In Brief: October 17

Rick Riordan concluded his tour for The House of Hades (Disney-Hyperion), the fourth book in the Heroes of Olympus series, with an October 15 engagement at the Fitzgerald Theater, home of A Prairie Home Companion. He spoke with Minnesota Public Radio’s Kerri Miller as part of the Talking Volumes series of lectures with writers. The event sold out in less than three hours and some fans drove over five hours to see the author. All performers who take the stage at the Fitzgerald are asked to sign their name on the wall – here, Riordan follows suit.

A young New York Comic Con attendee models a mask promoting the forthcoming companion e-novella to Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone series, Night of Cake & Puppets (Little, Brown, Nov.) as well as the third and final book in the series, Dreams of Gods & Monsters, due out in April 2014.

At New York Comic-Con, 50 early-bird guests were treated to free, signed copies of Tamara Ireland Stone’s companion fantasy romances, Time Between Us and Time After Time (Disney-Hyperion), about two teenagers who fall in love and hope to stay together – never mind that one is a time traveler from decades into the future. In total, Stone signed more than 100 copies of the books and once they ran out, she gave out bookmarks and stickers to fans.

The fourth annual Sheboygan Children’s Book Festival in Sheboygan, Wis., took place from October 11–13. Fourteen authors and illustrators plus a storyteller visited area schools and presented at three venues – the Mead Public Library, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, and Bookworm Gardens – where the audience could participate in interactive programs and writing workshops for kids, teens, and adults. Here, Eric Rohmann demonstrates how to draw animals, after reading from My Friend Rabbit (Roaring Brook).

Mystery writer Mary Logue signed copies of her debut children’s book, Sleep Like a Tiger (HMH), during the Twin Cities Book Festival on October 12. The annual literary event, held at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, is sponsored by Minneapolis-based literary magazine Rain Taxi. Look who’s ‘popping’ up in the background: Robert Sabuda, who signed copies of his newest title, The Little Mermaid (S&S/Little Simon).

Peg Kehret rode in style during a parade following the William Allen White Awards ceremony, held at Emporia State University. The yearly awards are given to authors for books that have been selected as favorites by Kansas schoolchildren from a list of 24 titles. Kehret’s Ghost Dog Secrets (Puffin) was selected by voters in grades six through eight. Dogs were the rage this year: Patrick Jennings was also honored, by voters in grades three through five, for his book Guinea Dog (Egmont).