Greg Bear, Mariposa, (Vanguard Press, Hardcover, $25.95) will appear on Saturday, November 14th at 5:00 pm Borderlands. From Mariposa’s press release: “Brilliantly imagined and utterly terrifying, Bear’s new novel, Mariposa … is a superb cautionary tale about one of the greatest threats facing America today: The growing privatization of our military and national security institutions. Combining cutting-edge science with events that dominate our headlines, Greg Bear again weaves a riveting near-future thriller so frighteningly believeable that it just might happen tomorrow.”

SF in SF hosts authors S.G. Browne and Jeff VanderMeer at the Variety Preview Room in the Hobart Building (582 Market Street) Saturday, November 14th at 7:00 pm. Each author will read a selection from their work, followed by Q&A from the audience moderated by author Terry Bisson. Authors will schmooze & sign books after in the lounge. Seating is limited, so first come, first seated.

Borderlands 12th Anniversary Sale, Sunday, November 15th from 12:00 – 8:00 pm – Celebrate 12 years of Borderlands! Buy any two used books and get a third one of equal or lesser value for free. Collectable books are not included in this deal, but they will be 10% off all day long, and finally, everything else in the store will be 20% off (artwork, employees, and cats excluded, sorry). The sale will only run for one day, and this sale only happens once a year, so mark your calendars for Sunday, November 15th.

NaNoWriMo’s Come Write In! Event, Thursday, November 19th from 4:00 pm – 8:00 pm. Write some of your novel at Borderlands! From their press release: “National Novel Writing Month [NaNoWriMo,] a nonprofit literary program that challenges aspiring novelists to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days, has already taken over coffee shops, classrooms, and libraries across the world. Now it’s coming to Borderlands Books. Throughout November, bookstores around the Bay Area help launch Come Write In! by inviting local NaNoWriMo participants to write in their stores. For a few frantic and magical hours, these stores will play host to the fast, furious, and fantastic process of novel writing. Come Write In! aims to bring together independent bookstores (which have been traditional gathering places for readers and writers) and NaNoWriMo novelists, with the goal of celebrating writing, fostering literary communities, and encouraging book lovers to (just maybe) make the leap to writing a novel of their own.”

Kim Vandervort, The Song And The Sorceress (Hadley Rille Books, Hardcover, $28.95 and Trade Paperback, $15.95) From Kim’s website: “Journey with nineteen-year-old Ki’leah Alrhiane Del’Sivahr, who flees an isolated life as High Princess of Si’vad to run away with her lover, the Palace Bard. When he fails to meet her on the road, fate sweeps Ki’leah into an alliance with a band of men and women known as the Fey-Velahr, a select company sworn to destroy Lyarra, the dormant sorceress — one of the legendary Rahar, thought to have been eradicated from Sildehna centuries earlier — before she wakes to seek a devastating claim to the Northern Kingdom. Despite her doubts and inadequacies, Ki’leah soon discovers that she is necessary to their mission. For she alone possesses information, carefully guarded within the lore of her royal ancestors, that will unlock the final key to Lyarra’s whereabouts. But Ki’leah must rush to solve the riddle, for another also journeys deep into the mountains of Norr — not to destroy Lyarra, but to wake her …”

Borderlands event policy – all events are free of charge. You are welcome to bring copies of an author’s books purchased elsewhere to be autographed (but they do appreciate it if you purchase something while at the event). For most events you are welcome to bring as many books as you wish for autographs. If you are unable to attend the event Borderlands will be happy to have a copy of any of the author’s available books signed or inscribed for you. Borderlands can then either hold it until you can come in to pick it up or they can ship it to you.

It’s all happening at: Borderlands Books, 866 Valencia St., San Francisco CA 94110. (415) 824-8203