The San Marcos Public Library will host more than 40 Texas authors and illustrators at the 6th annual Texas Author Day on Sunday, Nov. 22 from 2 to 5 p.m.
These published writers and illustrators will be on hand to sign copies of their books and chat with fans. A variety of genres will be represented including local history, Texana, mystery, horror, memoirs, children’s literature, poetry, history and fiction.
Visiting authors and illustrators include Lois Fowler Barrett, Ann Bell, Don Blevins, Joyce G. Bradshaw, Mary Brand, Diana Castilleja, T.L. Criser, Dotti Enderle, Diane Fanning, Marsha Gibson, Veronique Zehnder Hahn, Martha Hannah, Larry Dowell, Phil Irwin, Laurie E. Jasinski, Varian Johnson, Jacqueline Kelly, Allan C. Kimball, Juliette Kroeger, Roxolin B. Krueger, April Lurie, Bruce Marshall, Laurie Martin, Frances McMaster, Terry Michaels, Phyllis Moses, Helen Nardecchia, Kenneth Orr, Jeanette N. Passty, Allan E. Pevoto, Fernando Ramirez, Sterling Rogers, Debbie Roppolo, Ruben Ruiz, Shelley Seale, Gary Layne Smith, Peggy Snodgrass, Bill Soyars, Frances Stovall, June Venable, Bert M. Wall, Susan Welch-Biggs, Nancy Daniel Wesson and Celia Yeary.
Several authors are scheduled to either read from their book or talk about their work. Scheduled at 2:15 p.m. is Diana Castilleja of Kyle and author of the romance novel Crowning a Warrior King as well as several ebooks. Jacqueline Kelly, of Austin, who has written a young adult novel set in Fentress, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, will speak at 3 p.m. Allan C. Kimball, resident of Wimberley and author of Who is Mother Neff and Why is She a State Park, plus several other Texas travel guides speaks at 3:45 p.m.
Appearing at 4:30 p.m. is Austin based free-lance writer Shelley Seale, author of The Weight of Silence: The Invisible Children of India which relates her journeys into the orphanages and slums of India.
Books will be available for purchase at the library.
For more information call 393-8200.
A few of the visiting authors at a glance
Jacqueline Kelly
Jacqueline Kelly was born in New Zealand and moved with her parents to western Canada at an early age. She grew up in the dense rain forests of Vancouver Island. You can imagine her shock some years later when her family moved to the desert of El Paso.
She attended university in El Paso and medical school in Galveston (lovingly known as “Galvatraz” among the inmates). She practiced medicine for many years and then attended the University of Texas School of Law. She practiced law for several years before realizing that what would really make her happy would be to write fiction.
Kelly’s debut novel, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, was released in 2009. Kelly’s first novel presents spirited heroine Calpurnia (Callie) Virginia Tate, a middle child with six brothers, growing up in the isolation of
Fentress in 1899. Kelly’s rich images and setting, believable relationships and a touch of magic take this story far. Learn more at www.jacquelinekelly.com.
Frances McMaster
Frances McMaster is a published poet, an award-winning artist and presently a member of the writing team that contributes daily devotionals e-mailed to Wimberley’s St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church parishioners.
When living in Fort Clark Springs she was a contributing writer for The Brackettville News. Blue Pebbles and Other Gifts of Spirit: Dreams, Intuition, and Synchronicity is McMaster’s most recently published book. Writing from a Jungian point of view, she uses a lifelong collection of her own dreams and synchronistic events to show how material emerging from the unconscious mind can facilitate self awareness and serve as guidance for unfolding one’s potential. McMaster teaches the reader ways of remembering dreams and understanding symbolism, the language of the unconscious mind.
Her first book, a mystery entitled Death Plays the Lead, is a fast-moving drama of murder set against the backdrop of a small town and an old cavalry fort.
April Lurie
April Lurie grew up in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, a neighborhood with close ties to the Mafia. This inspired her to write Brothers, Boyfriends, and Other Criminal Minds, a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age, and a selection for the 2008 Texas Lone Star List. Her most recent novel, The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine, a Best Books for Young Adults (BBYA) nominee, was inspired by and dedicated to her son Daniel. She still had to pay him $20 to read it.
