Don't forget—tonight is our Not Your Parents' Valentine's Day Edition, featuring Mary Pat Bohan, John Everson, Gina Frangello, Hanna Martine, and Patricia Ann McNair. Not only that, but we'll have a special Valentine's Day Poem by Bill, not to mention an exciting announcement about the future of Tuesday Funk. You won't want to miss it!

Our readings take place at Hopleaf Bar, 5148 N. Clark St. in Chicago. We get started promptly at 7:30 pm in the upstairs lounge. Arrive early if you want a seat—but no earlier than 7:00 pm. Our readings are free, but only those 21 and over will be admitted. No food can be brought in from the restaurant. See you there!

At our January 1st edition of Tuesday Funk, Christopher Sweet took us on a satirical journey through a world of sex, money, religion, and celebrity, and besides sounding a lot like our world it sounded a little like this...

And if you enjoyed that, please join us tomorrow night, Tuesday, February 5th, 2013, at 7:30 pm upstairs at Hopleaf, for our Not Your Parents' Valentine's Day Edition with Mary Pat Bohan, John Everson, Gina Frangello, Hanna Martine, and 2nd Story's Patricia Ann McNair!

In advance of our Not Your Parents' Valentine's Day Edition next Tuesday night, we thought you might appreciate an advance look at the sort of work you can expect from returning reader John Everson. Back at our October 2nd episode, John read from his erotic horror novel NightWhere, and it sounded a little like this...

And if you enjoyed that, please join us at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, February 5th, 2013, upstairs at Hopleaf, when John is joined by Mary Pat Bohan, Gina Frangello, Hanna Martine, and 2nd Story's Patricia Ann McNair!

At our January 1st edition of Tuesday Funk, Sondra Morin read us some of her powerful poetry, and it sounded a little like this...

And if you enjoyed that, please join us at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, February 5th, 2013, upstairs at Hopleaf, for our Not Your Parents' Valentine's Day Edition with Mary Pat Bohan, John Everson, Gina Frangello, Hanna Martine, and 2nd Story's Patricia Ann McNair!

John Everson is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Covenant, as well as the novels Sacrifice, The 13th, Siren and The Pumpkin Man, all released in paperback from Dorchester/Leisure Books and now available in e-book via 47North. His sixth novel, an erotic horror descent into dark desire centered around a mysterious adult club called NightWhere was released by Samhain Publishing in 2012. He has had several short fiction collections issued by independent presses, including Creeptych, Deadly Nightlusts, Needles & Sins, Vigilantes of Love and Cage of Bones & Other Deadly Obsessions. Over the past 20 years, his short stories have appeared in more than 75 magazines and anthologies. His work has been translated into Polish, Italian, Turkish and French, and optioned for potential film production. He is also the founder and publisher of the independent press Dark Arts Books.

John shares a deep purple den in Naperville, Illinois with a cockatoo and cockatiel, a disparate collection of fake skulls, twisted skeletal fairies, Alan Clark illustrations and a large stuffed Eeyore. There's also a mounted Chinese fowling spider named Stoker courtesy of Charlee Jacob, an ever-growing shelf of custom mix CDs and an acoustic guitar that he can't really play but that his son Shaun likes to hear him beat on anyway. Sometimes his wife Geri is surprised to find him shuffling through more public areas of the house, but it's usually only to brew another cup of coffee. In order to avoid the onerous task of writing, he holds down a regular job at a medical association, records pop-rock songs in a hidden home studio, experiments with the insatiable culinary joys of the jalapeno, designs photo collage art book covers for a variety of small presses, loses hours in expanding an array of gardens and chases frequent excursions into the bizarre visual headspace of '70s euro-horror DVDs with a shot of Makers Mark and a tall glass of Newcastle.

For information on his fiction, art and music, visit him at his website John Everson: Dark Arts at www.johneverson.com or on Facebook or his Author page on Amazon.com.

Hear him and the rest of our outstanding readers on Tuesday, February 5, 7:30 pm, in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf.

Gina Frangello is the author of 3 books of fiction: A Life in Men (forthcoming from Algonquin in 2014), Slut Lullabies (Emergency Press 2010) and My Sister's Continent (Chiasmus 2006). The longtime editor of Other Voices magazine, she co-founded its book imprint, Other Voices Books, in 2004 and continues to serve as the Executive Editor. She is also the Sunday Editor of The Rumpus and the Fiction Editor of The Nervous Breakdown. Her short fiction, journalism, interviews and reviews have been published widely in magazines, newspapers and anthologies including Fence, the Chicago Reader, the Huffington Post, and the Chicago Tribune. She often teaches in the Fiction Writing Department of Columbia College Chicago, and recently launched an international writing program in Mexico that will debut this July.

Hear her and the rest of our outstanding readers on Tuesday, February 5, 7:30 pm, in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf.

Mary Pat Bohan has been performing stand-up and story telling with The Kates at the Book Cellar for a couple years and has also performed with Beast Women. You may have gotten a taste of MP's material at Essay Fiesta, Guts & Glory, or Story Club. MP strives to perfect the art of turning her pain into comedy. In January MP launched her podcast, which can be found at JumpingtheFenceStories.com. Please...Go have a listen.

Hear her and the rest of our outstanding readers on Tuesday, February 5, 7:30 pm, in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf.

For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we're pleased to share Maggie Kast's reading from our December 4th episode. This excerpt from her novel-in-progress I Never Knew You Had a Girl takes us to Scottsboro, Alabama, in 1931, so buckle up for a bumpy ride...

And if you enjoyed that, please join us at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, February 5th, 2013, upstairs at Hopleaf, for our Not Your Parents' Valentine's Day Edition with Mary Pat Bohan, John Everson, Gina Frangello, Hanna Martine, and 2nd Story's Patricia Ann McNair!

Patricia Ann McNair is the author of The Temple of Air, a finalist for the Society of Midland Authors Best Book Award and the Devil's Kitchen Reading Award. She's received four Illinois Arts Council Awards and was nominated for the Carnegie Foundation US Professor of the Year. McNair teaches in Columbia College Chicago's Fiction Writing Department.

Patty will be reading as part of our mini-series featuring writers from the new 2nd Story anthology Briefly Knocked Unconscious by a Low-Flying Duck. Hear her and the rest of our outstanding readers on Tuesday, February 5, 7:30 pm, in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf.

At the January 1st edition of Tuesday Funk, our monthly Poem by Bill sang the praises of "Smoke," and sounded just a little like this...

And if you enjoyed that, please join us at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, February 5th, 2013, upstairs at Hopleaf, for our Not Your Parents' Valentine's Day Edition with Mary Pat Bohan, John Everson, Gina Frangello, Hanna Martine, and 2nd Story's Patricia Ann McNair!