a BA in English Literature, Howard Brad Halverson is now turning to authorship. Originally from Northern Utah, Howard has also traveled extensively in many different underground music groups or solo and even a semester abroad in Växjö Sweden. Howard is influenced largely by modernism and seeks to maintain a deconstructive approach to all projects. With his fledgling novella, The End and the Echo, expect a varied stumbling through human thought and experience, often complimented with cultural criticism. Howard aspires to continue writing as well as being involved with many other creative or expressive endeavors.

The Book:

The End and the Echo

Brandon Anderson is caught in the grips of despair when he begins to chronicle his itinerant affair with Gillian, the youth whose beauty enamored him years ago. Drifting aimlessly, their chance meetings mesh into a panoramic of desire, saw-toothed edges hacking at the boundaries of relationships, dark corners of attraction exploding in slow motion.

In the recollections of Gillian that Brandon conjures destiny is questioned; whether true love is the thread coursing through their intimate engagements or if feelings are only the byproducts of cultural patterns. A sense of estrangement sears between the lines, Brandon’s experiences oscillating around idealizations of love and the flagrant betrayal his desire entails.

Dr. Maria Nieto

The Writer:

Dr. Maria Nieto

Maria grew up in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles and moved from the area in 1984 to attend a Ph.D graduate program in Immunology at UC Berkeley. Maria currently resides in Oakland and works as a Professor of Biology at California State University, East Bay where she has been engaged in underrepresented minority student recruitment, teaching, and research for over 22 years. As a researcher and educator Maria’s writings have taken the form of scientific journal publications, and more recently popular press articles. Pig Behind The Bear represents Maria’s first work of fiction.

The Book:

Pig Behind the Bear

It’s 1971 and junior LA Times reporter Alejandra Marisol is working on a commemorative piece to recognize famed LA Times reporter Rubén Salazar who was murdered one year earlier. While working on the piece Alejandra enlists the help of characters, who challenge us to think differently about ourselves and the world we live in, as she gets embroiled in a murder mystery that appears to have ties to Salazar’s death. The reader will travel through streets and townships where rich Angelino culture comes to life, and where tragedy and despair are transformed into hope.

“Maria Nieto has managed to write a charming story that tackles huge cultural issues such as the assassination of Ruben Salazar. Part LA noir mystery, part family drama, part magic realism, Nieto takes us on a ride through Los Angeles touching the cultural milestones and heart of Chicano/LA history past and present. ” – Herbert Siguenza, founding member of Culture Clash

Rain Graves

The Writer

Rain Graves

Rain Graves is a Bram Stoker Award (2002) winning poet and writer currently living in San Francisco with one large black cat, and one small white cat. She has been published in the horror fiction and poetry genre since 1997, in various magazines, books, and webzines. She is an ordained Priestess of Isis in the Temple of Isis and Fellowship of Isis, as well as a retired dance instructor, and former musician. Her latest books include BARFODDER: Poetry Written in Dark Bars & Questionable Cafes (2009), and THE HAUNTED MANSION PROJECT: Year One (2012). Look for THE FOUR ELEMENTS in the fall of 2012 from Bad Moon Books, as well as her fiction in the popular Zombies vs. Robots comic book series of anthologies – WOMEN ON WAR – due out from IDW Publishing in the fall of 2012. For more information on appearances, visit http://www.raingraves.com

The Book

Barfodder

“Barfodder: Poetry Written in Dark Bars and Questionable Cafes”  – Worlds created; nightmares given. The universe is a tiny grain of sand, and by turns, it opens up into a revolving world of horrific little poems in BARFODDER by Rain Graves. Each poem tells a distinct story from serial killers, to love and loss, to the raising of Cthulhu in a haiku. Each poem in this collection was inspired by and written in a dark bar or questionable café throughout her travels…called forth by ominous candles, succulent liquors, and velvet curtains to delight the reader with a sensory of dark, demonic, luxurious imagery. It slides off the tongue like river slime…or a very good port (depending on if you swallow).

Posted in Announcements, Interviews