Jaye Viner ("The Island of Dreams") and J.R. Dawson ("The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World")

Name: Jaye Viner ("The Island of Dreams") and J.R. Dawson ("The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World")
Start: 2025-09-22T18:00:00-05:00
Location: The Bookworm Omaha

Schedule

Mon, 22 Sep, 2025 at 06:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

The Bookworm Omaha | Omaha, NE

On Monday, September 22nd, at 6:00 p.m., Jaye Viner will sign her new book, "The Island of Dreams", joined by J.R. Dawson who will discuss and sign "The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World".
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When a young woman named Justine casts a love spell to snare an eligible young bachelor, she mistakes Peter Pan, also known as Mak, as the spell's target and tricks him into taking her to The Neverland instead of her prettier friend. Little does she know, their bargain means her death. At first glance, the island looks like paradise. Justine might be dead, but this afterlife is better than living. She spends her days playing mother to a group of boys, telling them stories, going on adventures. For the first time in her life, Justine feels like the girl she is, and she's a god's object of infatuation-even if he's a little immature. But when Mak's estranged brother leads a gang of pirates to invade the island, bringing with them Time, which spreads in ripples across her paradise, she understands Pan will no longer love her if she ages into a woman. His offer to bond with her to create a magical barrier against the pirates is hardly a choice. Only later does she begin to understand how she has been deceived. Trapped between two immortal brothers, between passing Time and the promise of the childhood she never had, Justine must discover a power greater than both gods in order to heal the island: a power within herself.
Jaye Viner lives on what used to be the plains of eastern Nebraska with two feline fur bombs and a very tall man. She knows just enough about a wide variety of things to embarrass herself at parties she never attends. She holds an MFA and MA from the University of Nebraska. Her writing has been published in Drabblecast, The Roanoke Review, Everyday Fiction, and the Soul Jar anthology from Forest Avenue Press. She is the author of "Jane of Battery Park" and the Elaborate Lives series.
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"The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World" is a powerful and poignant contemporary Queer fantasy perfect for fans of Hadestown and "Under the Whispering Door".
At the edge of Chicago, nestled on the shores of Lake Michigan, there is a waystation for the dead. Every night, the newly-departed travel through the city to the Station, guided by its lighthouse. There, they reckon with their lives, before stepping aboard a boat to go beyond. Nera has spent decades watching her father--the ferryman of the dead--sail across the lake, each night just like the last. But tonight, something is wrong. The Station's lighthouse has started to flicker out. The terrifying, ghostly Haunts have multiplied in the city. And now a person—a living person—has found her way onto the boat. Her name is Charlie. She followed a song. And she is searching for someone she lost.
J.R. Dawson is the Golden Crown award-winning author of "The First Bright Thing". Her shorter works can be found in places such as F&SF, Lightspeed, and Rich Horton's Year's Best. Dawson currently lives in Minnesota with her loving wife. She teaches at Drexel University's MFA program for Creative Writing, and fills her free time with keeping her three chaotic dogs out of trouble.