Laura Thomas & Megan Schikora | Presented by Sidetrack Bookshop

Join Sidetrack for a conversation with authors Laura Thomas and Megan Schikora.

Sidetrack Bookshop presents authors Laura Thomas and Megan Schikora for a joint reading and Q&A about their new books, The Meaning of Fear and A Woman in Pink.

Date: Thursday, April 30, 2026, 6:30pm - 8pm. Doors open at 6pm.

Location: Sidetrack Bookshop, 325 S. Washington Ave., Royal Oak, MI 48067

Tickets:

• $27.20 - Includes one general admission seat to the event and signing line with one hardcover copy of The Meaning of Fear.
• $5 - Includes one general admission seat to the event and signing line.

Additional copies of The Meaning of Fear and A Woman in Pink will be available for purchase at the event (while supplies last).

Parking in the Center Street Parking Garage located just north of Sidetrack Bookshop with entrances on both Washington and Center Streets is free for the first two hours and costs only 75 cents per hour thereafter, Monday through Saturday.

Please read on for more information about author Laura Thomas and The Meaning of Fear.

About The Meaning of Fear

Amid the turmoil of the 2008 recession that threatens her career, Lea Johnson, a behavioral researcher dedicated to curing post-traumatic stress disorder, is also struggling to save her marriage. When her husband, Jay, is brutally attacked during an attempted robbery, Lea is shaken to realize that being an expert in fear doesn’ t make her an expert in healing her own husband’ s trauma.

Things take a dark turn when Jay confronts a young trespasser outside their home, only for the boy to be reported missing shortly after. Lea begins to suspect that Jay is hiding something, and as she feels a growing attraction to the sympathetic cop investigating the case, she’ s torn between her loyalty to her husband and the urge to uncover the truth. When an unexpected opportunity arises for Lea to confront her own childhood assailant, the lines between healing, revenge, and forgiveness blur. In a battle with her past and her husband’ s potential secrets, Lea must decide whether her affair will be the catalyst for healing or the final fracture in a marriage already on the brink.

About A Woman in Pink

In A Woman in Pink, an unnamed woman recounts her deeply intertwined relationship with Dutch, a man she meets in her twenties and immediately loves. Dutch tells her he has distanced himself from the substance-fueled chaos that once consumed him, while she explains she has left her eating disorder in the past. Together, they convince themselves they’ve outrun their darkest histories.

But over the span of their fifteen-year relationship, those shadows loom large, influencing their bond in ways they never expected. She wants to free herself from the turmoil of addiction. She also wants to believe that Dutch is her Johnny Cash, that she is his June Carter, and that theirs is a great love story. When their histories and choices finally collide, she is forced to confront everything she thought she knew about love, identity, and what it means to truly heal.

About Laura Thomas

Laura Hulthen Thomas is an award-winning fiction writer, essayist, and university lecturer. After holding jobs that lead to great stories—bakery counter seller, diner waitress, wire harness tester for an auto supplier, elder carer, small business manager—Laura began teaching fiction and creative nonfiction at her alma mater, the University of Michigan, where she is now a Teaching Professor. Laura’s short fiction and essays have appeared in Witness, Epiphany, Summerset Review, failbetter, The /tƐmz/ Review, The Cimarron Review, and others. Her first book, States of Motion, was a finalist for a Foreword Reviews Indie Award. The collection was also named a Notable Debut by Poets & Writers. Laura lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Meaning of Fear is her first novel.

About Megan Schikora

Megan A. Schikora is a novelist, essayist, and short story writer. Her debut novel, A Woman in Pink, was a shortlist choice for the Page Turner Awards. Her short fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared in numerous publications, most recently Exacting Clam, Midway Journal, Change Seven, and Fictive Dream, garnering distinctions that include longlist selection in the 2023 Folly International Short Story Competition, first place in the 2022 F(r)iction Short Story Contest, and third place in prose in the 2020 New South Writing Contest. She lives in Plymouth, MI with her daughter.