Blue Bicycle Books

Sat., June 3, 5 pm, Piccolo Fiction presented by Blue Bicycle Books.

Blue Bicycle Books, 420 King Street. Free and open to the public. 843-722-2666.

The festival’s longest-running event exclusively devoted to fiction, Piccolo Fiction presents local and South Carolina authors reading brief short stories. This year’s reading will be in the courtyard beside the bookstore, and, following tradition, each story will begin with the words “I ducked into the alley…”

Since 2000, Piccolo Fiction has featured dozens of S.C. writers, with stories broadcast by S.C. Public Radio and published in the Charleston City Paper.

Featured authors:

Brittany Butler is a former CIA targeting officer who recruited spies and dismantled terrorist networks abroad. Brittany has worked to promote the rights of disenfranchised Afghan women and girls and to resettle Afghan refugees. Her first novel is The Syndicate Spy, telling the story of how female intelligence officers use their intellect and skills to bring peace to this war-torn region.

Gervais Hagerty grew up in Charleston, graduated from Vanderbilt University and went on to report and produce news for local radio and TV. After earning her MBA at The Citadel, she taught communications to cadets. In 2020, she finally caved to a strong and bizarre urge to write books. HarperCollins published her first novel, In Polite Company in 2021.

Y-Danair Niehrah grew up writing fantasy and horror but shifted to historical fiction in high school, focusing on the stories of the Degar people—the indigenous tribes of Vietnam. He studied creative writing at the College of Charleston before pursuing an MFA at Queens University of Charlotte studying under writers like Fred Leebron, Naeem Murr, and Jonathan Dee.

Sara Peck is the author of three books of poetry. She grew up in Greenville, attended the College of Charleston, received her MFA from Columbia College Chicago, and teaches writing at the University School of the Lowcountry, where she was named SCISA High School Teacher of the Year for 2020-21. She was recently selected to develop a novel manuscript as part of the Tin House Winter Workshop in Portland.

Join us on Tues., Apr. 4, 5:30 pm to celebrate the release day of the newest YA novel by F.T. Lukens, Spell Bound! (Margaret K. McElderry, hb., 336 pp., $19.99) Lukens will be joined in conversation by Corrie Wang, Charleston-based YA author of City of Beasts and The Takedown.

About Spell Bound:

Edison Rooker isn’t sure what to expect when he enters the office of Antonia Hex, the powerful sorceress who runs a call center for magical emergencies. He doesn’t have much experience with hexes or curses. Heck, he doesn’t even have magic. But he does have a plan—to regain the access to the magical world he lost when his grandmother passed.

Antonia is…intimidating, but she gives him a job and a new name—Rook—both of which he’s happy to accept. Now all Rook has to do is keep his Spell Binder, an illegal magical detection device, hidden from the Magical Consortium. And contend with Sun, the grumpy and annoyingly cute apprentice to Antonia’s rival colleague, Fable. But dealing with competition isn’t so bad; as Sun seems to pop up more and more, Rook minds less and less.

But when the Consortium gets wind of Rook’s Spell Binder, they come for Antonia. All alone, Rook runs to the only other magical person he knows: Sun. Except Fable has also been attacked, and now Rook and Sun have no choice but to work together to get their mentors back…or face losing their magic forever.

About the author:

F.T. Lukens is a New York Times bestselling author of YA speculative fiction including the novels So This Is Ever After, In Deeper Waters, and the forthcoming Spell Bound as well as other science-fiction and fantasy works. Their contemporary fantasy novel The Rules and Regulations for Mediating Myths & Magic was a 2017 Cybils Award finalist in YA Speculative Fiction, the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Gold Winner for YA fiction and won the Bisexual Book Award for Speculative Fiction. F.T. resides in North Carolina with their spouse, three kids, three dogs, and three cats.

Thurs., Dec. 8, 5:30 pm, have a glass of wine with Savannah’s Carolyn Prusa, author of None of This Would Have Happened If Prince Were Alive (Atria, hb., 336 pp., $27).

Come celebrate the end (hopefully) of hurricane season with this emotional, fun and lively debut!

This in-store event is free and open to the public. For more information call Blue Bicycle Books, 843-722-2666.

Can’t make it? Order a signed copy here (Release date Nov. 22, 2022)

About the book:

Ramona’s got an obnoxious boss, a toddler teetering through toilet training, a critical mom who doesn’t mind sharing her observations, and oops—turns out her husband has been unfaithful. That’s how a Category 4 hurricane bearing down on her life in Savannah becomes just another item on her to-do list. In the next forty-eight hours, she’ll add a neighbor child and a class guinea pig named Clarence Thomas to her entourage as they evacuate town. Attempting to ignore the persistent glow of her minivan’s check engine light, Ramona navigates police checkpoints, bathroom emergencies, instructions from her boss, and torrential downpours while fielding calls and apology texts from her cheating husband and longing for the days when her life was like a Prince song, full of sexy creativity and joy.

About the author:

Carolyn Prusa has written all sorts of things, from essays to articles to product descriptions of zebra print ponchos, which have appeared in the Charlotte Observer, Greensboro News and Record, Go Triad, Savannah Magazine, South Magazine, and Savannah News and Record. None of This Would Happened is her technically her third novel.

She is delighted by Southern women, giant pandas, awkward conversations, Legs-Up-the-Wall pose, pies with graham cracker crust, insulting greeting cards, lip balm, Stacy Abrams, the em dash, Mike’s Hot Honey, and many, many other things.

She lives in Savannah, Georgia, with her two sons, husband, and enormous wookie rescue pup, Dale. So, surrounded by dudes.

On Weds., Oct. 19, 5:30 pm, join journalist John Torry in conversation with historian James Scott on Torry’s newest work of military history, The Last One Out: Yates McDaniel, World War II’s Most Daring Reporter (Schiffer Military, hb., 256 pp., $30).

About the book:

When Yates McDaniel died in Florida in 1983, few outside his family paid much attention. The only hint of his fame came in a brief obituary buried on the inside pages of the New York Times. The obit suggested bravery and a past far more exciting than almost anyone knew. Even those who worked alongside him in the 1960s at the Associated Press were startled to learn what McDaniel had been, what he had done when he was a young man and the world was at war. Yet, this remarkable reporter covered more of the Asian war than anyone else—from the savage Japanese assault on Nanking in 1937 to the fall of Singapore in 1942 to landing with US Marines on New Britain in 1943. He took risks no other reporter ever accepted, and colleagues joked that Japanese bombers followed him wherever he went.

About the author:

Jack Torry is the former Washington bureau chief for the Columbus Dispatch. The Last One Out is his third book.

Renowned silhouette artist Clay Rice returns to Blue Bicycle Books, Wed., Aug. 24, 3 – 6 pm to cut children’s silhouettes.

Taught by his grandfather, Carew Rice, Clay is a 21st-century folk artist and a Lowcountry treasure. Cutting a child’s silhouette in under five minutes is a performance in itself. You’ll be amazed when he captures a recognizable profile of your squirming two-year-old in less time than it takes to get her shoes on. His national touring schedule keeps him on the road often, cutting more than 10,000 children’s silhouettes a year, so events back home in Charleston are rare!

Personal silhouettes start at $48 for two copies.

We expect slots to fill up quickly; to book an appointment, just register here!