Attention, Funkers! Our longtime co-host William Shunn will be appearing next week in not one but two of Chicago's most thrilling other reading series. They'll be on consecutive nights, no less, so please block out Tuesday and Wednesday evenings on your calendar!

First comes WRITE CLUB, on Tuesday, April 16th, at The Hideout. In this bare-knuckle series, three pairs of writers square off with essays on opposing topics. The audience decides who wins, with all proceeds going to charities of the winners' choice. Bill will be defending GOD over DEVIL, for the One Tail at a Time dog rescue organization. Tickets are $10 cash at the door. Arrive early!

And the following night, Wednesday, April 17th, Bill will be part of CHIRP Radio's THE FIRST TIME at Second City's new UP Comedy Club. This monthly series assembles seven or so writers to reminisce about an important "first" from their lives, backed with specially chosen songs by The First Time Three. For April the topic will be "First Crime." Tickets are $10, and buying in advance is strongly recommended. (And get preferred seating with a dinner reservation!)

To recap...

We hope you'll come out to one or both of these events and help support the amazing and vibrant "live lit" scene in Chicago. And if you run into Bill, say hello and tell him Tuesday Funk sent you!

Tuesday Funk is proud to inaugurate its association with Gapers Block at our April 2nd reading, by welcoming Andrew Huff as our new co-host!

Gapers Block is a Chicago-centric online publication founded in 2003 with the intent of getting people to slow down and check out their city. An all-volunteer staff writes news, events and commentary about Chicago and its multifaceted people and neighborhoods. Gapers Block has covered Tuesday Funk since its early days, and Gapers Block founder and publisher Andrew Huff is proud to be involved in its latest evolution.

So please join us on April 2nd to hear our great readers, Mary Robinette Kowal, Jeremy Jasper, Wesley Chu, Regan Keeter, and Tuesday Funk co-founder Reinhardt Suarez, and to help us welcome Andrew aboard!

Hey, all you glamorous Funkers! Love rollerdisco? Love science fiction and fantasy? Then you need to support the Kickstarter campaign for the Glitter & Madness anthology!

What's this, you ask? It's a new anthology edited by Lynne M. Thomas, Michael Damian Thomas and John Klima, chock full of speculative stories about the secret history of 20th century nightlife and party culture. Think glam rock! Think rollerdisco! Think glitter! Think madness!

The book will be published by Apex Publications and will feature a standalone novella from New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire set in her InCryptid universe. There will also be stories by Alan DeNiro, Amal El-Mohtar, Daryl Gregory, Damien Walters Grintalis, Maria Dahvana Headley, Kat Howard, Jennifer Pelland, Tim Pratt, Cat Rambo, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Diana Rowland, Sofia Samatar, David J. Schwartz, Rachel Swirsky, and Tuesday Funk co-host William Shunn!

In fact, Bill is writing his story together with his fabulous wife Laura Chavoen, so you can be among those contributing to support her fiction debut! And the anthology itself will debut this August at the San Antonio Worldcon, with an otherworldly party at the world-famous Rollercade! Groovy!

Only two days remain to make the last third of the funding requirement! Be glamorous! Contibute now!

What's more, having reached 50% of the funding goal, the anthology is now open to general submissions! If you want to be part of this spectacular publishing event, check out the submission guidelines now!

There's a scary version of the book trailer too.

Also, there are plenty of perks available to funders, including Tuckerizations from any of a dozen different contributors at the $250 contribution level. What's a Tuckerization, you ask? It means you can get your name included in someone's story. That's right! You could be a character in Bill's story, or Daryl Gregory's, or Cat Rambo's, or Tim Pratt's, or on and on and on!

So what are you waiting for? Change into your best day-glo fashions, strap on those chunky roller skates, and pony up for the party anthology of the year!

And if you want to submit a story of your own for consideration, here are your writing prompts:

Roller derby, nightclubs, glam aliens, (literal) party monsters, drugs, sex, glitter, debauchery, etc.

Do it now! You'll be our Valentine if you do.

Though it's not a Tuesday Funk reading, we'd like to invite you to a special evening of speculative fiction readings on Thursday, February 28th, at Open Books Bookstore in Chicago!

It's the first in the Chicago Writers Conference's new quarterly readings series, and we're delighted that they asked Tuesday Funk co-host William Shunn to put together this program of science fiction, fantasy, and horror by great local authors. You can see the Facebook invitation here, which we hope you'll share with all your Chicagoland friends:

http://www.facebook.com/events/148595008632051/

And here's all the info, straight from the CWC itself. Let's see you there, Funkers!

This month, we're excited to kick off our quarterly events at Open Books Bookstore! Join us on Thursday, February 28 for an evening of short readings hosted by Hugo and Nebula Award–nominated author William Shunn. This evening will feature science fiction, fantasy, and horror readings by local authors. This free event gets underway at 6:30 p.m.

Featuring:
Jody Lynn Nye
Mary Anne Mohanraj
Matt Darst
Holly McDowell
Wesley Chu
Richard Chwedyk
William Shunn

For more information, visit our website.

The Basics
Date: Thursday, February 28, 2013
Time: 6:30 - 9:00 pm
Place: Open Books Bookstore
213 W. Institute Place
Chicago, IL 60610
(1 block north of Chicago & Franklin el stop.)

Mark your calendar. We'll see you there!

Tuesday Funk is delighted to be producing this Friday's Chicago Writers Conference special reading event together with Open Books, an organization that truly needs and deserves your support.

Open Books, if you don't know, is a nonprofit social venture that operates an extraordinary bookstore, provides community programs, and mobilizes passionate volunteers to promote literacy in Chicago and beyond. Their mission is to enrich lives through reading, writing, and the unlimited power of used books.

Their programs include reading buddies for elementary school students; creative writing field trips for 4th through 12th graders; college and career mentoring for high school juniors; literacy workshops for all ages; and much, much more.

Their bookstore, open 7 days a week in River North, offers more than 50,000 donated books for sale to support their programs. Tax-deductible book donations are always welcome, and you can learn many other ways to support and help out Open Books by visiting their website, open-books.org.

Open Books is located at 213 W. Institute Pl., conveniently near the Brown Line stop at Chicago Avenue. Watch this space to learn how you can attend our Chicago Writers Conference Special Edition of Tuesday Funk at Open Books, Friday, September 14th, 7:30 p.m., featuring Patricia Skalka, M. Salahuddin Khan, Rachel Wilson, William Shunn, and Mary Robinette Kowal. We hope to see you there!

We at Tuesday Funk love Hopleaf and the wonderful room they let us use every month, so we're happy to spread the word about a great cause they undertake every year.

No, it's not a program to give beer to minors! It's a charitable event to raise money to support Helen C. Peirce Elementary School, and it takes place this coming Sunday, September 9th, from noon to 5:00 p.m. at Hopleaf. Click the image below for more information on how you can participate, or visit KegsForKidsChicago.com.

Our friend and former Funker, Stephen Markley, author of Publish This Book, will be reading from his new release The Great Dysmorphia: An Epistemological View of Ingesting Hallucinogenic Mushrooms at the 2012 Republican Presidential Debate at Black Rock on August 23. Come for the fun, the funnies, the drinks, and the music.

Pipes and Drums will be performing a set of rock and roll originals and covers inspired by the reading and drink specials.

Party starts at 8:00 p.m. this Thursday.

Tuesday Funk is eternally grateful to Hopleaf Bar for giving us such an atmospheric and welcoming home every month. In return, we'd like to congratulate Michael Roper not just on Hopleaf's recent beautiful expansion, but also on its appearance earlier this month on Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives with Guy Fieri. But be careful, Michael! We sense an up-and-coming TV star in chef Ben Sheagren!

We just hope we'll still be able to get a seat!

A few weeks ago, Andrew Huff of Gapers Block issued a fascinating challenge to Tuesday Funk co-host William Shunn: to take a piece of original poster art by Chad Kouri and produce a piece of writing of between 1,500 and 2,500 words to accompany it.

The resulting art/writing combo, along with seven other collaborations between artists and writers, will be on display and on sale at The Coop on May 18th. All the info is below. Hope to see you there, Funkers!

8 x 8
Friday, May 18, 2012
6:00 pm until 10:00 pm

The COOP | A co-working space in River North
230 W Superior, 2F, Chicago, IL 60654

In the spirit of artistic collaboration, The Coop and Gapers Block teamed up to produce 8x8, an experiment in writing and design. Eight Chicagoland designers were paired with eight local writers to create collaborative works, with text informing and influencing art and vice versa. The results of this experiment are presented in limited edition poster form, with writing and design back to back.

Writers:
Patrick Somerville, Claire Zulkey, Ramsin Canon, Kevin Guilfoile, William Shunn, Veronica Bond, Wendy McClure, Scott Smith

Designers:
Jesse Hora, Andy Luce, Chad Kouri, Ina Weise, Letterform, Ryan Sievert, Paul Octavious, Kyle Fletcher

Proceeds benefit Open Books.

More info: http://blog.coworkchicago.com/post/22148593743/the-coop-presents-8x8
RSVP on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/375591619149230/

You may be sick of hearing about this, Funkers, but you have less than 36 hours left to help fund the Kickstarter campaign for this September's Chicago Writers Conference. They still have more than $1,500 to raise to meet their funding goal.

We've told you already why you should support it. Now it's your turn to just do it. Please hurry.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chiwritersconf/make-the-chicago-writers-conference-a-reality