Martin to sign copies of new book at Bookworks
Eirin Beazey Martin will sign copies of her new book, Eirin Beazey Martin’s Book of Poems, at Bookworks in Downtown Staunton on Saturday, Jan. 7, from noon-3 p.m.
In her first published volume, Martin, a resident of Stuarts Draft, depicts various emotions as she explores the feelings of a person toward love and the world as a whole.
Her Book of Poems includes handpicked titles from over two thousand poems she has written since the age of seven. Her favorite band, Disturbed, inspired her writing style, but the poems themselves are specific to her feeling and her life.
Bookworks is located at 101 W. Beverley St., Staunton.
Backroads author to sign at Bookworks
When Lynn Coffey moved to the tiny mountain hamlet of Love, in 1980, she immediately realized the Appalachian culture was slowly slipping away and needed to be preserved.
Without any formal journalistic training, Coffey, who will sign copies of her book at Bookworks in Downtown Staunton on Saturday, Nov. 12, from 2-4 p.m., began talking to her elderly neighbors – asking about their early lifestyles, and take photographs of them and their mountain crafts. What began as a natural interest suddenly turned into a monthly newspaper called “Backroads,” and for 25 years Coffey roamed the hills and hollers interviewing the mountain people about every facet of their lives, chronicling the lifestyles of these sturdy Scots-Irish folk who made their homes in the mountains of Virginia.
Following the success of her first two Backroads books, Plain Folk & Simple Livin’ and The Road to Chicken Holler, this final collection of stories, photographs, recipes and interviews from the archives of that newspaper stretching from 1981 through 2006 continues to make its mark as a ‘Virginia version’ of Georgia’s still-famous “Foxfire” book series.
Earl Hamner, creator of “The Waltons” TV series continues to be a fan, like so many from Virginia and beyond. Tommy & Yvette Stafford of Nelson County Life magazine commented “There are stories in these old mountains, and Coffey knows how to tell them … And like tunes from a fiddle or banjo, Lynn’s words echo and resonate through Appalachia.”
Bookworks is located at 101 W. Beverley Street in Downtown Staunton.
Mystery author to sign books at Bookworks
Kurt Ayau, author of The Brick Murder; A Tragedy and Other Stories, will sign copies of his book at Bookworks in Downtown Staunton on Saturday, Sept. 24, from 2-4 p.m.
Winner of the Tartt First Fiction Award, The Brick Murder is a funnily tragic collection of stories that always borders on wondrously correct incorrectness: a manic and angered sub-sub-librarian learns about cultural differences from a manic and angered patron … a junior faculty member gets paid to befriend a senior star philandering poet … three kids and a rabbi discover the awful truth that God really is a process God … a token black man (Bob the Negro) accomplishes revenge in his work place — at a price … and a brick plays a momentous part in a tragedy.
This collection comes one short of a dozen, but nothing short in its style and reach.
When not writing, Ayau spends most of his time as a professor of English at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington.
“As for the tone of my stories, I guess I would say that I employ a tone of furious whimsy or bemused indignation,” Ayau said. “My view of the world is that of a Christian satirist. I see things that are so wrong, so stupid-headed, so out-of-whack, that my inner Vonnegut-O’Connor-Heller-Boyle comes bubbling out. If the choices are between weeping and laughing, I prefer to try to laugh, shaking my head, and perhaps encourage readers to do the same. Since I’ve been teaching at a military college for 20 years, I guess I would say that my pessimism is leavened by the eternal optimism of youth and that my outrage is tempered by the amused stoicism of the men and women of the armed forces.”
Book signing in Downtown Staunton on Saturday
Nathan Everett, author of The Gutenberg Rubric, will appear at a book signing on Saturday, Sept. 17, 11 a.m., at Bookworks in Staunton.
The Gutenberg Rubric is a literary thriller that follows unlikely heroes across two continents in a race against time, terrorists, and Homeland Security. Rare book specialists Madeline Zayne and Keith Drucker discover clues that lead to the great secret that Johannes Gutenberg protected, but can they solve the mystery before any other libraries – or innocent bystanders – are endangered?
Clearly, someone very powerful is obsessed with gaining global control of the news media and manipulating the vast flow of information, electronic and printed. The discovery of Gutenberg’s ancient secret could forever alter humanity’s understanding of religion, politics, and life itself.
About the Author: Nathan Everett has been involved in the publishing industry for thirty years as a writer, author, designer, publisher, trainer and technologist. He founded publishing company Long Tale Press as an experiment in electronic publishing powered by social media, and holds patents in electronic page design and typography. He writes a regular column “Publish or Perish” for Line Zero magazine, and lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and daughter plus a pair of rescued greyhounds. His 3rd novel, The Gutenberg Rubric won a 2010 award in the Pacific Northwest Writers Assoc. Literary Competition.
Retired pastor releases first children’s book
James M. “Jerry” John will sign copies of his first book, Grandpa’s Little White Truck, on Saturday, Sept. 10, from 1-3 p.m. at Bookworks in Downtown Staunton.
Grandpa’s Little White Truck is a touching story for children about learning to look past the surface to see what lies underneath, related through the ‘character’ of the happiest little truck in town. This book is the 1st in a series of 6 which will see the truck going on “a Picnic,” to “the Farm” and “the Beach,” and more. Each features a family having fun together with that ‘little white truck’ right in the middle of it all, and would be good choices for the children’s library in any church.
John is a retired United Methodist minister who served forty-two years in churches across Virginia. He and his wife Mary now live in Harrisonburg where he is embarking on his ‘second career’ as an author. The children in the ‘Truck’ stories are based on three of the author’s grandchildren, who have been very excited about being in grandpa’s books – some of the events were drawn from their lives, and artist Jason Hutton even based his illustrations on their photos!
At the end of this year Jerry will be releasing a daily devotional entitled “Great Living – Every Day a Victory” as well as “Fee the Flea,” another children’s book (this one not in the ‘Little White Truck’ series).
Call Bookworks at 540.887.0007, or visit the shop at 101 W. Beverley Street in historic downtown Staunton, with any questions.
Voices from Vietnam focus of book signing
WHAT: Vietnam Mailbag: Voices from the War 1968-1972
Book-signing and conversation: Saturday, Sept. 3, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Bookworks, 101 W. Beverley St., Downtown Staunton
This particular story began in 1968, when a young college graduate took a job writing for the Wilmington News Journal. In the newspaper Nancy Lynch invited the men and women serving in the combat zone to correspond with her about their experiences, with the simple instruction “Tell it like it is” … and they did. Her column, ‘Nancy’s Vietnam Mailbag,’ first appeared on May 20, originally once a week … then twice … then three times, as the volume of mail continued to grow; it ran until December 1972, when the troops were coming home. When it ended, almost 1,000 letters & excerpts and hundreds of photos from the troops had been printed.
Decades later, Nancy wanted to again tell the stories and remind everyone of the sacrifices of those who seem so often forgotten. She began to cull through the letters, photographs and memorabilia she had carefully saved in order to create a book that tells first-hand accounts of everything from combat to everyday life in a war zone to the weather in a very different corner of the world. She also tracked down 12 of the veterans who had corresponded with her ‘back when’ and interviewed them about their memories, how the war had shaped their lives and what they are doing today. Their voices are once again heard in the full-color, 456-page book Vietnam Mailbag.
The book has garnered praise from veterans and historians, and won the first-prize gold medal for Best Regional Non-Fiction in the Mid-Atlantic states at the 2009 Independent Publisher Book Awards. A collection of letters, weapons, pictures, and more entitled Vietnam Mailbag: The Exhibit also toured across the country last year.
About the Author: Author and journalist Nancy E. Lynch started her writing career as a staff reporter for The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal and has been a freelance writer for many years. With the publication of this book she has fulfilled a decades-long desire to “properly salute my guys.”
Book signing this weekend features local authors
When a gray kitten named Jane is cruelly cast on the street at 10 weeks old, she spends her time hiding in bushes and under porches, terrified of dangers around her.
Hungry and cold, she finally meets a kind opossum who leads her around the neighborhood to yummy morsels of food. The odd duo stick together until fate shines upon Jane. Plucked from the clutches of street life, Jane is adopted into a loving home and makes a friend for life in the family’s dog, a Labrador retriever named Danny Lunder.
That is the plot in Letters from Jane: The Adventures of an Abandoned Kitten, written by Barbara “Bobbie” Hite and illustrated by Rick Hite.
The Hites will be at Bookworks in Downtown Staunton for a book signing on Saturday, Aug. 13, from noon-2 p.m.
Call Bookworks at 540.887.0007 or visit the shop at 101 W. Beverley St. in historic Downtown Staunton, with any questions.
Craigsville author featured at book signing
Author Theresa Borrelli will sign copies of her book I Am Myself: A Woman Growing Up with Tourette Syndrome, at Bookworks in Downtown Staunton from 1-3 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 6.
In her book, Borrelli recounts her journey from a childhood diagnosis of Tourette Syndrome to a state of acceptance. At first, she developed an attitude that was defensive and critical of the doctors who treated her. Slowly, as a young adult, she began to assimilate, acknowledge and reconcile herself with her disorder … one that has no cure.
I Am Myself offers the reader a universal experience, relatable to the challenges that all of us face in our lives at one time or another. This is a memoir that will change your perspective on confronting and overcoming obstacles, prejudices & struggles. Her passage from a young girl to a woman, who can now foresee a brighter future, is chronicled in this inspiring and uplifting book.
Theresa Borrelli grew up in western New York and New Jersey, and now lives in Craigsville, among the Blue Ridge Mountains she loves. Among her various endeavors, she most recently taught Criminal Justice at the college level. Inspired to write I Am Myself in order to share her personal story and struggle with Tourette’s, she hopes it will help promote acceptance and understanding about the wide range of conditions, diseases and disorders that are ‘out of the ordinary’ in our society. She’s presently working on a collection of poetry as well as a children’s picture book.
Bookworks hosts signing by local author with new book
Based on the only interview conducted with Tommy Dee since 1959, Al Leichter’s new book, Tommy Dee: Three Stars Still Shining, gives us the only complete story behind the first tribute record to Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens.
Leichter will be at Bookworks, 101 W. Beverley St., Downtown Staunton, on Saturday, July 30, from 1-3 p.m. to sell and sign copies of his book.
Dee’s song was written only hours following the trio’s death – his reaction to the terrible plane crash that claimed the lives of the three pioneers of American rock-nroll near Clear Lake, Iowa. He only intended it to be played on the radio station where he worked, but the opportunity came to have it recorded professionally, and he grabbed it. The result was Three Stars, which would do so well that it reached number 11 on the national charts, and has sold millions of copies since.
Leichter is a long-time record collector and the author of two music discographies, the newspaper column Rockin’ All Nite Long, plus five books on local Staunton history. He resides in Staunton with his wife and his music collection.
Bookworks hosts signing for Highland author
Mixed Freight is one man’s metaphor for his life’s journey from city boy to country gentleman. Novelist and film writer Paul Klein brings his well-honed skills of observation and description to the world he has inhabited for three-quarters of a century (and counting!). In this collection of essays he interprets society, politics, economic, the natural world and, of course, himself. Candid, humorous and imaginative, Klein’s personal point of view makes up a mixed freight readers can carry on their own life’s journey.
Telling part of his own story, Klein writes “When I was very young I wanted to be an architect, live on a farm, and own a radio station. When I grew up I studied architecture, became a film writer, and retired to a farm. Overall, not bad. I have designed and built houses (including the one we live in), had sheep and chickens in the dooryard, and written and produced more than 500 films about industry, labor, agriculture, religion, history, politics, medicine, art and travel. And then I retired. (One of the essays in “Mixed Freight” defines retired as “being tired again”). For most of the last twenty years I have been learning the craft of writing without pictures: essays, short stories and novels.”In 2007, my first novel was published: Accidents of Time and Place. My latest work, Mixed Freight, is a collection of essays (some previously published) that reflect my very personal views about society, government, economics, the natural world and religion. My own film-of-memory without the pictures. The result, perhaps, of three-quarters of a century of observing and describing my world.”
Klein and his wife have lived in Highland County for the past 20 years or so, the 1st of 3 generations of his family that call the Valley home.
Two book signings at Bookworks on Saturday
When a top Nazi scientist arrives at a POW camp in the Shenandoah Valley, he begins to redraw plans for a lost weapon. The device, Germany believes, will disable the U.S. East Coast, leading to America’s surrender or at least a neutrality pact.
Cadets at Waynesboro’s Fishburne Military School uncover the plot, also involving a top German spy and a Mennonite farm boy who is building the device, and their diligence earns the support of the U.S. Chief of Staff George C. Marshall and number of American scientists and operatives. Continue reading “Two book signings at Bookworks on Saturday” »
In the News
- Event: Auditions for Annie at ShenanArts, posted Friday, 9 a.m.
- Event: Book signing featuring MBC prof, posted Friday, 9 a.m. Continue reading “In the News” »
