Going back at least to the Victorian Era, ghost stories have been part of the Christmas tradition. Since things like plagues have been brought into the 21st Century, we thought we’d bring this back too!
Join us virtually as we have authors from all over tell you ghost stories. After all, there’s nothing like a ghost to get you in the Christmas Spirit.
We’ll be broadcasting live on our Facebook page and on YouTube, or you can watch right here on our home page!

Featuring stories told to you live by:

Maria Alexander – Maria Alexander is a multiple Bram Stoker Award(r)-winning author who writes horror and crime short stories and novels for teens and adults. She lives in Los Angeles with two ungrateful cats, a Jewish Christmas caroler, and a purse named Trog. Learn more at www.mariaalexander.net.


 

Aaron Besson – Aaron is a writer of horror and weird fiction currently residing in Seattle, WA with a lovely woman and three horrible cats. His other interests include reading a lot and dark ambient music.

 

 


 

Jennifer Brody – Jennifer Brody is the award-winning author of ten books, including The 13th Continuum trilogy, the DISNEY CHILLS book series featuring Disney villains haunting kids, and the graphic novels Spectre Deep 6and 200 with Eisner-winning artist and syndicated cartoonist Jules Rivera, prompting Forbes to call Brody “a star in the graphic novel world.”

She’s a graduate of Harvard University, a film and TV producer and writer, and a creative writing instructor. She began her career in Hollywood at Platinume Dunes and New Line Cinema, working on many films, including The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Golden Compass. She lives and writes in Malibu by the beach.

 


Laura Lee Bahr – Laura Lee Bahr is a multi-award winning writer, performer and director. She is the author of two novels Haunt (winner of the Wonderland Book Award), translated into Spanish under the title Fantasma (Orciny Press, which has been nominated for two ‘best translated novel’, the Kelvin award and the Ignotus award) and her recent book (released April, 2016) Long-Form Religious Porn. Laura also has been a screenwriter for various award-winning films. This year Laura’s debut feature as writer/director, Boned, won “Best Micro-Budget Feature” at the Toronto Independent Film Festival and is currently distributed through Gravitas (available everywhere). Her latest book, a collection called Angel Meat, will be published in 2017 by Fungasm Press.

You can follow her on social media and at www.lauraleebahr.com


Robert Payne Cabeen Robert Payne Cabeen is a screenwriter, artist, purveyor of narrative horror poetry, and now a novelist, with his Bram Stoker Award winning debut Cold Cuts, from Omnium Gatherum. His screenwriting credits include Heavy Metal 2000, for Columbia TriStar, Sony Pictures, A Monkey’s Tale, and Walking with Buddha. Cabeen’s illustrated book, FEARWORMS: Selected Poems, was a 2015 Bram Stoker Award nominee. 

As creative director for Streamline Pictures, Robert helped anime pioneer Carl Macek bring Japanese animated features, like Akira and dozens of other classics, to a western audience.

Cabeen received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Otis Art Institute, with a dual major in painting and design. Since then, he has combined his interests in the visual arts with screenwriting and storytelling for a broad range of entertainment companies including Warner Brothers, Columbia/TriStar, Disney, Sony, Universal, USA Network, Nelvana, and SEGA.

For more about Robert Payne Cabeen, visit: robertpaynecabeen.com.


Ashley Dioses – Ashley Dioses is a writer of dark fiction and poetry from southern California.  Her debut collection of dark traditional poetry, Diary of a Sorceress, was released in 2017 from Hippocampus Press.  Her second poetry collection of supernatural horror, The Withering, is due out this December from Jackanapes Press.  Her poetry has appeared in Weird Fiction Review, Cemetery Dance Publications, Weirdbook, Black Wings VI: New Tales of Lovecraftian Horror, and others.  Her poem “Cobwebs,” was mentioned in Ellen Datlow’s recommended Best Horror of the Year Volume Twelve list. She has also appeared in the Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase 2016 and 2020 for her poems “Ghoul Mistress” and “Her Heart that Flames Would Not Devour” respectively.  She was also a nominee for the 2019 Pushcart Prize.  She is an Active member in the HWA and a member of the SFPA.  She blogs at fiendlover.blogspot.com.


 

Michael Paul Gonzalez – Michael Paul Gonzalez lives and writes in Los Angeles. He’s the editor at ThunderDome Press, an occasional publisher of books which is currently closed for submissions. He has two novels available for purchase, and short stories all over the place!

 


C.B. Lee – CB Lee is a Lambda Literary Award nominated writer of young adult science fiction and fantasy. Her works include the Sidekick Squad series (Duet Books), Ben 10 (Boom!), and All Out Now (HarperTeen). CB loves to write about queer teens, magic, superheroes, and the power of friendship.

Lee’s work has been featured in Teen Vogue, Wired Magazine, and Hypable. Lee’s first novel in the Sidekick Squad series, Not Your Sidekick was a 2017 Lambda Literary Awards Finalist in YA/Children’s Fiction and a 2017 Bisexual Book Awards Finalist in Speculative Fiction. Seven Tears at High Tide was the recipient of a Rainbow Award for Best Bisexual Fantasy Romance and also a finalist for the 2016 Bisexual Book Awards in the YA and Speculative Fiction categories.


Leslie Parry – Leslie Parry is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her short stories have appeared in VQR, The Missouri Review, The Cincinnati Review, The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, and elsewhere. Church of Marvels is her first novel. She currently lives in Chicago.

 


John Palisano – John Palisano’s short fiction has appeared in many places. Check out: Dark Discoveries, Horror Library, Darkness On The Edge, Lovecraft eZine, Phobophobia, Lovecraft eZine, Terror Tales, Harvest Hill, Halloween Spirits, the Bram Stoker Award® nominated Chiral Mad, Midnight Walk, Halloween Tales, and many other publications. NERVES was his first novel. He is working hard on its sequel, as well as many other upcoming works.

His non-fiction has appeared in FANGORIA and DARK DISCOVERIES, where he’s interviewed folks like Robert Englund, director Rob Hall, and Corey Taylor from Slipknot.

Currently, DUST OF THE DEAD, his first book from Samhain Publishing, arrived in June 2015 with GHOST HEART on February 14, 2016, with NIGHT OF 1,000 BEASTS to come in the very near future.

His work has been cited by the Bram Stoker Award® four times.


Lucio Rodriguez – Lucio Rodriguez once punched a man so hard he died; Lucio has very fragile hands. Don’t worry, he got better.

He has worked as an Entomologist for the past decade at UC Riverside, rearing fleas, cockroaches and moths for all your science needs, and doing other science-y stuff.

Lucio received an MFA in creative writing from UCR’s Palm Desert campus; he has stories in 18 Wheels of Science Fiction and CEA Greatest Anthology Written. He lives in Riverside, CA with his wife and two daughters, as well as two of his multiverse refugee selves. Before you go thinking this lets him get more work done, rest assured, it’s mostly just fighting over the bathroom.


Nicole SconiersNicole D. Sconiers is the author of Escape from Beckyville: Tales of Race, Hair and Rage, a speculative fiction short-story collection that has been taught at colleges and universities around the country. 

Her short story “Kim” was published in Sycorax’s Daughters, a black woman’s horror anthology that was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. 

Ms. Sconiers was a guest columnist for Nightmare magazine’s The H-Word. Her short story “The Eye of Heaven” appeared in the anthology Black from the Future: A Collection of Black Speculative Writing, published by BLF Press. The anthology received a starred review from Publishers Weekly.

Ms. Sconiers currently resides in the swing state of Pennsylvania, where she is working on a collection of horror stories


Adrian J. Smith – Adrian J. Smith has been publishing since 2013 but has been writing nearly her entire life. With a focus on women loving women fiction, AJ jumps genres from action-packed police procedurals to the seedier life of vampires and witches to sweet romances with a May-December twist. She loves writing and reading about women in the midst of the ordinariness of life. Two of her novels, For by Grace and Memoir in the Making, received honorable mentions with the Rainbow Awards.

AJ currently lives in Cheyenne, WY, although she moves often and has lived all over the United States. She loves to travel to different countries and places. She currently plays the roles of author, wife, and mother to two rambunctious toddlers, occasional handy-woman. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, or her blog.


Jeff Sweat – Jeff Sweat has made a living from words his entire career, starting out as an award-winning tech journalist for InformationWeek magazine and moving into marketing.

He led the content marketing team for Yahoo and pioneered its use of social media. He directed PR for two of the top advertising agencies in the country, Deutsch LA and 72andSunny. He now runs his own Los Angeles–based PR and strategy consultancy, Sweat + Co, and hosts the weekly live webinar series, Agencies Under Quarantine.

He loves to travel and writes everywhere he goes, even when there’s not a desk. He likes karaoke, motorcycles and carpentry. He was once shot in the head with a nail gun, which was not a big of a deal as it sounds. But it still hurt like crazy.

We’re back at the Pasadena Lit Fest for 2019, and we’re going to be celebrating our 30th show! Whether you’ve been on this journey with us since the beginning in 2013, or are only hearing about us now, come see why Shades & Shadows is the biggest, baddest, dirtiest name in town for sci-fi, fantasy, horror, noir, and “what the hell did I just read?” fiction! We love being part of the Lit Fest, so we’re bringing out some pretty special names for this event. Our lineup includes some returning favorites and some new names to the show. You’re going to love it.

Cody Goodfellow has written eight novels, and co-wrote three more with New York Times bestselling author John Skipp. His first two collections, Silent Weapons For Quiet Wars and All-Monster Action, each received the Wonderland Book Award. He wrote, co-produced and scored the short Lovecraftian hygiene films Stay At Home Dad and Baby Got Bass, which may be viewed on YouTube. As an actor, he has appeared in numerous short films, TV shows, music videos and commercials. He is also a cofounder of Perilous Press, an occasional micropublisher of modern cosmic horror. He lives in Portland, Oregon, and likes it a lot.

Maria Alexander is a produced screenwriter, games writer, virtual world designer, award-winning copywriter, prolific fiction writer, and poet. Since 1999, her stories have appeared in acclaimed publications and anthologies. Her debut novel, Mr. Wicker, won the 2014 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. Her breakout YA novel, Snowed, was unleashed on November 2, 2016, by Raw Dog Screaming Press. It won the 2016 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel and was nominated for the 2017 Anthony Award for Best Children’s/YA Novel. When she’s not stabbing someone with a foil or cutting targets with a katana, she’s being outrageously spooky or writing Doctor Who filk. She lives in Los Angeles with two ungrateful cats, a Jewish Christmas caroler, and a purse called Trog.


Wesley Chu’s best friend is Michael Jordan, assuming that best friend status is earned by a shared television commercial. If not, then his best friend is his dog Eva who he can often be seen riding like a trusty steed through the windy streets of Chicago. Unfortunately, Chu’s goals of using Hanes underwear commercials to launch a lucrative career following in Marky Mark’s footsteps came to naught. Despite phenomenal hair and manicured eyebrows, his inability to turn left led his destiny down another road. Instead of creating new realities with his skills as a thespian, Chu would dazzle audiences with his pen. Well, it’s a computer really, but the whole technology thing really sucks for metaphors. He had spirit fingers maybe? In 2015, Wesley Chu won the John W. Campbell Best New Writer Award. Chu’s debut novel from Angry Robot Books, The Lives of Tao, earned him a Young Adult Library Services Association Alex Award and a Science Fiction Goodreads Choice Award Finalist slot. His latest series, The Rise of Io, published by Angry Robot Books, features a con-woman with an alien cohabitation problem. He is currently co-writing a Magnus Bane book titled The Red Scrolls of Magic with Cassandra Clare. Wesley lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Paula, his son, Hunter, and Eva the Airedale Terrier.


Lucio Rodriguez once punched a man so hard he died; Lucio has very fragile hands. Don’t worry, he got better.

He has worked as an Entomologist for the past decade at UC Riverside, rearing fleas, cockroaches and moths for all your science needs, and doing other science-y stuff.

Lucio received an MFA in creative writing from UCR’s Palm Desert campus; he has stories in 18 Wheels of Science Fiction and CEA Greatest Anthology Written. He lives in Riverside, CA with his wife and two daughters, as well as two of his multiverse refugee selves. Before you go thinking this lets him get more work done, rest assured, it’s mostly just fighting over the bathroom.


Christa Faust grew up in New York City, in the Bronx and Hell’s Kitchen. She’s been making stuff up her whole life, and spent most of her teen years on endless subway rides, cutting school and scribbling stories. After High School finally had enough of her, she worked in the Times Square peep booths and later as a fetish model and professional Dominatrix. She sold her first short story when she moved to Los Angeles in the early 90s. After nearly 20 years in her beloved adopted city, she still considers herself an expat rather than a native. She’s an avid reader and collector of vintage paperbacks, a Film Noir enthusiast and a Tattooed Lady. She writes primarily Hardboiled crime fiction, but also does work-for-hire media tie in novels. She doesn’t plan to stop any time soon.


Hosted by Xach Fromson. Saturday, May 18th 7:30 p.m. at the Pasadena Playhouse! 39 S. El Molino Ave Pasadena, CA 91101 Books will be sold by Vroman’s Bookstore.

Join us Saturday, March 23rd at 8 p.m. for the next Shades & Shadows reading event!

After a long, dark, and very wet winter, slumbering beasts are not the only thing waking up. Shades & Shadows is returning with a new lineup of incredible authors from across the genre spectrum.

We are thrilled to have this lineup, featuring:

 Justin Robinson splits his time between editing comic books, writing prose, and wondering what that disgusting smell is. Degrees in Anthropology and History prepared him for unemployment, but an obsession with horror fiction and a laundry list of phobias provided a more attractive option. He is the author of more than 10 novels in a variety of genres including detective, humor, urban fantasy, and horror.

Justin is the co-host of Tread Perilously a weekly “worst of television” podcast (featured on Fanbase Press).

 

 

 

 

 

 


Joe R. Lansdale has written novels and stories in many genres, including Western, horror, science fiction, mystery, and suspense. He has also written for comics as well as “Batman: The Animated Series.” As of 2018, he has written 45 novels and published 30 short-story collections along with many chapbooks and comic-book adaptations. His stories have won ten Bram Stoker Awards. a British Fantasy Award, an Edgar Award, a World Horror Convention Grand Master Award, a Sugarprize, a Grinzane Cavour Prize for Literature, a Spur Award, and a Raymond Chandler Lifetime Achievement Award. He has been inducted into The Texas Literary Hall of Fame, and several of his novels have been adapted to film, including the cult hit Bubba Ho-Tep. His new novel, The Elephant of Surprise, hit shelves on March 19th. You can find him online at JoeRLansdale.com.

 

 


Keith McCleary

Keith McCleary is a writer and graphic designer from New York, currently living in Southern California.  He is the author of several graphic novels, as well as assorted prose, poetry, and digital media. Keith holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UC San Diego, and a BFA in Film from NYU. He teaches and writes about comics, composition, and multimedia. His first novel, CIRCUS+THE SKIN, is now available from Kraken Press.

 

 

 

 


 

 

Janet Joyce Holden was born in the North of England, a land of boisterous winds and persistent rain, and currently lives in Southern California where the air is dry, the winds are hot and precipitation is a rare but mostly benevolent gift. She is a writer of dark, supernatural fiction, is the author of Carousel and a number of short stories published in various anthologies. Other activities include photography, mixed media art and dallying with sharp objects: sewing, embroidery, the study of historical European fencing, and the custodianship of twenty or so feisty and decidedly prickly rose shrubs.

 

 

 


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Julia Dixon Evans is author of the novel How to Set Yourself on Fire. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in McSweeney’s, Paper Darts, Pithead Chapel, Fanzine, Flapperhouse, Hobart, San Diego CityBeat, and elsewhere. She is Senior Columns Editor for The Coil (an imprint of Alternating Currents Press), Nonfiction Editor for Noble Gas Qtrly, and hosts the brand new literary reading and workshop series Last Exit. She is the former program director and editor for So Say We All, a literary nonprofit and small press. She lives in San Diego.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hosted by Xach Fromson

Saturday, March 23rd, 8 p.m.
The Bearded Lady’s Mystic Museum
3204 W Magnolia Blvd
Burbank, CA 91505
Doors open at 8 p.m.

Books will be available for purchase, courtesy of Mysterious Galaxy!

Ready for Year Six? We are! It’s going to be an absolute blast!

Shades & Shadows is committed to bringing an eclectic mix of authors from across the broad spectrum of genre fiction to audiences looking to see their favorite authors and discover new ones. This year is going to be a big year, and we’re coming out strong with an exciting lineup for you!

And your eyes are not deceiving you, we’ve changed the time. The doors will open at 2:30 and we’ll start the readings at 3 p.m. And, as always, our authors’ books will be on sale courtesy of our friends at Mysterious Galaxy Books.

Featuring:

Dino Parenti is a writer of dark literary and speculative fiction. He is the winner of the first annual Lascaux Review flash fiction contest and is featured in the Anthony Award winning anthology Blood on the Bayou. His work can be found in Pantheon Magazine, Menacing Hedge, Pithead Chapel, as well as other anthologies. He is a fiction editor at Gamut Magazine and a member of the HWA. His short-fiction collection, Dead Reckoning and Other Stories, is now out with Crystal Lake Publishing. When not purging his soul into a laptop thanks to a far-too-early exposure to Stephen King, Scorsese movies, and Camus, he can be found photographing the odd junk pile, building furniture, or earning a few bucks as a CAD drafter. He lives in Los Angeles.


Constantine Singer grew up in Seattle and earned his BA from Earlham College and his Masters from Seattle University. He currently lives in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles with his family and teaches history at a high school in South LA. He is of the opinion that all foods are better eaten as a sandwich or a taco. This is his first novel.


Ashley Dioses is a writer of dark fiction and poetry from southern California.  Her debut collection of dark traditional poetry, Diary of a Sorceress, was released in 2017 from Hippocampus Press. Her poetry has appeared in Weird Fiction Review, Skelos, Weirdbook, Black Wings VI: New Tales of Lovecraftian Horror, and others. Her poem “Carathis,” published in Spectral Realms 1, appeared in Ellen Datlow’s full recommended Best Horror of the Year Volume Seven list. She has also appeared in the Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase 2016 for her poem “Ghoul Mistress.” She is an Active member in the HWA and a member of the SFPA. She blogs at fiendlover.blogspot.com.


Steven Barnes is a novelist, and a short story writer, television script writer, screenplay writer, lecturer, creative consultant, and martial arts authority. A Los Angeles native and later resident of Vancouver, Washington, Steven Emory Barnes is the third African American author after 1960 to have chosen science fiction and fantasy writing as his primary profession. Barnes established himself through the 1980s as a determined and disciplined writer, one who had followed a cherished childhood dream to become a commercially successful professional writer.


StevenElliot Altman is a bestselling author, screenwriter, graphic novelist and videogame writer. His games include the multiple award-winning title 9DRAGONS, the hit facebook game PEARL’S PERIL and his most recent game was ANCIENT ALIENS, a story-driven city-builder he wrote and produced for The History Channel. Steve’s novels include CAPTAIN AMERICA IS DEAD, ZEN IN THE ART OF SLAYING VAMPIRES, BATMAN: FEAR ITSELF, THE KILLSWITCH REVIEW, THE IRREGULARS and DEPRIVERS, currently in development as a television series for MarVista Entertainment. He’s also the editor of the critically-acclaimed anthology THE TOUCH and a contributor to SHADOWS OVER BAKER STREET, a Hugo Award Winning anthology of Sherlock Holmes Stories. Steve’s also the current Vice-Chairman of the steering committee of the Writers Guild of America’s Video Game Division. He’s currently writing and producing PROJECT BLUE BOOK: The Game, for A&E’s History Channel, based on the explosive new hit TV series!

 

Hosted by Xach Fromson

 

Doors open at 2:30 p.m.
Saturday, January 19th, 2019

3204 W Magnolia Blvd

Burbank, CA 91505

Tickets are $10 online or at the door (if any are left).
Books will be sold by Mysterious Galaxy.
 
 

Holy crap, it’s been FIVE YEARS?! It feels like we just started. And in a way, we have. 2018 brought new challenges and new changes to Shades & Shadows, and this event is going to cap off our main Los Angeles events for the year. So we’re going to close out with a BIG BANG. Whether you’ve been with us since the beginning, or this is your very first time coming to one of our events, you’ll be in for a spectacular treat as we give you a phenomenal lineup of authors.

And, if you’ve been to an anniversary show before, you know there is one other thing to expect: CAKE.

 

We’ve got more than just cake, though. This lineup is out of this world. No, really, not a single thing takes place in a world you’d recognize.

 

Bree Barton is a novelist, ghostwriter, and dance teacher in Los Angeles. Heart of Thorns is her debut YA trilogy.


Maura Milan is a short, Filipino girl from Chicago, IL. Now, she resides in Los Angeles, where she can be found in cafes all throughout Koreatown, drinking green tea lattes and writing and writing and writing. In her free time, Maura enjoys watching Korean soap operas and eating rice krispie treats.

Maura received a BA from USC’s School of Cinema-Television and has placed a number of short films in festivals all over the United States. Her most notable and favorite short film, “Crocodile,” is based on her days running around the Australian outback during her summer vacations visiting the Aussie side of her family.

To this day, Gilbert Blythe is her ultimate boy crush.


Steven Barnes is a New York Times bestselling, award-winning novelist and screenwriter who is the creator of the Lifewriting™ writing course, which he has taught nationwide. He recently won an NAACP Image Award as co-author of the Tennyson Hardwick mystery series with actor Blair Underwood and his wife, Tananarive Due.

Nominated for Hugo, Nebula, and Cable Ace awards, writer of the Emmy-winning “A Stitch In Time” episode of The Outer Limits, winner of the Endeavor and the NAACP Image Awards, NY Times Bestselling author, Steven has written comic books, animation, newspaper copy, magazine articles, television scripts and three million words of published fiction published in seven languages, making him one of the world’s most honored, diverse and popular writers.

Once a nationally ranked karate competitor, he now makes his home in Southern California with his wife, American Book Award winner Tananarive Due, and his son, Jason.


Maria Alexander is a produced screenwriter, games writer, virtual world designer, award-winning copywriter, interactive theatre designer, prolific fiction writer and poet. Since 1999, her stories have appeared in acclaimed publications and anthologies.

Her debut novel, Mr. Wicker, won the 2014 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. Publisher’s Weekly called it, “(a) splendid, bittersweet ode to the ghosts of childhood,” while Library Journal hailed it in a Starred Review as “a horror novel to anticipate.” Her breakout YA novel, Snowed, was unleashed on November 2, 2016, by Raw Dog Screaming Press. It won the 2016 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel and was nominated for the 2017 Anthony Award for Best Children’s/YA Novel. She’s represented by Alex Slater at Trident Media Group.

When she’s not stabbing someone with a foil or cutting targets with a katana, she’s being outrageously spooky or writing Doctor Who filk. She lives in Los Angeles with two ungrateful cats, a Jewish Christmas caroler, and a purse called Trog.


Jeff Sweat has made a living from words his entire career, starting out as an award-winning tech journalist for InformationWeek magazine and moving into marketing.

He led the content marketing team for Yahoo and pioneered its use of social media. He directed PR for two of the top advertising agencies in the country, Deutsch LA and 72andSunny. He now runs his own Los Angeles–based PR and marketing agency, Mister Sweat.

He grew up in Idaho as the middle of eight children—seven boys and one girl—and attended Columbia University in New York. Jeff lives in a big blue house in Los Angeles with his wife Sunny and their three kids, two cats, and a racing greyhound.

He loves to travel and writes everywhere he goes, even when there’s not a desk. He likes karaoke, motorcycles and carpentry. He was once shot in the head with a nail gun, which was not a big of a deal as it sounds. But it still hurt like crazy.


Doors open at 8 p.m.

3204 W Magnolia Blvd
Burbank, CA 91505
$10 tickets available at the door and online.

New Cities!

This weekend, June 30th, marks the first of THREE planned expansions of Shades & Shadows for 2018 with our introduction to Seattle.

For five years running, we have remained the only game in town for fans of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and all other forms of dark, speculative, or “genre” fiction to come together. We’ve forged a community of authors, artists, fans, and anyone else who was interested in taking part in the most fun, lively, and entertaining reading series we can provide.

So, naturally, even a city as large as Los Angeles is eventually going to be unable to contain us.

Later this year, we’ll be doing events in Denver and San Francisco!

S&S is also looking to introduce more events and new content here in LA, but that’s all under wraps for the moment.

 

In the meantime, check out the Facebook event page for Seattle HERE, and stay tuned for news on SF and Denver coming up later this year!

The only year-round literary event in Los Angeles for Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror fans is coming to Seattle!

For five years, Shades & Shadows has been putting on live reading events featuring a mixture of authors from across the genre fiction spectrum. Now we’re taking our show on the road, and our first show is at the University Bookstore!

Just because it’s summer time doesn’t mean you can’t get a chill sent down your spine. This is going to be unlike any reading event you’ve been to. Shades & Shadows lives our motto: It’s literature, but with monsters.

FEATURING:

Tyrell Johnson received his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of California Riverside where he studied fiction and poetry. He’s passionate about the outdoors, and can often be found on the mountain with his Siberian Husky, or on his mother-in-law’s ranch feeding her horses and a donkey named Jim. Originally from Bellingham Washington, he now lives in Kelowna, BC, with his family. The Wolves of Winter is his debut novel.

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Jesse Bullington is the author of three weird historical novels: The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart, The Enterprise of Death, and The Folly of the World. Under the pen name Alex Marshall he recently completed the Crimson Empire trilogy; the first book, A Crown for Cold Silver, was shortlisted for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award.

He’s also the editor of the Shirley Jackson Award nominated Letters to Lovecraft, and co-editor (with Molly Tanzer) of Swords v. Cthulhu. His short fiction, reviews, and articles have appeared in such diverse publications as the LA Review of Books, The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica 13, and VICE. He currently resides in the Pacific Northwest.

 


Timothy Long spent time in the US Navy, worked for a major game corporation, an aeronautics company, and was in the IT field for 15 years as an engineer before becoming a full-time author.

He is an active member of Horror Writers Association, SFWA, and International Thriller Writers.

Tim resides outside of Seattle where he spends time with his partner in crime, author and publisher Katie Cord, as well as 2 children, 2 dogs of various sizes and dispositions, and a near constant supply of overpriced and overcooked coffee beans.


Crystal Connor is a Washington State native who loves anything to do with monsters, bad guys, rogue scientific experiments, jewelry, sky-high high-heeled shoes & unreasonably priced handbags. She is also the founder of CrystalCon, a symposium that brings both Science Fiction & Fantasy writers and STEM professions together to mix and mingle with fans, educators, and inventors in attempts to answer a new take on an age-old question … which came first, the science or the fiction? When she’s not terrorizing readers she reviews indie horror and science fiction films for both her personal blog and www.HorrorAddicts.net


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Annette Fuller writes YA under the pen name Anna Imber. She holds an MFA from UC Riverside’s Palm Desert, Low-Residency program. Speculative fiction is her first love, and you’ll often find her writing about what good people do when bad things happen to them. Too many of her stories have dogs in them, because she really, really wants a dog of her own.
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Aaron Besson is a writer of horror and weird fiction currently residing in Seattle,WA with a lovely woman and three horrible cats.

His other interests include reading a lot and dark ambient music.

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And hosted by Xach Fromson
Saturday, June 30th, 4 p.m.
The University Bookstore
4326 University Way, N.E.
Seattle, Washington 98105
Oh, and just to make sure you know: It’s free. But the bookstore will have the authors’ books on hand, so maybe be prepared to buy those.

We are proud and honored to be heading back to the Pasadena Lit Fest for the second straight year!

For this event, we’ve conjured up a wild ride for you. We’ll take you to an island colony like no other, deep into the blackness of outer space, a world full of ghosts, a dystopian future, and more. So get ready for things to get weird, because we’re going to have fun with things that go bump in the night.

Featuring:

Claudia Casper is the author of the novels The Reconstruction and The Continuation of Love by Other Means, which was short-listed for the Ethel Wilson BC Book Prize, and most recently, The Mercy Journals. Her writing has appeared in the Globe and Mail, the Vancouver Sun, Geist, Event, Best Canadian Short Stories(Oberon), the anthology Dropped Threads: What We Aren’t Told(Vintage), edited by Carol Shields and Marjorie Anderson and Canadian Content. She is writing the screenplay for a 3D feature film France/Canada coproduction of The Reconstruction. Her work has been published in Canada, the US, the UK, and Germany. With Anne Giardini, Casper conceived the Carol Shields Labyrinth, an interactive online labyrinth that honours Shields’s life. She has also taught writing for the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive and as a sessional at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Casper was born in Toronto, attended S.E.E.D. high school and received a BA from the University of Toronto. She lives in Vancouver.

 


 

Robert Kerbeck is a lifetime member of The Actors Studio who has worked extensively in theater, film, and television.

He founded the Malibu Writers Circle (MWC) to give Los Angeles-based writers a constructive place to work on their material while enjoying an ocean view. He has attended Tin House (twice), Bread Loaf (twice), and numerous writing workshops at the University of Iowa. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. His writing has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and has appeared in numerous publications, including The Normal School, Atticus Review, upstreet, Gargoyle, Cream City Review, Exposition Review, Serving House Journal, Cortland Review and The MacGuffin. Robert was the recipient of the upstreet short fiction scholarship at the VCFA Postgraduate Writers’ Conference. He was also a finalist for the Writers@Work Fellowship. His first play, Putin And The Snowman, had two runs Off-Broadway.

Robert currently lives in Malibu and owns a corporate intelligence firm.

 


 

Brian Corley is based out of Austin, Texas, and enjoys looking for the strange underbelly of his beloved city. When Corley isn’t exploring the unknown, he can be found in his home office dreaming up his next comic fantasy novel. For more info, visit his website at https://brian-corley.com/

 

 

 


 

Kathleen Kaufman is a native Coloradan and long-time resident of Los Angeles, California. She is a University of Southern California alum, teaches high school English, and is a writing and composition adjunct professor at Santa Monica College. In addition to writing, Kathleen is an avid amateur photographer and has published work in The Huffington Post and other publications. When not writing, she probably has a camera in hand or is curled up with a good horror novel. Kathleen currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband, son, terrier, and a pack of cats.

 

 


 

Adam Korenman was born in Fort Worth, Texas, around the same year “Rambo: First Blood II” was released. After taking a gap year to study abroad and work on curing his crippling paleness, Adam enrolled in Boston University to study medicine. He found that to be super hard, so he switched over to Communication, because that sounded more his speed. He quickly found a love for the written word. At the same time, Adam caught a different kind of bug and joined the military, because that’s how all great stories begin. As an officer in the Army, Adam served in such exotic locations as Washington, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Georgia. He has been an infantry grunt, a tank commander, and he Captain of an entire company of Soldiers. Given the fact that you haven’t heard of his military exploits, it’s safe to say he never screwed up too badly. Adam ended his service in 2017. Upon arriving in Los Angeles, Adam was struck by two things at once: Wonder, and an organic soy free-range open source Frisbee. Since changing his driver’s license, Adam has become the Video Game Section Editor for CC2KOnline, written four novels, won awards for five short films, and briefly starred in a series of videos for Machinima.com. His proudest moment is still when, while receiving an autograph, Adam was able to make Nathan Fillion
chuckle.

Adam lives in Los Angeles with his wonderful wife and his crippling self-doubt.

 


 

Melissa Jane Osborne is an actor, writer, and teller of stories in film, theater, TV, and new media. She’s created award winning graphic novels (The Wendy Project), the first interactive scripted iPhone game for teenagers, and videos. She works to give voice to things that we have trouble talking about.

NYTheatre.com called her ‘funny, insightful, and intriguing’ ‘a writer and actor to keep eye on’, Vulture has called her work ‘Hypnotic’ The NYTimes “striking’. But her friends just call her Mo.

 


 

Eli Ryder lives in a small desert suburb of Los Angeles with his wife and daughter, where he writes dark fiction and the occasional bit of drama and criticism. He teaches college English, is a Co-founding Editor of Automata Review, and stole his M.F.A. from UC Riverside-Palm Desert’s low-residency program. His work has appeared in print, online, and on stage, and when not writing he can be found ravaging donuts or chasing his daughter around the house.

 

Hosted by Xach Fromson

 

8:00 p.m.
Pasadena Playhouse
39 S. El Molino Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91101

This event is FREE thanks to the generous support that makes the Pasadena Lit Fest possible!

BOOKS WILL BE AVAILABLE BEFORE THE EVENT AT VROMAN’S BOOKSTORE. There will be no book sales at the event.

We’re celebrating LATFOB (that’s the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books for those of you who aren’t familiar with the acronym) by bringing together some truly exceptional authors to discuss the changing role genre fiction plays in an increasingly polarized world. And we’re doing it at The Last Bookstore. We’ll get things rolling at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 21st!

Stories set in alternative realities, whether it’s the future, a mythical past, an alternate present, or something else, have always offered a commentary on society. When that society becomes more oppressive, those stories take on increased importance and significance.
 
Join Shades & Shadows and a panel of extraordinary authors as we discuss how that role of social critic is changing or has changed in the post-fact, post-truth, fake news landscape of America.

Let us know you’re coming!

 


 

Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger — the co-editor of Boing Boing (boingboing.net) and the author of Walkaway, a novel for adults, a YA graphic novel called In Real Life, the nonfiction business book Information Doesn’t Want To Be Free, and young adult novels like HomelandPirate Cinema, and Little Brother, and novels for adults like Rapture of the Nerds and Makers. He works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is a MIT Media Lab Research Affiliate, is a Visiting Professor of Computer Science at Open University and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in Los Angeles.

 


 

Gretchen McNeil is the author of several young adult horror/suspense novels for Balzer + Bray including Possess3:59RelicGet EvenGet Dirty, and the award-winning Ten which was a 2013 YALSA Top Ten Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, a Romantic Times Top Pick, and an ALA Booklist Top Ten Horror Fiction for Youth. In 2016, Gretchen published her first YA comedy I’m Not Your Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and her next novel will be the horror-comedy #murdertrending for Disney/Freeform, releasing August 7, 2018 with the sequel #murderfuning to follow in 2019.  Ten: Murder Island, the film adaptation of Ten starring China Anne McClain (Descendants 2, Black Lightning) and Rome Flynn (The Bold and the Beautiful) premiered on Lifetime in 2017.

 


 

Jennifer Brody is the award-winning author of the The 13th Continuum. Her book sold in a 3-book deal and is being packaged into a feature film. The book is a Gold Medal Winner (Young Adult – Sci-Fi/Fantasy) from the Independent Publisher‘s Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards. Return of the Continuums and The United Continuums complete this epic trilogy. Translation rights to her books have sold in multiple territories, most notably Russia and China. Her short fiction appears in the From the Stars anthology and Common Deer Press Short Tails. She is a graduate of Harvard University, a creative writing instructor at the Writing Pad, and a volunteer mentor for the Young Storytellers Foundation She’s also a board member for the non-profit writing competitions the Roswell Award and the TomorrowPrize. After studying film at Harvard University, Jennifer began her career in Hollywood. Highlights include working for Platinum Dunes and New Line Cinema, most notably on The Lord of the Rings, The Golden Compass, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. She lives and writes in LA with her husband and one-eyed Goldendoodle named Commander Ryker.

 


 

 

Christina Cigala is a story teller based in Los Angeles. She writes and produces for MTV, Fox, 30 Seconds to Mars, Fox, Syfy, Spike, and Jared Leto. As a playwright and theater director, her work is widely produced in regional theaters, New York, and LA. She has an MFA in Playwriting from the Actors Studio Drama School and a BA from Baylor University. Her first novel, XX v XY, was released by Simon & Schuster in Fall 2017.

 

 

Bobby Goldstein is the president of Bobby Goldstein Productions and the creator of Cheaters, one of the longest-running syndicated shows in history, now airing daily in 215 U. S. markets and in over 100 foreign countries. Goldstein has become recognized for his ability to spot cultural trends and capitalize on rebellious ideas.

 

 


 

CB Lee is a bisexual Chinese-Vietnamese American writer whose novels include the Sidekick Squad series, a young adult science fiction adventure that follow queer teens who take on a corrupt government superhero agency, and also the fantasy Seven Tears At High Tide. Lee’s first novel in the Sidekick Squad series, Not Your Sidekick was a 2017 Lambda Literary Awards Finalist in YA/Children’s Fiction and a 2017 Bisexual Book Awards Finalist in Speculative Fiction. Seven Tears at High Tide was the recipient of a Rainbow Award for Best Bisexual Fantasy Romance and also a finalist for the 2016 Bisexual Book Awards in the YA and Speculative Fiction categories.

 

 


 

Michael Paul Gonzalez is the author of the novels Angel Falls and Miss Massacre’s Guide to Murder and Vengeance. His newest project is the serial horror audio drama Larkspur Underground, available for free on iTunes and Stitcher. A member of the Horror Writers Association, his short stories have appeared in print and online, including Great Jones Street, Lost Signals, Gothic Fantasy, The Year’s Best Hardcore Horror, HeavyMetal.com, and many more. You can visit him online at MichaelPaulGonzalez.com

 


 

Kate Maruyama’s novel Harrowgate was published in 2013 by 47North. Her short work has appeared in numerous journals in print and online and she has been anthologized in Winter Horror Days, Halloween Carnival and Phantasma: Stories. She teaches at Antioch University Los Angeles in the BA and MFA programs and for Writing Workshops LA as well as online with inspiration2publication.com. She writes, teaches, cooks, and eats in Los Angeles where she lives with her family.

 


 

Samuel Sattin is a novelist and comics creator. He is the writer of the forthcoming Glint trilogy and Bezkamp (2019), LegendThe Silent EndLeague of Somebodies, and Adventure Quest. His work has appeared or been featured in The NibThe AtlanticNerdist, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Paste Magazine, Salonio9, Kotaku, Vulture, Bleeding Cool, The Fiction Advocate, The Rumpus, The Good Men Project, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA in Comics from California College of the Arts and has a creative writing MFA from Mills College. He is the director of a toy company in Oakland, California, and teaches at the California College of the Arts.

 

 


 

The panel will be moderated by host and founder Xach Fromson.

 

Please note that The Last Bookstore has limited capacity (a mere 300!), so get here early.

Those wishing to get books signed will be asked to purchase a copy of the author’s title from The Last Bookstore. Any outside books must be checked with security upon entering the store. This policy applies to all Last Bookstore events unless otherwise noted. Save your receipt; it will be checked when you enter the signing line.

We’re back for the 24th Shades & Shadows reading event!

We’re keeping up with our longstanding tradition of bringing a mixture of incredible authors from across the genre fiction spectrum to you. But this year we’re going to give you a break and not force you to choose between us and your St. Patrick’s Day party. We’re not monsters, we just love ’em.

Featuring:

Mishell Baker is an American writer of fantasy and urban fantasy. A 2009 graduate of the Clarion Workshop, her fantasy stories have been published in Daily Science Fiction, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Electric Velocipede. When Mishell isn’t convention-hopping or going on wild research adventures, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two changelings.

PJ Manney is the author of the bestselling and Philip K. Dick Award nominated (R)EVOLUTION, book 1 in the Phoenix Horizon series, and book 2, (ID)ENTITY. She is a former chairperson of Humanity+, the author of “Empathy in the Time of Technology: How Storytelling is the Key to Empathy,” and a frequent guest host and guest on podcasts and TV including the upcoming James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction. She has worked in motion-picture PR at Walt Disney/Touchstone Pictures, story development and production for independent film production companies (Hook, Universal Soldier, It Could Happen to You), and writing for television (Hercules–The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess). She also cofounded Uncharted Entertainment, writing and creating pilot scripts for television. When not contemplating the future of humanity, she is a wife, mother, speaker and futurist in California.

JD Horn was raised in rural Tennessee, and has since carried a bit of its red clay in him while traveling the world, from Hollywood, to Paris, to Tokyo. He studied comparative literature as an undergrad, focusing on French and Russian in particular. He also holds an MBA in international business and worked as a financial analyst before becoming a novelist. J. D.’s books have now been translated into Russian, Romanian, Polish, German, Spanish, Italian, and French, with a Turkish version of The Line in the works. J.D. is a long-time animal rights advocate, animal lover, and non-proselytizing vegetarian. He, his spouse, Rich, and their rescue Chihuahua, Kirby Seamus, split their time between Central Oregon, San Francisco, and Palm Springs.

Sean Patrick Traver is the author of Graves’ End, Red Witch, and Wraith Ladies Who Lunch, all of which are about the intrusion of magic into the everyday world. He is a member of the LA Horror Writers Association, and also works at the (world famous) Iliad Bookshop in North Hollywood, CA. He is composed largely of carbon and oxygen, with some nitrogen, phosphorus, and calcium thrown in.

Christina Enquist grew up in Salinas, California, the same hometown of John Steinbeck, one of America’s greatest writers. She loves to read, and frequented the John Steinbeck Library as a child. She discovered at an early age that she also enjoyed writing. It wasn’t until a few years ago that she decided to put other stories, roaming around in my mind, down on paper again, or actually, in her case, into a computer.

Roh Morgon dreams up her dark tales while driving the back roads of California’s Sierra Nevada foothills. She’s best known for her urban fantasy series The Chosen which includes the novels Watcher andRunner; the 1840s historical horror novella The Last Trace; and the corporate horror novella The Games Monsters Play. A member of both the Horror Writers Association and the Romance Writers of America, Roh also writes a regular column on publishing for SpeculativeFictionWriters.com. You can find Roh and her books online at www.rohmorgon.com., Facebook, and Amazon.

But wait! Wasn’t there something about wine in the title? YES THERE WAS. Now you can stay after the reading, enjoy some complimentary* wine, get your books signed (thanks to our friends at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore!), and chat for a bit!

*tips are appreciated.

 

Same bat time. Same bat channel.

3204 W Magnolia Blvd
Burbank, CA 91505

Doors open at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $10 online (link may not work before 2/21) or in person (if there are any left!).

RSVP on Facebook to let us know you’re coming!