Jess Aarons' greatest ambition is to be the fastest runner in his grade. He's been practicing all summer and can't wait to see his classmates' faces when he beats them all. But on the first day of school, a new girl boldly crosses over to the boys' side and outruns everyone.

That's not a very promising beginning for a friendship, but Jess and Leslie Burke become inseparable. Together they create Terabithia, a magical kingdom in the woods where the two of them reign as king and queen, and their imaginations set the only limits.

Limitless: Poetry of an Aromantic & Asexual Journey explores love, identity, and belonging beyond society’s traditional definitions. In this debut collection, Patrick Bex celebrates the beauty of living authentically as aromantic and asexual, navigating friendships, self-acceptance, and the power of defining connection on your own terms. Written as a progression of his personal journey, the collection reflects on growth, discovery, and the meaning of love.

"Still, it took some more roads traveled
to learn that love is what we make it to be.
And on this journey, one more love unraveled,
I finally learned to love me for me."

Patrick Bex is an aroace poet, activist, and content creator from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is best known for his social media content under the name Fluently Aspec across multiple platforms. Beginning annually in 2022, Bex has successfully petitioned for official proclamation of Ace Week by the state of Wisconsin and has collaborated with other well-known creators such as Gentle Giant Ace, Lynn Saga, and AngstyAce. During Ace Week 2024, Bex teamed up with the Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project on an education campaign to debunk myths about asexual experiences. His debut book, Limitless: Poetry of an Aromantic & Asexual Journey, releases on February 18, 2025. Learn more about Patrick Bex and his work at fluentlyaspec.com.

In THE LAST BROKEN GIRL, Erin Moore, a self-doubting psychologist who was kidnapped as a teenager in a small Midwest town, learns her abductor is up for parole.

The police always believed her captor acted alone, and that the female accomplice Erin described years ago was the fabrication of a traumatized mind.

Twenty years later, Erin leads a rigidly structured life with her husband and two young daughters and has a successful psychology practice. When her abductor is paroled but goes missing leaving behind a large pool of blood, Erin and her husband become suspects. Erin receives photographs of her daughters with threatening notes and is certain they are from the female accomplice. She is unable to convince the police the menace is real.

As Erin watches her life unravel, including her marriage, career and possibly her sanity, she knows the only way out is to bring the accomplice to justice, even if it’s twenty year late.

Mystery author Cynthia Rice is a physician who grew up in Sheboygan County and is now living in the Milwaukee area. Her debut novel, The Last Broken Girl, a psychological suspense was published in June 2024, and it won the 2023 Claymore Award. She has a short story in an anthology Gone Fishin': Crime Takes a Holiday,  coming out on February 1, 2025. When she is not working on her next novel or short story (or planning a literary murder) she keeps busy traveling, as well as playing golf and tennis.

Jessica (Turkey) Blueturkey, is a recent graduate of Lakeland University with her BA in Communication, and a background in English and Linguistics. To her, the most interesting thing is how language is shaped and formed, and the different ways it can come together. If she’s not buried in books then she’s buried under babies.

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.

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.

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 freelance journalist living in Sheboygan. Her work has been published in a variety of local and national publications, including Milwaukee Magazine, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Discover, and Inverse. She primarily writes about science and nature, and is a member of the National Association of Science Writers. Her writing and editing work has also spanned topics like entertainment, business, and education.

Jenn is a graduate of Marquette University, where she earned bachelor’s degrees in journalism and German. You can usually find her out birdwatching in her free time.

Check out Jenn’s work at www.jenngwalter.com.

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.

Frederick Fife was born with an extra helping of kindness in his heart. If he borrowed your car, he’d return it washed with a full tank of gas. The problem is there’s nobody left in Fred’s life to borrow from. At eighty-two, he’s desperately lonely, broke, and on the brink of homelessness. But Fred’s luck changes when, in a bizarre case of mistaken identity, he takes the place of grumpy Bernard Greer at the local nursing home. Now he has warm meals in his belly and a roof over his head—as long as his poker face is in better shape than his prostate and that his look-alike never turns up. 

Denise Simms is stuck breathing the same disappointing air again and again. A middle-aged mom and caregiver at Bernard's facility, her crumbling marriage and daughter's health concerns are suffocating her joy for life. Wounded by her two-faced husband, she vows never to let a man deceive her again.

As Fred walks in Bernard’s shoes, he leaves a trail of kindness behind him, fueling Denise's suspicions about his true identity. When unexpected truths are revealed, Fred and Denise rediscover their sense of purpose and learn how to return a broken life to mint condition. 

Bittersweet and remarkably perceptive, The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife is a hilarious, feel-good, clever novel about grief, forgiveness, redemption, and finding family.

Alaina Ryan, a renowned scientist who has dedicated her life to studying the mysteries of human consciousness, collides with Jake Matthews by chance when she travels to Chicago for a gallery exhibition of her late mother's work. Their momentary connection proves to be life-altering for them both.

Following an unexpected incident that leaves her trapped between life and death, Alaina finds herself with the unique opportunity to observe and explore the true nature of human consciousness while separated from her physical self. As she navigates this uncharted territory, she uncovers profound revelations about identity, purpose, and the human experience, ultimately transforming her understanding of life. Simultaneously, Jake discovers he is able to connect with Alaina through his dreams. Each night, their shared dream world becomes a haven where they can be together without the limitations of their individual realities. While Alaina learns about the power of connection and the detriment of a life without love, Jake struggles with the heartache and loneliness of his reality, his lucid dreams providing the hope and strength he needs to strive for change.

Nothing is as it seems in this unsettling love story, told out of sequence and from multiple perspectives. Eloquent and eerie, alternate realities play out through concurrent storylines to form an intricately layered, genre-defying tale of suspense that will leave you questioning everything.

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.

Reeling from a shameful breakup with a boy she unabashedly worshipped, Nina drifts between school and her days volunteering at a dog shelter. But she's looking for something more. A way to fix her mistakes. Unsure of how to move on, Nina peels back the moments that have shaped her and given her a view of girlhood distorted by violence and sacrifice. One that led her to do something unspeakable to a fellow student.

As Nina grapples with regret, strange memories of a trip to Italy with her mother start to surface. Layer by layer, Elana K. Arnold reveals their painful effect, and questions what love really means.

Raw, emotional writing and a frank portrayal of the world teen girls live in set this award-winning book apart as a stunning chronicle of self-acceptance.

Jennifer (Jenn) Walter is a freelance journalist living in Sheboygan. Her work has been published in a variety of local and national publications, including Milwaukee Magazine, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Discover, and Inverse. She primarily writes about science and nature, and is a member of the National Association of Science Writers. Her writing and editing work has also spanned topics like entertainment, business, and education.

Jenn is a graduate of Marquette University, where she earned bachelor’s degrees in journalism and German. You can usually find her out birdwatching in her free time.

Check out Jenn’s work at www.jenngwalter.com.

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.

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 powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the coming-of-age story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran’s last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Marjane’s child’s-eye view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, with laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love.

With its ensemble of warm and unforgettablecharacters, The Faculty Lounge shows listeners a different side of school life. It all starts when an elderly substitute teacher at Baldwin High School is found dead in the faculty lounge. After a bit of a stir, life quickly returns to normal—it’s not like it’s the worst (or even most interesting) thing that has happened within the building’s walls. But when, a week later, the spontaneous scattering of his ashes on the school grounds catches the attention of some busybody parents, it sets in motion a year that can only be described as wild, bizarre, tragic, mundane, beautiful, and humorous all at once.

In the midst of the ensuing hysteria and threats of disciplinary action, the novel peeks into the lives of the implicated adults who, it turns out, actually have first names and continue to exist when the school day is done. We meet: a former punk band front man, now a middle-aged principal who must battle it out with the schoolboard to keep his job; a no-nonsense school nurse willing to break the rules, despite the close watch on their campus, when a student arrives at her office with a dilemma; and a disgruntled English instructor who finds himself embroiled in even more controversy when he misfires a snarky email. Oh, and there’s also a teacher make-out session in a supply closet during a lockdown.

As these people continue to manage the messiness of this school year, there is the looming threat of what will become of their beloved Baldwin High. Ultimately, at the heart of this unconventional workplace novel is a story of the power of human connection and of the joy of finding purpose in what it is we do every day.

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.

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.

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.