Blue Bicycle Books

Join us Fri., Apr. 8, 5 – 7 pm as local writer Julian Simmons signs copies of his Young Adult book The Writer’s Table, the first in a series. Simmons’ debut novel follows Alden Rowe down a perilous and fantastical path to recover his grandpa. After his grandfather’s sudden disappearance, Alden discovers the magical writing table that leads him on a quest to find his book-loving grandpa before time runs out.

Julian Simmons is a Charleston native who in addition to writing, is a successful recording artist.

About the book:  In this highly original work, Thomas D. Wilson offers surprising new insights into the origins of the political storms we witness today. Wilson connects the Ashley Cooper Plan–a seventeenth-century model for a well-ordered society imagined by Anthony Ashley Cooper (1st Earl of Shaftesbury) and his protégé John Locke–to current debates about views on climate change, sustainable development, urbanism, and professional expertise in general. In doing so, he examines the ways that the city design, political culture, ideology, and governing structures of the Province of Carolina have shaped political acts and public policy even in the present. Wilson identifies one of the fundamental paradoxes of American history: although Ashley Cooper and Locke based their model of rational planning on assumptions of equality, the lure of profits to be had from slaveholding soon undermined its utopian qualities. Wilson argues that in the transition to a slave society, the “Gothic” framework of the Carolina Fundamental Constitutions was stripped of its original imperative of class reciprocity, reverberating in American politics to this day.

About the Author: Thomas D. Wilson is an urban planner, writer, and independent scholar.

Join us Thurs., Mar. 17, 5:30 pm, for a poetry reading and reception with Richard Garcia, author of Porridge (Press 53, pb., $14.95).

About the author:  Richard Garcia is the winner of Press 53’s 2016 Award for Poetry. The author of six books, his poems have appeared in The Georgia Review, Crazyhorse, The Cortland Review and Ploughshares. His work has been included in The Best of the Prose Poem, The Pushcart Price: Best of the Small Presses, and Best American Poetry 2005.  He is the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Pushcart Prize, the Greensboro Award from the The Greensboro Review, the Cohen Award from  Ploughshares, and the Georgetown Prize from Georgetown Review. He was poet-in-residence at the Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles for twelve years, where he conducted workshops in art and poetry for hospitalized children. He teaches at the Antioch University M.F.A. in Creative Writing program in Los Angeles. He lives in Charleston.

About the book: What happens when a big, bad, mean dragon comes to a little village and terrorizes all its inhabitants? Will anyone step up and be a hero? Can anyone defeat such a fearsome foe? Enter Boris Crookedback, the most unlikely hero you will ever meet.  Discarded at birth and deemed too ugly and pitiful by most of the villagers, Boris is far more than what meets the eye. With smarts on his side, a heart of gold, and the pluck to save his true love, Boris may just be more of a force than anyone has reckoned!

* An important footnote to this project, 2 of the major characters in this book suffer from birth defects (among other things). If and when the book gets printed a portion of the proceeds from the sale of these books will be donated to the following worthy causes:

HEART benefits adults with special needs.
http://www.heartsc.org

Cure.org/clubfoot aids in the research and correction of this birth-defect.
https://cure.org/clubfoot/

The Scoliosis Research Society aids in the research and correction of spinal maladies.
http://www.srs.org

http://www.heartsc.org

https://cure.org/clubfoot/

http://www.srs.org

Please feel free to check out these organizations and donate.

About the Author: When he’s not daydreaming of global peace, ending world hunger, or fighting crime as a caped crusader, Baird Hoffmire is an animator, illustrator, graphic designer and exhibiting artist.  He resides in Charleston, South Carolina with his beautiful wife, Jane, and his equally lovely daughters, Sadie and harper. With a BFA in Illustration from Western Carolina University and a BFA in Media Arts and Animation from the Art Institute of Atlatna, Baird has been making a living as an artist since 2003. 

In this issue:

*Amber Tamblyn — Thurs., Feb. 25

*2016 author luncheon series — Rescue Road, Fri. Feb. 19

*Wine + Food Pop-Up, Mar. 4 – 6

*Baird Hoffman Story Time, Fri. Mar. 4

*Nikky Finney at Ashley Hall, Wed. Mar. 9

*Writing Camp

*Signed David McCullough

*Praying for Pat

***

Thurs., Feb. 25, 6 pm, writer and actress Amber Tamblyn will read from her poetry collection Dark Sparkler (Harper Perennial, pb., $18).

A lifelong performer from a Hollywood family, Tamblyn (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Two and a Half Men) is also a poet who has studied with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jack Hirschman and others.

Each poem in Dark Sparkler is a portrait of an actress — Brittany Murphy, Marilyn Monroe, Jane Mansfield, more — who met troubling ends. The book features original artwork by David Lynch and Marilyn Manson and others.

It’s a wonderful book, and we are so thrilled to have Amber come and read. Hope you can join us and then catch her husband David Cross at the Gaillard at 7:30.

Not sold yet? Quentin Tarantino blurbs that Tamblyn “has a gift for words”and he rewrote the Old Testament.

***

Friday, Feb. 19, New York Times best-selling author Peter Zheutlin talks about Rescue Road: One Man, Thirty Thousand Dogs and a Million Miles on the Lost Hope Highway (Sourcebooks, pb., $15), Hall’s Chophouse, 434 King St.

Tickets are $30 for the author talk and three-course luncheon, or $45 for lunch plus a signed book. Buy tickets here or through the 24/7 hotline 800-838-3006. For special requests call 843-303-1113. Doors open at 11:30 am and lunch is at noon.

***

We’re popping up a pop-up shop at Charleston Wine + Food Festival, March 4 – 6. Pop in to the W+F merch tent in Marion Square (near the fountain) for all the chef signings.

***

Fri., March 4, 4 pm, author and illustrator Baird Hoffmire will host a story hour for Boris Crookedback and the Dragon of Wang-Dang-Baloo. Juice boxes will be provided, bring your own child.

***

Wed., March 9, 7 pm, S.C. native and National Book Award winner Nikky Finney reads at Ashley Hall to kick off the school’s Spring Writers series.Admission is free, but please reserve a space here.

***

Write of Summer, Blue Bicycle Books’ Writing Camp — is back for our fourteenth (14th) year in Charleston. We have eight (ocho) sessions to choose from. Camp spots tend to fill up quickly, but they are not full now. Go to writeofsummer.com and ‘get your camp on’  (in the parlance of our times.)

***

Pulitzer and NBA-winning historian David McCullough (1776, The Great Bridge, The Wright Brothers) was kind enough to drop in recently. This means two things:

1. We currently have signed copies of all his works.
2. With Amber Tamblyn’s visit, the Blue Bike circle of John Adams/Traveling Pantsauthors/actors-who-starred-in-the-adaptation will finally be complete (Paul Giamatti and Ann Brashares, 2014). This is the book store equivalent of the EGOT.

***

You may have already heard the sad news that Pat Conroy has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Pat has been extremely generous to Blue Bicycle Books in the last nine years — several marathon signings and many more kindnesses. He is a great spirit and man of letters. Sending all our love and prayers to Pat and Cassandra as they fight this.