In the spirit of connecting writers with readers, Valley Bookseller and the Daily Grind are partnering up to present Authors After Hours.  We will meet one or two Fridays a month at 6:45pm in the Daily Grind.  Guest authors will present their work, discuss the writing process and take questions. Attendees must call the store to reserve their spot (max of 20 people) and pay a $5 fee.  On the night of the event, arrive by 6:45 and get a free beverage before the Grind closes at 7:00.  Presentation will start after everyone is settled in and go until 8:00 or so. The bookstore will be closed by that time as well but everyone will have a chance to shop after hours if they choose.  Call the store at 651-430-3385 to make your reservation today!

’89 Walls: College is not in the cards for Seth. He spends his minimum wages on groceries, and fakes happiness to distract his mom from the MS they both know will kill her. It’s agony to carry around a frayed love note for a girl who’s both out of his league and beneath his dignity. Quinn’s finishing high school on top. But that cynical, liberal guy in her social studies class makes her doubt her old assumptions. Challenging the rules now, though, would a) squander her last summer at home, b) antagonize her conservative dad, and c) make her a hypocrite. Seth and Quinn’s passionate new romance takes them both by surprise. They keep it a secret: it’s too early to make plans and too late not to care. But it’s 1989. As politics suddenly get personal they find themselves fighting bare-fisted for their beliefs—and each other—in the clear light of day.

Author Bio: Katie Pierson freelances for local non-profits, using her background in public policy and grassroots organizing to overthrow the patriarchy one introverted step at a time. When she’s not writing fiction, she returns library books, makes soup, and tries to be cooler than she really is by hip-hopping at the YMCA. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in American History from the University of Pennsylvania (where she dabbled briefly in being a College Republican) and a Master’s in American History from the University of Minnesota. She grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska, and now lives with her family in a suburb of Minneapolis. ’89 Walls is her first novel.