Shades & Shadows

Shades & Shadows is back at the Lit Crawl! We’ll be right in the middle as part of Round 2, beginning exactly at 8 p.m. at Pit Fire Pizza Co. They’ll be open and serving, so bring your appetite. If you dare.

From cannibalism to surreal environments where emotions can be your greatest enemy, we’re bringing some of L.A.’s best SF/F/H/WTF authors to bring new meaning to the phrase “matters of the heart.”

FEATURING:

Ben Loory is the author of the collections Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day (Penguin, 2011) and Tales of Falling and Flying (Penguin, 2017), as well as a picture book for children, The Baseball Player and the Walrus (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2015). His fables and tales have appeared in The New Yorker, Tin House, READ Magazine, and Fairy Tale Review, been heard on This American Life and Selected Shorts, and performed live at WordTheatre in Los Angeles and London.

Loory is a graduate of Harvard University and holds an MFA in Screenwriting from the American Film Institute. He lives in Los Angeles, where he is an Instructor for the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program.

Mercedes M. Yardley is a whimsical dark fantasist who wears stilettos, red lipstick, and poisonous flowers in her hair. She is the author of many diverse works, including Beautiful Sorrows, the Stabby Award-winning Apocalyptic Montessa and Nuclear Lulu: A Tale of Atomic Love, Pretty Little Dead Girls: A Novel of Murder and Whimsy, Detritus in Love, and the BONE ANGEL trilogy. She recently won the prestigious Bram Stoker Award for her realistic horror story Little Dead Red. Mercedes lives and creates in Las Vegas with her family and menagerie of battle-scarred, rescued animal familiars. You can contact her at mercedesyardley(at)gmail(dot)com or follow her on Twitter. She is represented by Italia Gandolfo of Gandolfo Helin and Fountain Literary Management.

Kathleen Kaufman is a native Coloradan and long-time resident of Los Angeles, California. She is a University of Southern California alum, teaches high school English, and is a writing and composition adjunct professor at Santa Monica College. In addition to writing, Kathleen is an avid amateur photographer and has published work in The Huffington Post and other publications. When not writing, she probably has a camera in hand or is curled up with a good horror novel. Kathleen currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband, son, terrier, and a pack of cats.

Gretchen McNeil is the author of several young adult horror/suspense novels for Balzer + Bray including POSSESS, 3:59, RELIC, GET EVEN, GET DIRTY, and the award-winning TEN. In 2016, Gretchen published her first YA comedy I’M NOT YOUR MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL, and her next novel will be the horror-comedy #MURDERTRENDING for Disney/Freeform. The film adaptation of TEN starring China Anne McClain (Descendants 2, Black Lightning) and Rome Flynn (The Bold and the Beautiful) premieres later this year.

Mallory Reaves is an Eisner-nominated writer from Southern California. She has been writing professionally since 2005, and has been credited on over thirty manga adaptations, two science fiction novels, an anthology, and two computer games. She currently lives in Orange with three cats, two dogs, a snake, and several friends. Her hobbies include coffee.

Lit Crawl information can be found at litcrawlla.org. Major thanks to Metro Los Angeles for sponsoring the event! Take the Red or Orange Lines to North Hollywood and you can access every venue for the Lit Crawl quickly, conveniently, and easily. Go Metro!