lcrwpres Book Signing

Local Author Book Signing


GET TO KNOW THESE LOCAL AUTHORS AT TWO FLIPPIN’ FRIENDS

Sunday May 31 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM

7 Upton Street, Suite L3, Hilton, NY 14468 – (585) 290-2231 –

http://www.twoflippinfriends.com info@twoflippinfriends.com

Kimberly Gore – Multi-Genre Author

Kimberly Gore is a multi-genre author whose imagination thrives on
curiosity, compassion, a dash of mischief. Her young adult novel
Seven Little Secrets won first place in the 2018 Next Generation
Indie Book Awards, while Knucklebone captured top honors in two
national competitions judged by author Cynthea Liu, literary agent
Jennifer Jaeger, and the Write On Con/Reading Room Aspiring
Writer’s Competition. She also penned Save Me a Song and the
middle-grade adventures The Miss-Adventures of Amy and Tracy
and The Wish Problem series and she’s written several “how-to”
guides.
Beyond the page, Gore co-wrote a screenplay optioned by Minor
Distractions Entertainment, created and produced IMPRINT Journal,
a local literary magazine, and has spent two decades coordinating
Rochester’s largest writer’s group, hosted by Barnes & Noble in
Greece, NY. A seasoned instructor and conference speaker, she’s
taught creative writing for community education programs and
presented on the craft of storytelling at Astronomicon, Lilac City
Rochester Writers, and RIT’s StoryCon.

Sue Sevard Brockport, NY Memoirist

The idea of filling each day as a writer had never before crossed my mind
until the death of my husband, Jim, in 2010. For a reason I have never
understood myself, I decided to write the story of our meeting, marriage,
life, and love as a gift to our children.
This project took me three years to complete and 4 writing classes at RIT
and 3 at Brockport State, plus multiple memberships in writing groups.
When I finally completed the book and published Autumn Leaves, I felt I
had given my best and left a legacy for my four children. I never expected
the book to be enjoyed by friends, relatives, and readers across the United
States.
By the time that book was completed, I was hooked on the writer’s bug.
What can I write now? As the director of the Brockport Museum & Library
of Local History, I found a new mission – writing stories about Brockport’s
heroes. That idea started me on a new and interesting hobby which I
shared with fascinating people from Brockport’s past.

lcrwpres Favorite Author

Louise Penny – One of My Favorite Authors

Louise Penny is one of my favorite authors. I just finished reading, The Black Wolf,  her twentieth book. Her novels have been translated into over 23 languages, sold millions of copies worldwide, and repeatedly reached number 1 on the New York Times Best Seller list. She has also earned prestigious awards including multiple Agatha and Anthony Awards, and was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada and an Officer of the National Order of Quebec in 2017.

Penny is a Canadian crime-fiction author, best known for her Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec series. She was born on July 1, 1958, in Toronto, Canada, and has a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. After graduating at age 21, she embarked on an 18-year career as a radio host and journalist with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). She left the CBC in 1996 to take up writing. She started a historical novel but had difficulty finishing it and eventually switched to writing mysteries.

Besides her wonderful writing, there are two features I like about her books:

  1. The intricately constructed plots often reflect current events, and explore universal themes as love, friendship, loss, and redemption.
  • Her characters are unique and familiar.

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, head of the Homicide Department of the Sûreté du Québec, inspired by Penny’s husband, Michael Whitehead, is not the typical world-weary and troubled detective, but compassionate and kind. Gamache and his team, including his second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, investigate conspiracies and murders by unconventional means.

I suggest you start by reading her first novel, Still Life, in which she introduces the characters living in the Village of Three Pines. In Three Pines, based on her town of Knowlton, Quebec, Canada, you’ll meet an assortment of memorable residents: an artist (Clara Morrow), a psychologist-turned-bookstore-owner (Myrna Landers), a cantankerous poet (Ruth Zardo) and her pet duck (Rosa), and a gay couple who own the local bistro and bed-and-breakfast (Gabri Dubeau and Olivier Brulé). Gamache lives in Three Pines with his wife, Reine-Marie, but when the crimes are set in more distant locations, the quaint village of Three Pines and its residents are central elements of the novels.

There are many memorable quotations in her books. One I particularly like is: “Life is choice. All day, every day. Who we talk to, where we sit, what we say, how we say it. And our lives become defined by our choices.” Louise Penny

I hope you enjoy reading her books as much as I do.

BarbaraHelene Smith,

Author of The Connie Murphy Mysteries

    lcrwpres Uncategorized

    The Varied Authors of LCRW

    What is LCRW, you may be asking? It’s the acronym for Lilac City Rochester Writers.

    Have you visited our author page and gotten acquainted with our members? Here’s a glimpse.

    Do you like to read romance novels written by a New York Times best-selling author? Kathryn Shay is one of our members, and she also gives presentations to our group on the craft of writing. It’s a privilege to learn from her.

    BarbaraHelene Smith spent her career as an FDA inspector. She has published twelve books about the different types of investigations the FDA handles. The Connie Murphy Mystery series is exciting, and it teaches at the same time.

    Rick Taubold writes in varied genres and hosts an online magazine: Fabula Argentia. We think his best book is Punctuation for Fiction Writers. In it, he explains and gives examples of how to use correct punctuation for dialogue, which is different from that used for regular prose.

    Rick Iekel also writes in varied genres. He wrote the book The Roc – Journey through the 20th century. It’s the history of Rochester, New York’s airport. He was the best person to write it as he worked at the airport for 30-plus years.

    Donna Collins’ name will pop up in your magazines where her recipes and articles about country life appear.

    John Caligiuri is our resident science fiction and alternative history author. He mentions local places (near Rochester) in his stories. It makes one feel more involved in the action when they recognize the locale.

    Kim Gore teaches writing classes, hosts a writing group, and has multiple books out in different genres, both fiction and non-fiction. She is also a regular presenter in our group and publishes an annual Halloween anthology. She’s our “firecracker.”

    This is only a synopsis of the authors you would have the privilege of spending time with if you attend LCRW. Click over to our authors tab to read more about each one, and others not mentioned here. We love visitors at our meetings and always welcome new members who we can help advance in their writing journey.

    lcrwpres Author

    When Your Writing Matters

    By Kim Gore

    I grew up reading a very simple but joyful series called Dick and Jane. What I loved about these books with their 1950’s attired children, rosy-cheeked and naïve, wasn’t the storylines. In fact, I don’t think I could give you one plotline gleaned from the series. The stories weren’t memorable. They were told in short sentences. Nothing special or fancy. Just readable for a first grader. But I loved that the pictures helped tell the story. The children’s expressions ranged from gleeful to sour to upset.  Even before taking in the story word by word, I loved the emotions drawn on the page. It was as if watching a play, but with two-dimensional humans that spoke inside my head instead of a stage. I took to writing my own stories, using my own drawings. But my skill was limited in both departments, being that I was in public elementary school.

    My Cousin Helen took my sister and me to see theatre productions. Hello Dolly. Peter Pan. The Nutcracker. Enthralled, I began to write plays. My sister and I performed them for our relatives during holidays. I was still just a little kid, not even a teenager. But to be able to make those words come alive through performance thrilled me. Again, evoking emotion from words. Facial expressions. Arm movements.

    When I was fifteen, my mother introduced me to Christopher Pike. Or, at least his books. I opened up to a world of shocking horror. Teenagers, like me, with problems, like I had…and then a twist! Murder. (I don’t think my mom realized these were more or less horror novels, but…) I was shocked to read books about teens getting revenge on other kids in the most horrific of ways. Dick and Jane never did these terrible things.

    But I loved it.

    I immediately began filling up pages and pages with crazy, unhinged adolescents. My imagination had been released, and now I wrote novels. I didn’t care that they weren’t going to be published. Or read by someone else. I wrote for the sheer joy of creating. Inventing. Discovering where my mind wanted to go. While kids went to parties or stayed out past midnight drinking, I was in my room, scribbling away. Encouraged by my parents, who understood creativity well, as they were both prime examples of being artists in their own right.

    In high school and college, I acted in plays. Again, loving every moment of evoking emotion, spilling it out beneath bright stage lights and the watchful eyes of a rapt audience. I took theatre classes in college, including a scriptwriting class. And over a weekend, I wrote a play my mom titled Something Blue. Long story short, I had it approved by the college to put onstage in their Blackbox Theatre. They gave me a stipend to use for supplies. I had a team that helped me. I directed it. We had full houses every night of the production. I sat watching the performance, listening to the audience laugh at all the right places, become silent when intense words spilled out of the actors’ mouths. People left the theatre crying, which I hadn’t expected. It had a sad ending. People felt that. I made people feel. They laughed! They cried! One person, an actor’s father, was shocked someone so young had written it.

    I knew then that I wanted to be a writer.

    It wasn’t that I wanted fame, to be noticed, or money. I mean, sure, I would have liked all that. But what made an impact was the way people responded. Like how I responded all those years ago after reading a story. It wasn’t the plot that held me captive. It was how the story made me feel. The way it touched me. Reached out with invisible fingers and nudged my heart. That was why I was so captivated with Dick and Jane. Watching Peter Pan. Reading Christopher Pike’s Chain Letter.

    If you can make your audience feel, they will remember. And that’s been my motivation for storytelling (and my music, my art) ever since.

    lcrwpres Author

    How I Started Writing Fiction

    by BarbaraHelene Smith

    I had no prior experience writing fiction, but when I received an Extension Course catalogue in the mail, I reviewed the offerings and identified a six-week summer creative writing class. On a
    whim, I drove to the school and registered. When I returned to the car, I sat frozen, questioning my decision — “What did I do? — I’m not a writer!”

    Initially nervous and apprehensive about my abilities, I gradually developed an appreciation for the assignments and the collaborative process of sharing and refining my stories.

    When the course ended, I realized my growing enthusiasm for writing, and subsequently joined a group of dedicated writers at another class at a local college. When the college discontinued the
    course, six of the students from the class formed a critique group, and within the first year, each of us had a story published. Several years later, four of my short stories which centered on a
    common theme — Ordinary women finding themselves in extraordinary situations while searching for the truth — formed the basis for my publication, Assume Nothing, marking the beginning of my fiction-writing vocation.

    After relocating from California to New York, I joined the Lilac City Rochester Writers, an organization dedicated to improving the skills of writers at all levels. Since joining LCRW, I have published a series of Connie Murphy Mystery eBooks, based on my seventeen years as an investigator with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

    And to think, it all began by taking a chance on a six-week creative writing course.


    Assume Nothing and the Connie Murphy Mysteries by BarbaraHelene Smith are available at Amazon.com as eBooks and paperbacks.