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Book Club Bingo Adventure
June 10, 2018 @ 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
What is Book Club Bingo?
Book Club Bingo is San Diego’s biggest and most exciting book club extravaganza of 2018, featuring 22 authors. It is an all day event filled with food, panel discussions, photo ops, book signings, and the opportunity to interact with all participating authors.
Will we actually be playing bingo?
No, at least not in the traditional sense. You will receive a special, collectible Bingo Card where you will fill in the squares by meeting and talking with all the authors. If you fill out your entire Bingo card, then you will be entered into the big Book Club Bingo Drawing!
Where and when is Book Club Bingo?
It is on Sunday June 10th 2018 from 9am to 4pm at the San Diego Public Library in the Shiley Special Events Suite. The address is 330 Park Blvd. San Diego CA 92101.
How much is it to attend?
It is $85 for NovelNetwork members* and San Diego Public Library Donors.*
It is $95 for non-members.
*Register your book club for NovelNetwork now or at the event (its free and no obligation).
Do I have to be apart of a book club to attend?
No! This event is open to everyone!
What does my ticket include?
Your ticket includes an event program, morning pastries and coffee, a delicious buffet luncheon, panel discussions, a keynote presentation by Jenna Blum, a signed, first-edition hardcover of The Lost Family, afternoon snacks, drawings and giveaways, and opportunities to meet and mingle with over 20 amazing authors.
What will we be doing all day?
In the morning, all attendees will check-in, pick up their copies of The Lost Family, and find a seat at a table with at least one author. This is followed by the Welcome Speech and three panels (scroll down for more information on the panels). We will then have a break, which will involve mingling with the authors, followed by lunch and the keynote presentation. There will then be another break and two more panels before the closing remarks. For a more detailed itinerary, click here.
Where can I park?
Street parking will be free all day, and there is no Padres game so it should not be too crowded. However, if you still want to park in the library’s parking garage, there will be a special $15 all day parking pass available.
What should I wear?
Come as you are and dress comfortably! But Jenna Blum is doing a red dress social media campaign for her new book and if you would like to join in, feel free to come in a red dress to support her!
Fantastic! Where can I sign up?
Scroll all the way down to the end of this page as us the secure PayPal checkout tool.
About NovelNetwork
NovelNetwork is our exciting new online, membership-based service that helps book clubs and authors find each other! Book clubs can join NovelNetwork for free, and then search our database, either alphabetically, by genre, or by geography, of author members and schedule visits (videochat or in-person). The service offers you the ability to view an author’s schedule of availability and book your visit right then and there. It’s simple to join and exciting to discover new authors, along with some of your old favorites. New York Times bestselling author Lisa See says “it’s a perfect match.”
And we’ll let you in on a little secret. Almost all our Book Club Bingo authors are NovelNetwork members, so you’ll have a chance, as soon as your book club joins NovelNetwork, to schedule a videochat or in-person visit with them at our Book Club Bingo Adventure!
About the Keynote Speaker: Jenna Blum
One of Oprah’s Top 30 Women Writers, Jenna Blum is the New York Times and international bestselling author of Those Who Save Us and The Stormchasers and the novella The Lucky One. She has taught novel workshops for 20 years at the famed Grub Street Writers in Boston, where she earned her M.A. at Boston University. In addition to interviewing Holocaust survivors for the Shoah Foundation, Jenna is a public speaker and avid cook and tests all the recipes in her novels. In her new novel, The Lost Family, this dynamic storyteller returns with an immersive, emotionally riveting family saga about the reverberations of World War II across generations.
Featured Authors and Panels:
Historical Fiction Panel
Patricia Bracewell is an acclaimed author of historical fiction set in 11thcentury England. Her trilogy about Emma of Normandy, England’s twice-crowned queen, sprang from her life-long fascination with all things medieval. In her novels, she re-creates Emma’s early medieval world for readers as well as introduces them to this little known queen who has slipped into the footnotes of history. Queen Emma’s story begins with Shadow on the Crown, continues in the sequel, The Price of Blood, and will be completed with the third book in the series, Perilous Tides.
Susan Meissner is a multi-published novelist, speaker and writing workshop leader with a background in community journalism. Her novels include A Fall of Marigolds, named to Booklist’s Top Ten Women’s Fiction titles for 2014, and The Shape of Mercy, named by Publishers Weekly as one of the 100 Best Novels of 2008. Her most recent book, As Bright As Heaven, her first to be published in hardcover, is a richly imagined and evocative novel, in which she explores the impact on one American family living in Philadelphia – from the first hints of the Spanish flu epidemic as World War I draws to a close to its far-reaching consequences. Epic in scope but intimately depicted, As Bright As Heaven is sure to become another of Susan’s perennial book club favorite books.
Robin Oliveira is the New York Times bestselling author of My Name is Mary Sutter and I Always Loved You, as well as winner of the Michael Shaara Prize for Civil War Fiction. She received an MFA in writing from Vermont College ofFine Arts and is a former registered nurse, specializing in critical care. In her newest work of historical fiction, Winter Sisters, which received the coveted starred review by Kirkus Reviews, she creates a subtly riveting and atmospheric tale of what happens when we are confronted with the unthinkable, and how we choose to move forward in its wake. Part gripping thriller and part emotional family sage, the novel explores what takes place in 1879 Albany, New York when an epic blizzard separates a family and devastates a city.
Kate Quinn is a native of southern California. She attended Boston University, where she earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Classical Voice. A lifelong history buff, she has written four novels in the Empress of Rome Saga, and two books in the Italian Renaissance, before turning to the 20th century with her most recent, The Alice Network, an enthralling new historical novel featuring two women, a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947, who are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption.
It’s a Mystery Panel
Juliet Blackwell is the New York Times bestselling author of Letters from Paris and The Paris Key. She also writes the Witchcraft Mystery series and the Haunted Home Renovation series. As Hailey Lind, Blackwell wrote the Agatha-nominated Art Lover’s Mystery series. A former anthropologist, social worker, and professional artist, Juliet is a California native who has spent time in Mexico, Spain, Cuba, Italy, the Philippines, and France.
Janelle Brown is the New York Times bestselling author of Watch Me Disappear, named one of the best books of 2017 by Barnes & Noble. Dubbed a “master of the page-turner” (LA Review of Books”) and “a gifted, au courant novelist” (SF Chronicle), her previous novels include All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, and This Is Where We Live; together, her books have been published in more than a dozen countries around the world. Her journalism and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Vogue, Elle, Wired, Self, RealSimple, Lenny, The Los Angeles Times, and numerous other publications. Before turning to fiction, she worked as a senior writer at Salon and Wired.
Matt Coyle knew as a child he wanted to be a crime writer when his dad gave him The Simple Art of Murder by Raymond Chandler. Matt is the author of the Rick Cahill crime series. His books have won the Anthony, Ben Franklin Silver, and San Diego Book Awards, and have accrued nominations for the Macavity, Anthony, Shamus, and Lefty Awards. He lives in San Diego with his yellow Lab, Angus, where he is writing the sixth Rick Cahill novel.
Liz Fenton is the author (along with best friend Lisa Steinke) of the suspense novel, The Good Widow, published by Lake Union. The dynamic duo have also published three women’s fiction novels with Simon & Schuster/Atria Books. Your Perfect Life is a hilarious and heartwarming story of two childhood best friends who switch bodies at their twenty-year high school reunion. The Status of All Things is a cautionary tale of a woman who realizes she can change the course of her entire life by what she writes in her Facebook status. And The Year We Turned Fortyfollows three women who get the chance to relive the year they turned forty, a year they each made decisions that altered the course of their lives.
Secrets in Stories Panel
Kathi Diamant is the award-winning author of Kafka’s Last Love: The Mystery of Dora Diamant, as well as an Emmy-award winning performer, actress, author, TV producer/anchor, adjunct professor at SDSU, and is well known to San Diego audiences as the co-host of the long-running morning talk show on KFMB-TV, Sun Up San Diego. Her book has been reviewed by more than 60 publications and websites, internationally lauded for its original research and revelations into Dora and Kafka’s lives. The founder/director of the Kafka Project at SDSU since 1998, Kathi has led the official search for a missing literary treasure, the papers of Franz Kafka confiscated by the Gestapo in Berlin in 1933. Kafka’s Last Love has been published in the UK and Australia, Spain, France, Germany, China, Russia, Turkey, Albania, Brazil and a Czech edition is forthcoming.
Kitty Morse is the award-winning author of nine cookbooks, including perennial favorites such as A Biblical Feast, Edible Flowers, and Cooking at the Kasbah, as well as her memoir, Mint Tea and Minarets. Born in Casablanca, Morrocco to a British father and a French mother, Kitty emigrated to the United States at the age of seventeen. While studying for her Master’s Degree at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Kitty catered Moroccan diffas (banquets), and went on to teach the intricacies of Moroccan cuisine in cooking schools and department stores nationwide. In June 2002, she conducted a Culinary Concert on Moroccan culture and cuisine hosted by Julia Child, as a benefit for the Harry Bell Foundation of the International Association of Culinary Professionals. From 1983 to 2007, Kitty organized an annual tour to Morocco that included culinary demonstrations in her family home, a Moorish riad south of Casablanca.
Marivi Soliven is a Filipina author based in America, who has taught creative writing at the University of the Philippines, the Ayala Museum, and the University of California in San Diego. Her book, The Mango Bride, inspired from her work as a telephone interpreter, is the quest of two women and their journey to adapt to a new life in America. The book garnered the prestigious Grand Prize for the Novel in English at the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. Soliven has used her novel to raise awareness of domestic violence against immigrant women through a series of “Saving Beverly” fundraising events, in which she has raised thousands of dollars.
Natalia Sylvester was born in Lima, Peru, and came to the U.S. at the age of four, living in central Florida and Texas before settling in Miami. A former magazine editor, she now works as a freelance writer in Texas and is a faculty member of the low-res MFA program at Regis University. Her debut novel, Chasing the Sun, was named the Best Debut Book of 2014 by Latinidad, and was chosen as a Book of the Month by the National Latino Book Club. Her second novel, Everyone Knows You Go Home, is a moving story about immigration and the depths to which one Mexican American family will go for forgiveness and redemption.
Discover Debuts Panel
Julie Clark grew up reading books on the beach of Santa Monica while everyone else surfed. After attending college, and a brief sting working in the athletic department of UC Berkeley, she returned to Santa Monica to teach. In her debut novel, The Ones We Choose, she effortlessly blends the fascinating world of genetics and the power of familial bonds in a compelling and thoughtful story about a young boy desperate to find his place in the world, and a mother coming to terms with her own past and the healing power of forgiveness.
Loretta Ellsworth is a former Spanish teacher and the author of four young adult novels: The Shrouding Woman, In Search of Mockingbird, In a Heartbeat, and Unforgettable. Her debut adult novel, Stars Over Clear Lake (May, 2017, St. Martin’s Press) is set in Clear Lake, Iowa. Her books have been awarded many accolades, including Teen’s Top Ten Finalist, ALA and IRA Notables, New York Library List of Books for the Teen Age, Midwest Bookseller’s Choice Honor Award, Midwest Connection’s Pick, BBCB Choice, NEMBA (North Eastern Minnesota Book Award) finalist, Rebecca Caudill Nominee, and Charlotte Award Nominee.
Kristin Rockaway is a native New Yorker and recovering software engineer. After working in the IT industry for far too many years, she finally traded the city for the surf and chased her dreams out to Southern California, where she spends her days happily writing stories instead of code. When she’s not writing, she enjoys spending time with her husband and son, browsing the aisles of her neighborhood bookstores, and planning her next big vacation. Her debut novel, The Wild Woman’s Guide to Traveling the World, is smart and sexy and will appeal to fans of Sophie Kinsella and The Devil Wears Prada.
J. Dylan Yates is the author of The Belief in Angels, a gripping, heart-rending family saga that explores the darkest side of human nature— and the incontrovertible, uplifting power of hope, spanning more than fifty years, from the Ukranian pogroms in the 1920’s and the WWII Madjanek death camp to a chaotic Hippie Household in the late 1970’s. “Vividly drawn and breathtakingly insightful” this debut novel won the 2015 Theodor S. Geisel Award, a 2014 USA Best Book Award, and a 2015 Indie Excellence Award.
Summer Reads Panel
Laura Dave is the bestselling author of the critically acclaimed novels The First Husband, The Divorce Party, London Is The Best City In America, Eight Hundred Grapes, and her most recent book, Hello Sunshine. Dave’s fiction and essays have been published in The New York Times, ESPN, Redbook, Glamour and Ladies Home Journal. Dubbed “a wry observer of modern love” (USA Today), Dave has appeared on CBS’s The Early Show, Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends and NPR’s All Things Considered. Cosmopolitan Magazine recently named her a “Fun and Fearless Phenom of the Year. Three of her novels have been optioned for the big screen with Dave adapting Eight Hundred Grapes for Fox2000.
Amy Mason Doan‘s debut novel, The Summer List (June 2018), is the gripping and poignant story of two girlhood best friends who reunite after 17 years for an epic scavenger hunt. The novel “cleverly blends a coming-of-age tale, the story of a long-simmering mystery, and a thoughtful study of relationships between childhood friends” and “will please readers who grew up with the novels of Judy Blume.” (Publishers Weekly). Doan has also written for The Oregonian, San Francisco Chronicle, Wired, Forbes, and The Orange County Register. She has an M.A. in Journalism from Stanford University & a B.A. in English from U.C. Berkeley, and lives in Portland, Oregon.
Janna King is a screenwriter, director, and author who has developed projects for Disney Junior and National Geographic Kids, as well as multiple Hallmark movies, for which she has won multiple awards, including Best Cinematography Award at the Women’s Independent Film Festival in 2014. The Seasonaires is her thrilling and sophisticated debut novel that is already being developed as a TV series. There is more than meets the eye in the “perfect” life of a seasonaire as one Nantucket summer spirals dangerously out of control for six young, attractive, twenty-somethings. The book will appeal to fans of titles such as The Devil Wears Prada.
Jan Moran is the historical fiction author of Scent of Triumph and The Winemakers, as well as the Love, California contemporary series. As a writer-producer, she adapted The Winemakers with a fellow screenwriter for a dramatic television series. She is expanding her catalog of books and screenplays and forming partnerships for film and television projects. She has been featured in numerous publications and on television and radio, including CNN, Women’s Wear Daily, Allure, InStyle, and O Magazine. As an editor and writer, she has covered fragrance, beauty, and spa travel for a variety of publications such as Cosmopolitan, Costco Connection, and Porthole Cruise. She is also the founder and creator of Scentsa, a touch-screen software program for retailers and brands.
Abbi Waxman is the author of The Garden of Small Beginnings, an Indie Next selection and cult favorite among independent booksellers. Born in England, she worked as a copywriter and a creative director at various advertising agencies in London and New York before becoming an author and screenwriter. In her new book, Other People’s Stories, Abbi utilizes her uncanny knack of writing pitch-perfect dialogue, to turn a dark situation into humor, capturing the hilarious and high-stakes havoc one ill-timed affair wreaks on a Los Angeles neighborhood.
