Newsletter: November 2025 Edition
Texas Book Festival, Starman After Midnight Audiobook, Upcoming Events, and More
Subscribe to get the newsletter in your email inbox. Never miss an update. Subscribe today!
Welcome to the November 2025 edition of my newsletter! The Texas Book Festival was this past weekend and what a beautiful time of the year to be out strolling around downtown Austin and seeing all the booklovers buying books and listening to authors speak on their panels in spring-like weather. I’ve read that people in the U.S. are reading less, but when you attend book festivals like this one—and see the huge amount of people who enjoy them—it makes me wonder if these polls about declining readership are true (or missing actual readers when the polls were conducted). It’s hard to say. But it’s undeniable seeing long lines of readers waiting to see their favorite authors in person. Amazing!
The Writers’ League of Texas toasted the winners and finalists for their 2024 Book Awards at their booth in tent #1 at the Texas Book Fest on Saturday November 8th. My novel The Codger and the Sparrow won their Discovery Prize for Fiction (an award they bestow to books on university or indie presses), so I was there to raise a glass to my fellow winners and finalists and enjoy a tiny bit of adulation from them in return. My wife was with me, too, which is always a special feeling for me!
Something else special that happened for me this past week was that my latest audiobook for my novel Starman After Midnight was reviewed in The Austin Chronicle! I really enjoyed being interviewed by writer Oscar Rodriguez and seeing this article published the same week of the Texas Book Festival was a real treat (and a little bit of a coup if I’m being honest since I wasn’t a featured author at the book fest this year). I have lived in Austin for over thirty years and I have published ten books and hundreds of comic strips and this is the first time in all of this time that The Austin Chronicle has reviewed something of mine and featured me. Pretty wild seeing my face in the print edition! Anyway, links in the next section of this newsletter to find this audiobook and you can read the review in The Austin Chronicle. Photo credit in the review: Jeff Loftin. Thank you Oscar Rodriguez and the fine folks at The Austin Chronicle.
Starman After Midnight Audiobook
Out now! Starman After Midnight is available in audiobook! Narrated by the versatile and incomparable Brian P. Craig, this story about two beer-drinking buddies who discover a naked man walking around their neighborhood at night is both mysterious and hilarious.
Publishers Weekly calls it “Darkly funny.”
The Austin Chronicle calls it “A well-crafted collage.”
BlueInk Review calls it “Effortlessly funny, likably odd, surprisingly moving, and imminently relatable—a genuine pleasure.”
Available now on Libro.FM, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, and Audible. Also available for library checkout via Hoopla or Libby at the Austin Public Library. You can request it at your own public library as well. Listen now!
Upcoming Events
I’ll be at the Hill Country Literary Festival hosted by the Mammen Family Public Library (a great public library just north of San Antonio, Texas) on Saturday, March 21, 2026 in Bulverde, Texas. I know it’s a ways off, but mark your calendar! Find more info here:
https://hillcountryliteraryfestival.org/
My Books
All of my books and audiobooks are available everywhere you buy your favorite reads. Find my preferred retailers here:
Latest Novel: STARMAN AFTER MIDNIGHT (2025), Publishers Weekly calls it “Darkly funny... Semegran has a knack for drawing colorful characters. This waggish slice of life is worth a look.” Audiobook version here.
Previous Novel: THE CODGER AND THE SPARROW (2024), the winner of the Discovery Prize for Fiction in the Writers’ League of Texas Book Awards. Audiobook version here.
The Novel Before That: THE BENEVOLENT LORDS OF SOMETIMES ISLAND (2020), 2021 Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards - First Place for Middle-Grade/Young Adult. Audiobook version here.
The Novel Before That One: TO SQUEEZE A PRAIRIE DOG (2019), 2020 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award Winner - Gold Medal for Humor. Audiobook version here.
Thank you for your support. Take care, read more books, and be good to each other!
Sincerely,
Scott
Subscribe to get the newsletter in your email inbox. Never miss an update. Subscribe today!