San Antonio Book Lovers Book Meet & Swap
We had a great start today when author and club member Karen Casey Fitzjerrell spoke to us about her two historical novels, EPIC-Award-winning The Dividing Season and Forgiving Effie Beck.
Karen explained how she began writing (“by accident” while journalling) and how that led her to write the first book. She self-published both books and learned some hard lessons along the way. Marketing is the most difficult thing for her, as it is for many authors. But the research trips she took and the people she met were fascinating. She read an excerpt from Forgiving Effie Beck and answered questions. After the swap, she sold and signed books. Thank you, Karen!
Here is the list of books discussed and swapped today:
The Garden of Last Days – Andre Dubus III
Full House – Janet Evanovich
Aunt Dimity and the Next of Kin – Nancy Atherton
Snow White and the Seven Samurai – Tom Holt
A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book Three) – George Martin
Jazz Cleopatra: Josephine Baker in Her Time – Phyllis Rose
Bring Yoga to Life: The Everyday Practice of Enlightened Living – Donna Farhi
YES! Magazine (and the food poster that Ken liked!)
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism – Naomi Klein
The Cancer Stage of Capitalism: From Crisis to Cure – John McMurtry
The Edge of Normal – Carla Norton (Bill says the “police-to-killer narrative ratio is more interesting than most”)
Dead Mountain: The True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident – Donnie Icar
Telegraph Days – Larry McMurtry
Brilliance – Marcus Sakey
Touched by Fire – Irene N. Watts
Victoria’s Daughters – Jerrold M. Packard
Breathless – Dean Koontz
The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
Wicked: Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West – Gregory Maguire
Aquamarine – Carol Anshaw
No Generation – Ryan Melsom
Heaven’s Wager – Ted Dekker
The Reluctant Empress: A Biography of Empress Elizabeth of Austria – Brigitte Hamann
The First Rule of Ten (Tenzing Norbu Mysteries)– Gay Hendricks and Tinker Lindsay
The Skull Mantra – Eliot Pattison
Common Nonsense – Andy Rooney
The Green Smoothies Diet – Robyn Openshaw* – the green smoothy girl blog
Vegan with a Vengeance: Over 150 Delicious, Cheap, Animal-free Recipes That Rock – Isa Chandra Moskowitz
Me Talk Pretty One Day – David Sedaris
The Absence of Mercy – John Burley
And When She Was Good – Laura Lippman
Saving Max – Antoinette Van Heugten
The Patron Saint of Liars – Ann Patchett
The Thief (An Isaac Bell Adventure) – Clive Cussler
Rainwater – Sandra Brown
Bright Shiny Morning – James Frey
America’s Dream – Esmeralda Santiago
Defending Jacob – William Landay
S. – J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst
Seventh Son – Orson Scott Card
The Unlikely Pilgramage of Harold Fry – Rachel Joyce
The Bite in the Apple: A Memoir of My Life with Steve Jobs – Chrisann Brennan
Thank you Jan, and everyone at the Book Lovers Meeting. I enjoy the group, feel it is my grand advantage to be among such savoy readers. I would have liked to go into more detail with my answers to your questions about promotion, research and writing habits but time simply didn’t permit it. – A pleasant surprise to learn how many of you have an interest in writing.
Thanks for the comment, Karen! Yes, I also noticed there are a lot of writers in the group, which makes for fascinating conversation and a great exchange of information.