Lawrence, Kansas Sep 8, 2022 (Issuewire.com) - Come for the music, food, and drink, and stay for the lively author talks with Amber Fraley, George Gurley, David Hann, and Leonard "Kris" Krishtalka as they discuss the controversies that define us.

• Amber Fraley: I thought a lot about taking care to write characters of differing race and sexuality than myself while still making them sound authentic and not stereotypical when writing The Bug Diary. Other issues I wanted to handle authentically are the unique challenges young women and femme-presenting people face when dating, including personal safety, birth control, and STDs. What Ive learned during the writing process is that I must keep learning, listening, reading, and researching to try to present other peoples points of view, and be willing to adapt when Im wrong.
• George Gurley: The novel, The Griefmaker reflects the controversy between preservation and development, property rights versus community interest in our modern American society. Ill give a short history of my own prairie restoration project and the challenges preservation presents, particularly as these issues impact those in Douglas County, Kansas, and similar communities the ideals of preservation for agricultural use versus the realities of random development and sprawl.
• David Hann: The story of the Jayhawker Cleveland is about being caught up in controversy -- not of his own making until Cleveland joined the infamous Jennisons Jayhawkers. Then there was controversy aplenty between the Jayhawkers and the Union Army, Jayhawkers, and the Border Ruffians, and between Jennison and Cleveland about Clevelands opposition to outright killing or execution of pro-South or pro-slavery individuals. Newspapers of that time, like newspapers of this era readily published their opinions about the issue of slavery, free-state versus slave-state, and the conflict along the Kansas/Missouri border as well as the Civil War.
• Leonard Krishtalka: Novels should tell a story that excavates the layers of the human condition. Many of those layers are unsavory, and many might prefer them to remain buried. My novels feature a private detective, Harry Przewalski. His murder cases dig up layers of science intrigues wrapped inside layers of human intrigues. In Native Blood, the 4th in the series (coming 2023) Harry discovers anthropologys original sin: the unquestionable theory of race and racial superiority. Blessed by science, this racist virus became our cultural pandemic. It infected generation after generation through art and literature, newspapers and magazines, classrooms, music, theater and movies, and through world fairs and museum exhibits. It suffused society and saturated our consciousness. Well take a look at how it became systemic.