6 Authors Share New Insights & Fascinating Stories During These Online Author Talks
Posted on February 5, 2024 at 6:00 am
The lineup for the SCLD Online Authors Series has an impressive and diverse group of authors and topics in the coming months.
Spice up your February by inviting romance into your reading with author Tessa Bailey, dubbed the “Michelangelo of dirty talk.” Be sure to catch the author talk with Jason Mott as he discusses his latest novel that goes to the heart of racism, police violence, and the hidden costs exacted upon Black Americans and America as a whole. February wraps up with an insightful discussion from author and business coach Kim Scott, as she talks about how to bring radical candor and radical respect into the workplace.
March kicks off with an inspiring and revelatory author talk with Nina Totenberg about her memoir Dinners with Ruth, recounting the political, professional, and personal journey she shared with Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Master storyteller Christopher Paolini talks about his latest novel in his bestselling epic fantasy series. Previous Spokane Is Reading author, Madeline Miller discusses her body of work and her process in retelling Greek classics as modern epics in fiction.
If you are unable to attend any of the live talks, you can view past recordings at a time that works for you.
Rom-Com Author Tessa Bailey
During this author talk, Tessa Bailey discusses her new super-hot sports romance/romantic-comedy novel, Fangirl Down, about a bad-boy professional athlete who falls for his biggest fan.
Wells Whitaker was once golf’s hottest rising star, but lately, all he has to show for his “promising” career is a killer hangover, a collection of broken clubs, and one remaining supporter. No matter how poorly he plays, the beautiful, sunny redhead is always on the sidelines. He curses, she cheers. He scowls, she smiles. But when Wells quits in a blaze of glory and his fangirl finally goes home, he knows he made the greatest mistake of his life.
About the author: Tessa Bailey is the New York Times bestselling author of It Happened One Summer and Hook, Line, and Sinker. She can solve all problems except for her own, so she focuses those efforts on stubborn, fictional blue-collar men and loyal, lovable heroines. She lives on Long Island, avoiding the sun and social interactions, then wonders why no one has called. Dubbed the “Michelangelo of dirty talk” by Entertainment Weekly, Tessa writes with spice, spirit, swoon, and a guaranteed happily ever after.
ONLINE
Thursday, Feb 8, 5pm | REGISTER
Award-Winning Author Jason Mott
New York Times bestselling author Jason Mott discusses his recent novel Hell of a Book. This magnificent work of fiction is deeply honest, at times electrically funny, and is a book that goes to the heart of racism, police violence, and the hidden costs exacted upon Black Americans and America as a whole.
In Hell of a Book, a Black author sets out on a cross-country publicity tour to promote his bestselling novel. That storyline drives Hell of a Book and is the scaffolding of something much larger and more urgent: Mott’s novel also tells the story of Soot, a young Black boy living in a rural town in the recent past, and The Kid, a possibly imaginary child who appears to the author on his tour.
About the author: Jason Mott is the author of two poetry collections and four novels. His first novel, The Returned, was adapted for television and aired on ABC under the title Resurrection. Since then, his novels that followed have received various accolades and acclaim. His novel Hell of a Book won the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, was a Carnegie Medals For Excellence longlist nominee, and won the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction. He lives in hermitude in Southeastern North Carolina.
ONLINE
Tuesday, Feb 20, 1pm | REGISTER
Bestselling Author Kim Scott
Why is feedback so difficult, and how can we make it easier? The idea is simple: You don’t have to choose between being a pushover or a jerk.
New York Times bestselling author of Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity, Kim Scott discusses the Radical Candor feedback framework and how you can practice it today. Get practical, tactical tips for how to solicit criticism, give praise and criticism, gauge how what you’re saying is landing, and build a culture of Radical Candor. Scott also discusses how to ensure that bias, prejudice, and bullying aren’t masqueraded as feedback. Radically candid relationships with team members enable bosses to fulfill their three core responsibilities:
- Create a culture of compassionate candor
- Build a cohesive team
- Achieve results collaboratively
Scott helps you keep your humanity while living your life with radical respect and candor.
About the author: Kim Scott is the author of Radical Respect: How to Work Together Better (coming in May 2024), Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing your Humanity, and Just Work: How to Root Out Bias, Prejudice, and Bullying to Build a Kick-Ass Culture of Inclusivity. She co-founded a company that helps leaders put the ideas in her books into practice. Kim was a CEO coach at Dropbox, Qualtrics, Twitter, and other tech companies. She was a member of the faculty at Apple University and before that led AdSense, YouTube, and DoubleClick teams at Google. She lives with her family in Silicon Valley.
ONLINE
Wednesday, Feb 28, 11am | REGISTER
NPR Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg
Nina Totenberg talks about her nearly 50-year friendship with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her book Dinners With Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships.
Four years before Nina Totenberg was hired at NPR, where she cemented her legacy as a prizewinning reporter, and nearly 22 years before Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed to the Supreme Court, Nina called Ruth. As a reporter for The National Observer, Nina was curious about Ruth’s legal brief asking the Supreme Court to declare into law that discrimination “on the basis of sex” to be unconstitutional. In a time when women were fired for becoming pregnant, often could not apply for credit cards, or get a mortgage in their own names, Ruth patiently explained her argument. That call launched a remarkable, nearly 50-year friendship.
Dinners with Ruth is an extraordinary account of two women who paved the way for future generations by tearing down professional and legal barriers. It is also an intimate memoir of the power of friendships as women began to pry open career doors and transform the workplace. At the story’s heart, Ruth and Nina saw each other not only through professional and personal joys but also illness, loss, and widowhood. Inspiring and revelatory, Dinners with Ruth is a moving story of the joy and true meaning of friendship.
About the author: Nina Totenberg is NPR’s award-winning legal affairs correspondent. She appears on NPR’s critically acclaimed news magazines All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Weekend Edition and on NPR podcasts, including The NPR Politics Podcast and its series, “The Docket.” Totenberg’s Supreme Court and legal coverage has won her every major journalism award in broadcasting. Recognized seven times by the American Bar Association for continued excellence in legal reporting, she has received more than two dozen honorary degrees. A frequent TV contributor, she writes for major newspapers, magazines, and law reviews.
ONLINE
Wednesday, Mar 6, 1pm | REGISTER
International Bestselling Author Christopher Paolini
Master storyteller and internationally bestselling author Christopher Paolini talks about his return to the world of Eragon with his latest novel Murtagh, a continuation of the epic fantasy series Inheritance Cycle.
In this gripping novel, starring one of the most popular characters from Christopher Paolini’s blockbuster Inheritance Cycle, the dragon rider Murtagh must discover what he stands for in a world that has abandoned him. Murtagh is the perfect book to enter the world of Eragon for the first time—or to joyfully return.
About the author: Christopher Paolini is the creator of the Fractalverse series and the blockbuster series Inheritance Cycle (Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, Inheritance, and Murtagh), which has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide. First published at age 19, he is the holder of the Guinness World Record for youngest author of a bestselling series. Christopher makes his home in Paradise Valley, Montana, where he continues to write stories and ask questions.
ONLINE
Thursday, Mar 14, 1pm | REGISTER
Bestselling Author Madeline Miller
Madeline Miller, bestselling author of The Song of Achilles and Circe, chats with us about her body of work and her process in retelling Greek classics as modern epics in fiction.
In The Song of Achilles, Achilles, “the best of all the Greeks,” son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.
In Circe, a daughter is born to Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans. But Circe is a strange child—neither powerful like her father nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power: the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.
About the author: Madeline Miller is the New York Times bestselling author of two novels: The Song of Achilles, which won the Orange Women’s Prize for Fiction 2012, and Circe, which was short-listed for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019. Her books have been translated into over 32 languages. Miller holds a master’s degree in classics from Brown University, studied in the Dramaturgy department at Yale School of Drama, where she focused on the adaptation of classical texts to modern forms, and taught Latin, Greek, and Shakespeare to high school students for over a decade.
ONLINE
Thursday, Mar 21, 4pm | REGISTER
Tags: adults, author event, author reading, author talk, books, online, reading, SCLD Online Authors Series
