Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of Shades of Milk and Honey (Tor, 2010) and Glamour in Glass (Tor, 2012). In 2008 she received the Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and in 2011, her short story "For Want of a Nail" won the Hugo Award for Short Story. Her work has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards. She served two terms as Vice President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Her stories appear in Asimov's, Clarkesworld, and several Year's Best anthologies. Mary, a professional puppeteer, also performs as a voice actor, recording fiction for authors such as Seanan McGuire, Cory Doctorow and John Scalzi. She lives in Chicago with her husband Rob and over a dozen manual typewriters. Visit MaryRobinetteKowal.com.

Please see Mary and the rest of our accomplished readers at 7:30 pm on Friday, September 14th, for our Chicago Writers Conference Special Edition at Open Books in Chicago!

Greetings, Funkers! I know I say it time and time again, but if you missed this week's Science Fiction Edition of Tuesday Funk, you missed a hell of a good show.

First Gregory A. Wilson kicked things off in grand style with a tale that revealed the humanity at the heart of a mechanical man. Dapper Rajan Khanna then took us for some mind-bending and strangely costly travel through the secret doors that lurk in places we'd rather not look. And Adam Rakunas summoned us to the principal's office for a hilariously profane dressing-down that could only be forestalled by internet porn.

After our intermission break for beer at the bar, co-host William Shunn, in his latest Poem By Bill, brought the house down with his rhyming, rapping tale of a "Grand Motherfucker." Rae Carson followed that up with aplomb, bringing us the story of a girl who awakens after five days into a world that has changed in vivid and terrifying ways. And Daryl Gregory brought us a beautiful story in which the persistence of vision is made heartbreakingly literal.

But if you missed out, don't despair. We'll be bringing you plenty of video from the evening over the next few weeks, and we'll be back on Friday, September 14th, with our Chicago Writers Conference Special Edition, featuring M. Salahuddin Khan, Patricia Skalka, Rachel Wilson, William Shunn, and Mary Robinette Kowal. Be sure to join us!

Hey, Chicago! Tuesday Funk is bringing you an extra helping of the Funk this month. But before I tell you about that, let me tell you a little something about the Chicago Writers Conference, to be held September 14-16 at Tribune Tower, and why you should get your ass to it.

What do you get as an attendee of the inaugural edition of the Chicago Writers Conference? You get three days of talks and sessions about the business side of publishing from professionals of every stripe—editors, agents, and writers alike—including a keynote address from Guggenheim Fellow and MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" recipient Aleksandar Hemon.

What's more, Tuesday Funk and Essay Fiesta are teaming up with the CWC to bring conference attendees two nights of the great "live lit" that makes Chicago's such a vibrant writing scene. Tuesday Funk kicks things off the night of Friday, September 14th, with an evening of fiction readings at Open Books featuring Mary Robinette Kowal, M. Salahuddin Khan, Rachel Wilson, Patricia Skalka, and William Shunn. Essay Fiesta follows on Saturday night with a great program of personal essays.

The catch is, only a handful of seats will be available at these readings to folks not attending the conference. The only way to be guaranteed a seat is if you register now. But hurry! Only a handful of slots are left, and you have less than 24 hours remaining to register! Late registration will close at 4:00 p.m. on Friday, September 7th.

So please consider joining the CWC, and we'll see you September 14th at Open Books!

We at Tuesday Funk love Hopleaf and the wonderful room they let us use every month, so we're happy to spread the word about a great cause they undertake every year.

No, it's not a program to give beer to minors! It's a charitable event to raise money to support Helen C. Peirce Elementary School, and it takes place this coming Sunday, September 9th, from noon to 5:00 p.m. at Hopleaf. Click the image below for more information on how you can participate, or visit KegsForKidsChicago.com.

Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention, is over! But for one brief, glorious night, you can relive that magical Worldcon excitement. For our 48th stellar episode tonight at Hopleaf, your friends at Tuesday Funk are bringing you the Chicago Post-Worldcon Science Fiction Spectacular, peopled with the finest science fiction and fantasy writers we could gather from the far corners of the galaxy.

This blockbuster evening will feature Daryl Gregory, Rae Carson, Rajan Khanna, Gregory A. Wilson, and Adam Rakunas, and one of our patented Poems By Bill.

So "like" us today on Facebook, grab one of dozens of varieties of beer from the bar, and get set for a mind-blowing evening with your hosts Sara Ross Witt and William Shunn. Set phasers on fun!

Hopleaf Bar is at 5148 N. Clark St. in Chicago. The reading begins at 7:30 pm in the upstairs lounge. The lounge opens at 7:00 pm. Arrive early if you want a seat.

As always, the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf is cash-only and 21 and over. Remember also that no food can be brought in from the restaurant.

Greetings from Worldcon in Chicago, where you can meet, among many others, Tuesday Funk veteran Holly McDowell! In fact, at our August reading, Holly read us a powerful and "touching" excerpt from her epic serial fantasy novel King Solomon's Wives, and it went a little like this...

And if you're looking for more thought-provoking speculations, please join us on Tuesday, September 4th, 2012, for our Chicago Post-Worldcon Science Fiction Spectacular featuring Daryl Gregory, Rae Carson, Rajan Khanna, Gregory A. Wilson, and Adam Rakunas. Don't miss it!

Gregory A. Wilson is currently an Associate Professor of English at St. John's University in New York City, where he teaches creative writing, fantasy and science fiction along with various other courses in literature. His first academic book was published by Clemson University Press in 2007; on the creative side, he has won an award for a national playwriting contest, and his first novel, a work of fantasy entitled The Third Sign, was published by Gale Cengage in the summer of 2009. He is a regular panelist at conferences across the country and is a member of Codex, the Writers' Symposium, and several other author groups on and offline.

He is currently in the process of submitting his second and third novels, Icarus and Grayshade respectively, to publishers, and he has a new short story out in the anthology When the Villain Comes Home, edited by Ed Greenwood and Gabrielle Harbowy. He also has two articles in the SFWA Bulletin with another one due out by the end of the year, and he is co-editing an anthology of short stories on speculative fiction and politics with Hugo nominee John Helfers.

On other related fronts, he did character work and flavor text for the hit fantasy card game Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer, and along with fellow speculative fiction author (and past Tuesday Funk reader) Bradley P. Beaulieu is the co-host of the podcast Speculate! The Podcast for Writers, Readers and Fans, a show which discusses (and interviews the creators and illustrators of) speculative fiction of all sorts and types.

He lives with his wife Clea, daughter Senavene—named at his wife's urging for a character in The Third Sign, for which he hopes his daughter will forgive him—and dog Lilo in Riverdale, NY.

Please join Greg and the rest of our crew of excellent readers in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf on September 4th for the Chicago Post-Worldcon Science Fiction Spectacular! The fun gets underway at 7:30 pm.

Rajan Khanna is a fiction writer, blogger, narrator, and graduate of the 2008 Clarion West Writers Workshop. His work has appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, GUD, PodCastle, and The Way of the Wizard, among others. His articles have appeared at Tor.com and his podcast narrations can be heard at PodCastle, Escape Pod, PseudoPod, Wired.com, Starship Sofa and Lightspeed Magazine. Rajan lives in New York, where he's a member of the Altered Fluid writing group. His personal website is RajanKhanna.com and he tweets as @rajanyk.

Please join Raj and the rest of our crew of excellent readers in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf on September 4th for the Chicago Post-Worldcon Science Fiction Spectacular! The fun gets underway at 7:30 pm.

At our August Tuesday Funk reading, Stacy Bierlein, author of the collection A Vacation on the Island of Ex-Boyfriends, chronicled a steamy Hollywood affair backward through time to its origins, and it sounded a little like this...

And if you enjoyed that, please join us on Tuesday, September 4th, 2012, for our Chicago Post-Worldcon Science Fiction Spectacular featuring Daryl Gregory, Rae Carson, Rajan Khanna, Gregory A. Wilson, and Adam Rakunas. Don't miss it!

Rae Carson was named a Publishers Weekly Flying Start Author for Fall 2011. Her debut novel, The Girl of Fire and Thorns, was a finalist for the Morris, Norton, Cybils, and Ohioana Awards, and was named to ALA's 2012 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults list. It has been translated into eleven languages. The sequel, The Crown of Embers, will be released later this month. She lives in Ohio with her husband, author Charles Coleman Finlay, but she visits Chicago as often as possible.

Please join Rae and the rest of our crew of excellent readers in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf on September 4th for the Chicago Post-Worldcon Science Fiction Spectacular! The fun gets underway at 7:30 pm.