April 3-7: Erin Pringle to bring home Unexpected Weather Events

This April, I'll be returning home to visit family and to share stories from my newest story collection, Unexpected Weather Events.

Below, you'll find the calendar that will lead us to each other, book-wise. Please bring yourself (and your friends, your neighbors, and your family). <3

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April 3: Bloomington, Indiana

Reading and Book Signing
Caveat Emptor (112 N. Walnut, Bloomington, Indiana)
Book signing 6:00-7:00 PM; Reading 7:00-8:00 PM
Free and open to the public

(https://www.facebook.com/events/24915628808082367)

April 4: Casey, Illinois
Hometown Reading, Discussion, and Book Signing
7:00 PM-8:30 PM (Central Time)
Turner Arts Hall (306 E. Edgar Avenue, Casey, Illinois)
Free and open to the public
(https://www.facebook.com/events/2373769422819728)

April 7: Indianapolis, Indiana
Reading and book signing
Noon-2:00 PM (ET)
Indy Reads (1066 Virginia Avenue, Indianapolis, IN)
Registration encouraged (free): https://www.eventbrite.com/e/author-reading-erin-pringle-tickets-861025780287

Author Reading and Discussion: Erin Pringle at Turner Arts Hall, April 4th, 2024

I grew up attending plays and musicals put on by local high schoolers at Arts Hall, a brick building near the high school that contained the home-ec classes and a modest theatre. Later, I would perform on that stage myself, in The Music Man, Cheaper by the Dozen, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes--among others. Since those days, I've appeared on that stage only in nightmares in which I've completely forgotten my lines and decide to wing it. I am not quick on my feet in nightmares.

Hopefully, my return to that stage will go much better. I'll be bringing Unexpected Weather Events to Turner Arts Hall on Thursday, April 4th--thanks to the Casey Township Library Friends of the Library group who is sponsoring the event. I'll read from the book, followed by a discussion led by my former high-school English Teacher Mrs. Pierce. Copies of Unexpected Weather Events will be available for purchase. 

The event is free and open to the public, and I hope that you'll join me. 

Turner Arts Hall

306 E. Edgar Avenue

Casey, Illinois

7 PM - 8:30 PM

Thursday, April 4th

Event information: https://www.facebook.com/events/2373769422819728

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A Cozy, Well Located Airbnb in Casey, Illinois

Field east of Fairview Park, Casey, Illinois
where I imagined the circus setting up in Hezada! I Miss You
(Picture by me, 2022)

During my childhood, travelers to or through Casey, Illinois could stay anywhere else or at the old motel by the golf course, lovingly nicknamed "the roach motel" by locals (now defunct). 

Later, in the '90s, The Comfort Inn sprouted up by the I-70 exit, just behind Hardee's (now Subway). 

Recently, with the tourist boom that has followed the appearance of giant-sized objects along the streets and sidewalks of the town, so too has come additional options for staying the night in my hometown. There's a lovely bed & breakfast by the railroad tracks, and now, several Airbnbs. 

This time when I visited my family, I decided to stay in an Airbnb so that we could have room for stretching out our legs and make a family visit double as a vacation.  

And after staying nearly a full week at a little house just off the park, I think everyone travelling to or through Casey, Illinois ought to know about it. 

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Picture of house from Airbnb page:
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/49321839?source_impression_id=p3_1650927235_HhaG9HpVh0BbhnHz

Five reasons the little white house by the park in Casey, Illinois was perfect for our visit-cation.

1. It's across the street from the park so my son could quickly leave the house and start riding his bike, and I could walk or jog with him;
2. It has two bedrooms, which was perfect for both my son and me to have our own space (the second bedroom has two twin beds);
3. The loveseat in the living area reclines, which son found to be an amazing invention, and I found to be perfect for a cozy movie viewing (bonus: the space heater in the TV console);
4. The full kitchen (refrigerator, stove/oven, sink, and cabinets) made for easy food preparation, from breakfast to dinner, which was even more convenient and necessary since we are vegetarian/vegan and, thus, have limited food choices when eating out in this area (NOTE:  Casey no longer has a grocery, so you'll have to stock up on groceries either at the Marshall or Charleston Wal-Mart or the Greenup IGA); 
5. It served well for coffee visits over the kitchen table with my friend Patti, lunches with my mother, rounds of Yahtzee! and Bunko with my brothers, and a final dinner/visit with several family members and friends. (And the extra writing desk and chair served me very well.)

So, if you plan on visiting Casey for a softball tournament, the Labor Day Popcorn Festival, Casey Homecoming, Candy Canes on Main, or to gawk at giant-sized objects that have perhaps fallen from a giant's castle at the top of a soybean stalk hovering over Casey, this place seems a good bet if you plan on staying a few nights and would like to have a place to call home.

View of park from desk window where I found time to write.

View of local bird and park through window

Local bird living in house gutter,
 providing company outside kitchen window

My child enjoying his Saturday morning cartoons in the
cozy living area

More about the house (with better pictures) at its Airbnb site: 

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/49321839?source_impression_id=p3_1650927235_HhaG9HpVh0BbhnHz

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P.S. It seems useful to note that I write this because I grew up in Casey, have family in Casey, and building each other up is one part of the community mindset. I'm not getting any kickbacks for saying good things about this place that I just happened to find and book while planning a trip to see my mother, brothers, niece, nephew, and friends. 

P.S.S. I would like you to stay there, though, because I plan on staying here next year.

Erin Pringle reads from Hezada! I Miss You 8-30-20

 As part of a virtual reading in conjunction with The Vault Art Gallery in Tuscola, IL, I talked about my new novel, Hezada! I Miss You, and I read from chapter one and a bit of two. Please enjoy it here:

April 7: The Whole World at Once at the Casey, Illinois Library

If you've followed this blog for any amount of time, you know how important the library is to who I am. The Summer Library Series is based on my love for the annual summer reading programs that my hometown library hosted. My interest in visual art started in the local library by sitting on the floor with my father looking through the heavy art books they had, which were mostly Renaissance art and Renoir.

In fourth grade, my first speech in 4-H was on Van Gogh, and all the books I used and spread out before me on the counter of a church basement were books I'd borrowed from my library and interlibrary loans. How did I read every book in the Trixie Belden series? They were in my library. AVI, Maurice Sendak, Janet Lunn, Arnold Loebel, Lucy Maud Montgomery? Writers I met at my hometown library. Choose Your Own Adventure books? Yep. Anne of Green Gables series? Yep. Sweet Dreams Romance series? Yep. Truncated versions of Edgar Allen Poe stories? Yep! The turning wire racks of my library. Where did I watch my mother become interested in genealogy and crouch over wooden tables tracing her family from here to there? Same library.

Could I go on? Yes. From mythology to mysteries to Stephen King and back. Records, computers, videos. Cassette tapes with picture books in plastic bags. Magazines. Books for sale in the entrance (paperbacks 10 cents/hardbacks 20 cents).

Where did I learn about Contestoga wagons and daring girls who dressed as boys to seek their adventures? Where did I learn to read? To find items in Richard Scarry books? To shelve books and file library cards? Those summers I volunteered in fifth and sixth grades at the library.

Why am a writer?
The library.

(I'm starting to feel a bit like the Cowardly Lion's song regarding Courage. Where did I find what courage I did have? THE LIBRARY.)

So you now might more wholly imagine how very pleased I am to announce that amidst visiting home for the first time in nearly a decade, I'll be spending the afternoon at the very library where I grew up. I'll be reading from my newest collection of stories The Whole World at Once, followed by a discussion.

The event is free and open to the public, and of course, you're invited.

April 7th, 2018

1 PM

Casey Township Library

Facebook event details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/179687779343250