The Texas Book Festival is this weekend, and we’re pumped about the weekend’s schedule and the diversity of this year’s offerings. Check out the TBF website for the full list of authors and panels and make sure to check out Lit Crawl Austin on Saturday night for even more fun events (plus cocktails)!
Every year, we look forward to our exhibitor booth at TBF, where visitors can meet our staff and volunteers, learn about membership, and raise a glass to toast our book award honorees. And this year, as in years past, we’re thrilled to offer our members, many of whom are incredible Texas authors, the opportunity to sign and promote their books at our booth. Check out the schedule!
We’ll have signings all weekend, and we wanted to share a little more about each of our signers with you in advance of the festival. Yesterday we shared information about Saturdays’ authors, and check the blog again tomorrow for a post on several special events happening at our booth and around the festival!
You can find us at Exhibitor Tent 3, Booths 320-321. (Find info on the festival grounds and parking here.)
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 5
AUTHOR SIGNINGS
11 a.m.
Jess Hagemann and Bernadette Nason (Nonfiction + Memoir)
Jess Hagemann is an Austin-based ghostwriter and accomplished biographer. Her company, Cider Spoon Stories, specializes in helping seniors, veterans, and small business owners write their life stories as books. Whispers is an inspiring collection of ten stories from sexual assault survivors in central Texas.
Bernadette Nason, a native Brit, is an award-winning actor, voice-over artist and storyteller. She has been on the Texas Commission on the Arts Touring Artists’ Roster since 2002, presenting annually to over 30,000 people. She’s also acclaimed for her solo presentations of biographical stories about growing up in England, and expatriate life: Tea in Tripoli; Dinner in Dubai; Iced Tea in Texas; and Stealing Baby Jesus. Nason is regularly seen in regional theatre productions, and is a company member of Austin Playhouse. She received the Austin Critics’ Table Award for Conspicuous Versatility. Her memoir Tea in Tripoli is her first book and recounts her extraordinary, often perilous, journey of self-discovery in Gaddafi’s Libya, c. 1984-85.
12 p.m.
Lynn G. Abrams, R. Rachel Gauna, & JoDee Neathery (Children’s + Literary Fiction)
Lynn G. Abrams wrote her first story, The Mischievous Puppy, on a piece of construction paper when she was eight. She resumed writing when she became a mom, although on somewhat better paper. She is the author of The Ten Dinosaurs picture book series and is a member of SCBWI and WLT. She holds BA and MSW degrees, teaches adult education, and volunteers with Boy Scouts, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and others. In each of her books, she invites children to learn new words and stretch their imagination. Lynn enjoys learning something from everyone, and hopes young readers will do the same! In The Tale Of Lucky The Dog, which won the 2016 Writers’ League of Texas Discovery Prize Award in the Picture Book category, Lucky The Dog gives advice to homeless dogs on how to find a home and train their humans.
R. Rachel Gauna is a lover of the outdoors, be it the ocean or the deep wilderness of a backcountry trail. Her other passion is the magic of words, whether they’re words she writes, words she reads or words she hears through song and other storytelling. The Thinking Log is her first published book, and she is currently working on her second novel. Rachel is originally from New Mexico; has lived in Central Texas; Denver; San Diego; Asheville, North Carolina; and currently resides in Amarillo, Texas.
JoDee Neathery drew from her Texas and California roots to pluck a few personalities off the family tree to create her debut novel Life in a Box, five years in the making. From a diverse professional background she focused on her love of the written word to write freelance articles for a nonprofit and now enjoys a byline in a local newspaper in East Texas where she and her husband reside.
1 p.m.
Rosa Walston Latimer & Bruce Thatcher (Nonfiction)
Rosa Walston Latimer’s interest in preserving women’s history was sparked by the story of her Harvey Girl grandmother and led to her first book, Harvey Houses of Texas, followed by Harvey Houses of New Mexico and Harvey Houses of Kansas – all published by The History Press. Harvey Houses of Kansas received a 2016 “Notable Kansas Book” award. Rosa’s fourth book, Harvey Houses of Arizona, will be released in the fall of 2018. Rosa, who lives in Austin, is also a writing consultant and an instructor at the West Texas Writers’ Academy at West Texas A&M.
Bruce Thatcher wants to share truths learned from our past to avoid making the same mistakes today. He grew up in the Midwest, graduated from Iowa State and University of Chicago, worked in marketing and management, then led a consulting firm until retirement. While living in the Chicago area, he was elected to a local school board, serving a term as its President. He was a Director of Literacy Volunteers of America, and taught classes at Avila University, William Jewel College and the University of Missouri at Kansas City. Thatcher and his wife, Carol, live near New Braunfels, Texas. Rise and Decline: Where We Are and What We Can Do About It derives a critical element of national life cycles through case-study examinations of six nations, including the United States and its present situation.
2 p.m.
Joe Giordano & Meredith Lee (Mystery/Thriller)
Joe Giordano was born in Brooklyn. He and his wife, Jane, have lived in Greece, Brazil, Belgium and the Netherlands. They now live in Texas with their shih tzu, Sophia. Joe’s stories have appeared in more than one-hundred magazines including The Monarch Review, The Saturday Evening Post, decomP, and Shenandoah. His novel, Birds of Passage, An Italian Immigrant Coming of Age Story, was published by Harvard Square Editions in October 2015. His second novel, Appointment with ISIL, an Anthony Provati Thriller, was published by HSE in June 2017. Read the first chapters on Joe’s website.
Meredith Lee is the pen name for the Austin-based writing team of Dixie Lee Evatt and Sue Meredith Cleveland. A former political reporter for the Austin American-Statesman, Dixie taught writing at Syracuse University. Sue’s work-in-progress Young Adult novel was a 2015 finalist in the Cynthia Leitich Smith Writing Mentor Award. Dixie and Sue collaborated on a screenplay that was a semi-finalist for the 2013 Chesterfield Writer’s Film Project and a Hollywood studio optioned another screenplay. Those earnings provided seed money for their publishing imprint, ThirtyNineStars. Shrouded, the first installment in the Crispin Leads Mystery Series, is the story of a graduate student whose trip to Rome to study burial rituals at the Vatican is derailed when she is witness to a murder. Shrouded was a finalist in the 2017 Writers’ League of Texas Manuscript Contest.
Stay tuned tomorrow for our special event schedule!
If you read this post and thought “I’ve published a book! I wish I could sign at the Texas Book Festival!” consider joining the Writers’ League! Signing opportunities at our booths at the San Antonio Book Festival and the Texas Book Festival are available to all current members. Space is limited, so sign up for our newsletter to stay informed about when we will start accepting applications for the 2018 San Antonio Book Festival.
