Sarah Miller began writing her first novel at 10 years old, and has spent half her life working in libraries and bookstores. She has spent much of the last decade releasing books that illuminate the experiences of women with incredible stories who tend to get overlooked by most history textbooks. Miller joined us in the summertime for our local author showcase series, Beginning / Middle / End. She will be releasing a new book in April. http://www.sarahmillerbooks.com/ 

Back in March, Kathe Koja was on the verge of leading a live reading/performance right here in the library, featuring a story from her latest book, Velocities. Koja is an award-winning author lauded for her ability to blend genres and manifest themes of transcendence amidst some of the most unlikely and unconventional characters and narrative circumstances. We spoke with her about how writers can  maintain motivation, heading into 2021.    Music by Chad Stocker.  https://kathekoja.com/   

Alana Carlson is a Ferndale-based artist who graduated from the Kendall College of Art & Design in Grand Rapids in 2003. She's featured some of her work in a couple of group exhibitions here in the Ferndale Library, along with showing in several esteemed gallery spaces over the years. She's also been a freelance portraiture artist, along with being the creator of the mural facing out from the Natural Food Patch here in downtown Ferndale, on 9 Mile. https://alanacarlsonart.com/about  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/01/arts/lynda-barry-diary-project.html https://thenearsightedmonkey.tumblr.com/post/111125141634/above-variations-on-our-daily-diary-practice https://www.instagram.com/thenearsightedmonkey/  

Nadir Omowale is a songwriter/singer/guitarist/producer and creative consultant. We inevitably wound up focusing a lot on the distressing state of the music industry after 2020, but we drifted toward some rather positive ruminations and insights. Anyone out there who's a musician or songwriter looking for some inspiration, Nadir has some thoughts to share! We also talk about something particularly positive to look forward to: the sheer amount of amazing music that will no doubt be released in 2021, post-quarantine! Check out Nadir's two new singles from this year with the links below.  LINKS New Video: "Belly of the Whale" https://nadiromowale.com/#videos  "Run" https://youtu.be/fvhgW4aaWU0  YOUTUBE     Nadir Omowale, performing in the Ferndale Library Courtyard.   

Donald Levin is an award-winning Ferndale-based fiction writer and poet, with backgrounds in scriptwriting, speechwriting, video production, and more. He is the retired dean of the faculty and Professor of English at the former Marygrove College in Detroit. He is the author of seven Martin Preuss mysteries, with works appearing in numerous print journals; recently, he's written in the dystopic genre.  http://www.donaldlevin.com/  Music is provided by local artist Chad Stocker: https://honesttogoodness.bandcamp.com/ 

Jibs Brown is a versatile singer/songwriter with a strong passion for music and performing. Jibs has become one of the Detroit area's most recognizable acoustic artists, specializing in a brand of music that crosses all genres. His original music is simple, honest, and soulful. You can see a virtual concert featuring Brown performing inside the Ferndale Library on our YouTube page.  https://jibsbrown.bandcamp.com/ 

Josh Malerman knows how hard it can be to get started. With the winter upon us, it might be more difficult than it had been, even during a year such as 2020, to stay motivated! Malerman, a former Ferndale resident (and now world-famous author), shares some insights with us on what worked for him during a particularly challenging year! Along with providing his own words of encouragement on how to stay motivated, Malerman also discusses his most recent works, including the online novel CARPENTER'S FARM and recently-completed-but-not-yet-published work, FOREVER SINCE BREAKFAST.  https://joshmalerman.com/  Follow the Ferndale Library ON YOUTUBE to see a video version of this conversation. 

Youth Librarian Ms. Elissa develops the collection of fiction for middle-grade readers. And over the last several years, she has set "reading goals" for herself. It started at 50 in her first year and she almost made it. Then the number got higher, and higher. This year, the original plan was to cross the 160-mark and she made it to 174! Today, she's talking about just some of the many books she completed; elaborating on how valuable these books can be to the emotional development of young readers, specifically books released within the last by a diverse group of modern authors.  http://tiny.cc/fadlcatalog  www.facebook.com/ferndalekids   

John Jeffire is an esteemed author & poet, born and raised in Detroit. He has two novels, and two works of poetry published--along with several short stories (like the one featured on this podcast!). Jeffire has a deep reverence for the city of Detroit and its history. While Jeffire has a literary background, he's also a teacher / wrestling coach. And today's story taps into the sport of wrestling--while also illuminating a piece of Jeffire's family history.  http://www.writeondetroit.com/ "A few months ago I learned of an ancestor named George Riley Meadows. I took some of the basic foundational details of his biography and relocated the setting to Detroit at roughly the same time period (for "Broke"). I have learned that a number of my ancestors ended up in Eloise, so writing "Broke" was a way for me to tell many of their stories at once. I've attached a picture of George and his wife Matilda as well.   _____________________________________________   George Riley Meadows' life was short and tragic. He married Mary Malinda Totman in 1878, and they were living together with six children when he was involved in a mishap. A miner and farmer, he and some work friends were trying to see who could lift the most weight when something "broke in his head." After this, he was the victim of seizures and his mental faculties were never right again. His condition became so bad that on 21 November 1898 his wife divorced him, almost unheard of at the time, and he was confined to the Osawatomie State Hospital (originally the Kansas State Insane Asylum) where he resided for two years. Listed as a farmer and a Protestant, his diagnosis read that he suffered from grand mal seizures. This diagnosis included "incomplete dementia" and "insanity."   At age 45, he was transferred to the Kansas State Home for Epileptics in Parsons, Kansas, on 19 Oct 1903, which received most its patients from Osawatomie and the Kansas State Asylum for Idiotic and Imbecile Youth in Lawrence. He was patient #79 of the 110 admitted that day. His former wife Matilda continued to visit him; she did not mention her former husband to family members but they recall her returning from a visit she made by wagon to "someone" in an institution inconsolable and in tears. He died at the institution and was buried in Row 1, Space 7 in its cemetery. It seems that the lifting accident he suffered likely caused a brain aneurysm from which he never recovered and there was no treatment at the time but to lock him up in an institution.

Laura Hulthen Thomas is the author of STATES OF MOTION, a collection of short stories http://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/states-motion.      Thomas also teaches fiction and creative non-fiction for the University of Michigan, as program head for the Residential College’s creative writing program. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including The Cimarron Review, Nimrod International Journal, Epiphany, Witness, Midwestern Gothic, and other literary journals.   "Underlying Conditions" is a very new piece (composed during quarantine) that resonates with our current moment/reality; excerpted for this podcast.  https://www.pw.org/writers_recommend/laura_hulthen_thomas 

Kelly Fordon is the author of an award-winning short story collection, Garden for the Blind (Wayne State University Press, 2015); a poetry chapbook, The Witness, which won the Eric Hoffer Award for the Chapbook; and a poetry collection, Goodbye Toothless House. The Metro Detroit-based author/teacher recently released a new collection of short stories, "I Have The Answer." Today's story is selected from that 2020 book and it's titled "Jungle Life." https://kellyfordon.com/  

James Henry Hall is a local writer and filmmaker--his most recent, 'A Ben Evans Film,' was adapted from a short story by Josh Malerman.  Today, on A Little Too Spooky, Hall will be reading a new work of short fiction titled 'Chapel Hill,' about a salesman in the 1950's desperate for some business, wandering his way into a (literal) ghost town.  https://www.abenevansfilm.com/  https://www.theoaklandpress.com/lifestyles/suburban/local-filmmakers-to-adapt-bird-box-author-s-short-story/article_205448fe-ac9d-11e9-a50c-f3eb1f33f690.html   

Our mini-series featuring scary stories from local authors continues with Ophelia Crane.  This is the pen name of Tekedra Lofton, a local librarian. She's published several novels over the last decade. Today, she's reading a particularly creepy story from her anthology, 3 a.m.  https://www.opheliacrane.com/  Theme music provided by  Steve Greene - https://stevegreene.bandcamp.com/ Additional background music by John Duffy of Pato Y Pato - https://patoypato.bandcamp.com/  

For the next few weeks, "A Little Too Quiet" becomes "A Little Too Spooky."   We'll feature three local authors reading short stories that uniquely conjure eerie, scary, or just downright spooky ambiance.    This week, Kathe Koja reads a story from her recently released collection, 'Velocities.'  https://kathekoja.com/     Theme music provided by  Steve Greene - https://stevegreene.bandcamp.com/ Additional background music by John Duffy of Pato Y Pato - https://patoypato.bandcamp.com/ 

Casey Rocheteau is a writer & poet based in Detroit; the inaugural winner of the Write A Home artist residency from 2014. We spoke with Rocheteau about growing up in Cape Cod, her formative experiences as a writer in the New England area, her time in the Slam Poetry scene, and a supernatural encounter with what may or may not have been the ghost of Charles Bukowski!  Rocheteau recently read/performed two works of poetry for the Ferndale Library virtual author showcase, Beginning | Middle | End. https://caseyrocheteau.org/ Discussed in this episode Rocheteau's writing, such as The Dozen.  The Detroit Justice Center Also, Ramune Soda!