Bookstore’s extravaganza draws crowd of writers
Originally published 02:17 p.m., June 16, 2008
Updated 02:17 p.m., June 16, 2008
Even with few downtown patrons coming in to check out Town Crier Bookstore’s second annual Authors Extravaganza, the 24 authors gathered for the event had plenty of people to talk to and sign books for — namely, each other.
Town Crier owner Becky Smith said a morning with weather not quite as gorgeous as Saturday’s would’ve suited her better, since sunshine puts people’s minds on doing something outside, rather than stopping at the bookstore to chat up Kansas authors and check out their work. Still, some guests did come by, and the authors had plenty of interest in seeing what others across the state were penning and publishing.
“It usually turns into a big networking,” Smith said. “Authors like to meet each other face to face, and some of them, they’ve e-mailed or something, but then they get to meet each other. And the customers that do come in ... they love to visit with each one individually, so it takes a while to get through the line.”
Works of all types were represented at the extravaganza, from fiction to nonfiction, from the serious to the more lighthearted. Hutchinson author Marilyn Hope Lake’s self-published book, “Buddy and the Grandcats,” is a children’s offering about a dog’s displeasure when feline companions are added to his house, and the adjustments he has to make as a result. Lake’s husband, Denton Warn, illustrated the book based on the couple’s actual animals: their cats, who have died, and Buddy himself, whom they brought along for Saturday’s show.
The book carries a theme about blending families. Lake said it has sold about 300 copies in eight-months of release, “which is pretty spectacular for a self-published book.” She and Warn said readers relate to it because they tell them they have animals like the characters in the book.
“And it does help children who are having ... a new baby in the family,” she said. “And this teaches them about getting along.”
Emporian Mike Halleran was at Town Crier to promote works that contain some of his writings on hunting, a passion of his. The book “Reverse Points: Bird Dogs Reconsidered” is a collection of humorous stories by various authors about hunting dogs.
“And actually a lot of ’em can be a real pain in the butt,” Halleran said, “and we try to highlight ... the atypical bird dog behavior, or perhaps I should say the behavior that the owners don’t want to brag about, in this book.”
One of the more serious books on display at the extravaganza included Karen Ross Epp’s book “With Love, Stan: A Soldier’s Letters from Vietnam to the World.” The book contains letters from Epp’s brother, Stan Ross, who fought and was killed in the Vietnam War.
Jeannine Fox’s book, “Holy Paws,” details how the author adopted an abused dog, which in turn helped Fox learn to deal with the abuse she had suffered as a child.
Carrying local interest for readers was Beverley Buller’s “From Emporia,” billed as the first biography of William Allen White written for children.
The authors were divided about 50/50 between those who have a publisher and those who self-publish their work, Smith said.
“We have (authors published by) big publishing houses all the way down to self-publishing,” Smith said. “But even though it’s self published, (it) doesn’t mean that it’s a bad thing. It just means that sometimes they don’t want to take the time to go through the big publishers. In this day and age, self-publishing is a snap, so it really works well.”