Apprentice House Press, publisher of The Deceived Ones, is an independent press based at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore. The press publishes in diverse genres, and its criteria are that the work must be good, and the author must be good to work with. Authors are fully engaged in the publication process, from the beginning of manuscript development to the final book design. 

The Somerset Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Contemporary and Literary Fiction.

Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night, which draws on themes of cross-dressing and mistaken identity from sixteenth-century Italian and English sources, is the inspiration for this contemporary reimagining, The Deceived Ones.

The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University is the oldest conservatory in the United States and one of the world's most highly-regarded performing arts schools. It provides the backdrop for much of the action in The Deceived Ones.

Uniting for Ukraine, a program within the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Department, provides a pathway for Ukrainian citizens and their immediate family members who are outside the United States to come to America. One of the protagonists in The Deceived Ones is a refugee from the war in Ukraine and is able to make it to the States through the Uniting for Ukraine program.

The viola da gamba is a bowed and fretted string instrument from the Renaissance and Baroque eras that is played by one of the main protagonists in The Deceived Ones. I wanted to include it as a nod to the Elizabethan era of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, which inspired the novel.

Midday on Books with Tom Hall on WYPR 88.1 on May 7, 2024: The Deceived Ones interview and reading. 

The launch of The Deceived Ones at The Ivy Bookshop on Falls Road on May 7, 2024: in conversation with Tom Hall of WYPR, reading, and audience Q&A.

Writers LIVE! at The Enoch Pratt Free Library on May 25, 2024: reading, Shakespeare-related discussion with Lesley Malin, Producing Executive Director of Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, followed by an audience Q&A. 

Charm City Books on July 9, 2024: Themes of war in poetry and prose including readings and a discussion with poet Pantea Amin Tofangchi about the Iran-Iraq war reflected in her poetry collection Glazed With War and the Russian invasion of Ukraine referenced in The Deceived Ones, followed by audience Q&A.

The Deceived Ones at Evergreen on September 14, 2024, with renowned viola da gambist John Moran performing music to complement readings from the novel, followed by audience Q&A in the Far East Room of Evergreen Museum & Library—the setting for one of the scenes.

2024 Baltimore Book Festival on September 29, 2024: Participation at the booth of Apprentice House Press, publisher of The Deceived Ones.

Snug Books in Lauraville on October 10, 2024: readings, discussion, and Q&A about sibling relationships as featured in The Deceived Ones and the memoir, The Requirement of Grief by Danielle Ariano.

Books & Brews at Union Craft Brewing on November 16, 2024: table display and author interaction.

Baker Artist Portfolios 2024/ 2025 OFF THE WEB Literary Artist Fair at The Peale on December 14, 2024: table display and a reading from The Deceived Ones.

Visit WBJC's BookNotes page here.

Fiction and travel writer Eric D. Goodman is out with his first poetry collection: Faraway Tables. Listen to the podcast HERE.

Tracy Dimond is following up the publication of four chapbooks of poetry with her first full-length poetry collection, Emotion Industry. Listen to the podcast HERE.

Portuguese Jews and New Christians in Colonial Brazil, 1500-1822: A New Geography of the Atlantic World is the title of the new book being published this month by geographer Alan Marcus. Listen to the podcast HERE.

Award-winning dramaturg, playwright, and novelist James Magruder is coming out with his first nonfiction work, The Play’s the Thing: Fifty Years of Yale Repertory Theatre (1966-2016). Listen to the podcast HERE.

A collection of poetry inspired by art, titled Liminal Spaces, is a product of the Arts Lab of South County, Maryland, and its publication has been supported by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council. The editor of the collection is the writer and educator, Nancy Murray. Listen to the podcast HERE.

Antje Rauwerda is a Professor of British and Postcolonial Literatures at Goucher College, and she published a novel with Spuyten Duyvil earlier this year called Slow Time. Listen to the podcast HERE.

A Point of Beauty: TRUE STORIES OF HOLDING ON AND LETTING GO is the 5th book from The Moth, which is dedicated to the art and craft of unscripted, first-person storytelling. Their latest iteration includes a story from the violinist, Frank Almond, who is perhaps more famous than he would like for having had his Stradivarius stolen after being attacked with a taser. Listen to the podcast HERE.

The Walters Art Museum inaugurated a new exhibition space to introduce rare books and manuscripts added to the Walters permanent collection in recent years, many of which have never been on view. Lynley Anne Herbert, the Robert and Nancy Hall Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, talks about the project on BookNotes. Listen to the podcast HERE.

Danielle Ariano’s memoir, The Requirement of Grief, is a poignant and muscular account of the relationship between two sisters—and the bond that remains in the wake of a suicide. Listen to the podcast HERE.

Narrator, Judith Krummeck, and cellist, Molly Aronson, collaborate on event-specific programs of words and music on varied themes in different locations. Click on each image for more details.

A seasonal program at the Charles Village indie bookstore/coffee shop, Bird in Hand, with words by Norman Williams, Sue Harwood, Mark Doty, Emily Dickinson, Marion Strobel, Mary Oliver, e.e. cummings, and Maya Angelou paired with music by Hendirk Hofmeyr, Gaspar Cassadó, Monique Gabus, J.S. Bach, and Christmas carol arranged for cello.

A seasonal program to celebrate spring with words by Joy Harjo, Donna Tartt, Wallace Stevens, Leo Tolstoy, John Keats, Brian Doyle, and Billy Collins, paired with the 4th Cello Suite by J.S. Bach.

A two-set program in The Loft at Manor Mill in Monkton to complement their watercolor exhibition and Judith Krummeck's novel, The Deceived Ones. In the first set, ekphrastic poetry by May Swenson, W.H. Auden, Elizabeth Jennings, Wallace Stevens, Kendra Kopelke, Hugh Mitchell, and Judith Krummeck was paired with music by Benjamin Britten, Monique Gabus, G. Cassaco, Henry Purcell, David Balakrishnan, Ned Rorem, J.S. Bach, and Max Reger. In the second set, readings from The Deceived Ones were paired with Elizabethan selections arranged for cello by Molly Aronson.

The music of Sir Hubert Parry's Songs of Farewell paired with words by Frederick Buechner, Christina Rossetti, Jason Crane, Connie Wanek, Malcolm Guite, John O'Donohue, Patricia McKernon Runkle, T. S. Elliott, and Henry Scott Holland with musical interludes by Henry Purcell, J.S. Bach, Monique Gabus, and Robert Johnson.