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At the opening of Tim
Schaffert's novel Devils

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in the Sugar Shop,
the protagonist Ashley

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runs an erotic writing workshop.

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The various writers
in this workshop

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not only have trouble
writing sex scenes,

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but they also have
trouble with each other.

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As usual, the workshop
devolves into an argument.

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This time, concerning the
awkward, anachronistic,

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and entirely unsexy
prose of Mrs. Bloom.

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"I'm sorry but I just don't feel
anything for the characters,"

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Peach said.

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She shrugged, "My heart
doesn't go out to them."

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"Your heart?"

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Mrs. Bloom said.

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"Who gives a shit
about your heart?"

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Peach, Plum, Mrs. Bloom,
Ashley, Viv, Didi, Troy,

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and the myriad other characters
in Tim Schaffert's novel

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withhold from one another.

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They have affairs with
their friends' spouses.

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They lie and they cheat.

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Their children
pull away from them

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with the stubbornness
only matched by their own.

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Ultimately, Tim
Schaffert's characters

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do not give a shit about
each other's hearts.

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Luckily, Tim Schaffert does.

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Tim writes right down to
his characters' bones.

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He tactfully moves
his subjects through

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their uncontrollable lives.

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His characters are messes
and desperate but alive.

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Tim knows what's inside his
characters' hearts and shares

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these secrets with us.

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I'm pleased to introduce
Timothy Schaffert, the author

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of four novels, Devils in
the Sugar Shop, The Singing

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and Dancing Daughters of God,
The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow

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Sisters and most recently,
The Coffins of Little Hope.

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His short fiction
and essays have

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appeared in the anthologies,
My Mother She Killed Me,

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My Father He Ate
Me: Forty New Fairy

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Tales, When I was a Loser: True
Stories of (Barely) Surviving

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High School, and Brothers
and Beasts: An Anthology

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of Men on Fairy Tales.

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He has won the Henfield
Transatlantic Review

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Award, the Mary Roberts Rinehart
Award and the Nebraska Book

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Award.

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He serves as contributing
editor for Fairy Tale Review and

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is the digital development
and online editor

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for Prairie Schooner.

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He's the director of
two literary nonprofits,

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the Nebraska Summer Writers
Conference and the Omaha Lit

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Fest.

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And he teaches creative
writing and literature courses

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at the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln.

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Please welcome
Timothy Schaffert.

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