Local author Janis Hashe will sign copies of her first novel, "The Ex-Club Tong Pang," at two locations in the next few weeks.
Her first appearance is Saturday, Jan. 18, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Winder Binder Gallery & Bookstore, 40 Frazier Ave. (phone: 423-413-8999). The second is 2-4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 1, at Barnes & Noble, 2100 Hamilton Place Blvd. (phone: 423-893-0186).
Cover artist Robin P. Seaman also will be at both events.
"The Ex-Club Tong Pang," described as a comic suspense story set in 1980s Los Angeles, follows the adventures of retail worker and part-time playwright Hannelore Herald, whose thwarted attempt to check out the Korean nightclub down the street from her apartment leads to a meeting with an attractive but unreliable man who claims to be investigating a baby-buying ring. Hannelore's efforts to retain her job at a Venice Beach boutique and continue rehearsing her latest play are complicated by her inadvertent involvement with Korean gangsters, a blind former "fixer" and, of course, the mysterious Alec.
The novel is published by small-press publisher Twilight Times Books and is available as an ebook on most major sites. The paperback ($16, 168 pages) was officially released Dec. 15.
This is the first novel for journalist Hashe, who worked on the initial draft in the well-known writing workshop headed by novelist John Rechy ("City of Night," "The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gomez").