Had an interesting day today at the Brevard Authors Book fair held at the Central Brevard Library in Cocoa, Florida. Not only did they have a lot of authors (mostly POD and self published) showing their wares and telling their stories they also had a few “workshops” over the course of the day. Of course I attended most of them, and quite a few were worth the time and netted me some new information. On the flip side I was also able to contribute some of the knowledge I have gained over the past (ahem) years.
looking at the bay
My day started with an inspirational talk by the Dr. (and Reverend, I believe) Willie Kimmons who related some tales on public education and child rearing and his views on society. Not a lot of writing information in there, but it was interesting.
I also listened to Valerie Allen give some information on Writing for Fun and Profit, Yvonne Mason on writing suspense thrillers and finally Patricia Marlett on leaving a legacy. Patricia and Yvonne were especially interesting to me for totally different reasons.
Yvonne spoke about building a plot, characters and also adding twists and red herrings and she spoke about the voices in her head which guide her writing. Fun. Sometimes I feel guided by the “inner muse” but not by multiple personalities, but whatever works for you. It was a fun session where everyone in the class contributed to a group story which applied some of what Yvonne spoke about.
Now Patricia was also guided by a ghost and considered herself a ghost writer, but the ghost in the case was the holy ghost. Inspiration comes in all forms, and we even had a few “praise gods” in the class. Again, whatever works for you. Of course, I know that Florida has a large Christian population, so that sort of thing, I guess is to be sort of expected.
Patricia also has the experience of being published by a “real” publisher, rather than POD. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a snob. My book is POD, but a more traditional publisher is a different level, in my eyes. One of her books is also being made into a movie being shot in Nashville in November.
Now finally I had lunch and a long conversation with a cat named Howard Jenkin, who was a microbiologist and has some interesting things to say. More on that as I research it, but he said he could help with my job search and gave me a few pointers and directions to go. He also treated me to lunch..nice. He is also 90 years old.
