Events
Due to COVID-19, most events are virtual! Though it's not quite the same as visiting our cozy shop, these events still provide a wonderful chance to experience some Spiral magick safely. Got questions? Please direct all inquiries to spiralbookcase@gmail.com. Miss an event you really wanted to see? Check out our Events Archive for video recordings!
Typewriter Poems by Monica Robinson
Friday, Dec. 2, Friday, Dec. 9 & Friday, Dec. 16 from 2-6 PM
Swing by The Spiral Bookcase for a custom poem conjured up just for you by our resident poetess Monica Robinson! Let Monica know what ideas you have in mind for your poem, and then she'll create one on the spot. Your poem will be written on a typewriter and sealed in an envelope with a beautiful sticker. A perfect gift for loved ones, friends, or just spreading some holiday cheer! Click here to share with your friends on Facebook.
Poems are $15 each. Venmo & cash are accepted. First come, first serve on select Fridays from 2-6 PM. Do not request Monica write poems about anything explicit, racist, sexist or homophobic. Offenders will be ritually sacrificed to the Old Gods.
Small Maker Pop-Ups
Saturday, Dec. 3, Sunday, Dec. 11 & Saturday, Dec. 17 from 11-3
Matt Lake is a local author, independent publisher and folklore enthusiast. Matt will don his beloved Krampus costume to take holiday photos with folks right outside of the shop. Bookseller Victoria will be on hand to play photographer so you can get everyone in the shot! Don't forget to peruse Matt's books after you snap your shot.
**CANCELLED due to family emergency - will be rescheduled, stay tuned!**
An Evening of Wonder with W.A. Simpson
Saturday, Dec. 3 at 5 PM EST
MORE ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
W.A. SIMPSON has been writing since the age of five and finished her first novel at fourteen. Her debut novel, Tinderbox, is available everywhere and is receiving rave reviews. Wendy is an Associate Member of the Science-Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association. She lives in Delaware and shares her home with her brother and two diva cats. When she’s not writing, she’s reading, working in her garden, or gaming and streaming on Twitch. Learn more about her work at https://authorwasimpson.com/. "Tinderbox" is available for purchase at The Spiral Bookcase.
WILL HAHN has been in love with heroic tales since age four, when his father read him the Lays of Ancient Rome and the Tales of King Arthur. He taught Ancient-Medieval History for years, but the line between this world and others has always been thin; the far reaches of fantasy, like the distant past, still bring him face to face with people like ourselves, with choices to make. Now Will lives and works in Newark, Delaware with a wife more lovely than he can easily describe, a daughter more miraculous than anyone could credit, and more cats than you would readily believe. Learn more about his work at https://www.williamlhahn.com/.
SHAMEEZ PATEL PAPATHANASIOU was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa. She lives there with her husband, child and two cats named Turbo and Charger. During the day she juggles her time between taking care of her daughter and working as a civil engineer where she designs roads and analyses traffic—but at night she writes! And she writes fantasy AND romance. Shameez fell in love with fiction, especially fantasy and romance fiction, at a young age. Her parents fondly recall receiving her first handwritten story before the age of ten, titled The Treasures of Zombie Island, which surprisingly featured no zombies at all. She has been writing ever since. Her fantasy novel, The Last Feather was published in July 2022 by Flame Tree Press—it, at the very least, features a feather. Learn more about her work at https://www.shameezwrites.com/.
December '22 Selkie Book Club: This Is How You Lose the Time War
Wednesday, Dec. 14 at 7:30 PM EST
Join us for the virtual gathering of Spiral’s Selkie Book Club! Focused on magical adult fiction, this book club meets on the second Wednesday of each month at 7:30 PM EST via Zoom. Dive deep into Victoria’s selection of stranger worlds, shimmering doors, supernatural quests and mystical landscapes. For the December Selkie Book Club, we’ll be reading Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone's "This Is How You Lose the Time War."
To join this book club, we just ask that you purchase each month’s title through the shop! Click here to purchase "This Is How You Lose The Time War." Your email will be added to the book club list with your purchase.
Already purchased this month’s title from Spiral or another indie bookshop? Visually impaired or blind and need to use audiobooks? Just email us at spiralbookcase@gmail.com and let us know you already have the book but would like to join!
An Evening of Monstrous Love with Michelle Renee Lane
Saturday, January 7 at 6 PM EST
Join The Spiral Bookcase for an evening of horror, fantasy and romance with award-winning writer Michelle Renee Lane. The author of "Invisible Chains," a Bram Stoker award-nominated novel, Michelle writes dark speculative fiction about identity politics and women of color battling their inner demons while fighting/falling in love with monsters. Her latest release, "The Courtship of Nora Fagan," is a sizzling paranormal romance centered on an arranged marriage, the balance of Good and Evil, and the looming threat of an apocalypse.
Michelle will be joined by two guest readers, L. Marie Wood and Zin E. Rocklyn. Both award-winning writers themselves, the evening's guest readers also work within the realms of speculative fiction, horror and paranormal romance, promising a darkly enchanting evening for readers of these popular genres. This event is free to attend. Click here to join on Zoom. Click here to share with your friends on Facebook.
MORE ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Michelle Renee Lane holds an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She writes dark speculative fiction about identity politics and women of color battling their inner demons while fighting/falling in love with monsters. Her work includes elements of fantasy, horror, romance, and erotica. Her short fiction appears in the anthologies Terror Politico: A Screaming World in Chaos, The Monstrous Feminine: Dark Tales of Dangerous Women, The Dystopian States of America, Graveyard Smash, Dead Awake, Midnight & Indigo: Twenty-Two Speculative Stories by Black Women Writers, The One That Got Away, and In Trouble (2023), and has been featured on The Wicked Library podcast. Her Bram Stoker Award nominated debut novel, Invisible Chains (2019), is available from Haverhill House Publishing. The Spanish language translation, Cadenas Invisibles (2022), is available from Dilatando Mentes Editorial. Her nonfiction can be found at Medium, Speculative Chic, and in Writers Workshop of Horror 2 (2021).Follow Michelle’s blog, Girl Meets Monster, at michellerlane.com/. Michelle's books are available for purchase at The Spiral Bookcase.
L. Marie Wood is a dark fiction author, screenwriter, and poet with novels in the psychological horror, mystery, and dark romance genres. She won the Golden Stake Award for her novel The Promise Keeper. She is a recipient of the MICO Award and has won Best Horror, Best Action, Best Afrofuturism/Horror/Sci-Fi, and Best Short Screenplay awards in both national and international film festivals. Wood’s short fiction has been published in groundbreaking works, including the Bram Stoker Award Finalist anthology, Sycorax's Daughters and Slay: Stories of the Vampire Noire. She is also part of the 2022 Bookfest Book Award winning poetry anthology, Under Her Skin. Her academic writing has been published by Nightmare Magazine and in the cross-curricular text, Conjuring Worlds: An Afrofuturist Textbook. Wood is the founder of the Speculative Fiction Academy, an English and Creative Writing professor, a horror scholar with a PhD in Creative Writing and an MFA in Speculative Fiction, and a frequent contributor to the conversation around the evolution of genre fiction. Learn more about L. Marie Wood at www.lmariewood.com. Some of her books are available for purchase at The Spiral Bookcase.
Of Trinidadian descent, Zin E. Rocklyn (she/they) is a horror and dark fantasy author hailing from Jersey City NJ. A contributor to several anthologies, including a non-fiction essay in the Hugo Award-winning Uncanny Magazine’s Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction, the Joseph Pulver Award-winning writer is a graduate of 2017 VONA and 2018 Viable Paradise workshops. Their Nebula and IGNYTE-nominated, and Shirley Jackson award-winning debut novella Flowers for the Sea was published by tor.com in October 2021. You can follow them on Twitter at @intelligentwat. Their debut novel "Flowers of the Sea" is available for purchase at The Spiral Bookcase.
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Please note that due to low attendance, the Moon Salons are on hiatus. We know our wonderful attendees are craving the intimacy and joy of in-person gatherings and honestly, we are, too! We'll announce just as soon as Moon Salons are back <3