Author Events, Sept 9-15

Local writer and columnist Daedalus Howell reads from his book 'I Heart Sonoma' on Friday, September 14 at the Petaluma Copperfields.

SUNDAY (Sept 9)

Janis Flores, “36 Years, 35 Books, 5 Agents & One Burst Bubble: What I’ve Learned as an Author from the Publishing Industry,” 3 p.m.
Janis Flores was first published in 1976 with a Gothic suspense novel by Doubleday and Company. She became a member of Redwood Writers and first spoke to the club in 1976, as a first-time author. Now, thirty-six years later, she is one of the longest standing members in our branch and is celebrating the publication of her thirty-fifth book, Sweeter than Wine, by Musa Publishing. Her writing has included the following fiction genres: historical, family sagas, category romance, and women’s contemporary mainstream.
Redwood Writers Flamingo Hotel, 2777 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 5 for members; $8 for nonmembers. More information, www.redwoodwriters.org.

TUESDAY (Sept 11)

Donna Emerson hosts Marin Poetry Center Traveling Show, 7 p.m.
Joan R. Brady, Susan Cohen, Kenneth Dickinson, Geri Digiorno, Ethel May, and David Seter
Petaluma Arts Center, 230 Lakeville Street, Petaluma.  marinpoetrycenter.org/travelingshow.php

WEDNESDAY (SEPT 12)

Center Literary Café presents A Night of Poets, 6:30 p.m.,
New York poet Lee Slonimsky, Fairfield’s poet laureate, Juanita J. Martin, and Sonoma County poet Katherine Hastings
Healdsburg Senior Center, 133 Matheson St., Healdsburg. For more info, call Cynthia Beecher,  707-696-1111 or www.centerliterarycafe.wordpress.com.

THURSDAY (Sept 13)

Poems, Stories, Humor & Blood: Four Wine Country Writers, 7 p.m.
David Beckman, Armando Garcia-Davila, Jonah Raskin & Waights Taylor
The Quicksilver Mine Co., 6671 Front St./Hwy 116, Forestville. Info, 887-0799.

FRIDAY, (Sept 14)

Open Mic Poetry Circle hosted by Mike Tuggle, 11 a.m.,
River Reader, 16355 Main Street, Guerneville, 869-2240.

Sarah Andrews, “Rock Bottom,” 7 p.m.
Rivers, oceans, streams, lakes—it doesn’t matter what shape it takes, Em Hansen is terrified of the water. She hasn’t shared her phobia with her new husband, Fritz, and when his best friend, Tiny, organizes a month-long, private, white-water rafting trip through the Grand Canyon as a wedding gift, she can’t tell him how awful the trip sounds. Fritz and Tiny cobble together a party of fourteen people for the trip, but at the last minute, Tiny finds himself in the hospital and has to miss the trip. He fills his spot with George “Wink” Oberley, ostensibly a geology Ph.D. candidate at Princeton and expert river rafter, but Em immediately suspects there’s more to his story….
Occidental Center for the Arts,  3850 Doris Murphy Way, Occidental. Information: occidentalcenterforthearts.org or 874-9392.

Jeff Mitchell, “The Gift, Ancient Secrets of Solomon’s Wisdom,” 7 p.m.
After meeting the Guardian of the Ark–yes, the age-old Ark of the Covenant–Jeff is thrust into the role of amateur explorer and spiritual archeologist. The Guardian sends him on an extraordinary pilgrimage to Debre Damo. Jeff suspects he has stumbled onto something of far greater value than even the lost Ark.
The Journey Center, 1601 4th St., Santa Rosa, journeycenter.org.

Daedalus Howell, “I Heart Sonoma,” 7 p.m.
When Howell left a middling career in Hollywood and returned to his native Sonoma County in California, he expected to find the rural, rolling hills of his youth. Instead he found the bucolic landscape transformed into “Wine County.” Sonoma natives and residents are sure to enjoy his hilarious personal essays on the dark side of wine country living.
Copperfield’s Books, 140 Kentucky St., Petaluma. 762-0563, copperfieldsbooks.com.

Junot Díaz, “This is How You Lose Her,” 7 p.m.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao turns his prodigious talent to the haunting, impossible power of love. The stories in This Is How You Lose Her, by turns hilarious and devastating, raucous and tender, lay bare the infinite longing and inevitable weaknesses of our all-too-human hearts.
Copperfield’s Books, 775 Village Court, Santa Rosa, 578-8938, copperfieldsbooks.com.

SATURDAY (Sept 15)

Zachiah Murray, “Mindfulness in the Garden,” 2 p.m.
Mindfulness in the Garden offers simple mindfulness verses (gathas) composed to connect the mind and body and to bring the reader/gardener’s awareness to the details of the present moment as they work in the garden. These gathas are signposts leading to nature, to the present, and ultimately to one’s self through the love and understanding they evoke. The gathas offered with each gardening activity serves to water the seeds of mindfulness within us, and softening and preparing the ground for our ability to be present.
Readers’ Books, 130 E. Napa St., Sonoma. 939-1779

Margaret Murray, “Sundagger,” and Shelly Buck, “Floating Point,”  6 p.m
River Reader, 16355 Main Street, Guerneville, 869-2240

For more events or to list author events in our calendar, visit events.pressdemocrat.com.  To submit book events for consideration in this column, contact Sara Peyton at sara.peyton@gmail.com at least three weeks in advance of the event.