Freedom of Choice

SECRET ACRES needs you! This Small Press Expo, we find ourselves with our first post-pandemic Ignatz Award nominee in Gabriel Howell for the unforgettable Forget Me Not. You have so much time to vote. Exercise your rights and demons and vote Forget Me Not. Vote all you want! Americans love democracy, supposedly. Our candidate rocks, and shows up, and is easily bored, so come say hello at camp Secret Acres, also known as tables N8-9. We count ourselves very lucky indeed to have two tables, because Gabe ain’t the only Acre in town.

 

 

Foremost, Joakim Drescher, proud maker of babies and Motel Universe, returns to our shores, finally, to celebrate the end of his sci-fi trilogy with Motel Universe 3 (assuming there’s no Motel Universe 4 Lyfe coming up). Now we think of it, Joakim dropped the first book at TCAF, and that is not even America, really, so this is a first as well as a foremost. MU3 weighs in at a pound and a half, so prepare for a big, fat book to add to your Secret Acres haul because we have another trio of show debuts to go.

 

 

Secondly, Sean Ford, gives everybody jitters with Shadow Hills, the follow-up to his perennial classic, Only Skin, and only a dozen years in-between books. Sean absolutely shattered our longest-delayed book record (previously held by Gabby Schulz with Sick), but somehow, and we swear this is true, it’s worth waiting for. After all, no one does horror/sci-fi/speculative fiction/family drama/humor the way Sean can, and Shadow Hills hits on all fronts. We can hardly believe it, but you better believe it and come get it.

 

 

Speaking of proud papas, Robert Sergel stays home this weekend with the wee one. We get it, it’s cool, because you get Satan’s Kingdom, anyway. The biggest, baddest Eschew collection of all time rolls into SPX like a bat out of hell. Featuring pretty much true stories, we think Satan’s Kingdom is the scariest book ever to sport an SA logo. Somehow, the laugh-out-loud funny stuff, and Napoleon and Nikola Tesla, just make the whole thing even more insidious and sinister – and relatable. Always relatable.

 

 

Finally, L. Nichols buries the longest title record with I Am Only a Foreigner Because You Do Not Understand, aka IAOAFBYDNU. They keep it autobio, so consider this one a direct sequel to L.’s beloved Flocks. However, IAOAFBYDNU turns the lights off, or at least down, so relate at your own risk, and good luck not relating, unless you are a heartless monster (Are you reading this in hell, Mama?). Like Flocks, we guarantee tears with this one. We would sticker it with a warning, but, spoiler alert: L. brings the hope and redemption.

 

 

Adding to the feeding frenzy, we give you Special Guest Nicholas Offerman (the other one from New Jersey), complete with a new Or_nge. Eamon Espey (now another badass dad) comes back from the dead and deals a limited edition tarot deck, Second Sight, that we want very, very badly. Glynnis Fawkes gets paneled. Keren Katz appears live on stage in her own panel, and even more, she’s teaching one of those workshop things. If we can find a way to attend, we promise to be good students for Keren, who promises to be a very bad teacher in a very good way. We can always send hometown hero, Adam Griffiths, over to chaperone. Overwhelmed? Us, too. We still have to pack. See you at the thing…

Your Pal,

Leon

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