Turning Pages

I had a very pleasant conversation with our local Poet Laureate Emeritus, Armand Brint, about his new collection "Traveling in Place," spanning the years 1995 to 2025.
In the second half of the show I revisited two conversations from past shows about book banning, in recognition of October as Banned Book Month. Hear Ukiah librarian Melissa Carr and Salt Lake City bookseller Calvin Crosby discuss how book bans affect our communities.

My interview airing September 2, 2026 was with Holly Michelle (aka Holly James). We had a rambling conversation about life, the universe and everything... And specifically about her newest romance novel, You'll Be the Death of Me, as well as some truths about Writing While Parenting a Toddler, and the vagaries of the publishing world. Listeners may know Holly as a Ukiah native; this article from 2024 describes her previous visit as a published author: https://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/.../ukiah-girl-comes.../

Holly's website is hollyjamesbooks.com, and she is on Instagram @hellohollyjames 
Turning Pages is now a full hour show, with episodes airing and streaming every first Wednesday at 3:00 pm. Thanks for listening!

Emily Lloyd-Jones was my guest on Wednesday August 5 at 3:30 pm. Her latest young adult novel, Augusta Pine Does Not Exist, was published in July. This is a fast-paced story about a group of teens (and a couple of adults) outwitting a crew of cyber-terrorists in a near-future Portland. A great fun read for anyone!

Emily was on the faculty of this summer's Mendocino Coast Writer's Conference (7/30-8/1). She has published nine novels for teens and young adults and has a tenth in the works for Spring 2027 release. Find Emily on Instagram at em_llojo. Email [email protected] with comments or questions.

Brian Fies is the author of several non-fiction graphic novels, including A Fire Story, Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow, and The Last Mechanical Monster. Brian's background in the sciences and in newspaper reporting makes for great wide ranging conversations. We talked particularly about the 20th anniversary reissue of his first book, Mom's Cancer, winner of the first-ever Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic. https://schulzmuseum.org/graphic-medicine-moms-cancer/

Some listeners may recall Brian's visit to Mendocino Book Co. in Ukiah a few years ago, when he presented his book A Fire Story, about the 2017 Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa. More about Brian and his books is here https://brianfies.blogspot.com/
Write to [email protected] with questions or comments about this or past episodes.

This show features Toni's conversation with DC-area author Barbara Leary. Barbara's work spans multiple genres, including nonfiction, short stories, flash fiction, poetry, and children's books. She is the author of four children’s books, including The Climbing Tree, which won First Place in the Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards (Early Readers/Picture Books). 

Barbara is also the founder of Finch and Squirrel LLC, coaching writers of all levels to transform their stories into published works, and she teaches graduate-level writing and communication at Georgetown University.

 Take a look at Barbara's websites: finchandsquirrel.com; barbaralearyauthor.com

April is National Poetry Month! I spoke to Melissa Eleftherion, Ukiah's Poet Librarian, about local poetry goings-on, as well as her new volume of erasure poetry titled "Suture." 

"A suture stitches a wound closed, but what is left after that wound heals—a scar? Or a memory? In this new collection, Melissa Eleftherion excavates the Flowers in the Attic series of books by V C Andrews to tell her own story in spare, haunting poems (or …sutures) that detail the lasting trauma of a violent childhood."

In our conversation we mentioned several poetry events happening here in Mendocino County, including the LOBA series (April 18, 3:00 at the Ukiah Branch Library), the 24th annual Haiku festival (April 26, 2:00 pm at Grace Hudson Museum), and Writers Read (the last Thursday of every month, also at Grace Hudson Museum). And Melissa's book launch will be held at Medium Gallery, 110 South School Street, at 6:00 pm on April 25th.

In this episode I am talking with Kelly Hardesty about her blog, sky-t-tray.us, in which she writes about reading the books we tend to categorize as classics. What is the definition of a literary classic? Why – and how – might a reader explore these works written decades or centuries ago?

The books we talked about specifically are

Little Women by Lousia May Alcott (1868)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (1943)
Anne of Green Gables series by L M Montgomery (1908)
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez (1985)
Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (1868)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)
The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather (1915)
I Wonder as I Wander by Langston Hughes (1956)
Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark (1981)
The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (1927)
Martin Eden by Jack London (1909)
Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck (1954)
Shirley by Charlotte Brontë (1848)
Persuasion by Jane Austen (1818)

Questions or comments about this or past episodes can be sent to [email protected]

Terena Scott is a writer, teacher, advocate, and mother. Her memoir, Raising Rhia, is a deeply personal story about raising her daughter, who was born with multiple disabilities, in a world that wasn’t built for her. This book is for anyone who’s ever fought for someone they love. It’s for the weary, the brave, the brokenhearted, and the wildly hopeful. 

Lasara Firefox Allen, MSW (they/them/Mx) is a certified Menopause Doula, gender-affirming Menopause Coach, and educator specializing in inclusive midlife care. As CEO and Founder of Genderqueer Futures and Founding Coach of The Genderqueer Menopause Coach, they train healthcare providers, therapists, doulas, coaches, and other menopause professionals through the Gender-Affirming Menopause Care Certification Course, and facilitate community programs for trans and gender-expansive individuals. Their trauma-informed, evidence-based approach bridges research, somatics, and lived experience to transform menopause care. Their most recent book, Genderqueer Menopause (North Atlantic Books), will be on bookstore shelves on January 13, 2026.

I spoke with Deborah Edelman and Adina Merenlender, two of the co-authors of the California Naturalist Handbook.

This new second edition is significant as a resource for science-based information about California's ecosystems, the role of Citizen Scientists, and the California Naturalist Certification course given each year across the state.

Deborah will give an in-person talk at Mendocino Book Company in Ukiah on Thursday November 6th, 5:30 pm; and Adina will be at Gallery Bookshop in Mendocino Village on November 13, at 6:00. Contact the bookstores directly for information about the author events or to purchase copies of the book! Mendocino Book Co, 707-468-5940; Gallery Bookshop, 707-937-2665. Statewide California Naturalist Course information, https://ucanr.edu/program/uc-environmental-stewards/become-certified-naturalist-or-climate-steward