Thursday, May 23, 2013

NEMBA Wannabe




Tonight Sandy and I went to the NEMBA 25th annual event in Duluth, MN.  I wanted to buy like 25 books.  I bought 3 books so I did pretty well.  But now so many are on my list to buy or borrow from the library.  I need to add many of these books to my Goodreads "to be read list" Eden Prairie friend and author Mary Donlin and her co-author Marilyn Rausch were nominated in the fiction category for their fun mystery novel Headaches Can Be Murder.  They are also  introducing a sequel this summer called Love Can Be Murder.

It's quite an honor to be nominated but unfortunately they didn't win.  The winning authors in the fiction category were Peter Geye's The Lighthouse Road and Danielle Sosin's The Long Shining Waters.  I want to read both books.  The criteria for the award is that the book must be written in specific counties of northeastern Minnesota and that the story/content reflects the history, heritage,culture or landscape of the area.

So...you  guessed it!  TIMBER will be submitted for the books published in 2013.  We don't know if we'll be nominated until long after submission.  Tonight we had a special treat because Kevin Kling was the speaker before the award presentation.  Wow, what a funny, wise man.  People were mesmerized, taking notes about what he said.  He's got a new book out too, I haven't read him yet but I want to now!  

Met a high school classmate of my husband's, Sheila O'Connor.  She's written two great books which I bought and will give as gifts to my family.  The one nominated this year in the children's category is called Keeping Safe The Stars and another written earlier is called Sparrow Road I can't wait to read them first before I wrap them up.   Shhh!

Did I mention there was pie and desserts at the event tonight?  What more could I want!  Lemon angel and rhubarb crisp, two old fashioned favorites. Yum.  So we strolled around (listening to a harpist playing) to talk to authors and see their books nominated this year and others they have written, it's incredible how many great books there are from Minnesota alone.  We would feel privileged to be nominated for TIMBER next year.

We'll be returning to Duluth for the reading at Fitger's bookstore on July 25 during the Tall Ships week.  We're very excited!  Make sure you stop at some of these stores in your summer travels.  Support independent bookstores!  We need to keep them alive so great books are given a chance and not just the big power house books. 

Coming events for July/Aug after our June hiatus:  
July 6:  Nisswa book signing at the Turtle Town Rainy Day bookstore 11-2
July 13: Mooselake's Art in the Park 9-5
July 20: North Branch Friends of the Library book reading 11-1
July 25: Reading @ Fitgers in Duluth 12-2
Aug 10: Book reading in Sandstone @Cheri's Flower Basket during their summer celebration/parade. 9:30-11:30

Remember, you can buy a paperback or ebook of TIMBER on Sandy's website www.alsanderson.com or the paperback only at any of the independent stores I've mentioned and on Amazon.com.  Happy Summer Reading!

PS Forgive the poor quality pictures, everything was better looking in real life.

 

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