In the super-competitive, overcrowded world of the romance genre, few authors have been as successful as the award-winning, multimillion-seller Susan Wiggs. Her latest is "Just Breathe" (Mira, $24.95, 400 pages), an emotional roller coaster centered on a cartoonist whose husband betrays her. Undaunted, she leaves him and returns to her California hometown, where new love blossoms.

Now this: The Sacramento Rose Chapter of the Romance Writers of America will sponsor "An Afternoon with Susan Wiggs" on Sept. 20, but space is limited to 100 attendees.

The event will be at the Holiday Inn Sacramento, 5312 Date Ave. Check-in for paid attendees is at 9:30 a.m., followed by Wiggs' presentation at 10:30 a.m., lunch at 11:45 a.m. and a book-signing at 12:30 p.m. The non-paying public is welcome at 1:30 p.m.

Cost: $35 for non-Rose members, $25 for members. RSVP between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. by next Monday to Marlene Urso at (530) 644-4204 or mlurso@comcast.net. No reservations will be accepted after that time.

Written on the calendar

Upcoming author appearances include:

• Terry Brooks for "The Gypsy Morph" (Del Rey, $27, 416 pages): Attorney-turned-novelist Brooks is one of the leading names in sci-fi and fantasy, with 21 million books in print in the United States alone. He began his writing career with the ground-shaking "The Sword of Shannara" in 1977. "Morph" is book three of the "Genesis of Shannara" trilogy. The United States in the future (suffering the effects of plague and chemical warfare) is on the brink of total destruction by forces of the Void. Can a handful of heroes save humanity? Brooks appeared for The Bee Book Club in 2001.

Event: 2 p.m. Sunday at Borders, 2339 Fair Oaks Blvd., (916) 564-0168.

• Frank B. Wilderson for "Incognegro: A Memoir of Exile and Apartheid" (South End Press, $18, 500 pages): Though Wilderson is African American, he was a professor at Johannesburg and Soweto universities in South Africa during the final years of apartheid. There, he aided the African National Congress with its "campaign of propaganda and psychological warfare."

Events: 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Avid Reader, 617 Second St., Davis, (530) 758-4040; and 1 p.m. Sunday at the Avid Reader at Tower, 1600 Broadway, (916) 441-4400

The Avid Reader at Tower also has a Saturday event at 7:30 p.m. Roger Trott for "Getting in Tune" (Coral, $14.95, 300 pages): Trott, once a music critic, takes readers on tour with the Killjoys, a fictitious rock band of the 1970s.

• Larry Berman for "Perfect Spy" (Collins, $14.95, 336 pages): Berman, a historian and political science professor at UC Davis, offers the disturbing biography of a journalist who was actually a spy for the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War.

Event: 7 p.m. Friday at the Arden Demick Library, 891 Watt Ave., (916) 451-2113, presented by the Sacramento Book Collectors Club.

• Book Lovers is planning two events; the bookstore is at 5800 Madison Ave., (916) 332-3133.

Irene Spencer for "Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife" (Center Street, $24.99, 383 pages): At age 16, Spencer wed her sister's husband, becoming wife No. 10. She bore 13 children and finally left him after 25 years of marriage. Now 70, she lives in Woodbridge, near Lodi. She has said her memoir will help her 120 grandchildren understand their family history.

Event: Noon on Saturday.

Eric Heiden for "Faster, Better, Stronger: 10 Proven Secrets to a Healthier Body in 12 Weeks" (Collins Living, $25.95, 336 pages): Speedskater-physician Heiden won five gold medals at the 1980 Winter Olympics. In this guide (written with others), he offers the benefits of programs he helped develop at the UC Davis Sports Performance Center.

Event: 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Library group schedules book sale

The Friends of the Sacramento Public Library will host a fall warehouse book sale, where you can choose from 50,000 paperback and hardback books, videos and CDs at bargain prices.

Event: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at the warehouse in the rear of the group's Book Den bookstore, 8250 Belvedere Ave., (916) 264-2920 or www.saclibrary.org. The Book Den itself will be open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, selling "better books" and collectibles, and children's books for half price.

First in trilogy sparks a sensation

Big-buzz alert: "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson (Knopf, $24.95, 480 pages, on sale Sept. 16): Swedish journalist Larsson died in 2004, not long after submitting the manuscript for this debut novel, along with two other that were to form a trilogy. The book was a sensation in Europe, and now the translated edition is coming available. A spokesman for Knopf has said the other two novels will also be published.

The crime thriller (which had an initial U.S. run of 100,000 copies) stars a tattooed and pierced genius computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander, given to bouts of violence; and a troubled financial journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, who team to find the missing niece of a dying multimillionaire.

In a blurb, Sacramento's own New York Times best-selling thriller novelist John Lescroart calls it "dark, labyrinthine, smart, sexy, utterly original and completely captivating."

The Bee's Allen Pierleoni can be reached at (916) 321-1128 or apierleoni@sacbee.com. Contact him with news of coming literary events that are open to the public.