Chicago, if you want to kick off your weekend in an appropriately heady way, might we suggest getting yourself down to The Hideout for December's edition of The Interview Show? Every month, host Mark Bazer welcomes a cross-section of fascinating guests, which tonight includes Alex Shakar, a Writers Workspace member and author of the acclaimed novels Luminarium and The Savage Girl.

Publishers Weekly calls Luminarium a "penetrating look at the uneasy intersection of technology and spirituality... Shakar's blend of the business of cyberspace and the science of enlightenment distinguishes the novel as original and intrepid... Shakar's prose is sharp and hilarious, engendering the reader's faith in the novel's philosophical ambitions. Part Philip K. Dick, part Jonathan Franzen, this radiant work leads you from the unreal to the real so convincingly that you begin to let go of the distinction." You won't want to miss hearing Shakar interviewed live on stage tonight.

With only four more days until our December 6th reading, we want to remind you how Tuesday Funk can transport you out of a cold and dreary Chicago winter to magical places like a summer in Paris. In this segment from our November 1st program, Suzanne Clores reminds us that the best-laid plan is sometimes no plan at all...

And if you want to tag along on more great adventures like this one, be sure to join us on Tuesday, December 6th, when we present Jody Lynn Nye, John Klima, Hanna Martine, Patricia Ann McNair, and Emile Ferris!

Emile Ferris grew up in Chicago and New Mexico. She received a BFA in visual art and an MFA in writing from the School of the Art Institute, where she also received the Toby Devan Lewis Emerging Artist Fellowship in 2010. 

Join us Tuesday, December 6th at 7:30 p.m. to hear Emile read an excerpt from her graphic novel "Dark Brothel" at Hopleaf's upstairs bar!

Patricia Ann McNair has lived 98 percent of her life in the Midwest. She's managed a gas station, sold pots and pans door to door, tended bar and breaded mushrooms, worked on the trading floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and taught aerobics. Today she is an Associate Professor in the Fiction Writing Department of Columbia College Chicago, where she received the Excellence in Teaching Award as well as a nomination for the Carnegie Foundation's US Professor of the Year.

McNair's fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared in various anthologies, magazines, and journals including American Fiction: Best Unpublished Short Stories by Emerging Writers, Other Voices, F Magazine, Superstition Review, Dunes Review, River Teeth, Fourth Genre, Brevity, Creative Nonfiction, and others. She is also published in The Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction edited by Dinty W. Moore. She's received numerous Illinois Arts Council Awards and Pushcart Prize nominations in fiction and nonfiction.

He debut collection, The Temple of Air, was named a "stunning debut" by The Nervous Breakdown. Reviewer Donna Seaman of Booklist writes "McNair's plainspoken yet imaginative, complexly unnerving, and haunting stories raise essential questions of fate and will, appearances and truth, guilt and compassion." 

McNair divides her time between city and small town with her husband, the visual artist Philip Hartigan. Check out her website at: www.patriciaannmcnair.com

Hanna Martine's debut paranormal romance novel, LIQUID LIES, will be released from Berkley Sensation/Penguin Publishing in August 2012. Her erotic romance has appeared in Clean Sheets magazine.

Join us Tuesday, December 6th, 7:30 p.m., at Hopleaf's upstairs bar to enjoy Hanna's stories!

            Jody Lynn Nye lists her main career activity as 'spoiling cats.' When not engaged upon this worthy occupation, she writes fantasy and science fiction books and short stories.

            Before breaking away from gainful employment to write full time, Jody worked as a file clerk, book-keeper at a small publishing house, freelance journalist and photographer, accounting assistant and costume maker.

            Since 1987 she has published 43 books and more than 100 short stories. Among the novels Jody has written are her epic fantasy series, The Dreamland, beginning with Waking In Dreamland, five contemporary humorous fantasies, and three medical science fiction novels.  Strong Arm Tactics, a humorous military science fiction novel, is the first of Jody's new series, The Wolfe Pack.

            She has also collaborated with Anne McCaffrey on four science fiction novels and co-authored the Visual Guide to Xanth with best-selling fantasy author Piers Anthony.

        

Her newest books are Dragons Deal (Ace Books), third in the Dragons series begun by Robert Asprin, and View From the Imperium (Baen Books), a humorous military SF novel. Coming soon is Myth-Quoted, the next Myth-Adventures novel.

            Over the last twenty or so years, Jody has taught in numerous writing workshops and participated on hundreds of panels covering the subjects of writing and publishing at science-fiction conventions. She has also spoken in schools and libraries around the north and northwest suburbs. In 2007 she taught fantasy writing at Columbia College Chicago.

            Jody lives in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, with her husband Bill Fawcett, a writer, game designer and book packager, and a black cat, Jeremy.

Join Tuesday Funk on December 6th at 7:30 p.m. at Hopleaf's upstairs bar to hear Jody read!

Thanksgiving is a short six days away, and Tuesday Funk reader Laura Stark is here to give you one more thing to feel thankful for. In this segment from our November 1st program, she gives us reason to look forward to family gatherings that can't possibly be as awkward as this one...

And if you want to feast on more great readings like this one, be sure to join us on Tuesday, December 6th, when we present the stellar lineup of Jody Lynn Nye, John Klima, Hanna Martine, Patricia Ann McNair, and Emile Ferris!

John Klima is the Assistant Director at the Waukesha Public Library. He also edits the Hugo Award-winning magazine Electric Velocipede. As of 2010, the magazine has also been nominated for the World Fantasy Award four years in a row.

In 2007 Klima edited an anthology of science fiction and fantasy stories based on spelling-bee winning words called Logorrhea: Good Words Make Good Stories. Klima edited a reprint anthology of fairy tale retellings called Happily Ever After that came out from Night Shade Books in the Summer of 2011. In 2013, ALA Editions will publish his Readers Advisory book on Steampunk.

Join Tuesday Funk on December 6th at 7:30 p.m. at Hopleaf's upstairs bar to hear John read!

For your Monday edification, we dip back to our recent November 1st event at Hopleaf. The reading shared a date with Dia de los Muertos, and author Cesar Torres shared with us the transcript of a particular video blog he ran across on YouTube. A rather morbid video blog, that is...

And if you're dying for more great readings like this one, be sure to join us on Tuesday, December 6th, when we present the stellar lineup of Jody Lynn Nye, John Klima, Hanna Martine, Patricia Ann McNair, and Emile Ferris!

Look what we got you for the holidays, Chicago! A giant gift-wrapped edition of Tuesday Funk—our 40th big episode—featuring the likes of Jody Lynn Nye, Patricia Ann McNair, Hanna Martine, Emile Ferris, and John Klima. And we'll have dozens of varieties of cold beer on hand to wish you holiday cheer.

It all comes sledding your way on Tuesday, December 6, 2011, 7:30 pm, in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf, 5148 N. Clark St., Chicago. Arrive early, carve yourself out some space in the upper room, and grab a beer from John at the cash-only bar. We start seating at 7:00 pm and no earlier. Admission is always free, but you must be 21 or older. And come early or stay afterward for some great Belgian-style food downstairs.

Please bring plenty of friends, and become a fan of Tuesday Funk on Facebook so you never miss an invitation to our readings. Because that would be worse than getting a lump of coal in your stocking. Ho, ho, ho!