Last week I had the pleasure of attending Chapters After Dark: Spice & Scare, a collaboration between local indie romance bookstore Lit Actually and “haunted scream park” Frightmare Farms. It was a dark romance themed evening with romance authors available to meet and sign books, vendors offering bookish merchandise, masked men prowling about and gifting blood spattered roses to lucky attendees, spooky-themed mocktails, and two haunted house attractions. It was so much fun!
In addition to all of these fun goings-on, I got an extra little thrill that tied in to my most listened to media content, the Currently Reading Podcast. Once a month the podcast hosts, Meredith and Kaytee, highlight an independent bookstore located somewhere in the U.S. In what’s called the Indie Press List, that month’s shop presents five titles they think listeners of the show might enjoy. If any of these tickle your fancy, you are encouraged to purchase them from the indie bookshop, or choose to support them with purchase of the audiobook through Libro.fm, or give them a shoutout on social media if you wind up checking the book out from your library. The stores report that business is extra good for them when they participate in the Currently Reading IPL!
So the IPL bookstore for October of 2026 was Novel Neighbor in St. Louis, Missouri. Most months the five books span a range of genres to appeal to the most podcast listeners, but at certain times of year (like spooky season!) they cleave to a particular theme. This month’s offerings range from horror to dark academia to paranormal romance and more. One of the titles was You’re the One That I Haunt by Katie Jung.
Well you could color me surprised when, the very day this IPL episode dropped, I saw Ms. Jung herself at a table at the Chapters After Dark event promoting that very book! It turns out she is an independent author local to me, and this industrious lady has such a good idea of what the people (i.e. readers) want that her debut novel is a Book of the Month add-on for month of October! She was kind enough to take a photo with me.
All around, this event was an absolute blast, and I sincerely hope it will become an annual tradition. Brava, Lit Actually, Frightmare Farms, and all of the authors and vendors in attendance, as well as the great turnout from the local bookish community!
(You’ll have to forgive me, none of the pictures I got of the vendor tables turned out very well, but trust there were lots of things to get your readerly heart racing.)
