Can't wait to read Garth's next book? Has your copy of The Art of Racing in the Rain grown creased and curled from re-reading? Well, the wait is almost over!

A Sudden Light, the fourth novel from New York Times bestseller Garth Stein, will be released in stores on September 30, 2014. In A Sudden Light, Trevor Riddell accompanies his father on a long-overdue trip to their family's century-old crumbling mansion, where the Riddell family's secrets and tragedies come to light one by one.  

Keep an eye on this newsletter, Garth's website, and www.ASuddenLight.com for contests, special promotions, and his extensive book tour when you can visit with him in person!

Excitement grew for A Sudden Light's upcoming release as Garth attended BookExpo America, the premier publishing tradeshow in North America.  Booksellers and publishers from around the nation came to meet authors and find out about the hottest new books.

Attendees crowded around Garth's table, where he signed galleys for 75 minutes straight. While in line, many picked up temporary tattoos featuring the cover art of A Sudden Light. Others received matchboxes adorned with the book's cover, which inspired much excitement and reminders to use them responsibly.

Although giving away matches while surrounded by thousands of flammable advance reader copies might strike one as being incongruous, the matches hint at one of the key themes in A Sudden Light. But no spoilers! Find out the significance of the matches for yourself this September 30, when A Sudden Light hits stores!

[Photo courtesy of bookseller Daniel Goldin, from the Boswell Book Company, who modeled his new temporary tattoo and managed to fit Garth and A Sudden Light into the same picture!]

Laughter filled the Seattle Central Library with "Authors Gone Wild:  A Celebration of Bookish Proportions" this May.

Garth is one of the founders of Seattle7Writers, which produced the spirited variety show.  Authors Gone Wild! was a huge success in helping to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Seattle Public Library's central library, designed by Rem Koolhaus.  Authors were in abundance - and in chicken suits, when necessary - reading poetry, participating in game shows, doing the old soft shoe, and playing in the literary rock band, The Rejections (and Trailing Spouses).  

Laurie Frankel took home the first ever Prime Piranha Prize, awarded to the winner of the game show "Cry Me a River: World's Worst Amazon.com Reviews."  Library patron Carlo Scandiuzzi secured naming rights to a murder victim in Kevin O'Brien's next thriller by participating in the Seattle7 Crime Squad's game, "Wait, Wait, Don't Kill Me!"

For more on Authors Gone Wild, including pictures of Garth playing in The Rejections (And Trailing Spouses), visit Garth's Facebook page.

Garth played in this June's United Way of King County's All-Star Softball Classic for Homeless Youth on Team Jay, captained by Hall of Fame right fielder Jay Buhner from the Seattle Mariners. Other participants included Seattle-area stars such as Lamar Neagle, Gary Payton, and Cliff Avril.

Garth reported: "I thought it was cool, because people were calling for all the athletes to sign soccer balls and baseballs, and I'm not a pro athlete, so no one was calling for me.  And then I heard my name. 

"A young woman waved a copy of How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets.  And I thought, wow, she really was calling me!  The worker who stands on top of the dugout handed me her book and pen, I signed and passed them back.  That was about the coolest thing in the world.  Signing a book from the dugout at Safeco Field! And, yes, that's Edgar Martinez sitting just over my shoulder."

A literary/theatrical extravaganza celebrated William Shakespeare's 450th birthday in style as Garth Stein and the Seattle7Writers teamed up for Bill's Birthday Bash.

Authors Garth Stein, Ed Skoog, Stephanie Kallos, Frances McCue, and Charles Leggett wrote "exquisite corpses" - poems in which each writer writes one couplet, while only getting to see the previous couplet in the poem. Actors from the Seattle Shakespeare Company then performed each poem before a live audience.

I love you like a banker's felony
Assault charge, casually dismissed.
Oh so predictable! Oh so lonely!
For us, what led to crime had formed our tryst.
 
And yet we don't know what could be our fate,
Chooseth we to stay still within the life
Of safety and reason one fears to hate?
Another, the bond of passion in flat decline?
 
Is love's way a many branched road
Whose signposts counsel which path to choose?
I love another. Our affair's in code.
Is there someone to give this chicken to?
 
The poems close; our day is done my dear.
All verse riddles love, despite our cheer.
 

To catch more videos, visit the Seattle7Writers Facebook page.