…for Lemony Snicket!  (You thought it was going to be something else, didn’t you?)  Photo courtesy of Chris

Agnes Scott College, Little Shop of Stories and Daren Wang all have reason to be yelling “Squeeeee!” this week.

In an extensive article profiling the prolific, counter-culture, superstar author Neil Gaiman, all three Decatur institutions found themselves mentioned in the latest issue of the New Yorker.  After detailing Gaiman’s life-story and his unique fan-base in an elegant journalistic style , the article closes with Gaiman’s December trip to Decatur.

In December, Gaiman flew to Decatur, Georgia, the location of Little Shop of Stories, which he had picked as a winner of the contest. In tribute to “The Graveyard Book,” the store had transformed its basement into a crypt and led the children in a danse macabre, beating out a store in Larchmont, New York, that had brought in a live white pony, in honor of the preferred conveyance of the novel’s death figure.

It was a foggy day, with intermittent rain, and people started lining up before noon outside Agnes Scott College, which was hosting the event. The reading started at six.

Little Shop announced the news yesterday in a post on their blog, while Mr. Wang had a bit of an identity crisis over on Verb.

More great press for the little city of growing book fame!

Dave at Little Shop writes in with details about their biggest event of the year (after the Decatur Book Festival.)

Little Shop of Stories is hosting Rick Riordan, author of the incredibly popular and critically acclaimed Percy Jackson & The Olympians series, on Monday, May 18th at the Decatur Recreation Center.

Doors will open at 3:30 and Rick will start his presentation at 4:30.

Book signing to follow.

Walk if you can or ride your bikes. The weather on Monday should be unseasonably awesome. The Marta Station is only a block and a half away. If you drive, please avoid using the Decatur Library lot. You may park at the Decatur First Baptist Church (at the corner of Commerce Drive and Clairemont). A shuttle will run you to the Rec Center.

Decatur resident Tim Byrd will debut his new middle readers pulp adventure series, Doc Wilde and the Frogs of Doom, with a signing at Little Shop of Stories tomorrow night at 7pm.

Question for Tim:  How does one tell the difference between a normal frog and a “frog of doom”?  You know, just in case I come across one down by Peachtree Creek.

Thanks to Amanda for sending along the info!