Robots. The atom bomb. Basketball. These are just a few of the reasons that Stories on Stage Sacramento is thrilled to welcome back Sharma Shields, with a reading from her new novel, The Cassandra, and to welcome for the first time her husband Simeon Mills, with a reading from his debut novel The Obsoletes. Both novels plunge us into twisty real worlds: The Cassandra is a modern re-telling of the Cassandra myth, set in the Hanford nuclear research center during World War II, and The Obsoletes imagines two robot brothers trying to pass for human in a small, robot-phobic Midwestern town.

Enjoy fantastic storytelling this month – a re-telling of the Cassandra myth, set in the Hanford nuclear research plant during WWII, and a fable set in the upper Midwest about two boys navigating high school, sibling rivalry, and basketball, all the while trying to conceal the fact that they’re actually robots. What happens when a secretary foretells the horrible consequences of the atom bomb and nobody believes her? And how do you survive in a robot-phobic town when you sweat grease, plug yourself in at night, and can’t digest food? With readings by Ian Hopps and Carissa Meagher, this promises to be another stellar evening at Stories on Stage.