Get out there and support your favorite local independently owned bookstores!

On Wednesday, May 30, SCOTT BURTNESS reads from his fiction. Scott Burtness lives in the midwest with his wonderful wife, Liz. He has always enjoyed reading horror, sci fi, and thrillers—especially comedic takes on these genres. For Scott, reading is a fun escape, a chance to live vicariously through someone else’s adventures. He decided to start writing with the hope of entertaining readers like himself. When Scott isn’t making madcap adventures about bowling vampires, beer-guzzling werewolves, and zombies that love watching T.V, he spends his time bowling, guzzling beer, or sitting in front of the T.V.

Speculations is a co-production of DreamHaven Books and SF MINNESOTA, a multicultural speculative fiction organization that also hosts a midsummer SF convention, DIVERSICON, the 26th edition of which will be held July 27-29, 2018, at the Best Western Plus Como Park by Bandana Square, Saint Paul, with Guests CHARLIE JANE ANDERS and BRYAN THAO WORRA.

Dan Gearino, author of Comic Shop: The Retail Mavericks Who Gave Us a New Geek Culture will be in the store talking about his book and comic shops in general. Come hear about the history of the comic shop in general and where DreamHaven fits into the picture!

On Wednesday, June 27 at 6:30 p.m. DC EDWARDS reads from her fiction. dc edwards is a writer, Afrofuturist and pop culture junkie. Her first novel, Bright City, debuted in April 2017. dc edwards has a somewhat healthy obsession with Lego Minifigures, any character that has powers–she can’t choose between DC and Marvel–and the Assassins Creed video game series–her favorite one being Black Flag. dc participates in the Sunday Weekend Writing Warriors challenge where you have to write a story or an excerpt of something you’re working on in 8-10 sentences. Check her out at dcedwardswrites.com. She lives in St. Paul with her partner and their two weird cats.

Speculations is a co-production of DreamHaven Books and SF MINNESOTA, a multicultural speculative fiction organization that also hosts a midsummer SF convention, DIVERSICON, the 26th edition of which will be held July 27-29, 2018, at the Best Western Plus Como Park by Bandana Square, Saint Paul, with Guests CHARLIE JANE ANDERS and BRYAN THAO WORRA.

On Thursday, July 26 at 6:30 p.m. CHARLIE JANE ANDERS and BRYAN THAO WORRA read from their respective works.

CHARLIE JANE ANDERS is the author of the Nebula-Award-winning novel All the Birds in the Sky (2016) and the collection Six Months, Three Days, Five Others (2017). She’s the organizer of the “Writers with Drinks” reading series, and she was a founding editor of io9, a website about science fiction, science, and futurism, and co-founder of Other magazine, a magazine of pop culture and politics for the new outcasts. Her stories have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction. The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Tor.com, Lightspeed, Tinhouse, ZYZZYVA, and several anthologies; and five chapbooks. She is a recipient of the Lambda Literary and Locus awards. Her novelette, Six Months, Three Days, won a 2017 Hugo Award.

BRYAN THAO WORRA is the President of the Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA), an international literary organization celebrating the poetry of the imaginative and the fantastic. A Lao American writer, he holds over 20 awards for his work, including an NEA Fellowship in Libraries, and was chosen as a Cultural Olympian representing Laos during the 2012 London Summer Games. His books include The Tik-Tock Diaries: Our Dinner with Cluster Bombs, On the Other Side of the Eye, Winter Ink, Barrow, Demonstra, Tanon Sai Jai, and the e-book Touching Detonations. His work appears internationally, including in Australia, Canada, Scotland, Germany, France, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, and Pakistan.

UPDATE!

This Wednesday’s reading was originally intended to feature J. Lloren Quill, but he has had to postpone his reading. Instead, Eric Heideman will step in, reading pieces from TOTU #32 from out-of-state authors.

Speculations is a co-production of DreamHaven Books and SF MINNESOTA, a multicultural organization that also sponsors a midsummer speculative fiction organization, DIVERSICON, the 27th edition of which will be held July 22-24, 2019 in the Twin Cities, with Guests TBA.

We have a lot of books in the store. We have a lot of books in the basement. We have a lot of books still coming in from the collection Greg purchased earlier this year.

Fact #1: We need to clear some space.

Did you know that we have a whole garage full of $1 paperbacks and hardcovers? When something is a little too beat up to sell for regular prices, or when we have too many of them, or when something comes in that doesn’t fall under our usual range of SF-Fantasy-Horror-etc., they often go out into the garage at $1. Yes, the garage isn’t the easiest place to shop, often being a little too cold in the winter and a little too hot in the summer, but right now it’s just perfect. SF/Fantasy/Westerns/Poetry/Home Maintenance/Classics/Popular Fiction…it’s out there.

Fact #2: We have a lot of good books, going cheap, that nobody looks at.

1 + 2 = Fact #3: DreamHaven is going to have a bag sale.

Saturday, September 8th, DreamHaven is going to give you a chance to pick up a lot of good reading for not a lot of cash.

Here’s the plan: $5 gets you a small bag (6 3/4 x 4 3/4 x 13 1/2”) or $15 gets you a grocery bag. You take it into the garage, and fill it with all the hardcovers, paperbacks, 25-cent comics, or whatever else we manage to pack in there by Saturday. Fill it right up to the top, then take it away – not back into the store (we don’t want things to be confused, or to come back!). 

There are lots of goodies out there, and I expect that by the 8th we will have even more. And if the weather is nice, we could expand out onto the driveway and have room for even more things. Come on by, say hello, and help get us a little breathing space before we wedge even more wonders in!

On Wednesday, September 26, LOIS McMASTER BUJOLD will be reading from a work in progress. In 1985, she and Baen Books introduced us to the world of Miles Vorkosigan, and SF hasn’t been the same since. She is equally at home in the fantasy realm with her Chalion/World of the Five Gods series and others. And you don’t have to take my word for it – just look at a list of winners for any major SF/Fantasy award out there. She has an official website (http://www.dendarii.com), lives in Minneapolis, and watches anime.

Speculations is a co-production of DreamHaven Books and SF MINNESOTA, a multicultural organization that also sponsors a midsummer speculative fiction organization, DIVERSICON, the 27th edition of which will be held July 22-24, 2019 in the Twin Cities, with Guests TBA.

On Wednesday, October 17 NAOMI KRITZER reads from her work. Naomi Kritzer has been writing science fiction and fantasy for twenty years. Her short story “Cat Pictures Please” won the 2016 Hugo and Locus Awards and was nominated for the Nebula Award. A collection of her short stories was released in 2017, and her YA novel (based on “Cat Pictures Please”) will be coming out from Tor in November 2019. She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota with her spouse, two kids, and four cats. The number of cats is subject to change without notice.

Speculations is a co-production of DreamHaven Books and SF MINNESOTA, a multicultural organization that also sponsors a midsummer speculative fiction organization, DIVERSICON, the 27th edition of which will be held July 22-24, 2019 in the Twin Cities, with Guests TBA.

On Wednesday, November 14 JASON D. WITTMAN will read from his work. Jason D. Wittman lives and works in Minnesota.  He’s had fiction published on SciFi.com, The Best of Baen’s Universe, and recently in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, as well as a game, Tile Chess, published by Steve Jackson Games.  He can recite Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” from memory.

Speculations is a co-production of DreamHaven Books and SF MINNESOTA, a multicultural organization that also sponsors a midsummer speculative fiction organization, DIVERSICON, the 27th edition of which will be held July 22-24, 2019 in the Twin Cities, with Guests TBA.