Library Friends host
local authors' tea Nov. 15
“Authors, Tea and Cake” at the Oneida Public Library on Sunday, November 15, from 1 to 4 p.m. brings together 14 local authors of published books, Friends of the Oneida Library and the book-reading public to celebrate writing and reading in the community.
The Friends have invited the authors to meet the public, share their experiences in writing and publishing and sell and autograph copies of their published works. Meanwhile, the Friends will serve tea and cakes and raffle off the authors’ donated books throughout the afternoon.
Authors, who are coming from as near as Oneida and as far as Jefferson County, include Lorraine Bruno Arsenault, Bernie Conklin, Olin C. Davis, Dean Dickinson, James W. Furney, Holly Gaskin, Barbara Linsley, Margaret Marie, Hope Irvin Marston, Marcus J. Mastin, Colleen Fountain Skinner, John Taibi, Gary and Carol Van Riper and Melanie Zimmer.
The Writers Group at Canastota Public Library is represented by memoirists Lorraine Arsenault (“The Long Run Home”), Olin Davis (“Flashbacks”) and Dean Dickinson (“Corn and Me”). James Furney, who hails from Sherrill, will bring his own memoir of a harsh upbringing “Uncertain Roads.”
Fiction will be represented by Holly Gaskin from Adams Center (“A Little Company”), Barbara Linsley from Hamilton (“Dreams of the Oregon Trail”) and Marcus Mastin from Carthage (“Don’t Pay the Ferryman” and other thrillers). Colleen Skinner, an Oneida resident, will also be there to sell her first published book, a supernatural thriller set in Oneida itself.
Children’s literature gets a heads up with Hope Marston, who has written books for beginning readers in her “My Little Book” series, with illustrations by Maria Magdalena Brow, as well as two nonfiction books for older children. In addition to her books, she will be bringing to the tea stuffed versions of the animals that are the subjects of her “Little Book” series, including a life-sized bald eagle.
The Adirondack Kids series, published out of Camden, will be put on display by one half of the writing team and the series’ illustrator. Gary Van Riper co-authored the children’s series with his son Justin, who is now attending college. Carol Van Riper, his wife, has designed and illustrated the books, which are published by the couple’s own publishing house.
Inspirational writer Margaret Marie will be there with her latest book “Choose Well.” Her previous one, “No Weapon Formed against Thee Shall Prosper,” concerned domestic abuse and ways to triumph over it.
Local lore will have its due when John Taibi and Melanie Zimmer show off their latest publications. Taibi, who has authored many books on Central New York’s railroads, will give prominence to his latest: “A Ride through the Countryside on the Syracuse and Chenango Valley Railroad.”
Zimmer, well-known in the area as a puppeteer and storyteller, will present “Forgotten Tales of New York,” an entertaining compendium of stranger-than-fiction stories published by the History Press. She will also have available “Central New York and the Finger Lakes: Myths, Legends and Lore.”
Finally, poetry will be ably represented by Bernie Conklin, who has cultivated his lyrical talents into a full-length collection: “A Potpourri of Poetry: Simple Poems by a Simply Guy.”
During the afternoon tea, the Library Friends will raffle off individual books donated by the guest authors. They will also be selling tickets for their Holiday Basket Raffle, which will have its drawing at the Friends Holiday Book Sale at the Oneida Library Saturday, December 5.
The afternoon authors’ tea is free and open to the public.
Check out over 300 audio-books from Mid-York Library System’s online service, MYaudio2go, simply with your tried-and-true Mid-York library card at midyork.lib.overdrive.com.
