No one is born into this world to become a serial killer…but what if they are? What happens when people are driven by forces beyond their understanding and are powerless to stop themselves? A Hitchcockian soul-stirring mystery thriller, Last of the Autumn Rain, follows the life journey of Julie Cromwell as she evolves from a loving child born to wealthy socialite parents into a spine-chilling murderess.

Diana Louise Webb is an educator, tutor, motivational speaker, freelance writer and eight-time award-winning author of two self-help books, The Butterfly Cometh and Elf Dust To Excellence.

Diana holds a Juris Doctorate and a Psychology degree. She lives in a modest home in rural Missouri where she shares quality time with her 89-year-old mother.

Writers Circle at WordHaven BookHouse offers local writers a comfortable place to share and develop their work, receive feedback and guidance, encourage and support other writers, and discuss all aspects of the writing process. Open to all forms of writing and all experience levels. Free to attend.

Writers Circle will meet at WordHaven the first Tuesday of each month, from 6-8pm. The circle will be led by published author and award-winning book designer, Erika Block, owner of Gray House Publishing.

In seven days Jet Mason will be dead.

Jet is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont. Twenty-seven years old, she’s still waiting for her life to begin. I’ll do it later, she always says. She has time.

Until Halloween night, when Jet is violently attacked by an unseen intruder.

She suffers a catastrophic head injury. The doctor is certain that within a week, the injury will trigger a deadly aneurysm.

Jet has never thought of herself as having enemies. But now she looks at everyone in a new light: her family, her former best friend turned sister-in-law, her ex-boyfriend.

She has at most seven days, and as her condition deteriorates she has only her childhood friend Billy for help. But nevertheless, she’s absolutely determined to finally finish something:

Jet is going to solve her own murder.

Practice reading and using tarot spreads! You may bring your own decks and books. If you don’t have a deck to use, one can be provided.

Hosted by Amanda Bergemann from COLORFLOW & Meg Rose.

Shannon Schuren is the critically acclaimed author of The Virtue of Sin, Where Echoes Lie, and the forthcoming Water in Her Veins, August 2025. A former children’s librarian, she now works as the program coordinator for the Sheboygan County Literacy Council, a non-profit that helps adults learn to read, write, and speak English. Her short stories have appeared in various journals such as Toasted Cheese Literary Journal, Big Pulp, and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. More information is available at her website, shannon.schuren.org. 

Writers Circle at WordHaven BookHouse offers local writers a comfortable place to share and develop their work, receive feedback and guidance, encourage and support other writers, and discuss all aspects of the writing process. Open to all forms of writing and all experience levels. Free to attend.

Writers Circle will meet at WordHaven the first Tuesday of each month, from 6-8pm. The circle will be led by published author and award-winning book designer, Erika Block, owner of Gray House Publishing.

Practice reading and using tarot spreads! You may bring your own decks and books. If you don’t have a deck to use, one can be provided.

Hosted by Amanda Bergemann from COLORFLOW & Meg Rose.

Lyra is rushing to the cold, far North, where witch clans and armored bears rule. North, where the Gobblers take the children they steal--including her friend Roger. North, where her fearsome uncle Asriel is trying to build a bridge to a parallel world.

Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want--but what Lyra doesn't know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other.

Theresa L. Goodrich is an Emmy-winning author and content creator with a penchant for storytelling and a keen eye. As the author of more than a dozen books, both nonfiction and fiction, she’s a firm believer that self-publishing can be life-changing. She’s an accomplished public speaker, appearing regularly at libraries in the Chicago area, on stage across the country at the Travel and Adventure Show, and at the 2025 Mensa Annual Gathering. She also teaches the Midwest Travel Network Writing Workshop, which multiple attendees have called life-changing. When she’s not writing or speaking, she’s most likely planning her next adventure.  

Jennifer (Jenn) Walter is a writer, editor, and journalist living in the Sheboygan area. Her work has been published in a variety of local and national publications, including Milwaukee Magazine, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Discover, and Inverse. She is also the founder of Freshwater Words, a content studio that serves organizations looking to sharpen their message and build authentic connections with their audience.

You can find her on Instagram or LinkedIn at @jenngwalter. 

I’m Sarah Torfin, a transplant from the heart of central Appalachia. Although my profession is geology, my heart is deeply rooted in music. I was classically trained on violin using the Suzuki Teaching Method, where I was taught to trust my ear for music before I learned how to ever read a page of sheet music. I have always found peace in being able to convey the emotions of a piece of music on my violin (or fiddle), and occasionally add a little Appalachian twang when it feels as though a piece needs it! Through my music, I hope to bring everyone a sliver of peace that I always had growing up in the Shenandoah and New River Valleys.

https://torfinviolin.godaddysites.com

What if you could enter the mind of the person you love the most?

Enka meets Mathilde in art school and is instantly drawn to her. Mathilde makes art that feels truly original, and Enka—trying hard to prove herself in this fiercely competitive world—pours everything into their friendship. But when Mathilde’s fame and success cause her to begin drifting away, Enka becomes desperate to keep her close.

Enter SCAFFOLD. Purported to enhance empathy, this cutting-edge technology could allow Enka to inhabit Mathilde’s mind and access her memories, artistic inspirations, and deep-seated trauma. Undergoing this procedure would link Enka and Mathilde forever. But at what cost?

Blisteringly smart, thought-provoking, and shocking, Immaculate Conception offers us a portrait of close friendship—achingly tender and twisted—that captures the tenuous line between love and possession that will haunt you long after you turn the final page.

Practice reading and using tarot spreads! You may bring your own decks and books. If you don’t have a deck to use, one can be provided.

Hosted by Amanda Bergemann from COLORFLOW & Meg Rose.

Katrina Serwe is a joyful childless cat lady who loves poetry, art, and nature. Her poems have been featured in a variety of publications such as the Blue Heron Review, The Solitary Plover, Bramble, Portage Magazine, and Scrawl Place. She was the first-place winner of the 2024 Wisconsin Writers Association Jade Ring contest for poetry and the second-place winner of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets 2025 Muse Prize. Her chapbook, First Steps: Poemwalking the Ice Age National Scenic Trail in the Northern Kettle Moraine was released by Brain Mill Press May 27, 2025. Serwe’s current project is foraging poems on Wisconsin’s Ice Age National Scenic trail. You can follow her journey at www.katrinaserwe.com.

Writers Circle at WordHaven BookHouse offers local writers a comfortable place to share and develop their work, receive feedback and guidance, encourage and support other writers, and discuss all aspects of the writing process. Open to all forms of writing and all experience levels. Free to attend.

Writers Circle will meet at WordHaven the first Tuesday of each month, from 6-8pm. The circle will be led by published author and award-winning book designer, Erika Block, owner of Gray House Publishing.

Jennifer (Jenn) Walter is a writer, editor, and journalist living in the Sheboygan area. Her work has been published in a variety of local and national publications, including Milwaukee Magazine, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Discover, and Inverse. She is also the founder of Freshwater Words, a content studio that serves organizations looking to sharpen their message and build authentic connections with their audience.

You can find her on Instagram or LinkedIn at @jenngwalter. 

A New York Times, USA Today, and Time Best Book of the Year

Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home was a pop culture and literary phenomenon. Now, a second thrilling tale of filial sleuthery, this time about her mother: voracious reader, music lover, passionate amateur actor. Also a woman, unhappily married to a closeted gay man, whose artistic aspirations simmered under the surface of Bechdel's childhood . . . and who stopped touching or kissing her daughter good night, forever, when she was seven.

Poignantly, hilariously, Bechdel embarks on a quest for answers concerning the mother-daughter gulf. It's a richly layered search that leads readers from the fascinating life and work of the iconic twentieth-century psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott, to one explosively illuminating Dr. Seuss illustration, to Bechdel’s own (serially monogamous) adult love life. And, finally, back to Mother — to a truce, fragile and real-time, that will move and astonish all adult children of gifted mothers.

I’m Sarah Torfin, a transplant from the heart of central Appalachia. Although my profession is geology, my heart is deeply rooted in music. I was classically trained on violin using the Suzuki Teaching Method, where I was taught to trust my ear for music before I learned how to ever read a page of sheet music. I have always found peace in being able to convey the emotions of a piece of music on my violin (or fiddle), and occasionally add a little Appalachian twang when it feels as though a piece needs it! Through my music, I hope to bring everyone a sliver of peace that I always had growing up in the Shenandoah and New River Valleys.

https://torfinviolin.godaddysites.com

The extraordinary novel that asks: Can a name change the course of a life?

In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register her son's birth. Her husband, Gordon, a local doctor, respected in the community but a terrifying and controlling presence at home, intends for her to name the infant after him. But when the registrar asks what she'd like to call the child, Cora hesitates...

Spanning thirty-five years, what follows are three alternate and alternating versions of Cora's and her young son's lives, shaped by her choice of name. In richly layered prose, The Names explores the painful ripple effects of domestic abuse, the messy ties of family, and the possibilities of autonomy and healing.

With exceptional sensitivity and depth, Knapp draws us into the story of one family, told through a prism of what-ifs, causing us to consider the "one . . . precious life" we are given. The book’s brilliantly imaginative structure, propulsive storytelling, and emotional, gut-wrenching power are certain to make The Names a modern classic.

KP Kaszubowski is a poet, educator, filmmaker, and astrologer based in Sheboygan. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Eastern Washington University and a BA in Journalism and Documentary Studies from UW–Milwaukee. Her work spans poetry, film, and community ritual, often exploring themes of memory, embodiment, and the unseen layers of personal and collective experience.

In addition to publishing poetry in literary journals, KP's debut feature film RINGOLEVIO premiered at Dances with Films (LA) in 2020.

With a background in both creative writing and ritual arts, she leads writing workshops that emphasize emotional depth, poetic form, and the healing potential of language. She believes in writing as a way to make meaning, build connection, and tend to grief with care and imagination.

Practice reading and using tarot spreads! You may bring your own decks and books. If you don’t have a deck to use, one can be provided.

Hosted by Amanda Bergemann from COLORFLOW & Meg Rose.

From New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore comes a hilariously deranged tale of a mad scientist, a famous painter, and an undead woman’s electrifying journey of self-discovery.

Vienna, 1911. Gustav Klimt, the most famous painter in the Austrian Empire, the darling of Viennese society, spots a woman’s nude body in the Danube canal. He knows he should summon a policeman, but he can’t resist stopping to make a sketch first. And as he draws, the woman coughs. She’s alive!

Back at his studio, Klimt and his model-turned-muse Wally tend to the formerly-drowned girl. She’s nearly feral and doesn’t remember who she is, or how she came to be floating in the canal. Klimt names her Judith, after one of his most famous paintings, and resolves to help her find her memory.

With a little help from Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, Judith recalls being stranded in the arctic one hundred years ago, locked in a crate by a man named Victor Frankenstein, and visiting the Underworld.

So how did she get here? And why are so many people chasing her, including Geoff, the giant croissant-eating devil dog of the North? Poor Things meets Bride of Frankenstein in Anima Rising, Christopher

Moore’s most ingenious (and probably most hilarious) novel yet.

CHRISTOPHER MOORE is the author of eighteen previous novels, including Razzmatazz, Shakespeare for Squirrels, Noir, Secondhand Souls, Sacré Bleu, Fool, and Lamb. He lives in San Francisco, California.

CONNECT ONLINE at www.ChrisMoore.com and on Facebook @TheAuthorGuy.

Found / Blackout Poetry is a type of poetry created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other sources and re-framing them as poetry by making changes in spacing and lines, by adding and/or deleting text, thus imparting new meaning.

A variety of materials will be included. Participants are welcomed to bring their own journal, notebook, or sketchbook to work in if they prefer. Instruction and examples will be provided, as well as personalized guidance as you work. We will reserve time at the end of the workshop for anyone who might like to share their poetry with the group.

Cost: $10 (due upon registration, non-refundable)
Limited seating available. Please stop in or register online to reserve your seat.

923 N 8th St, Sheboygan

E.L. Block is an award-winning designer, director, and author. Her work has been featured in the national media, including People Magazine, The View, Good Morning America, and The Today Show. Herdebut novel, American Gothic, went into its second printing within a month of its release in November 2022. Her second novel, Monstera (2023), was nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award and was a finalist for a Silver Falchion Award. She is published by TitleTown Publishing and agented by TTA. Block is also the owner of Gray House Publishing, an emerging independent press. In addition to short novels, Block also writes short stories, flash fiction, and poetry. Connect online: @elblockauthor