How far is Pittsboro?

For most of us around the Raleigh-Durham area, luckily that answer doesn't fully apply when talking about McIntyre's Books. Fearrington Village is about halfway from Chapel Hill to Pittsboro along US 15-501, which is far, but maybe not too far for a couple of local events of Bull Spec interest:

The first is so recently booked that it isn't yet on the village calendar but it has made it onto Mark Van Name's events so I think it's safe to say it's official. Mark will be at McIntyre's on Sunday, August 29 at 2 PM, reading from and talking about his new book Children No More (Baen, August 2010) and, I think it's safe to say, Falling Whistles.

And if, after learning that Fearrington is not quite all the way to Pittsboro, it still seems too far, fret not. He'll be at Quail Ridge Books on Thursday, September 2 at 7:30 PM.

The second bit of McIntyre's related news comes in the form of Warren Rochelle, who while now living elsewhere has deep ties to all of Durham, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh. He'll be at McIntyre's to read from and sign his new book The Called (Golden Gryphon Press, September 2010) on Sunday, September 12, at 2 PM.

And if that's too far away in time to worry about; if you missed Stephen Messer's Windblowne (Random House Books for Young Readers, May 2010) stops at The Regulator and Flyleaf Books, don't miss him at Quail Ridge next Thursday, August 19 at 6:30 PM. (Come early for the Wimpy Kid ice cream truck's free ice cream...)

Whew. It's getting hard to keep up with all that's going on in speculative fiction 'round these parts. I like it.

PS: I have to commend McIntyre's small science fiction and fantasy section's taste. Lev Grossman's "The Magicians" and in particular R. Scott Bakker's "The Darkness That Comes Before" and its sequels are, in this one fool's opinion, cornerstones of the last decade in North American Fantasy.