Books & Brews LIVE 2: June 2018

June 05, 2018

Books & Brews LIVE 2: June 2018

Congratulations to Dan Blum, whose book The Feet Say Run has been optioned for movie rights!

Books & Brews LIVE! June 2018

Again, a fun time was had by all! Our readers last night featured memoir, murder, and medieval mayhem, with samplings of a craft brew before each reading led by Michael Agnew, Minnesota's first beer cicerone.

Our first reader was Annette Schiebout, a Twin Cities writer, poet, and musician:

Annette Schiebout a traveler, consultant, and freelance writer. She participates in literary and musical performances throughout the Twin Cities, including TIC, Saint Paul Almanac, Cracked Walnut, Goth Mom, Prairie Fire Lady Choir, and Lock and Dames. Annette is the recipient of the Loft Literary Center – Creative Non-Fiction Mentor Program 2014-15, and an Intermedia Arts SASE Mentee.

She has received residencies from Ireland for Writers, WritingXWriters, Mont Blanc, and Squaw Valley Community of Writers. She is published in rps, and Ó Bhéal and others. Her poetry film “A Short History of My Addictions” won Audience Choice Award at the Co-Kisser Poetry and Film Festival. Annette received an MFA from Hamline University.

Annette read selections from her memoir on gastric bypass surgery: a brief chapter about childhood, about being taunted by a boy that she couldn't be a superhero because she was fat; one about comparing scars with a friend, and a third about an initial meeting with a surgeon in the aftermath of the bypass surgery.

Annette is quite accomplished, also, in music and playwriting. Find more about her at www.annetteschiebout.com

Michael chose a cider from the Barnes & Noble Kitchen craft brew menu to pair with Annette's reading--definitely on the sweeter side for a beer, which was personally my favorite.

Rhonda Gilliland was the murder portion of the evening, telling us she was drawn to create this anthology because food and murder are both passions of hers!

Rhonda Gilliland is a member and past president of Twin Cities Sisters in Crime, a member of Mystery Writers of America and a member of the Midwest Independent Publishing Association.

The original Cooked to Death was published by Nodin Press in July 2016. She self-publish Cooked to Death: Volume II – Lying on a Plate with the assistance of the mentoring press Wise Ink Creative Publishing of Minneapolis so she could maintain creative control over the project.

In addition to her work with the Cooked to Death anthologies, Gilliland also wrote, directed and produced the independent film, “Come and Get Your Love,” a contemporary Native American film about women who go missing on certain Indian Reservations. The film was inspired by a trip she and a friend took to a Pow Wow in South Dakota.

Michael chose the darkest--and to my mind strongest--beer of the evening for Rhonda's reading. Most of us enjoyed it (did I mention I'm not much of a beer drinker!) while Rhonda read one of her own short stories, Steamed, from the forthcoming Cooked to Death III: Hell for the Holidays. It was the story of hospital staff working OR on Christmas Day--and discovering one of the nurses is missing during dinner!

Each story in Rhonda's anthologies contains a recipe!

I did the final reading of the evening. As of March 2018, I have completed my time travel tale, The Blue Bells Chronicles, told in five books: Blue Bells of Scotland, The Minstrel Boy, The Water is Wide, Westering Home, and The Battle is O'er. It is the story of Shawn Kleiner, an arrogant, womanizing modern musician who finds himself trapped in medieval Scotland--through part of the series, with his medieval look-alike and polar opposite, the Highland warrior Niall Campbell.

Over the summer months, I'll work my way through the series. Hence, last night I read scenes from The Minstrel Boy, for which Michael chose a somewhat lighter beer. I'd say it was my second favorite of the night and perhaps a favorite for many of the others.

I picked three readings to focus on the different people and evolving relationships within the second book of the series: the opening pages, in which Amy, pregnant, is confronted by police about why she took 'Shawn' into the hills and left him. She struggles, under the pressure and in her grief of believing Shawn is dead, to keep straight what she knows, what each of them thinks, and how not to appear crazy by letting slip that it wasn't Shawn, but a medieval warrior she took to the hills.

My second reading was of Niall, in 1314, beginning to instruct Shawn in sword fighting, with some antagonism and a great deal of irritation between them, as Shawn takes a flippant modern attitude toward Niall's methods of teaching. You obviously haven't read anything on modern parenting, he accuses when Niall doesn't cheer on his good effort, and suggests Niall wouldn't do well in the modern world of business, sarcastically calling him Mr. Motivation. Niall counters that he is highly motivated by the thought of not dying on the battlefield, and Shawn ought to be, as well. The scene, in many ways, is a study of the contrast of times and outlooks on life.

The third reading was drawn from much later in the book, when Niall is caught in the dungeons of his nemesis, MacDougall, listening to his own gallows being built. The scene is of the rescue plan hatched between Shawn and the mysterious Christina, MacDougall's daughter-in-law, using Shawn's uncanny likeness to Niall to fool him.

We all enjoyed some conversation at the end of the evening and I think once again, all had fun. We had a couple more people this month and thanks to Mary Book's enthusiasm and work on this new venture, we now have The Growler, a Minnesota craft brew magazine, interested in working with us and doing some promotion of our monthly event!

Next month's readings will be from my own The Water is Wide and from our new guests, Wendy Brown-Baez with her new novel Catch a Dream, the story of a young woman's journey to Israel, and Dr. Kendall Price, whose novel 221 B.C. is a fantastical blend of ancient history with a race to find a set of magical amulets that can save--or destroy--the world.

Get your tickets at Eventbrite. While you may pay for the beer flight at the event, it helps Barnes & Noble Kitchen to know how many to prepare for. If you're not a beer drinker, you can simply attend and enjoy the readings for free. You may also sign the guest list at the face book event. You can also visit Michael's page at A Perfect Pint. We hope to see you in July!