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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260903T173000
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DTSTAMP:20260826T174437Z
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UID:10624-1788456600-1788460200@francieandfinch.com
SUMMARY:Visiting Author - Van Jensen - Godfall
DESCRIPTION:Join us as we welcome back to Francie & Finch Bookshop author Van Jensen! We will be celebrating the hardcover publication of his novel Godfall\, and will hear about the upcoming sequel\, Godrise\, set to release in January 2027!\nTo order the hardcover of Godfall\, follow the link HERE!\nTo pre-order a copy of Godrise\, give us a call at 402-781-0459! \nAbout Book 1 – Godfall:\nIn this riveting contemporary thriller\, Sheriff David Blunt is faced with a string of murders following the arrival of a mystery from out space—soon to be a television series from Ron Howard! \n“A fully engrossing\, genre-bending procedural that will have you staying up long past your bedtime.” -Karin Slaughter\, New York Times and #1 international bestselling author of Pretty Girls \nAll David Blunt wanted was to be sheriff of his hometown\, Little Springs\, Nebraska\, population 731. But his days of simply keeping the peace among the locals he’s known all his life are upended by a series of brutal\, bizarre murders—all happening in the wake of an event truly out of this world. One year ago\, just outside the town\, a being fell to Earth. Whatever it is\, it’s three miles tall\, seemingly dead\, and definitely not human. \nDubbed “the giant\,” the being’s arrival has transformed this quaint farm town from the middle of nowhere into the most important city on the planet. Yes\, a city\, complete with a top-secret government research site and a hundred thousand new residents: soldiers\, scientists\, bureaucrats\, spies\, criminals\, conspiracy theorists—and now a murderer. \nDavid never thought his job would involve breaking up chanting crowds of cultists or brokering peace with dueling government agencies\, all against the backdrop of the otherworldly. And as he faces a murder spree that strikes closer and closer to home\, David has to solve multiple mysteries—what fell from the sky\, how it’s connected to the killings right in front of him\, and who the killer is—before he loses his hometown forever. \nAbout Book 2 – Godrise: (Release date\, January 26th\, 2027)\nIn the shadow of the giant—the three‑mile‑tall alien that dropped down\, seemingly dead\, just outside of town—Little Springs continues to grow: 200\,000 people and still expanding rapidly. Crisis looms as they come to realize there is not enough water for all of them. A tech industry titan decides to dam a river and pipe its water into the city\, which sparks off a quickly growing protest. The dam is to be built on the historic site of a Lakota massacre at the hands of the U.S. army. Sheriff David Blunt is tasked with mediating the conflict\, an assignment that becomes impossible when a protester turns up dead—murdered\, David believes. \nMeanwhile\, scientist Sunny Lee is on the verge of a breakthrough to understanding the truth of the giant. Except\, to unlock its mysteries\, she’ll have to venture into the giant itself and risk touching off a cataclysm. All the while\, worrying omens appear\, indicating that the blade stabbed through the giant is spreading its infection—an alien life form with its own dark agenda.\n \nAbout the Author:\nVan Jensen is an acclaimed novelist\, screenwriter\, and comic book writer. Godfall\, his debut novel\, is in development as a TV series with Academy Award winner Ron Howard attached to direct. Jensen began his career as a newspaper crime reporter\, then broke into comic books and graphic novels as the writer of ARCA (IDW)\, Two Dead (Gallery 13)\, and Tear Us Apart (Dark Horse). Jensen has written world-renowned characters\, including Superman\, The Flash\, Green Lantern\, Godzilla\, and James Bond. He has served as a Comic Book Ambassador for the U.S. State Department\, teaching refugee children to tell their stories through comics. He lives in Atlanta.
URL:https://francieandfinch.com/event/visiting-author-van-jensen-godfall/
LOCATION:Francie & Finch Bookshop\, 130 S. 13th Street\, Lincoln\, NE\, 68508\, United States
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260913T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260913T150000
DTSTAMP:20260825T182249Z
CREATED:20260825T180500Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260825T182249Z
UID:10643-1789300800-1789311600@francieandfinch.com
SUMMARY:Weaving Your Story - Cecilia Vargas and Visiting Author Illustrator - Gina Wei
DESCRIPTION:WELCOMING WEEK FESTIVITIES\nJoin us on Sunday\, September 13th for this family fun event! Working with beloved organizations Echo Collective and Linked 2 Literacy\, Francie and Finch Bookshop will be hosting special Welcoming Week activities. Create your own woven bookmark with Cecilia Vargas\, all supplies will be provided. Joining the fun will be author and illustrator Gina Wei at 2:00 to talk about her new children’s book The Lion Dancer (available for purchase at the event).\nABOUT:\nEcho Collective works with women entrepreneurs who were born outside the United States and now live right here in the beautiful city of Lincoln\, Nebraska. ECHO’s entrepreneurship ecosystem offers comprehensive business education\, as well as holistic personal and professional development opportunities.  \nAuthor and Illustrator Gina Wei:\nShe is an author-illustrator\, artist\, and independent publisher. Originally from China and now based in Lincoln\, Nebraska\, she draws inspiration from classical Chinese poetry\, the landscapes and memories of her childhood\, and her life between cultures. Through her paintings and picture books\, she explores themes of belonging and human connection. She hopes to build bridges between cultures and celebrate the richness of our shared humanity.
URL:https://francieandfinch.com/event/welcoming-week-festivities-weaving-your-story-with-guests-cecilia-vargas-and-gina-wei/
LOCATION:Francie & Finch Bookshop\, 130 S. 13th Street\, Lincoln\, NE\, 68508\, United States
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260916T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260916T183000
DTSTAMP:20260818T182517Z
CREATED:20260818T174956Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260818T182517Z
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SUMMARY:Panel Discussion - The Lives of Immigrants and Refugees: Tales of Migration\, Hope\, Grief\, and Finding Home in Nebraska
DESCRIPTION:Join us on Wednesday September 16th at 5:30 as we hear stories from the new book from University of Nebraska Press\, The Lives of Immigrants and Refugees: Tales of Migration\, Hope\, Grief\, and Finding Home in Nebraska. We can’t wait to see you there!\nTo pre-order your copy\, follow the link HERE!\n\nAbout the Book:\nHuman beings have always migrated. To be on the move\, searching for a more hospitable climate\, greater resources\, and a welcoming community\, is part of our human DNA. All kinds of large\, uncontrollable forces—war\, the threat of genocide\, climatic changes\, political exile\, and economic hardship—propel people to leave behind everything familiar and begin their lives over again in a strange place\, sometimes with only the clothes on their backs. \nThe Lives of Immigrants and Refugees offers thirty-one essays by immigrants and refugees who now call Lincoln\, Nebraska\, home. These individuals have found support\, belonging\, and opportunity through the collaborative work of Lincoln’s New Americans Task Force members and the Lincoln/Lancaster County Welcoming and Belonging Strategic Plan. The stories in this book are brilliant\, harrowing\, poetic\, and revelatory. They’re also stories of survival\, resilience\, creativity\, and a staggering amount of work: learning a new language\, navigating a challenging immigration system\, being perceived as a foreigner\, struggling to grasp strange new customs and traditions\, working one’s way out of extreme poverty\, working through trauma and grief. Those of us who have had the good fortune of not being displaced have much to learn by listening. \nAbout the Editors:\nLeirion Gaylor Baird is the mayor of Lincoln\, Nebraska. \n\n\nMatthew F. Bokovoy is a senior acquisitions editor at the University of Nebraska Press\, specializing in Native American and Indigenous studies\, general nonfiction of the American West\, and borderlands history. His articles have appeared in the Journal of the American Planning Association\, New Mexico Historical Review\, and Reviews in American History. He is the author of The San Diego World’s Fairs and Southwestern Memory\, 1880–1940. \nLisa Guill is communications director at the Asian Community and Cultural Center. She is also the Welcoming Communities coordinator at Cultural Centers of Lincoln. \nMichelle Carr Hassler is associate professor emerita of journalism at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She was a newspaper reporter for sixteen years in Colorado\, Arizona\, and Nebraska. Hassler has received nine national teaching awards\, most from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication-refereed competitions and her students have won national and regional awards\, including the 2023 Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Digital Reporting. She was executive director of the Nebraska High School Press Association and received the R. Neale Copple Friend of Journalism Award in 2019. \nJoy Castro is Willa Cather Professor of English and Ethnic Studies and director of the Institute of Ethnic Studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She is the author of the memoir The Truth Book (Nebraska\, 2012)\, the essay collection Island of Bones (Nebraska\, 2012)\, the fiction collection How Winter Began (Nebraska\, 2015)\, and the literary thrillers Hell or High Water\, Nearer Home\, Flight Risk\, and One Brilliant Flame. She edited Family Trouble: Memoirists on the Hazards and Rewards of Revealing Family (Nebraska\, 2013)\, and serves as the founding editor of Machete\, a series in innovative creative nonfiction by underrepresented voices at Ohio State University Press. \nEmira Ibrahimpašić is associate professor of practice in School of Global Integrative Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies at University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Her research articles have appeared in Translocal: Contemporary Local and Urban Cultures Journal\, Island Studies Journal\, and CAPA: The Global Education Network Academic Publications. \nPraise for the Book:\n“This important collection brings together academics and the Lincoln community to tell about how communities thrive as a result of immigration and change. These stories will make you cry and swell with compassion as you read the harrowing stories of trauma\, resilience\, and triumph directly from the pens of those who have lived through these adventures. These are American stories that reflect the bedrock notion that the United States\, Nebraska\, and Lincoln in particular have always been places that embrace immigrants from all over the world who come seeking a home to start a new life and become part of our community.”—María E. Montoya\, coauthor of Global Americans: A History of the United States \n“This important work chronicles how Lincoln\, Nebraska’s\, residents have created a welcoming haven for the world’s tired\, poor\, and huddled masses yearning to breathe freely. Recounting in first-hand narratives their past victimization\, these women and men simultaneously celebrate how Lincoln has incorporated them into the body politic. In this moment of harrowing national peril\, here is a powerful paradigm for welcoming strangers.”—Ramón A. Gutiérrez\, author of New Mexico’s Moses: Reies López Tijerina and the Religious Origins of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement  \n“This book is a remarkable creative accomplishment. Beyond the sheer poignancy and power of the individual stories\, The Lives of Immigrants and Refugees is a testament to the ways in which municipal policy can and should intersect with public-facing scholarly work. Lincoln\, Nebraska\, can take a big measure of pride in the publication of this book for the ways it honors not only its immigrant and refugee neighbors but also the work of welcoming\, supporting\, and learning from them all.”—William Deverell\, professor of history and codirector of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West
URL:https://francieandfinch.com/event/panel-discussion-the-lives-of-immigrants-and-refugees-tales-of-migration-hope-grief-and-finding-home-in-nebraska-led-by-editors-joy-castro-and-lisa-lisa-guill/
LOCATION:Francie & Finch Bookshop\, 130 S. 13th Street\, Lincoln\, NE\, 68508\, United States
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260918T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260918T180000
DTSTAMP:20260819T173911Z
CREATED:20260819T173552Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260819T173911Z
UID:10639-1789750800-1789754400@francieandfinch.com
SUMMARY:Book Launch - Luis Othoniel Rosa - El Gato En El Remolino/Animal Spiral
DESCRIPTION:Join us for a book launch you don’t want to miss! On September 18th author Luis Othoniel Rosa will be presenting his book El Gato En El Remolino\, and the English language version\, translated by Katie Marya\, Animal Spiral.\nTo order the Spanish language version\, El Gato En El Remolino\, follow the link HERE!\nTo order the English language version\, Animal Spiral\, follow the link HERE! \nAbout the Book:\nThe post-colonial birth\, life\, and death of the collective consciousness known as the Animal. \nMiddle-aged streamer twins in Bayam n\, Puerto Rico\, are the first human beings to successfully connect–sharing their consciousness across 34 translucent cables. In that moment\, the Animal is born\, an intracerebral force that quickly grows to encompass anthills of synaptically entwined bodies\, a floating library kitchen redolent of rice and beans far above the Mississippi river\, and a transhuman compound in a future Cuba on the Isle of Youth. \nCircling back and forth and ever progressing\, Animal Spiral moves through 400 years of human\, and then post-human history\, beginning with a revolution on the streets of San Juan and ending with five brilliant siblings: the Squash (humanoid)\, Calima (beetles)\, Yemay (eels)\, Coatlicue (serpents)\, and Jurac n (anthropomorphic birds)\, who have millions of bodies and all the world’s intelligence\, but only want to no longer be alone. This is a buoyant\, joyous ode to possibility\, a warning about the dangers of neglecting what makes us human\, and an astonishing exercise of the flexibility and capacity of liminal spaces. Loneliness is a collective disease We defend our right to madness Brave are not the ones who resist; brave are the ones who let go. \nAbout the Author:\nLuis Othoniel Rosa is a Puerto Rican writer from Bayamón. He studied at the University of Puerto Rico and holds a PhD from Princeton University\, and his work engages with questions of literature\, politics and form.Katie Marya is the author of Sugar Work\, the Editor’s Choice for the 2020 Alice James Book Award\, and the translator of Luis Othoniel Rosa’s novel Animal Spiral (2026). She has been awarded the James Dickey Prize in Poetry from Five Points and support from the Nebraska Arts Council and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. She is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Murray State University. \nAbout the Translator:\nKatie Marya is the author of Sugar Work\, the Editor’s Choice for 2020 Alice James Book Award. Her poetry\, creative nonfiction\, and translations have appeared in literary magazines such as AGNI\, North American Review\, Waxwing\, Salamander\, Fence\, and on the national poetry podcast The Slowdown Show. She lives in Nebraska and teaches writing a the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
URL:https://francieandfinch.com/event/book-launch-luis-othoniel-rosa-el-gato-en-el-remolino-animal-spiral/
LOCATION:Francie & Finch Bookshop\, 130 S. 13th Street\, Lincoln\, NE\, 68508\, United States
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260925T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260925T183000
DTSTAMP:20260826T182445Z
CREATED:20260826T182445Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260826T182445Z
UID:10650-1790357400-1790361000@francieandfinch.com
SUMMARY:Visiting Author - Chet Hardin - The Vampire’s Cult
DESCRIPTION:Join us on Friday\, September 25th as we welcome journalist and author Chet Hardin. Published in August 2026\, Hardin’s new book The Vampire’s Cult exposes the twisted world of Aubrey Trail\, an aging con man who presented himself as an all-powerful being\, and Bailey Boswell\, the woman who called herself his “queen.” Henry J. Cordes\, author of Pathological: The Murderous Rage of Dr. Anthony Garcia\, tells Hardin’s readers\, “If you thought the 2017 murder of Sydney Loofe was bizarre\, you don’t know the half of it until you’ve read Chet Hardin’s amazing account of the disappearance and murder that captivated Nebraska. Deeply reported and well-written\, it offers amazing jailhouse insight into how the minds of Aubrey Trail and Bailey Boswell became so strangely and tragically twisted. A great addition to the legacy of true crime on the Great Plains.”\nWe’ll see you there!\nTo order a copy from Francie & Finch\, follow the link HERE.  \nABOUT THE BOOK:\nWhen twenty-four-year-old Sydney Loofe disappeared after a Tinder date\, the quiet town of Wilber\, Nebraska was stunned. Days later\, her dismembered body was found scattered across nearby fields—and the horrifying truth began to emerge. Sydney hadn’t just met the wrong man. She had crossed paths with a deeply disturbed psychopath and his dangerous accomplice. \nIn The Vampire’s Cult\, investigative journalist Chet Hardin exposes the twisted world of Aubrey Trail\, an aging con man who presented himself as an all-powerful being\, and Bailey Boswell\, the woman who called herself his “queen.” Together\, they lured vulnerable young women into a spiral of sex\, theft\, and psychological manipulation—with deadly consequences. \nThrough exclusive interviews\, firsthand reporting\, and chilling detail\, Hardin unravels the making of a modern cult—and the social desperation that feeds it. In an era defined by false realities and toxic charisma\, The Vampire’s Cult reveals just how easily darkness can disguise itself as devotion. \nABOUT THE AUTHOR\nChet Hardin is an award-winning investigative journalist and the coauthor of The Program: Inside the Mind of Keith Raniere and the Rise and Fall of Nxivm. \nFor more information or if you would like to request an interview with the author\, please contact Robin Wane at robin.wane@sourcebooks.com \nEARLY REVIEWS\n“Beware: The Vampire’s Cult is neither horror nor true crime. It so marvelously combines the two genres it may require a new genre: horror crime. Hardin tells a terrible tale of an evil cult who committed murder in a small town in Nebraska and the consequences to all involved. His telling of the tale will leave you captivated\, if not mesmerized.” – Harry Maclean\, author of Starkweather \n“Chet Hardin was the first journalist to give me a voice. He didn’t just listen to me; he understood what it means to survive something people don’t want to believe. In The Vampire’s Cult\, he brings that same persistence and clarity to a case that reveals just how far manipulation and control can go… Dark\, unsettling\, and at times so absurd it almost disarms you – until it doesn’t. I’ve seen firsthand how these dynamics take hold – and this book exposes not just what happened\, but how the right vulnerabilities\, in the wrong hands\, can be shaped into something unthinkable.” – Toni Natalie\, author of The Program: Inside the Mind of Keith Raniere and the Rise and Fall of NXIVM \n“In the terrifying true crime thriller The Vampire’s Cult\, author Chet Hardin sharpens his investigative knives to penetrate a graphic and disturbing crime in America’s heartland\, while also unmasking a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde hellbent on ritualistic murder. The writing is crisp and the narrative moves at the speed of a locomotive. This powerful book also begs the question: when I open an app\, am I allowing the devil inside?” – Casey Sherman\, New York Times bestselling author of Helltown and The Killer and Frank Lloyd Wright \n“Chet Hardin is a fearless journalist who helped to expose the notorious ‘sex cult’ known as NXIVM. Now he applies that same skill to exploring the manipulation of deadly Nebraska cult leader Aubrey Trail. Like NXIVM leader Keith Raniere\, Trail used his powers of persuasion for sex and sadism. It takes someone like Chet to dig deep into such behavior\, which gives readers a better understanding of its chilling context.”  – Rick Alan Ross\, founder and executive director of the Cult Education Institute
URL:https://francieandfinch.com/event/visiting-author-chet-hardin-the-vampires-cult/
LOCATION:Francie & Finch Bookshop\, 130 S. 13th Street\, Lincoln\, NE\, 68508\, United States
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