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Channel 13 Community Access TV Presents: BOOK TALKERS
(Camera pans Double D's basement and settles on Stoner Bill, Double D, Chip, and Charles Edmund Wilson III sitting in comfortable chairs.)

Stoner Bill: Hey Dudes and Dudettes! Welcome to Book Talkers with your hosts, Me and Double D. Our guests are Charles Edmund Wilson III and his manservant Chip . . . (Stoner Bill looks bewildered and asks in a whisper, "Is that even legal in the U.S.?") . . . joining us as our guests. Mr. Wilson will receive the, um, Cyril M. Kornbluth Memorial Award for his contributions to the, um, genre at this year's Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention in Chicago. My question to you, Mr. Wilson: Will be there be fans dressed up as Elvish babes at this convention, and if so, can you get us in?

Charles Wilson: Humph. Well, my dear boy, I served with J.R.R. Tolkien in The Great War. We were shoulder to shoulder at the Battle of the Somme. Of course, if you had done your homework, you would know that he is long since dead. However, the list of authors who will be attending is impressive. My dear friend, George R.R. Martin, author of A Dance with Dragons (9780553801477) 35.00 will be there. China Mieville, author of Embassytown (9780345524508) 16.00, John Scalzi, author of Redshirts (9780765316998) 24.99, Paolo Bacigalupi, author of my personal favourite, The Windup Girl (9781597801584) 14.95 and The Drowned Cities (9780316056243) 17.99, and the lovely Mira Grant, who wrote Blackout (9780316081078) 9.99 will all be in attendence. I expect it to be a smashing success . . .

Stoner Bill: Blah blah blahbity-blah. You still haven't answered my question . . .

Double D: Mr. Wilson, just ignore him. I know, as well as being a writer, you have been on the publishing end of things, too. Do you have any thoughts on this year's Midwest Booksellers Choice Award winners?

Charles Wilson: The winners are all fine titles. I saw that Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding (9780316126670) 14.99 won for fiction, Cheryl Strayed's Wild (9780307592736) 25.95 won for non-fiction, Brian Selznick's Wonderstruck (9780545027892) 29.99 won for children's literature, and Loren Long's Otis and the Tornado (9780399254772) 17.99 was the winner for children's picture book. However, it is hard for small publishers to get any kind of publicity these days, and I wish they had chosen more titles that were not from major publishers.

Odds & Sods

Speaking of smaller presses, we have received Aaron Stander's latest Michigan mystery The Cruelest Month (9781478358145) 15.95. Sheriff Ray Elkins is back, and he may have yet another murder to solve on Lake Michigan's shore . . .

Also, we have copies of Kathy-jo Wargin's The Legend of Sleeping Bear (9781886947351) 17.95 back in stock . . .

Finally, if you are interested in more book news and you would like to learn more about titles Partners is featuring, I suggest you take a peek on the web at www.partners-east.info .

Charles Edmund Wilson III and I hope to see you at the Heartland Fall Forum . . .