Book it: Collier book fair Saturday to feature 63 Naples-area writers
Book lovers will love Saturday in Naples.
Sixty-three writers from Naples and throughout Collier County will share their inspirations and writing techniques at the Local Author Book Fair on Saturday at the South Regional Library, 8065 Lely Cultural Parkway, East Naples.
Admission is free to the event that runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is sponsored by the Friends of the Library of Collier County.
The 63-author lineup is larger than last year's Local Author Book Fair, which drew more than 40 published authors and hundreds of book lovers.
The Sizzle Truck food truck will be selling food and drinks, and there will be crafts and activities for children.
The book fair has registered a wide range of commercially published and self-published authors whose works include novels, history, self-help, cookbooks, inspirational, young adult and children’s.
Each author will be at a table to display and sell their books talk with the public.
Authors who will attend include political thriller writer Karna Small Bodman, a veteran journalist who also served in the Reagan administration, and Richard Conrath, whose Cooper Mystery Series draws on his colorful past, which includes being a Catholic priest and gravedigger.
Conrath and Bodman will speak at 2 p.m., with each author talking for about 10 minutes, then taking questions from the audience.
Bodman says she will tell many “inside The White House stories” and show how she was inspired by her White House experiences, settings and personalities to create her five award-winning thrillers.
Before her government service, she was on the air for 15 years as a TV news reporter and anchor in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., and did political commentary for the ABC network in New York.
Conrath is a finalist this year for the Royal Palm Literary Award, mystery category, from the Florida Writer’s Association for his second mystery novel, “Blood Moon Rising.”
His book series features Cooper, a philosophy professor whose 7-year-old son, Maxie, disappears without a trace while playing ball on his front lawn in southern Ohio one sunny October day.
“In the late ‘90s,” says Conrath, “as headmaster of a Turkish school in the mountainous region of Southern Turkey, I’d spend many long and dark nights writing, rewriting, and creating scenarios for this series."
What: Sixth-three Naples-area authors present their books and talk with book lovers.
When: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 9. At 2 p.m., authors Karna Small Bodman and Richard Conrath will speak and take part in a Q&A.
Where: South Regional Library, 8065 Lely Cultural Parkway, East Naples.
Admission: Free
Information: collier-friends.org or 239-263-8135