Slightly Off the Mark

It’s only a week from today until the Noble County ALL-IN Block Party parties on the block, the block being in this case the Noble County Courthouse square here in Albion. It’s all about celebrating Indiana’s bicentennial, and if you lived to be two hundred years old, wouldn’t you want a big party too?

Here’s an article detailing the schedule of the Block Party events:

http://kpcnews.com/news/latest/new_era/article_3f9a695b-b298-52d4-a3f8-420b4d6f0fd6.html

Sounds … eventful. It’s a rain or shine thing, so let’s hope it’s not too eventful in the weather area.

With all the medical stuff going on with my family, I haven’t had time to go into detail about the latest author who’s joining the author appearance at the party. She’s Betty Hartman, and she brings the number of authors to 15. Thanks to the Noble County Libraries, who are hosting this author gathering in addition to their own Block Party event.

I’m going to repost my list of authors appearing that day, with the addition of Betty—read all about them, then come to visit us 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on June 25!

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Carol Bender, retired school teacher for Central Noble Community Schools in Noble County, has three published books: two children's books, The Doctor's Little Stowaway and Grace's Birthday Surprise, and one adult book. In Quest of Gold, the story of a teenager’s journey during the California Gold Rush, would also be acceptable for middle school age children and young adults.  All three books are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Books a Million. http://carolbender.com/meet-grace_268.html

Lindsay Bentz writes under the pen name Daisy Jordan and has published 11 YA and women's fiction novels, including the Spin the Bottle series—YA fiction that adults will also enjoy as a flashback to high school days. She writes about relationships and friendships, and can be found online at http://www.daisyjordan.com/.

Dawn Crandall is an ACFW Carol Award-nominated author of the award winning inspirational historical romance series The Everstone Chronicles, published by Whitaker House. Her books include: The Hesitant Heiress, The Bound Heart, and The Captive Imposter. Her newest release, The Cautious Maiden, will be available October 2016.  Dawn is also a full-time mom to a precious little boy, and a baby due this summer. She serves with her husband in a pre-marriage mentor program at their local church in Fort Wayne. www.dawncrandall.blogspot.com

Sheli Emenhiser has written Crushed But Not Broken: There Are Worse Things in Life Than a Mousetrap Hanging From Your Pom Pom. Sheli writes about “how I endured an abusive relationship and how God brought me out of that darkness into His wonderful light. “ She works at Elijah Haven Crisis Intervention Center as a domestic violence advocate, helping other women rebuilt their self-esteem and self-worth, lives in Topeka with her husband, and has three children. https://www.facebook.com/SheliEmenhiserCrushedbutnotBroken

Beth Friskney tells the story of Rome City and the remarkable people who once lived there in R is for Rome City. The book covers Sylvan Lake as well as Rome City, a resort town that boasted the beautiful Kneipp Springs, famous author Gene Stratton-Porter, and a history of everything from the infamous Blacklegs and Regulators to major league baseball commissioner Ford Frick. Friskney lives on Sylvan Lake with her husband and two children, and is heavily involved in Rome City events and organization.

Nick Hayden is the author of the fantasy novels Trouble on the Horizon and The Remnant of Dreams, as well as short story collections, including Dreams & Visions, and the novella The Isle of Gold. He co-hosts a story-telling podcast, "Derailed Trains of Thought," and helps run the Children of the Wells web serial. Other books include the fantasy The Unremarkable Squire, a flash fiction collection, Another World, and the fantasy Bron & Calea Volume 1, with Laura Fischer. www.worksofnick.com

Betty Hartman writes historical romance and has published six novels and a collection of short stories, all available on amazon.com.  She is the author of the Carla Pettigrew trilogy:  Pioneer Wife; City Wife; and Return to New Eden.  She also wrote Lelah O’Laughlin, Hired Girl, and another trilogy:  Horatio’s Journey Home, The War Finds Horatio, and the soon-to be-published third volume, Jeannie Brown.  The short story collection is titled:  Some (very) Short Stories.  Also in the editing stage are The O’Connell Children and All in her Own Good Time. Betty graduated from Albion-Jefferson High School, and is the granddaughter of John V. Singleton, Noble County Sheriff.  Her father was John W. Singleton, who served several years as County Auditor.  Her Mother, Vivien, was the secretary of the Albion School Board.

Together Mark R. Hunter and Emily Hunter wrote the local history books Images of America: Albion and Noble County and Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights: A Century or So With the Albion Fire Department. Their newest work takes a humorous look at Indiana history: Hoosier Hysterical: How the West Became the Midwest Without Moving At All. She also helped him produce the young adult novel The No-Campfire Girls and a collection of his humor columns, Slightly Off the Mark. Mark R Hunter also has two published romantic comedies and a short story collection in the Storm Chaser series, set in Indiana. Their works can be found at www.markrhunter.com, or on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Mark-R-Hunter/e/B0058CL6OO.

Rev. Pam Lash is the author of The Voice & Two Hours on Tuesday: What Happened When We Went Prayer Walking. Lash, a certified addiction counselor, has a doctorate in ministry and lives in Albion, where she serves as an associate pastor and worship leader at the Assembly of God Church. She has three children, three grandsons, and a great-grandson. https://www.amazon.com/Voice-Two-Hours-Tuesday-Happened-ebook/dp/B00NHQEICU; Her Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/The-Voice-and-Two-Hours-on-Tuesday-1428332754135581/.

Nathan Marchand hails from the furthest corner of Noble County, and earned a B.A. in professional writing from Taylor University Fort Wayne. His first novel, the military science fiction thriller Pandora's Box, was published in 2010. He and Nick Hayden are two of the co-creators of the ongoing fantasy serial, Children of the Wells. When not writing, Nate enjoys other creative endeavors like photography, making YouTube videos, and occasionally saving the world. www.NathanJSMarchand.com

R.A. Slone started with short stories and eventually worked her way into writing full-length novels. Slone writes Young Adult Paranormal, as well as Inspirational Fiction and short fiction for the 4County Mall, under the name Rita Robbins. Her website, including her blog and information about her writing, is at http://www.raslone.com/. She will have copies of her YA Paranormal novel, Ghost in the Blue Dress, available at the author appearance.

Greg Smith’s first call to write came in Junior High, but he passed on the assignment until, at age forty, his wife urged him to finally accept the challenge. Since then he’s published three suspense novels: Holy Lotto, Wrong Left Turn, and 3 Times the Sparrow, all available on Kindle, Nook, and in softcover paperback thru Amazon (Nook thru Barnes & Noble). A much asked for sequel to Holy Lotto, Holy Addendum, is ready to go to print and should be available soon. His website is at gregsnovels.weebly.com.

M. Susan Thuillard was born and raised in rural Indiana and has worked in occupations as varied as ranching, law enforcement, and accounting. She’s published six books that are just as varied, including mysteries and thrillers, which can be found on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/M.-Susan-Thuillard/e/B00JJG4IN6.

I usually post press releases for upcoming author events, so everyone can see how dull my press releases are. This one was sent out last week, so I hope you’ve seen it—it’s very different from our previous book signings in two ways:

First, it’s our first gathering of multiple authors (unless you county Emily and me as two authors, which you should). Six—count ‘em, six—authors will be at one of the two gatherings Saturday.

Which brings us to the second way: Being gluttons for punishment, we’re doing two separate author appearances in one day. All the details are below, and I hope you can make at least one of them. Maybe both, it would be like having … author groupies.

Six local authors will have a busy day, organizing for two book signings in two cities Saturday, October 10^th. The authors will have plenty of opportunities for caffeine to keep them going, though: Both appearances are at coffee shops.

The first, from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., will be at Joanna’s Dealicious Treats, a book store, coffee shop, and restaurant at 201 S. Main Street in Kendallville. After just an hour’s pause the second will be at the Cupbearer Café in Auburn, at 138 East 7^th Street, from 3-7 p.m.

All the authors will have copies of their books for sale, and will be happy to sign them and discuss their writing with visitors. Authors include:

Dawn Crandall is a graduate of Taylor University with a degree in Christian Education, and a former bookseller at Barnes & Noble. Her books are published by Whitaker House,  a leading publisher of Christian living and leadership books, as well as Inspirational Fiction. Dawn's debut novel, The Hesitant Heiress, is the 2015 winner of the Hearts Through History Romancing the Novel RWA reader’s choice award, the WISRWA Write Touch Reader’s choice award and the RWA Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, all in the inspirational categories. The Hesitant Heiress was also a finalist in the 2015 Carol Awards—the American Christian Fiction Writer’s recognition for the best Christian fiction published by traditional publishing houses in the previous calendar year. Her second novel, The Bound Heart, is the 2015 winner of the Clash of the Titles Laurel Award. Her website is http://dawncrandall.blogspot.com.  

Nick Hayden is the author of the fantasy novels Trouble on the Horizon and The Remnant of Dreams. He has penned a number of short story collections, including Dreams & Visions, and the novella The Isle of Gold. He co-hosts a story-telling podcast, "Derailed Trains of Thought," about once a month, and also helps run the Children of the Wells web serial.

Hayden describes himself as a mild-mannered bookkeeper by day, a mild-mannered (albeit tortured) writer by night, a writing teacher three times a week, a youth leader on weekends, and a podcaster every month or so. He has a wife and two kids, who do a fine job of putting up with him. You can find out more about Nick at his website, www.worksofnick.com, his podcast, his blog, or on his Facebook page.  His books include the fantasy The Unremarkable Squire, a flash fiction collection, Another World, and the fantasy Bron & Calea Volume 1, with Laura Fischer

Mark and Emily Hunter of Albion have a match made in literature: They met on a writing website.

Mark R. Hunter is an emergency dispatcher for the Noble County Sheriff Department and a volunteer for the Albion Fire Department, and served two terms on the Albion Town Council. His humor column, “Slightly Off the Mark”, ran for twenty-five years in local newspapers. His books include the romantic comedies Storm Chaser and The Notorious Ian Grant, and a related story collection, Storm Chaser Shorts.

Emily Hunter graduated from Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne University with a degree in English with writing concentration, and is indulging her love of horses by working at the Pokagon State Park saddle barn. In addition to their collaboration on the book Images of America: Albion and Noble County, Emily did editing, setup, and cover design for their other history book, Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights: A Century Or So With the Albion Fire Department. She did similar work for the humor collection of Slightly Off the Mark, and the young adult adventure novel The No-Campfire Girls. More information about their writing can be found at www.markrhunter.com.

Nathan Marchand is from northeastern Indiana. Homeschooled from an early age, he discovered his talent for writing in sixth grade English, and has loved speculative fiction since his dad introduced him to the original Star Trek at age three. He attended Taylor University Fort Wayne, earning a B.A. in professional writing. Nathan worked as a reporter in a small town, a feature writer for www.Examiner.com, and as a freelance writer, among other things. His first novel, Pandora’s Box, was published in 2010 by Absolute XPress. He’s also the co-creator of the ongoing fantasy serial, Children of the Wells (www.ChildrenoftheWells.com), and the host of his own YouTube show, “But I Digress….” When not writing, he enjoys other creative endeavors like photography, acting, ballroom dancing, and occasionally saving the world. His website is www.NathanJSMarchand.com.

Nathan’s books include Pandora’s Box (military SF); Destroyer (giant monster/SF, with Natasha Hayden and Timothy Deal; The Day After (short story anthology); Children of the Wells: Jaysynn, Vol.1 (post-apocalyptic fantasy, with John Bahler and Timothy Deal); Ninjas and Talking Tress (fantasy/comedy, Book 1 of The (Mis)Adventures of George Francis);  42: Discovering Faith Through Fandom (devotional, with Eric Anderson)

R. A. Slone writes Young Adult & New Adult Horror/Paranormal. Her love for telling stories goes way back: She remembers taking pieces of paper, cutting them into squares, and stapling them together to form small books. When she was a teenager, her parents bought her a Smith Corona typewriter for Christmas, and she would stay up late at night writing about horses galloping into the sunset. Later, after she grew up and had some life experience, she tried her hand at writing again. This time she started with short stories and eventually worked her way into writing full-length novels, and now writes short stories for the Kendallville Mall under Rita Robbins. She lives in northeast Indiana with her husband and cats. Her website is www.raslone.com.  

Many thanks to Dan and Lori Gagen for hosting us at the Noble Art Gallery yesterday. Emily was able to make it despite her cold, and although it was cool and wet outside, we were nice and toasty warm inside and got to sign books and speak to several great people.

Images of America: Albion and Noble County will be available to sale there, as it also is at Albion Village Foods, Black Pine Animal Sanctuary, Doc’s Hardware, and the Noble County Historical Society (which runs the Old Jail Museum). But you can get all our books at the gallery! They’ve got their own book table amongst the art.

Now, to spend the next week harassing (ahem, asking) everyone to visit us—all of us, six authors—at two author appearances Saturday, October 10, in Kendallville and Auburn. The Facebook events page has the details:

https://www.facebook.com/events/441398042728462/

Those are our last book signings scheduled before spring—with one possible exception that hasn’t been confirmed yet.

If you haven't caught it in a newspaper or maybe Time Magazine, here's the press release I sent out about the book signing this coming Saturday. Let me know what you think of it. (No, it wasn't in Time Magazine ... although I did send it out to about three dozen newspapers, radio and TV stations, and snake oil salesmen. You'd be surprised how hard it is to find a good snake oil salesman outside of Washington, D.C.)

As much as I’d like to think it’s all about me, Dan Gagen says he’ll have some new art on display at the Noble Art Gallery when Emily and I put in our third author appearance there on October 3^rd, from 1-3 p.m.

  So stop by the see the art and the history and say hello, and remember: Every time you ignore history, all the White House furniture in the Lincoln Bedroom levitates six feet, four inches into the air. Don’t let the furniture levitate: You don’t know who might be sleeping in there.

Because a picture is worth 1,427 words, at today’s exchange rate:

http://markrhunter.blogspot.com/2015/09/stones-trace-photo-slam-part-2.html

While we’ll be at the Stone’s Trace Pioneer Festival all day tomorrow (Saturday), don’t forget the event goes on the whole weekend, and offers a lot of attractions. It runs from 10-5 Saturday and Sunday (at the junction of US 33 and SR 5, south of Ligonier), and I’m told we’ll be set up at the Stone’s Trace Tavern with our books. But there’s a lot more going on than a book signing:

Johnny Appleseed will be wandering around telling stories, and the Stone family itself will be at the Tavern (as represented by the Theater 33 drama group).

There’ll be a bagpiper, Punch and Judy puppet show, pioneer games, and face painting, and continuous entertainment onstage. It’s all for an admission of only $5, with kids 12 and under free.

The Stone’s Trace Regulators will be showing off their skills with muzzle loading rifles, knife and tomahawk throwing, and old time archery. Not to be outdone, soldiers at the Civil War encampment will have a military field hospital that hopefully won’t be needed—even though they’ll be firing off cannon over the weekend.

The Village Blacksmith Shop will do their thing with iron forging, and you can find blanket traders in the rendezvous reenactment camp.

Handmade pre-1870 era wares will be for sale at the pioneer craft booths, while food vendors fill your belly and whet your whistle. Believe me, whistles are almost worthless if they don’t get whet from time to time. I’m thinking that Indian fry bread sounds awfully good, not to mention the pork burgers.

Just park at the West Noble Schools across the highway, and catch a free shuttle ride to the festival—and don’t forget to stop by and say hi to Emily and me. We’ll be the ones who won’t look very authentic compared to the people who know what they’re doing. Learn more on the Stone’s Trace Historical Society website:

http://www.stonestrace.com/festival.html

Don’t forget, our appearance at the Kendallville Public Library tomorrow night isn’t just a book signing: We’ll give a short talk starting at 6:30 p.m., followed by a Q&A, and then a pop quiz. (Kidding, no pop quiz.) Sure, we’ll sign and sell books too, but when a person appears in front of a fireplace in the adult department of a library, they should dish out some information!

A fireplace, how cool is that? I mean, not literally.

So, please pass the word on to all your friends. If you don’t have friends, pass the word on to all your enemies. If you don’t have enemies, you really should get out more. We’d like to have so many people there that we could whip a crowd into a frenzy, maybe by having prizes taped under their seats or something. I could stand there like Oprah: “You get a toaster! You get a toaster! You all get a toaster!

But I don’t think I could sign a toaster. At least, not without some kind of metal engraving tool, and Emily won’t let me use power equipment.

Of course, everyone knows the Kendallville Library is at 221 S Park Avenue … if you have any questions for them, they’re at 260-343-2011. You already know where to find the authors.