Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Libraries And Events

I’ve loved libraries ever since I was a little kid. I couldn’t wait for my parents to drive me there so I could look through the stacks of books and pick out the next ones to read. That’s one thing I missed when we lived on a farm in Oregon for a year. That was most of 2nd and part of 3rd grade. There were no public libraries in a reasonable distance and it didn’t take me long to get through all the books in the small “library” of the two-room schoolhouse I attended.

I still love libraries. So it's quite a kick for me to do an event at one. I recently visited the Wiseburn Library in Hawthorne, CA where fellow SinC/LA member Sarah M. Chen and I had a great time discussing the differences between writing light and dark mysteries with a great group of attendees who asked all kinds of interesting questions. You may remember I wrote a post on briefly visiting the “dark side” awhile back in preparation for this event.

Here I am at my table before the event.

Me and Sarah M. Chen

Here we are discussing light and dark mysteries

The more I learn about the modern library, the more I realize they’re great places to connect with readers. The Orange County Library system here in Southern California not only features branch events but also puts together a literary event every year called Literary Orange. This day long celebration usually features 2 keynote speakers and around 15 author panels with 35-40 authors. And every June the city of El Segundo holds an author fair at the city’s library featuring Southern California authors. I’m sure there’s a lot more going on around here and probably a lot in your area too.

So, Type M readers, do you have favorite events that your local library puts on?

2 comments:

Irene Bennett Brown said...

My favorite library book-signing event is the "May Festival of Flowers". It is held to raise funds for our new library to be built here in Jefferson, Oregon. BTW where in Oregon did you attend school in 2nd and 3rd grade?

Sybil Johnson said...

That sounds nice. I hope you raise a lot of money for your new library! I lived in Brooks, Oregon not far from Salem. I attended the Parkersville School. We drove by there a few years back and the school's still there though it's no longer a public school. It's a private Catholic one. Very cool that it's lasted so long. The historical society folks told me it was built in 1890.