Book ‘em
Chaucer’s has booked a whopping four in-store signings at its Loreto Plaza location this week, starting with No. 1 New York Times bestselling Young Adult author P. C. Cast on Sunday afternoon, June 4. Cast, whose novels count more than 20 million copies in print in over 40 countries, had the last installment of herTales of a New World series published on Wednesday. Earth Called finds love and goodness put to the ultimate test as gods, humans, and animals come together to save everything they hold dear in the culmination to the fantasy adventure series… Two days later, on June 6, Chaucer’s Books moves from a young adult author to an author who is actually a young adult. UCSB undergrad Elaine Skiadas is a teenage recipe developer, food photographer, and the creator behind the popular blog, Wandering Chickpea. Fantastic Vegan Recipes for the Teen Cook features 60 easy-to-follow recipes along with helpful vegan cooking tips, tricks, and techniques to create healthy, fun, and flavorful vegan dishes proving for budding chefs of any age that easy vegan cooking doesn’t need to be bland or boring.
Skipping to the other end of the age spectrum, UCSB Distinguished Professor Emeritus in geology Bruce Luyendyk comes home to share his latest book, Mighty Bad Land: A Perilous Expedition to Antarctica Reveals Clues to an Eighth Continent. He’ll be signing at Chaucer’s on Wednesday, June 7. On his first expedition to West Antarctica in 1989, Luyendyk and his geology team found evidence that a large submarine plateau, a fragment from the Gondwana breakup, comprises a sunken continent beneath New Zealand. This eighth continent was named Zealandia by Luyendyk, whose prior research in marine geophysics included exploration of deep-sea black smokers, i.e., hydrothermal vents, using the deep submersible ALVIN off western Mexico. Mighty Bad Land istold firsthand by Luyendyk, revealing his inner battles and challenges as he shares what it takes to prevail in the harsh climate. The author invites readers into a land of emptiness, beauty, constant daylight, and unseen menace as Luyendyk, his three geologist colleagues, and two mountain guides face the brutal beauty of West Antarctica 800 miles from the U.S. main base.
Rounding out the week, CSUCI professor Colleen M. Delaney shows up at Chaucer’s on Thursday, June 8, to share the history of what is today mostly known as a mountain biking trail in Point Mugu State Park. Rancho Guadalasca: Last Ranch of California’s Central Coast traces the land that lays at the western end of the Santa Monica Mountains along the eastern Oxnard Plain, mining tales of indigenous Chumash, Californio ranchers, Anglo American farmers, Japanese fishermen, and Basque sheepherders, all of whom left their marks on the land. The work also explains the strange intersection between Camarillo State Hospital and her own institution, CSU Channel Islands. Free admission to all the events. For more details, call (805) 682-6787 or visit www.chaucersbooks.com.
Write On
Want the chance to someday show up at Chaucer’s to sign copies of your own book? Consider the deep dive into the literary world later this month when the Santa Barbara Writers Conference returns to an in-person gathering at the beachside Mar Monte Hotel for its 50th anniversary on June 18-23. The six-day immersion involves intensive work focusing on craft as well a
