In Conversation: William Alexander with C. S. E. Cooney and Carlos Hernandez

Sci-Fi lovers, join us on Oct. 23rd at 7pm, to celebrate the recent release of Sunward with William Alexander! He will be in conversation with authors, C. S. E. Cooney and Carlos Hernandez, followed by an audience Q&A and book signing.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

A cozy debut science fiction novel by National Book Award-winning writer William Alexander, this story of found family follows a planetary courier training adolescent androids in a solar system grappling with interplanetary conflict after a devastating explosion on Earth's moon.

Captain Tova Lir chose a life as a courier rather than get involved in her family's illustrious business in politics. Set in humanity's far future, hiring a planetary courier is essential for delivering private messages across the stars.

Encouraged by friends, Tova begins mentoring baby bots, juvenile AI who are developmentally in their teens, and trains them how to interact within society essentially becoming their foster mom. Her latest charge, Agatha Panza von Sparkles, named herself on their first run from Luna to Phoebe station. But on their return, they encounter a derelict spaceship and a lurking assassin, igniting a thrilling chase across the solar system.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

William Alexander is the New York Times-bestselling author of Goblin Secrets and other unrealisms for young readers. His work has won the National Book Award, the Eleanor Cameron Award, the Librarian Favorites Award, the Teacher Favorites Award, two Junior Library Guild Selections, and two CBC Best Children's Book of the Year Awards. Most recently he wrote Sunward—his first novel for grownups—and co-edited the middle grade anthology Starstuff: Ten Science Fiction Stories to Celebrate New Possibilities. As a small child he honestly believed that his Cuban-American family came from the lost island of Atlantis. Find him online at willalex.net. 

C. S. E. Cooney (she/her) is a two-time World Fantasy Award-winning author: for novel Saint Death’s Daughter, and collection Bone Swans, Stories. Other work includes Saint Death's Herald (second in the Saint Death Series), The Twice-Drowned Saint, Dark Breakers, and Desdemona and the Deep. As a voice actor and proud member of SAG-AFTRA, Cooney has narrated over 120 audiobooks, as well as short fiction for podcasts like Uncanny Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Tales to Terrify, and Podcastle. In March 2023, she produced her collaborative sci-fi musical, Ballads from a Distant Star, at New York City’s Arts on Site. (Find her music at Bandcamp under Brimstone Rhine.) With her husband, writer and game-designer Carlos Hernandez, she co-designed a GM-less TTRPG called, Negocios Infernales (“the Spanish Inquisition… INTERRUPTED by aliens!”), out now from Outland Entertainment, with the companion collection Infernal Bargains, poetry and prose inspired by the game's "Deck of Destiny." Find her website and Substack newsetter via her Linktree or try “csecooney” on various social media platforms.

Carlos Hernandez has published more than thirty works for fiction, poetry, and drama, most notably a book of short stories for adults entitled The Assimilated Cuban's Guide to Quantum Santeria. He is an English professor at City University of New York, and he loves to both play games and design them. He lives with his wife, Claire, in Queens, New York.