by Adele Woodyard
Readers of my blog know that two of us authors gave talks on our books last Friday evening at the New Port Richey Art Gallery. I spoke on my mystery novel, Final Payment and Deanna Bennett on the first of her trilogy, Anna: Going to America. If you haven’t been to one of these events as author or guest, perhaps you’ll be interested in my NOTES:
We are early. The room bathed in soft light, is long, divided into three sections with the smallest one in the middle. At the far end, eight folding chairs face a covered circular table with an upholstered chair on each side. Small unframed quilts by the West Pasco Quilters Guild replace local artists’ paintings on the walls. It reminds me of ones resembling Highwaymen Florida art, displayed inside the Leepa-Rattner Museum in Tarpon Springs several years ago. Tonight Deanna and I each buy a $1 ticket with the hope of winning “The Cactus Rose”, a beautiful 71” x 71” quilt. The Drawing is set for March 16, 2014.
A few people begin to amble in One of the first is an attractive blonde artist named Andrea. There’s an older man with his daughter, a tall single man with bushy hair, a young reporter from the local newspaper and her mother. I don’t expect many to come. It is August, muggy, hot and the weatherman has promised 60% more rain with thunderstorms. I’ve begun a short rundown of my writing background when two writer friends arrive and I greet each one with a delighted smile. Ken Dye, author of Beyond the Shadow of the Arch, is a. retired cop. His review on the back cover of Final Payment, calls it a “hard hitting mystery that grabs the reader from the first page.” Former newspaper reporter, editor and columnist Miriam Goodspeed, is now a scriptwriter, film director and producer with Florida film and TV credits.
Following a few words on my Florida “Freebies” and “Cheapies” book, I introduce the major characters in Final Payment, read a bit about each one, and answer questions. Deanna, whose book is based on her grandmother’s emigration from Lithuania to America as a teenager in 1914, does the same. As she gives a bit of history on immigration in general, I think of my maternal grandfather who was a Brit until age 25 when he came to this country to marry my grandmother. Whose father was German. That memory leads to the thought, unless Indians as far back as prehistoric times are part of our bloodline, we Americans are all descendants of immigrants from other countries. An easily forgotten fact we’d do well to remember.
Our session ends. Andrea hands us each a pencil sketch of ourselves she drew as we talked. Mine has a sailboat on one side. Another unexpected plus occurs when the older man who came with his daughter, presents a one-act play. At his request, Ken and Deanna take on the cold read of a couple who discover they were once classmates in high school. When it ends, the playwright hands out his card, The Old Time Radio Club Time Machine. Gallery Director Nancy Clessla takes our unsold books on consignment for the rest of the month. The event is over and not a drop of rain has wet the streets.
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