A Moment to Shine
If you are a writer at
any level and any genre. you know how it feels to spend countless hours
cultivating in your mind and heart the garden of your thoughts and feelings,
weeding, pruning, sowing; all to reach that moment when the endless days, both
sunny and rainy, of the whole process can bring forth a fruit that transforms
that internal grind into something tangible that can be held, shared and
appreciated. When that day comes, the next great leg of the writer’s journey
commences: Getting your lovingly
cultivated fruit to market and putting it into the hands of readers. An intrepid,
yet gut-wrenching moment it can be... but necessary. Any good fruit must be given
its chance to nourish someone.
Just such an occasion
was happening on October 13th in the form of the Clayton County Library System’s
Indie Author Day, held at the South Clayton Recreational Center in Hampton,
Ga. So, of course, the Georgia Nutts wanted to be there for our journey too! In this instance, Yvonne Walker and Dap Tales were promoting their books Garden’s
Guardian and Primary Colors and Me; respectively.
The sun shone down from a
brilliant blue sky dotted with tufts of cottony clouds as we made our way into
the Rec Center gymnasium, where tables and a PA system had been set up for the
event. Authors, mostly local, had set up shop at tables spread across the
polished wooden floor, seeking to introduce their independently published
efforts to the public and peers in their trade.
The first segment of
the session allowed the intrepid writers to try their luck with the PA system
for a chance to share high points of their offerings to the assembled crowd. Unfortunately,
this turned out to be a mostly losing proposition, as the acoustics of the
gymnasium itself translated their words into an incoherent cascade of
reverberating echoes. I duly rated “Acoustics” as a 1 “for poor” on the
evaluation and comments form provided by one of the event hosts. Can’t win ‘em
all, I guess. However, Dap Tales and Ms. Walker, with their own glowing charm,
overcame the technical hang-ups to represent themselves with sparkling appeal. So,
what else is new?
Moving on... Visitors and
authors alike milled about freely, crisscrossing the space to greet each other and network. The wares on display included everything from suspense
fiction to poetry to children’s books to action adventure to self-help. Milling
about myself, along with my brother and Magic the Gathering opponent Harold, I
came across table after table of smiling faces and warm greetings, each writer
eager to share his or her story. Brother Walker had biblical insight he
hoped to impart, while Shirley Merritt’s Turning Lemons intoRaspberry Lemonade sought to share very personal lessons she had gleaned
during her battle with a degenerative nerve disorder. GNG alum, Ana’Gia Wright,
sported her many contemporary urban novels. There were many others as well, but
I’m not about to overlook Dap Tales’ beautifully engaging children’s book, PrimaryColors and Me, or Yvonne Walker’s globe-spanning epic adventure, TheGarden’s Guardian.
All in all, I think it
was a good event, well worth the time and I want to share some love and genuine
appreciation toward the Clayton County Library System, for caring enough to
make the move to give all us indie authors a platform to meet the public and be
seen in our community; thanks, guys!
Maybe just work on an alternate plan for the sound in 2019, perhaps? Catch
y’all on the rebound!
Other authors:
Patricia Cruzan
Nwankwo Mishad
LaQuarn Micheals
I am inclined to agree with my husband and colleague, al-Falaq, about our adventure in Clayton County. However, it seems that they have listened to their critiques and have implemented some changes. My biggest concern was that it looked like a private event for Indie Authors. There was nothing about the event that seemed inviting or open to the public. I plan to attend again this year and I am quite excited about their changes. Fingers crossed.
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