Phinney-Greenwood author Mike Atteberry’s sixth book, “Chokecherry Canyon,” will be published on Tuesday, July 18. Locally, it will be available at Phinney Books.

He provided us with an excerpt:

When a disgraced businessman is nearly decapitated in a seedy restaurant, the blood trail leads reporter Luke Murphy to a series of dark secrets, concealed for decades in the New Mexico desert.

Luke Murphy returned to Farmington, New Mexico to care for his ailing father, but a year later, his old man is dead, and Luke has stuck around. Working for the local newspaper, he’s quickly learning that reporting the news in his old hometown often means reading between the lines of what people are willing to share with him on the record and off. But there’s nothing like a murder to get people talking…

While covering a crime scene on the outskirts of town, Luke unwittingly stumbles onto a story forty years in the making. Whispered secrets suggest a cover-up spearheaded by the town’s former mayor, a conspiracy involving a hometown hero, and a growing scandal known to just a handful of people – including Luke’s late father. The farther Luke drills down, the harder the town’s power-players fight to conceal the truth. It’s a story as old as print, a tale of politics, greed, and murder, simmering under the hot sun in the American Southwest.

Phinney Ridge resident Danielle Dreger has released her first young adult novel, “Secret Heart,” an LGBTQ teen romantic comedy centered around a Florida Gay Straight Alliance and its “Unprom.”

Avery Jennings is a punk-rock guitarist with a secret weakness for rom-coms and Taylor Swift. Her band, Detonate the Gazelle is ready to move to Austin after graduation, but Avery is having second thoughts. She’s fallen hard for Madison Shea, student council president with a douchebag boyfriend, after their orbits collide at Oak Bluff High’s inaugural Gay-Straight Alliance meeting. Even though it goes against her rules about crushing on straight girls, Avery relentlessly pursues Madison.

Their chemistry is too magnetic to deny and soon they are making out in car washes and school bathrooms and holding hands under tables. Avery wants to take their relationship public but Madison is afraid of her conservative family’s reaction and that it’ll ruin her chances as Prom Queen.

Their secret relationship is put to the ultimate test when student council vetoes a proposal for a gay-friendly prom and the club decides to throw a free Unprom the same night as Prom with Detonate the Gazelle as the headliner.

A portion of all book sales will go to the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network; however, all book sales during March will be donated to GLSEN and the ACLU. Dreger, Teen Services Coordinator for Sno-Isle Libraries, frequently speaks at Gay Straight Alliance clubs at area schools.

“Secret Heart” is available at Phinney Books, Secret Garden Books, University Book Store and Third Place Books, and from online retailers like Indie Bound and Amazon, as well as through the Seattle Public Library.

Phinney Ridge’s Sara Crow, who self-published her children’s book “Even Superheroes Have to Sleep” in 2015 with the help of a Kickstarter campaign, will now have her book published by Penguin Random House | Double Day.

Crow first wrote “Even Superheroes Have to Sleep” when she had trouble getting her three little ones out of their superhero costumes at bedtime. She sold the books at numerous Seattle independent bookstores, and set up a table at the 2015 PhinneyWood Summer Streets festival in August of that year.

That afternoon a woman approached the table and picked up a book. She asked my plan for the book, if I had sequels in the works (six to be exact), and what I had done to promote it. At the end of our conversation she bought a book and handed me her card; she works the Amazon relationship for PRH. She asked me to send her an email with all of the information I had just rattled off. She specifically stated that she did not have a say as to which books get published, but she would get it into the right hands.

And she did.

Even Superheroes Have to Sleep will be released in hardcover March 14, 2017 and the sequel, Even Superheroes Use the Potty will be released March of 2018.

Crow will read and sign “Even Superheroes Have to Sleep” at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 12, at Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave. on Capitol Hill; and at 4 p.m. Monday, March 13, at Phinney Books, 7405 Greenwood Ave. N.

“The independent bookstores in Seattle are beyond supportive,” Crow told me by email. “I can’t speak highly enough of them.”

The Greater Seattle Bureau of Fearless Ideas is hosting a space-themed party to celebrate the publication of Kevin Emerson’s new novel “Last Day on Mars.” The “Saturday on Mars!” party is from 1-3 p.m. Saturday, March 4, at BFI/Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co., 8414 Greenwood Ave. N.

Emerson, a former science teacher, will read from his new book, and several BFI students will read their own original space-travel stories written during a workshop with Emerson. Plus there will be science experiments and prizes, books for sale, and Emerson will sign books. He is the author of 16 novels for children and young adults, which have been published in 10 countries.

Tracy Weber, owner of Whole Life Yoga at 8551 Greenwood Ave. N., will publish her fourth novel in the “Downward Dog” mystery series, called “A Fatal Twist,” this Sunday.

Her book launch party will be at Edmonds Bookshop, 111 5th Ave. S. in Edmonds, from 5-8 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 19.

Do bad things really happen in threes? For yoga instructor Kate Davidson, it seems they do—and it also seems that no good deed goes unpunished. Kate’s life takes a chaotic turn when she agrees to be the doula for her pregnant best friend—and to play foster mother to two puppies. As if the terrible two puppies aren’t destructive (and disruptive) enough, things get exponentially worse when Kate finds the dead body of a philandering fertility doctor and sees Rachel, one of her yoga students, fleeing the scene.

Finding more questions than answers, Kate launches a race against time to find the truth. But how much sleuthing can Kate really do when her hands are full with caring for three dogs, teaching yoga classes, and gaining an unexpected crime-solving partner? If Kate isn’t careful, her next yoga pose may be a fatal one.

Weber’s previous novels are “Murder Strikes a Pose,” “A Killer Retreat” and “Karma’s A Killer.”

She also has book signings at 12 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28, at Seattle Mystery Bookshop, 117 Cherry St.; and 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 29, at Whole Life Yoga.

The Greater Seattle Bureau of Fearless Ideas is hosting a publication party for its newest edition of “What to Read in the Rain.” This year’s edition is subtitled “Adventure Stories!”

The publication party is from 1-3 p.m. Saturday Dec. 3, at the BFI, inside the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co., at 8414 Greenwood Ave. N., with author signings, cake, story readings and fun.

The book is filled with stories not only by BFI students, but by some pretty famous grownup authors, such as Tom Robbins, Davy Rothbart, Lauren Weedman and Barbara Earl Thomas.

The book will be for sale at Greenwood Space Travel, as well as local bookstores and many hotels. Proceeds benefit BFI’s free tutoring and writing programs.

Reminder: Seattle7Writers’ 7th annual Holiday Bookfest is this Saturday, Nov. 19, at the Phinney Neighborhood Association, 6532 Phinney Ave. N. Twenty-five local authors will sign their books, provide home-made treats and give readings to raise money for the PNA and the Greater Seattle Bureau of Fearless Ideas, which provides free tutoring and writing help for students.

Seattle7Writers’ house band The Rejections will play at the beginning of the event, followed by several author reading. Phinney Books will be selling authors’ books. Seattle7Writers also will be collecting donations of gently used books for their Pocket Library program. Donate three or more books and receive a free Seattle7Writers tote bag.

Participating authors: Terry Brooks, Jim Lynch, Tim Egan, Deb Caletti, Lynn Brunelle, Garth Stein, Susan Wiggs, Kevin O’Brien, Erica Bauermeister, Sean Beaudoin, Laurie Frankel, Robert Dugoni, Brent Hartinger, Carol Cassella, Boyd Morrison, Megan Chance, Donna Miscolta, Ed Skoog, Kathleen Alcala, Mike Lawson, Steven Arntson, Dori Hillestad Butler, Bharti Kirchner, Clare Meeker and David B. Williams.

Performance/Reading schedule:

• 3-3:20 p.m.: The Rejections and Trailing Spouses
• 3:30 p.m.: Lynn Brunelle
• 3:45 p.m.: Kathleen Alcala
• 4 p.m.: Sean Beaudoin
• 4:15 p.m.: Jim Lynch
• 4:30 p.m.: Megan Chance
• 4:45 p.m. Steve Arntson

Get this on your calendars now: Seattle7Writers’ is celebrating its 7th annual Holiday Bookfest at the Phinney Neighborhood Association, 6532 Phinney Ave. N., from 3-5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 19. Twenty-five local authors will sign their books, provide home-made treats and give readings to raise money for the PNA and the Greater Seattle Bureau of Fearless Ideas, which provides free tutoring and writing help for students.

Seattle7Writers supports a variety of local literacy efforts with the motto “Read Local.”

The event will begin with a short set by The Rejections, Seattle7Writers’ house band. Phinney Books will be selling authors’ books. Seattle7Writers also will be collecting donations of gently used books for their Pocket Library program. Donate three or more books and receive a free Seattle7Writers tote bag.

Participating authors:
Terry Brooks
Jim Lynch
Tim Egan
Deb Caletti
Lynn Brunelle
Garth Stein
Susan Wiggs
Kevin O’Brien
Erica Bauermeister
Sean Beaudoin
Laurie Frankel
Robert Dugoni
Brent Hartinger
Carol Cassella
Boyd Morrison
Megan Chance
Donna Miscolta
Ed Skoog
Kathleen Alcala
Mike Lawson
Steven Arntson
Dori Hillestad Butler
Bharti Kirchner
Clare Meeker
David B. Williams

Performance/Reading schedule:

• 3-3:20 p.m.: The Rejections and Trailing Spouses
• 3:30 p.m.: Lynn Brunelle
• 3:45 p.m.: Kathleen Alcala
• 4 p.m.: Sean Beaudoin
• 4:15 p.m.: Jim Lynch
• 4:30 p.m.: Megan Chance
• 4:45 p.m. Steve Arntson

Phinney Ridge author Tara Austen Weaver is a finalist in this year’s Washington State Book Awards.

Weaver’s book “Orchard House: How a Neglected Garden Taught One Family to Grow,” is a finalist in the Biography/Memoir category.

The awards are presented in eight categories, for books published by Washington authors in 2015. Winners will be announced at the awards celebration from 7-9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8, at the Central Library, Microsoft Auditorium, 1000 Fourth Ave. Each winner will receive a $500 honorarium.

The awards program will feature emcee Frances McCue, an award-winning poet and arts administrator who received the Washington State Book Award for poetry in 2011 for “The Bled.” The program also features brief readings from 2016 winning titles. A reception and book signing will follow in the Living Room on Level 3 of the Central Library. The awards and celebration are sponsored by The Seattle Public Library Foundation.

A book award is given based on the strength of the publication’s literary merit, lasting importance and overall quality to an author who was born in Washington state or is a current resident and has maintained residence here for at least three years.