My husband and I attended an author forum tonight - our first. It was held at Destination Booksellers in New Albany, Indiana, and featured three authors from Black Wyrm Publishing, a Louisville, Kentucky-based publisher. The evening’s topic was Characterization in Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror, and it was both enlightening and entertaining. There were five authors scheduled to attend, but due to illness only three were present. Those who were on hand for the discussion were Ian Harac, William Levy and Marge Fulton. Of the three, I was familiar with two, but not in the way one might assume.
A few weeks ago while at Grinny Possum, the friendliest yarn and fiber store in Southern Indiana, I had the opportunity to meet Mrs. Ian Harac and discuss writing with her. A very nice lady who has a phenomenal skill with all things yarn, she had mentioned her husband’s writing. I found it interesting, but as Sci-Fi is not my genre, I didn’t pursue his work. Imagine my surprise at finding out he was one of the featured authors at tonight’s forum!
The second author with whom I was familiar is Marge Fulton, although I cannot say I had read any of her works, either. Marge is not a native but has, for the past 20 years, lived in my hometown of Hazard, Kentucky. She is a prolific artist, and her first published work, “All Roads Lead to Hazard” had been mentioned on a couple of forums from the region that I frequent. Her latest book, “The Holler”, is a compilation of horror short stories based in Appalachia. It is now on my ‘to be read’ list, and I look forward to delving into it.
I had not heard of Mr. William Levy, and since his work is mainly Sci-Fi, I probably won’t read his works, but I did find him a very interesting, articulate speaker, and found several of the points he made this evening to be worthy of note.
This was the first time we had set foot in Destinations, and I must say I was impressed. It was by no means a fly-by-night operation. It was small, yes, but had an amazing selection of books, as well as a great café in the back, which I do not believe serves food any more but has an extensive selection of drinks available. The shop itself was clean, neat and cozy, and definitely a place I will visit in the future. I’ve been meaning to reach out to them and ask if they would like to carry Secrets, but I’ve been intimidated by the thought. I won’t be quite so hesitant now, although it will still take a little bit of courage to take that step.
I realize after evenings like this just how much I’ve missed out on by staying in the house most of the time. I’m not a social butterfly by any far stretch of the imagination and my husband makes me look positively extroverted, but I do enjoy events such as the one we attended this evening. I think we need such interactions for growth, and folks, my growth is stunted! Some of the reclusiveness has been intentional, some has not, but one of the lessons I took away from this event was that I have to get out there, not just online but in the real world, and expand my horizons. As my husband likes to remind me, not many people are flesh-eating zombies, and if we do run into one, we can probably out run them.
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