Everyone Has a Story - Author Meet and Greets

Hello,

Everyone has a story.  I truly enjoy listening to and reading everyone’s personal stories. Through stories we all gain knowledge about life experiences and an understanding of how much we all have in common. 

Since I moved back to Michigan, I have had the opportunity to attend several authors’ meet and greets, some bestselling authors, some local authors, and some self-published authors.  I love it when novelists share their life backstories, how they became writers and what inspires them to write the stories they write.

I always take away so much inspiration and new ideas to implement into my own writing.  And it opens up my reading world to new genres that I now enjoy reading.

Below are some of the authors I have had the opportunity to meet and/or got to know through these encounters.

Violia Shipman – pen name for Wade Rouse 

He has an amazing backstory and is a brilliant storyteller.  His books are like a Hallmark movie but not as cheesy – his words not mine. However, one of his novels has been picked up by Hallmark to make a movie. They are delightful reads with great life lessons.  He is one of my favorite authors.

Mitch Albom, a fellow Michigander.

He is a remarkable writer.  His novels are quick reads that you can’t put down once you start.  They are shorter novels, so it makes it easier to read in a short period of time, but you want to take your time reading his works because they are very well written and have incredible life lessons.     

Jeff (JC) Vande Zandes

Jeff is an author who writes stories that are not of my taste, but he too has a great backstory and teaches fiction at the local university.  I took away many new ways to look at the writing process. 

Lisa Wingate

Her talk was full of humor and engaging with details of the story she wrote – Before We Were Yours – one of my favorite books, a historical fiction novel.  She found her inspiration for this book on a sleepless night watching a television documentary about the story line of this novel.  Proving you can be inspired by all things in life, during any time of day or night.

Lauren Keenan,

She experienced severe postpartum depression which was her inspiration for her first novella which then turned into a sequel for her next novel, proving the writing process can be very therapeutic.  Before meeting her, I would never have looked at her books and would have missed out on reading a wonderful piece of fiction. 

Erin Bartels

She has written several books. She was very forthcoming with the before, during and after process of getting a book published.  It was an outstanding learning experience for me.  

SJ Taylor

SJ is a local author who has self-published a trilogy and was very helpful with the promotional aspect through social media process, which has always been my weakest link and an author. 

Jean Kwok

Was absolutely  fascinating to listen to and meet.  She told her life story of escaping communist China when she was five years old.  Coming to New York, New York, living in the slums with her family while going to school and working in a clothing factory.  The storylines for her novels are pulled from  ALL of her life experiences throughout her childhood and adult life.  Great reads.

As a published writer wanna be, these meet and greets are a gold mine of information on how the writing and publishing world works.  And they are so much fun. 

Until next time.
Kathy