The Friends of the Library, an organization set up and run by volunteers, will host its first book festival on Saturday, April 13, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Neva Lomason Memorial Library, located at 710 Rome St. in Carrollton. Please mark it on your calendar to plan ahead and to come because it will be a day of literary fun and it’s free.
There are 35 authors participating. Some are local and others have participated in the Decatur Book Festival previously. Joshilyn Jackson is our nationally known, featured author and will be here to speak and to sign her books.
The panels will take place in the Edith Foster Room at Neva Lomason. Five authors, categorized by genre, will be on a panel and discuss their book during an hour. Then there will be a short time for questions and answers.
After the authors finish speaking, you can follow them to tables arranged outside the Cultural Arts Room at the library, where you can purchase their books and they will answer your questions, autograph your book and take a picture with you if you are interested. So be sure to charge your camera.
We will have programs for you at the door. Mary Jane Davis, the Friends of the Library president, will greet you and hand you a program as well. Off to the side, we will be having a book bag raffle. You can buy one ticket for $1 or six tickets for $5. Roni Tewksbury, the system director will draw for the bags at 4:30. If you are not present, you will be called to come and pick up your winnings. These bags are made up of the books that the 35 authors have written. Part of their fee to join the festival was to donate two books. One goes to the permanent library collection and the other was to be raffled off. Each bag averages about five books.
There will also be the opportunity to join Friends of the Library. You decide the level of your monetary commitment and by joining at the festival, you are a member from April through August of the following year. This deal has never been offered before, so be sure that you take advantage of the longer membership time.
So come early and get a fantastic parking space and plan to stay all day. We will make lunch available for you to purchase between 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. and will have Chick-fil-A sandwiches and ice cold drinks. Simply Cupcakes will also be there.That way you won’t have to move your car at all and your great parking spot is safe.
If you are in a book club and are coming, e-mail me at anitawbuice@gmail.com and I’ll have a name tag waiting for you at the front door. We want everyone to come and bring a friend. All 35 authors will be selling their books in the Cultural Arts Room of the Neva Lomason all day long.
The following is a list of authors that will be at the book festival. They are listed in alphabetical order and they are not in the order that they will be speaking.
1. Jonathan Chad Akin — Now Entering Obscurity (contemporary fiction)
2. John Bell — Shoeless Summer (sports)
3. Beverly Bruemmer — To Market, To Market in the Big Red Truck (children’s)
4. Jody Butler — Jekyll Journey (travel)
5. James Dalton Byrd — Bang (poetry)
6. Becky Carlisle — 52 Hats, A Memoir (Christian Memoir)
7. Sandy Weaver Carman — The Original MBA: Succeed in Business Using Mom’s Best Advice (Business motivational)
8. DJCole & RD Davis — Games, Lies and Deceit (urban fiction)
9. Robert C. Covel — String Theory (poetry)
10. Cindy Crane — Roswell Redemption (historical fiction)
11. J.P. Cunningham — The Emerald Amulet; Somerset A Novel (literary)
12. Mary Cunningham — Cynthia’s Attic: The Missing Lockett (the series) tweens
13. Timberline Davis — 13 (memoir)
14. Lynn Garson — Southern Vapors (memoir)
15. Anju Gattani — Duty and Desire (contemporary fiction)
16. T. L. Gray — The Blood of Cain Book 1 and 2; Milledgeville Misfits — (fantasy)
17. Eleanor Hoomes — Driving With My Blinker On — (poetry)
18. Christine Hornback — Caleb’s Cereal (juvenile fiction)
19. Beverly S. James — Soul Sister, The Snared Bird; Soul Sisters Save the World! (young adult/middle grades)
20. Jay Michael Jones — Flight of the Armada — (science fiction Romance)
21. Bobbi Kornblit — Shelter From the Texas Heat — (women’s fiction)
22. Michelle Lane — Lili — (YA fiction)
23. Tracy Milanese — Behavior Charts and Beyond — (parent help)
24. Shelly Murphy — Compost Happens — (memoir, humorous/gardening)
25. Cheryl Pollard — Fording — (historical fiction)
26. Bryan Pollard — Stranger in the White House — (mystery)
27. Wanda J. R. Prowell — Unresolved; School Readiness K-12 (family educational)
28. Marilyn Robinson — Ulysses Byas (memoir)
29. Jeffrey Spieles — In Sherman’s Path; In Sherman’s Path Teacher’s Guide (historical fiction)
30. Morgan Summerfield — Blood and Magnolias — (fiction/romance-southern gothic)
31. Theresa Tidwell- Miranda (Christian fiction)
32. Chuck Wanager — Jackson Flatts — (coming of age)
33. Charlotte Vititoe — The Adventures of a Female Paperboy; Three Stories of Ethan
34. Thomas Young — Coming Out of Winter (southern fiction)
35. Joshilyn Jackson — Gods in Alabama; Backseat Saints; and lots more!
Read more:Times-Georgian - 35 authors to participate in book festival
