Douglas Richardson

The Bookplate is proud to announce the next segment of their Authors & Oysters events at The Retriever Bar. David O. Stewart was featured in the most recent Authors & Oysters event on November 9th with his book, George Washington; The Political Rise of America’s Founding Father. On Wednesday, December 7th at 6pm, all are invited to The Retriever to meet author Douglas Richardson for a book signing and author lecture on his debut thriller; Down Wind and Out of Sight. 

A finalist for the American Fiction Awards, Down Wind and Out of Sight is a strikingly original suspense thriller, populated with unforgettable characters and loaded with bizarre twists and quirky science. It takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride from the Australian outback to a top-secret US government research facility and into the astonishing electronics lab of an adolescent autistic savant. On the other hand, the novel is a compassionate and moving exploration of the unique emotional bonds forged by an improbable cast of damaged and marginalized characters linked by the drive to survive. 

A graduate of Harvard Law School, with a Master’s degree in communications from Penn’s Annenberg School for Communication, Douglas Richardson was a trial lawyer in a large Philadelphia law firm and then a federal prosecutor responsible for complex criminal investigations and high-profile prosecutions.  Later he became legal counsel to Pennsylvania’s mental hospitals before being named Director of Communications for a multi-billion-dollar government agency. In a mid-career shift, Doug became an executive coach and recognized national authority on career management.  As a Certified Master Coach, he has counseled scores of senior executives, attorneys and high-performing project teams on leadership and professional development. His articles and nonfiction writings have appeared in numerous legal and business publications, including Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The American Lawyer, The National Law Journal, Law 360, and The Edge International Review. He wrote the Dow Jones National Business Employment Weekly Premier Guide to Networking and the Bala Creative Group’s Haiku Talks Business, and is co-author of the American Bar Association’s Legal Project Management in One Hour for Lawyers. ​Doug lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and a “variety pack” of three spectacularly gonzo dogs.

“Down Wind and Out of Sight is a unique novel. It’s both a riveting thriller and a compassionate exploration of people who are different. Full of wry wit, compelling characters and unexpected twists, the adventures of people bound together by extraordinary circumstances race to a shocking climax, catching you up in a powerful dynamic you won’t forget.” – Goodreads 5-Star Review

For more event details contact The Bookplate at 410-778-4167 or contact@thebookplate.net. This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are not required. The next Authors & Oysters event is on 12/14 with The Word Girls; Meredith Davies Hadaway, Erin Murphy and Amanda Newell. All events are held in the back room of The Retriever. The Retriever is located at 337 ½ High Street, in Chestertown, Maryland. 

On Saturday, December 3rd at 11am, all are invited to meet local author Lucy Maddox as she signs copies of and discusses her book, “The Parker Sisters: A Border Kidnapping” upstairs at Zelda’s on Cross Street. This event is hosted by The Bookplate as part of the Dickens of a Christmas holiday weekend festival. The back room of The Bookplate has been expanded during the pandemic to include a larger selection of titles, so events such as the popular Authors and Oysters series, are often held off-site.

The Parker Sisters is a nonfiction exploration of the 1851 kidnapping of two free black sisters from Chester County, PA,  just above the Pennsylvania-Maryland state line. 

Lucy Maddox is Professor Emerita of English and American Studies at Georgetown University. She is the author of several books including The People of Rose Hill: Black and White Life on a Maryland Plantation, Nabokov’s Novels in English, Removals: Nineteenth-Century American Literature & the Politics of Indian Affairs, Citizen Indians: Native American Intellectuals, Race & Reform. She lives with her husband in Chestertown. 

“The Parker Sisters impresses by the breadth and depth of the impeccable research as well as by its engaging, at times genuinely suspenseful writing. The brisk narrative of the kidnapping of two free black sisters across the Mason-Dixon Line comes to life here. Maddox is a skillful historian who enters a single case so fully that the Fugitive Slave Act becomes understandable in a very direct way. This is an outstanding book.” – Werner Sollors, Henry B. and Anne M. Cabot Research Professor of English Literature, Harvard University

Then at 2pm on the same day, join us back at Zelda’s to meet NPR’s Maureen Corrigan as she discusses her book, So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came To Be And Why It Endures. Corrigan’s book asks us; how well do we really know The Great Gatsby? While Fitzgerald’s masterpiece may be one of the most popular novels in America, many of us first read it when we were too young to fully comprehend its power. Offering a fresh perspective on what makes Gatsby great — and utterly unusual — So We Read On takes us into archives, high school classrooms, and even out onto the Long Island Sound to explore the novel’s hidden depths, a journey whose revelations include Gatsby ‘s surprising debt to hard-boiled crime fiction, its rocky path to recognition as a “classic,” and its profound commentaries on the national themes of race, class, and gender. (And we can’t think of a more appropriate location to discuss this book than at Zelda’s!)

Maureen Corrigan is the book critic for NPR’s Fresh Air and the author of Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading. Winner of an Edgar Award for criticism, she has written essays and reviews for many publications. She teaches literature at Georgetown University, where she is the critic in residence, and lives with her husband and daughter in Washington, D.C.

“Maureen Corrigan has produced a minor miracle: a book about The Great Gatsby that stands up to Gatsby itself.” -Michael Cunningham, author of The Snow Queen

For more event details contact The Bookplate at 410-778-4167 or contact@thebookplate.net. This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are not required. Zelda’s Speakeasy is located at 108 S. Cross Street, in Chestertown, Maryland. The Bookplate will continue its popular Authors & Oysters series at The Retriever Bar on 12/7 with Doug Richardson and his thriller, “Down Wind and Out of Sight”.