Terra Elan McVoy, author, former Program Director for the Decatur Book Festival, and all-around geeky cool person, will be holding a Book Release Party at 7pm this Friday at Little Shop of Stories for her fifth novel, Criminal. This is a tough young adult story of a young woman who falls in love with the wrong guy, gets in over her head, and pays a heavy price. Criminal received deservedly superb notices, including a coveted starred review from Publishers Weekly, glowing comments from Creative Loafing, and excellent write-ups from bloggers (including here, here, and here). Terra hopes to see you all there!

This Week:

Lauren Myracle, author of Life of Ty: Penguin Problems, Sarah Mlynowski, author of Whatever After: Sing or Swim, and Leslie Margolis, author of One Tough Chick and Vanishing Acts: A Maggie Brooklyn Mystery, Wednesday, May 8th at 4:30pm, Little Shop of Stories, free.

Josh Hanagarne, author of The World’s Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette’s, Faith, Strength, and the Power of Family, Thursday, May 9th at 7:15pm, Decatur Library, sponsored by Georgia Center for the Book, free.

Terra Elan McVoy, author of Criminal, Friday, May 10th at 7pm, Little Shop of Stories, free.

Art Smith, author of Art Smith’s Healthy Comfort: How America’s Favorite Celebrity Chef Got it Together, Lost Weight, and Reclaimed His Health!, Sunday, May 12th at 1pm, Southern Art restaurant, free.

Rhonda Riley, author of The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope, Monday, May 13th at 7:15pm, Decatur Library, sponsored by Georgia Center for the Book, free.

Life Happens: YA Tour with Lurlene McDaniel, author of The Year of Luminous Love, Elizabeth Laban, author of The Tragedy Paper, and Lauren Morrill, author of Meant to Be, Tuesday, May 14th at 7pm, Little Shop of Stories, free.

The AJC Decatur Book Festival announced it has a new Program Director this morning…

December 14, 2012 (Decatur) — The AJC Decatur Book Festival (AJC DBF) is proud to announce that Philip Rafshoon, former owner of Atlanta’s iconic Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse, will step into the role of AJC DBF Program Director, effective January 1, 2013. Rafshoon will replace Terra Elan McVoy, a best-selling young adult author who held the position for two years.

McVoy resigned her position to dedicate more time to her career as a novelist. “It was a difficult decision to step down as Program Director, since the festival is so very close to my heart, but I felt it was time to dedicate the same energy to my writing career. I think Philip’s personality and experience will be fantastic for AJC DBF, and I’m very much looking forward to enjoying his programming as an attendee. I definitely want to thank Daren, the board, and all my other amazing festival colleagues for a wonderful experience, and am sending good wishes for 2013,” she said.

Daren Wang, AJC DBF Executive Director, congratulates McVoy on her new ventures, and is looking forward to collaborating with Rafshoon. “Terra deserves highest praises and thanks for all of the hard work she has put into helping grow the Festival. She will be missed. Philip has some big shoes to fill, but I cannot imagine a better-suited person for the job,” Wang asserted. “I’ve known Philip for more than 15 years, and have admired his work in the book industry and in the community. He has been a lynchpin in the Atlanta book landscape for two decades. I went to Philip in the earliest days of DBF planning for advice, and I feel I still can learn a lot from him. I think he’ll help grow this festival in fresh new ways.”

Rafshoon is an award-winning business leader with more than 18 years of community experience in sales, promotion and event planning, advocacy, and publicity. From 1993 until 2012, Rafshoon owned and operated Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse, a landmark welcoming space for Atlanta residents and an unofficial community center. He has been involved in a broad range of community and political organizations and has served on the advisory committee of the American Booksellers Association.

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So, a little thing known as the “Decatur Book Festival” is taking over downtown Decatur this weekend.

What is it?  It’s just the largest independent book festival in the daggum country!  Let me hit you with the logo for asking such a ridiculous question. Kablamo!

Anyway, the author list and event schedule has been up for a while now, so I’m wondering which events DM readers are excited about this year.  I can’t ask Daren because, well, he’s always running around the city sweating these babies off…

BTW, did you see Terra’s Q&A in the AJC yesterday?  You did?  Great.  Now back to work!

Feet (and bare legs) photo courtesy of the Asian Cajuns

Hot off a Decatur Book Festival press release…

The AJC Decatur Book Festival Presented by DeKalb Medical (AJC DBF) has named Young Adult Author Terra Elan McVoy to the role of Program Director, succeeding Festival co-founder Thomas Bell, AJC DBF Executive Director Daren Wang announced today.

“ I’ ve known and admired Terra since the days when the festival was just a hare-brained scheme,” said Wang. “ I continue to be in awe of the energy she brings to all of her endeavors, and look forward to working with her to plan the best book festival yet.”

Bell, who along with Wang co-founded the festival in 2006, is partner at Chronicle LLC, an editorial and creative services company firm under contract with the Festival to manage programming. Bell will continue to be active with Festival planning and supervise McVoy in her Program Director role.

McVoy, author of Pure and After the Kiss, will take charge of planning all curated author events at the Festival. She was an early volunteer with the festival and, with Little Shop of Stories co-owner Diane Capriola, planned all children’ s programming at the Festival since 2006.

In 2008, she created The Escape, the festival’ s dedicated stage and program track for teenagers. In 2010, McVoy left her position as manager of Little Shop of Stories to become the Festival’ s first Assistant Program Director. In that role she created and formalized more efficient processes for festival planning and execution. She also originated the “ Homegrown Goodness” track of author events, a very popular series of authors speaking on topics such as home gardening, locavore eating, and practical crafts.

Dave at Little Shop reminds us that the official book launch party for Terra McVoy’s “Pure” will be tomorrow starting at 7:30p.

Little Shop of Stories’ Terra McVoy is about to become a rock star. Her first novel, Pure, was officially released on April 7th. Initial reaction and reviews have been impressive.

The official book release party for Pure will be held this Friday at 7:30 at Little Shop. There will be live music by Daniel Clay and a reading by Terra, who will be signing copies of her book with a big smile on her face.

Daren Wang reports over on Verb.org that Terra Elan McVoy’s “Pure” is now on sale at Little Shop of Stories, a full week earlier than first reported.

So run, don’t walk (while obeying all traffic laws and crossing in designated crosswalks) to the Square and get your copy!

And in case you missed it the first time, Wang as already predicted that “Pure” will be big.  And who can doubt a man that came up with the idea to sell a beer for over $2,600?

Not me.

Daren: I tried to figure out a way to incorporate “He hate these cans!  Stay away from the cans!” into this post, but came up empty.  Oh well.