The Urban Paranormal Book Blog: Contest #2: Tornado Siren by Patrick Gabridge

You can win a copy the paperback version of Tornado Siren at:

The Urban Paranormal Book Blog: Contest #2: Tornado Siren by Patrick Gabridge

It's pretty easy to win, so if you haven't read it yet, I hope you'll check it out, and check out her blog.

(I still have a bunch of blog posts to catch up on here, including posting photos from the film shoot for Measuring Matthew, and an explanation of all the farming stuff that's keeping me busy now, and will occupy a lot of my time and energy next year.  Soon!)

(I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving!)

Reading at Brookline Booksmith tonight, 5:54pm

From 5-8 p.m., during Brookline’s 1st Light Festival, members of The Brookline Library Authors’ Collaborative and invited Brookline authors will be reading from their works at the Brookline Booksmith in Coolidge Corner. Books by local authors, suitable for holiday gifts, will be available for signing. Refreshments will be served, and the event is free and open to the public.

Each writer has an 11-minute slot. Mine is from 5:54 to 6:05. (Give or take 30 seconds.) I'll be reading from one of my new novels (that are still seeking publishers). There are lots of great authors (see below), so even if you can't be there for my reading (though I hope you will), it'll still be fun.





I'll be reading from one of my new books--probably my new middle-grade novel, Buried Treasure, since First Light is a family focused evening.  Plus it's a fun piece.


I hope we get a good turnout.

Here's who will be reading:

Schedule (11 minute segments):
5:00 - Susie Davidson
5:10 – Gabe Galambos
5:21 - Zvi Sesling
5:32 - Mark Lowenstein
5:43 - Hillel Levine
5:54 - Patrick Gabridge
6:05 - David Prerau
6:16 - Sarah Smith
6:27 - Chuck Goldstone
6:38 - Larry Ruttman
6:49 - Wendy Lement
7:00 - Linda Barnes
7:11 - Hon. Julian Houston
7:22 - Carey Goldberg
7:33 - Beth Jones
7:44 - Lou Urenek
7:55 – Gary K. Wolf

And some bios:

Reader bios (alphabetical):

Linda Barnes has written 12 best selling mystery novels that feature the 6'1," redheaded Boston private eye Carlotta Carlyle. Four other mysteries feature actor/detective and amateur sleuth Michael Spraggue, an amateur sleuth. Barnes has also written award-winning plays and short stories. The popular Carlotta Carlyle character first appeared in 1985’s award-winning short story “Lucky Penny”; since then, Barnes has penned “Trouble of Fools” (1987), “The Snake Tattoo” (1989), the Boston Globe bestsellers “Coyote” (1991) and “Steel Guitar” (1993), “Snapshot” (1994), “Hardware” (1995), and “Cold Case” (1997), which was also on The Boston Globe bestseller list. These were followed by “Flashpoint” (1999), “The Big Dig” (2002), “Deep Pockets” (2004), “Heart of the World” (2006), and “Lie Down with the Devil” (2008).
Barnes’ many awards have included the Anthony Award and nominations for both the Shamus Award and the American Mystery Award (for Best Short Story for "Lucky Penny" in 1985). In 1987, she received the American Mystery Award for Best Private Eye Novel, and “A Trouble of Fools” was nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, and Shamus awards. “The Snake Tattoo” was named one of the outstanding books of 1990 by The London Times.

Susie Davidson is a journalist, author, poet and filmmaker who writes regularly for the Jewish Advocate, the Jewish Journal, the Jewish Daily Forward and other media, and has contributed to the Boston Sunday Globe and the Boston Herald. She has written “I Refused to Die: Stories of Boston-Area Holocaust Survivors and Soldiers who Liberated the Concentration Camps of World War II” (2005); “Jewish Life in Postwar Germany” (2006); “Selected Poetry of Susie D” (2006); and edited a collection of remarks made by former German Consul to New England Wolfgang K. Vorwerk at area Holocaust community events (2008) (All Ibbetson Street Press, Somerville). She is the Coordinator of the Boston chapter of The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, an active board member in the Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow and the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, and coordinates the Brookline Library Authors' Collaborative. She organized and hosts “OccuPoetry,” the ongoing poetry reading series at Occupy Boston.

Patrick Gabridge, an Illinois native, studied computer science at MIT and later became a writer. His award-winning plays include Reading the Mind of God, about the astronomers Kepler and Tycho, and Blinders, a satire on science and the media. Gabridge has long explored the topic of race in his work. His novel, “Tornado Siren,” is now available as an e-book for Kindle, Nook, and other formats (via Smashwords). His play “Curse the Darkness” was performed in the Black Box Theatre One-Act Play Festival, in Cranston, R.I. His play “Escape to Wonderland” was part of EstroGenius, in New York last month. His blogs include The Writing Life x3, Choosing No Car (about our family shifting to life without a car), and 200 Foot Garden (details on a really fun commuter/community garden).
Gabe Galambos has travelled to many of the locales that appear in his espionage thriller, “Stealing Pike’s Peak” (Iuniverse, Writers Club Press), including to the Sudan. He was imprisoned there in 1983 for helping Ethiopian Jews reach Israel. He has recently completed a small town New England mystery tentatively titled, “The Nation by the River.” He works as a cardiac sonographer. He will read from his new manuscript, a small town New England mystery called “The Nation by the River.”

Carey Goldberg is a journalist/blogger for CommonHealth at WBUR and a co-editor of “Mind Matters” at Scientific American Mind. She graduated summa cum laude from Yale and attended graduate school at Harvard University. She has been the Boston bureau chief of The New York Times, a Moscow correspondent for The Los Angeles Times, and a health/science reporter for The Boston Globe. She is a co-author of the 2010 triple memoir “Three Wishes: A True Story of Good Friends, Crushing Heartbreak and Astonishing Luck on our Way to Love and Motherhood.”

Chuck Goldstone has made his fellow mammals chortle for long as as anyone can remember. His humor has appeared in magazines and his commentaries and essays were a regular feature of public radio’s "Monitor" and "Marketplace" for more than a decade. He is now a monthly guest on WBZ, where he is given a soapbox to rant and carp. He will read from “This Book Is Not a Toy!: Friendly Advice on How to Avoid Death and Other Inconveniences” (St. Martin’s Press, 2005) and maybe from a yet-to-be-published piece is someone asks nicely.
When not trying to get people to snort coffee uncontrollably from their nostrils. Chuck is CEO and Founder of Ideaworks/Chuck Goldstone Communications, helping organizations across the globe communicate more persuasively and tell better stories.

Hon. Julian Houston was born and educated in Richmond, Virginia before attending the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut. He is a graduate of Boston University and the Boston University School of Law, and was a community organizer in Harlem during the civil rights movement. He is an associate justice of the Superior Court of Massachusetts (ret.), appointed in 1990. He had previously served for eleven years as a Justice of the Roxbury District Court. He is chair of the Executive Committee of the Long Road to Justice exhibit, a program of the Justice George L. Ruffin Society, which he formed with six other senior, minority criminal justice professionals in 1984. He spearheaded Roxbury Youthworks, Inc., which provides services to young people, and the Roxbury District Court Child-Care Center. He is the author of “New Boy” (Houghton-Mifflin), a coming-of-age novel set in the Civil Rights era.

Beth Jones has been a Prison Educator at Framingham Women’s Prison and an Instructor in The Prison Education Program at Boston University, as well as a Program Director at The Education Initiative at the Mind/Body Medical Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. She has written for The New York Times and the Boston Globe, contributed to the collection “Make Mine a Double: Why Women Like Us Like to Drink (Or Not),” UPNE, 2011, and is a co-author of the book “Three Wishes: A True Story of Good Friends, Crushing Heartbreak, and Astonishing Luck on Our Way to Love and Motherhood,” Little, Brown & Co, 2010.

Wendy Lement, who holds a Ph.D. in Educational Theatre from New York University, is Associate Professor and Director of the Theatre Program at Regis College. A playwright and director, she co-founded Theatre Espresso in 1992, a company that brings historical plays to schools, museums and courthouses. Her first children’s fiction book, Keri Tarr: Cat Detective, was published by Breakaway Books in 2004.She is co-author of And Justice for Some: Exploring American Justice through Drama and Theatre, published by Heinemann Press (2005). She has directed thirty productions at Regis, which include “Dancing at Lughnasa,” “Importance of Being Earnest,” “The Good Woman of Setzuan,” “Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet),” and “Steel Magnolias” (which won a Moss Hart Award). Her production of The House of Bernarda Alba won the 2000 New England Region's American College Theatre Festival, which was sponsored by the Kennedy Center. Her plays include: “Woman with the Red Kerchief,” “Salem's Daughters, King George III vs. Ruth Blay,” “Voicings: The Story of the Rosenberg Case,” “Dolphins: The Myth of Persephone,” “The Legend of the Christmas Rose,” and “Keri Tarr: Cat Detective,” which is based on her children's book, and won the American Alliance for Theatre and Education's 2002 Unpublished Playreading Project.
Hillel Levine, Professor of Sociology and Religion at Boston University and President of the International Institute for Mediation and Historical Conciliation, an NGO that works to prevent and resolve violent conflicts. He has taught at Harvard, Yale, and has held visiting professorships in Japan, China, Poland, the Soviet Union, Brazil and Israel. His five books and many articles focus on ethnic violence and approaches to conflict resolution. His research was the basis of an Oscar-winning documentary film, and two of his books are currently being made into documentaries and a feature-length film. He often gives lectures, appears on radio and television, and writes guest columns in newspapers.
His books include "In Search of Sugihara: The Elusive Japanese Diplomat Who Risked his Life to Rescue 10,000 Jews from the Holocaust," "Economic Origins of Antisemitism: Poland and its Jews in the Early Modern Period," and "The Death of an American Jewish Community: A Tragedy of Good Intentions," about the redlining of mortgages enacted by the banking consortium Boston Banks Urban Renewal Group in Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan in the 1960s.

Mark Lowenstein is Managing Director of consulting firm Mobile Ecosystem. The author of three local running books (www.greatruns.net), including "Great Runs in Brookline and Vicinity," he is an avid recreational runner and outdoor enthusiast. He has run thousands of miles across dozens of communities in Massachusetts and other cities over the past 25 years. These books are terrific holiday gift items, though admittedly, December is not peak running season!

David Prerau is an internationally-recognized expert on national time policies who has been called "the world's foremost authority on Daylight Saving Time (DST)." As a computer scientist specializing in artificial intelligence, he pioneered in the application of knowledge-based systems. As an author, he has four published books and many magazine and newspaper articles. And as a DST expert, he has been a consultant for the U.S. Congress and the British Parliament. He has appeared on about two hundred TV and radio programs in the U.S. and around the world. His book, “Seize the Daylight” (2005), results from many years of DST research, during which he discovered a great number of remarkable DST incidents and fascinating anecdotes.

Larry Ruttman produces the show “Voices of Brookline and Beyond,” aired on Brookline Access Television. His 2005 oral history book, “Voices of Brookline,” chronicles the testimony of 70 diverse and remarkable Brookline citizens and includes over 100 images. (Tonight’s readers Linda Barnes and Sarah Smith are included in the book.) Ruttman himself has lived in Brookline since the age of two, and is devoted to the town and its people. He published a column, “Brookline Then and Now,” for the Brookline Tab. Ruttman holds a B.A. in English from the University of Massachusetts and a J.D. from Boston College Law School. His new book, “America’s Jews and America’s Game: Jewish Voices of American Baseball,” is due out in the spring of 2013 by the University of Nebraska Press.

Zvi A. Sesling, a former Brookline selectman, has published poetry in numerous magazines both in print and online, among them: Ibbetson Street, Midstream, Poetica,The Deronda Review, Voices Israel, Saranac Review, New Delta Review, Plainsong, Asphodel, Haz Mat Review, Istanbul Literary Review, The Chaffin Journal, Ship of Fools, Chiron Review and Main Street Rag. He was awarded Third Place (2004) and First Prize (2007) in the Reuben Rose International Poetry Competition, and was a finalist in the 2009 Cervena Barva Press Chapbook Contest. In 2008 he was selected to read his poetry at New England/Pen's “Discovery” event by Boston Poet Laureate Sam Cornish. He was a featured reader in the2010 Jewish Poetry Festival in Brookline. He is a regular reviewer for the Boston small press and poetry scene and he edits the Muddy River Poetry Review. He is author of the poetry book "King of the Jungle" (Ibbetson Street Press, 2010) and poetry chapbook, "Across Stones of Bad Dreams" (Cervana Barva, 2011). His next volume of poetry, "Fire Tongue," is scheduled for release in 2012. He has taught at several colleges in the Boston area and is on the faculty of the Jewish Community Center's Arts & Ideas.
Sarah Smith, a bestselling adult mystery author, won both the Agatha Award and the Massachusetts Book Award for best Children’s/Young Adult Mystery of the Year for her 2010 book “The Other Side of Dark.” She holds a BA. and a Ph.D. in English literature, both from Harvard University, and was a Fulbright Fellow and a Mellon Fellow. She was an Assistant Professor of English for several years, and presently works in the computer industry. She is Webmaster for the Mystery Writers of America. She is the author of a three-novel mystery series set in turn-of-the-century Boston and Paris and featuring amnesiac Alexander von Reisden: “The Vanished Child” (1992), “The Knowledge of Water” (1996), and “A Citizen of the Country” (2000). She has also authored “Chasing Shakespeares” (2003) and published a hypertext novel, “The King of Space,” with Eastgate Systems in 1991. Set in Brookline and Boston, “The Other Side of Dark” is about ghosts, interracial romance, and a secret kept since slavery times. It has also been named a Junior Library Guild selection.

Lou Urenek’s newest book, “Cabin: Two Brothers, a Dream, and Five Acres in Maine,” has been called “Bracing, beautiful and profoundly heartfelt” by the Boston Globe, and “Meditative and restorative” by the New York Times. He is also the author of “Backcast,” which won the National Outdoor Book Award in 2007 for literary merit, and was called "one of the finest meditations on fathers and sons that I’ve ever read" by environmental leader Bill McKibben. Lou is a former Nieman fellow and editor-in-residence at Harvard University, and was the deputy managing editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer. He was also editor and vice president of the Portland Press Herald and the Maine Sunday Telegram. He began his journalism career as a reporter at the Providence Journal. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, Boston Globe and Field & Stream, among other publications. He is a professor of journalism at Boston University and directs the Business and Economics Journalism Program.

Gary K. Wolf, the celebrated author of the novel "Who Censored Roger Rabbit?," gained fame in 1988 when his literary vision of humans cohabitating with animated characters became a reality in the $750 million blockbuster Disney/Spielberg film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." The film won four Academy Awards and launched a multiple-picture screen writing deal for Wolf with Walt Disney Pictures. In addition, his ideas inspired Toontown, the newest themed land at Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland. His latest science fiction novel, "Space Vulture," written in collaboration with his childhood friend Catholic Archbishop John J. Myers, was designated a Sci Fi Essentials book and was a main selection of The Science Fiction Bookclub. Wolf’s novel "The Resurrectionist" is currently in production as a feature film at 20th Century Fox.

NYC and Escape to Wonderland at EstroGenius

October was a whirlwind of a month, so I'm behind in posting.  I traveled to New York twice last month.  Last week, I went to see fellow Rhombus writer Kirsten Greenidge's terrific new play, Milk Like Sugar, which officially opens at Playwrights Horizons tonight (and marks Kirsten's Off Broadway debut), after starting out at La Jolla Playhouse.  I'm always in awe of what Kirsten can do with the rhythm of the words that come from her characters.

Earlier in the month, I went to New York to see one of my own plays, Escape to Wonderland, which was in the first week of the EstroGenius Festival, at Manhattan Theatre Source.  I also had a chance to meet with folks at a couple different theatres, and a director, and a radio producer, and some friends.  (I tend to pack a lot into these trips).  EstroGenius did a nice job with my play, and it was a fun evening of new plays.  I was delighted to meet Mary Hodges, my director, and the actresses in my show, Sheila Joon and Darnell Williams.

(some photos from the trip:)

The front of the Manhattan Theatre Source space on MacDougall Street.  How many theatres are located above dog washes?

My friends Arthur and Nadisa came out to the show and have always been tremendous supporters of my work.  Arthur was instrumental in helping me produce my very first full-length play, In A Glass Cage, at Synchronicity Space on Mercer Street in NYC--exactly 21 years ago today.  (Thanks, Arthur!)

 The two lovely actresses from my show, Sheila and Darnell.

And last, but not least, the audience.  This is part of my continuing series of photos of the audiences for my plays.  We see lots of photos of actors and sets around theatre, but not much of the audience.  Without them, there's no point in doing all of this.