PennLive Local Author Showcase
On Tuesday I returned to work at PennLive, except that I was working for myself this time.
The company held its first Local Author Showcase, and organized by Mary Clayton, marketing event planner, it was a blast! About a dozen authors displayed their books in a room on the first floor, and for several hours a steady stream of employees from Novartis and the Patriot-News talked with us and shopped for books.
During some of the quieter moments – and they were moments, believe you me – I got a chance to talk with the other authors and see what they were doing.
Here’s a brief recap of who we said hey to:
Megan Lavey-Heaton is my former co-worker at The Patriot-News who writes the Namesake webcomic with artist Isabelle Melançon. I already have her books, so I took the opportunity to get her adorable Mothman and Mothball plushies.
Nancy Eshelman is a longtime columnist for The Patriot-News. She gathered a new collection of columns from 2008 to 2015 and published them as “More Pieces from My Mind.”
M. Diane McCormick is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The Patriot-News and other publications. The discovery how much of the state’s history was made in taverns that still exist today led to her book “Well-Behaved Taverns Seldom Make History.” Her pub crawl through 12 historic taverns will slake your thirst until you visit them yourself.
I had encountered Michael Barton through his book, a collection of columns by Paul Beers about Harrisburg called “City Contented, City Discontented.” We had never met until today. I had mentioned Local Author Showcase,in my previous post two of his books, but I’m more interested in two that weren’t there. “Harrisburg’s Old Eighth Ward” is “found history,” a collection of articles written in 1912 and 1913 for the Harrisburg Patriot about the “urban renewal” that destroyed the district behind the new Capitol Building and replaced it with a park. “Glorious Recollections: J. Howard Wert’s Lost History of the 209th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry” reprints a manuscript by Wert that tells the story of the regiment and its adventures in the last years of the Civil War.
Steve Hower is a retired wildlife conservation officer who published a memoir of his more memorable cases. He’s an engaging fellow whose book appeals to anyone interested in Pennsylvania’s wildlife, as a conservationist, hunter, or anyone who answers to the call of the wild. His book “To Conserve and Protect” can only be bought at his website or during his personal appearances.
Tory Gates I had met at the book-signing in Shippensburg, so I was glad to get in touch with him and buy his book, “Live from the Café.”
Lisa Zoll and Lynn Shiner are specialists in dealing with grief. They brought with them two books: “Grief: The Event, The Work, The Forever” and “Drew and the Grief Thief.”
Debra Hervitz gave away miniature globes with her book, “Where I Live: A first geography book for young children in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area.”