Just over a year ago, the Dickens County Spur Public Library hosted “Texas Writes,” a statewide program from the Writer’s League of Texas. The program was sponsored by a grant from the Tocker Foundation.
We had attendees from near and far and were entertained and educated at the same time. The first program was given by Arianne “Tex” Thompson, a professional speaker and creative writing instructor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Tex is blazing a trail through writer’s conferences, workshops, and fan conventions around the country. She is also the author of “Children of the Drought,” an internationally-published epic fantasy Western series from Solaris.
The second program of the day was “The Path to Publication” hosted by Becka Oliver, executive director of the Writer’s League of Texas.
Oliver joined WLT in September 2013 as executive director after more than two decades of experience working in newspaper and book publishing. She spent much of her publishing career inside two of the “big five” publishing leaders – Macmillan and Hachette Book Group — licensing domestic and foreign rights on behalf of countless notable authors, including Sandra Brown, Brad Meltzer, Nicholas Sparks. We were honored to be able, with the help of the Tocker Foundation, to bring these two powerhouse women in their fields to our small community.
One of the attendees that day was Sequoyah Branham of our neighoring Kent County. Sequoyah, her sister Maquinna, and their mother, Belle, have been frequent visitors to our library.
Branham’s debut novella, “In the Company of Cows,” is due for release on October 24 of this year. There will be a book signing at the Kent County Library on October 23. I am looking forward to going and asking her if any of the information she received at the program from Writer’s League of Texas helped her. We will be purchasing a copy for the library at the event if any of our patrons want to read it. I know I will be first in line to read it.
Speaking of the Tocker Foundation, we received quite a few new books recently purchased with funding made possible with a grant from the Tocker Foundation. From New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel we have “Palazzo,” a striking tale of family roots, ruin, and renewal.
James Lee Burke, also a New York Times bestselling author, expertly renders the rich Louisiana landscape, from the sunsets on the Mississippi River to the dingy saloons of New Orleans to the tree-lined shores of the bayou and the cottonmouth snakes that dwell in its depths. Powerful and deeply moving, “Flags on the Bayou” is a story of tragic acts of war, class divisions upended, and love enduring through it all.
“Identity” is #1 bestselling author Nora Roberts’ terrifying new thriller about one man’s ice-cold malice, and one woman's fight to reclaim her life.
Check it all out at the library.
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