For anyone in the Ann Arbor area, I hope you'll come out and join me at Shaman Drum Bookshop this Wednesday at 7pm, where I'll be reading with my good friend Michael Czyzniejewski, the author of the fantastic story collection, Elephants in our Bedroom. I'll be reading from The Collectors, but I'll try to make it quick so we can get to Mike's great words a little faster.

Unfortunately, this will be one of Shaman Drum's final events, as the store will be closing its doors on June 30th, after 29 years of being in business. I've been to a couple dozen readings there over the years, and have always been impressed by the friendliness of their staff and the great selections upon their shelves. It's going to be a big loss to the local community to lose the store, and I'll personally be very sad to see it go as well. Ever since I went to my first reading at Shaman Drum years ago, I always hoped I'd be able to go back and read from a book of my own some day, and it's sad to finally get to do it under such circumstances.

That said, I'm very appreciative for all that owner Karl Pohrt have done for both local readers and writers, and I hope he and all his employees are doing as well as can be expected in these difficult times. If you're in the area and need to do some book shopping, they're currently running a 35% off sale on every book in the store, and I'm sure every little bit still helps.

Hopefully we'll see you Wednesday!