A Day At the Sonoma County Library - Local Author Showcase & Symposium - Year Two

Mary Shelley 1797-1851

This was my second year participating in the Local Author Showcase and Symposium, presented by the Sonoma County Library and Creative Sonoma, in association with Copperfield's Books. Thank you, David Dodd, for inviting me back this year, and for making me a part of this wonderful experience. I was enriched and enthralled!!

I thought last year was wonderful, but this year's symposium was even better! I think any writer loves books - all kinds of books. Carolyn Jewel, Sabrina Rawson and I were the only romance writers there, but the variety of readings and stories, including the panel on The Business of Writing, was excellent.

Some quotes I loved:

David Dodd (right) Sonoma

Jonah Raskin - Reading inspired me to write. I devoured books.

Sabrina Rawson - It wasn't until my relapse with cancer in 2011, within my first year of diagnosis, that I started to think of creative writing becoming more of a hobby.

Thonie Hevron - I can take my work on the road when I travel, edit at the hairdresser, do marketing/social media on the fly.

Marian Lindner - Inspiration became reality for me when my search for the creative path that would fulfill me became essential.

Carol Miller - ...making "beautiful" things. This has always what gets me up in the morning.

Carolyn Jewel - I value honesty in the writing, to the story, and to the worlds I build.

Crissi Langwell - ..I feel my work is making a difference.

Gilbert Mansergh - I think of the tough commute: 15 feet from house to office, flexibility of time (except deadlines) and locations (California, British Columbia, England, Wales, Crete, Norway, Denmark, etc.)

Jeane Sloane - My most important value in my career of writing historical fiction is to write little known pieces of history for people to read, enjoy and/or not forget the past.

Andy Weisskoff - I'm inspired by the desire to write books that help others manage tricky situations.

Armando Garcia Davila - told a great story of being 10, taking communion for the first time and feeling he'd saved his boyhood friend's soul.

Daedalus Howell (my star from last year)

There were so many others. But I think the highlight of my day was the story, which will be coming out this October, and I believe will also be a play, Immortal Frankenstein. The author read a passage through the POV of Mary Shelley, the day after her death, discovering the changes in her lifeless body, her life, and the snicker at what will happen when her Step Daughter or someone else will find her husband's (Percy Shelley), heart in her desk drawer.

Yes, Shelley's body had washed up on shore. Custom was to burn the body, not knowing who the man was, and a friend rescued his heart and other body parts. Mary Shelley kept it in her desk drawer for years.

Gil Mansergh

Just had to share that.