Local Author Showcase 2014

November 24, 2014 by Sarah G.

• Share:
 
• Email This >
 
• Facebook
 
• Twitter
 
• Pinterest

Saturday, December 13th

11 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Richland Library Main

It's an explosion of local literary talent! This year's showcase brings you more than 100 South Carolina authors!

From picture books and poetry to thrillers and histories, there will be something for every age and interest. This is a great opportunity to meet real authors, discover your next good read, and stock up on holiday gifts.

Check out the list of participating authors below to get excited and plan your visit. This list is arranged by target audience age and/or subject, but keep in mind that many of the authors have several books which cross the boundaries of age and genre.

Don't know where to start or which books might tickle your fancy? This year's Local Author Showcase will also include an open mic session, where you be will able to hear the authors read from or talk about their work.

• Our special guest, the University of South Carolina Press, will have a range of new and best-selling regional books, and a selection of discounted titles.
• 
  
• Southern Fiction
• 
  
• Deena Bouknight
• Signing Broken Shells, and previewing Playing Guy

One Sentence

As I often tell my students, it only takes that one tantalizing first sentence to loosen the stones of the dam and release a flood of creative activity in the brain. One strong, jaw-dropping, earth-shattering, I-want-to-read-more sentence. I just finished Charles Frazier's Nightwoods and, Wow!, what a first sentence: "Luce's new stranger children were small and beautiful and violent." Frazier introduced us to sentences readers want to take time to ponder when he wrote Cold Mountain. My favorite author, Edith Wharton, was a master at first sentences - simple - but they always leave you yearning to know more: "Selden paused in surprise." (The House of Mirth) "I had a story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story." (Ethan Frome) An author I met at the South Carolina Book Festival in May, Ron Rash, wrote a first sentence for a phenomenal book (soon to be released as a movie) called Serena. Here goes: "When Pemberton returned to the North Carolina mountains after three months in Boston settling his father's estate, among those waiting on the train platform was a young woman pregnant with Pemberton's child."

A great first sentence does not have to always be in a creative fictional story. Entice readers of essays, articles, and even letters with a fine first sentence: "Every girl and boy has a dream." (article recently written for a local magazine). "We are living in post-Christian times." (City on a Hill, Philip Graham Ryken) "When Bob Burnham received word that his three daughters on their walk home from school were heading straight into a riot in Odessa, he jumped onto his bike and raced through explosion, gunfire, and columns of riot police." (WORLD, May 31 2014)

Remember the song from the claymation Santa Clause movie, when the young reindeer is learning how to walk: "Put one foot in front of the other ... and soon you'll be walking out that door ..." Writing is like that. Set that initial cornerstone first sentence, and soon other sentences can be added to it to create something worth reading.