Mandela called him a friend; Allen Wallace from MU Press was on hand, running all over and making sure everyone was happy. He’s good that way! During dinner, the program included a
few speakers, including Bill Underwood and Carl Ware. Doc acted as host, joking around and keeping it festive. Doc introduced Fritz Zimmer. I have now been fortunate enough to attend four of these luncheon events, and Fritz and Doc have been at all of them. Fritz is a remarkable singer, and he treated us to sev- eral tunes, accompanied by the always excel- lent Davita Parnell on piano, including “Mary Did You Know;” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas;” “Keep a Little Christmas in Your Heart;” and “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.” Doc Schneider also sang for us with his amaz- ing voice. The music program wrapped up with “What Matters Most” and a group sing- 0along on “Silent Night.” Beautiful. Saturday morning us author types con-
verged on the book sales and signing area. Now, you would be hard pressed to see a larger supply of books anywhere. Heck, hav- ing five titles myself, my books alone consti- tuted quite a pile! I was happy to see that I was sharing a
table with Carl Ware. I really enjoyed talking to this great man, and am currently reading his book. I signed quite a lot of books and tried to write something personal and differ- ent in each one. I have never liked the idea of just whipping off my signature. Too imper- sonal. I met a lot of very nice fans, lots of All- man Brothers fans, many of whom had ties to Macon, Capricorn Records and/or the Broth- ers. One gentleman told me “thank you” for writing Capricorn Rising. He said that he learned a whole lot about the various artists that came through that studio, things he didn’t know. Made me feel good. Lots of folks were buying books as Christmas gifts. Hey, nothing better for me than to receive a book as a gift. At around noon we all made our way
into the dining hall for the program and some excellent food. Lunch included a beautiful, hand crafted, almost artistic salad creation that was filled with all sorts of tasty tidbits in- cluding cranberries, followed by the most ten- der white meat chicken you have ever tasted. So good. The lunch program included presenta-
tions from authors including Kent Alexander and Kevin Salwen discussing the book The Suspect. An Olympic Bombing, about the Richard Jewell bombing. Thomas Mallon spoke on his novel, Landfall, and Lynn Olson discussed the book Madame Fourcades’s Se- cret War. Joe Posnanski talked about his ex- cellent book, The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini. It was an excellent program, again hosted by Doc Schneider with remarks from President Underwood. After lunch, we returned to the signing
tables. Besides myself and Mr. Carl Ware, other authors signing included: Lara Lyn Carter, Barry Goheen, Brian Hicks, Chelsea Rathburn, William Rawlings, Elizabeth Tammi, Barbara Brown Taylor, Larry Walker, and Karen White. Once again, the Mercer University
Press Author’s Luncheon managed to achieve its goal. The bringing together of book writers and readers. By all accounts, the event was a huge success. I felt honored to be a small part of it all. •
Book lovers unite!
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91
