Louise Penny in Pittsburgh

by Carol6 Comments
Louise Penny is one of my favorite authors and my mom and I were thrilled to see her speak in Pittsburgh last week. She was there as part of Authors on Tour, a collaborative effort between the Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures series and the Carnegie Library. Penny spoke for about 40 minutes and then did a question and answer session. She was funny and charming and really has a great stage presence. She talked about what made her want to write and about how long it took to put away her fear and just do it. And then the job of actually finishing the book and getting it published. She also mentioned that the "kernel" of each is a poem that she keeps on a sticky at her writing area. I haven't read The Nature of the Beast, her newest, yet, but the poem that goes along with it is from Yeats: "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,...
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Erik Larson Lecture

Erik Larson Lecture

by Carol7 Comments
Last night my mom and I went to a "Literary Evening" at the Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh. It was the first of the 2012-13 Literary Evening Monday Night Lecture Series and the speaker was Erik Larson, one of my favorite authors. I absolutely loved his The Devil in the White City and enjoyed Thunderstruck, so I was so happy to get to see him speak. He was intelligent and funny. He talked about how he comes up with book ideas and his research process. He gave a bit of information for writers - read voraciously and promiscuously - and mentioned that two of his books are currently, hopefully, on the way to becoming movies. This is the first of these Literary Evenings I've been to, and I have to admit I was suprised by how packed the hall was. It has a seating capacity of 1,950 and it was probably 95% filled. We were at the back of the second balcony,...
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O is for Ohioana

O is for Ohioana

by Carol14 Comments
The Ohioana Book Festival is an event I look forward to every year. I have a blast, and my family kindly goes too, although I don't think they are as excited about it as I am. From the press release: Live music, food carts, exhibits, fun-loving crowds and….books—lots and lots of books! The Ohioana Library’s goal, as it prepares to present the 6th annual Ohioana Book Festival, is creating a festival that brings readers, writers and books together for an inspiring, fun learning experience. Activities during the May 12th festival will include more than 20 panel discussions on a varietyof topics. The 10 featured authors will appear in a track of five panels, including conversations about their own literary influences, the writing life and the creative process. Additional panel dialogue will explore children’s literature and poetry, along with several “behind-the-scenes” opportunities for new writers to find out more about how to get published. Author roundtables will be devoted to popular genres such as...
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N Is for Name

N Is for Name

by Carol6 Comments
Image credit: Daisy Juarez I like my name, in theory. Carol means "song of joy" and for someone who love playing the piano, it's appropriate. My middle name, Sue, apparently came from Hebrew and means "lily." I took my husband's last name when we got married and it actually has a rather interesting entry is Wikipedia. It's a Welsh name, which I knew, and it does mean "son of Evan." In Welsh however, it comes from the Ifan, a form of John. "The name does refer to Evan-S, meaning son of John; however, the historic context is that many Welsh were relative latecomers to Christianity, and around the 3rd century A.D. a huge evangelical conversion began. Converted followers took the name "Son of John (the Baptist)", in reference to John the Baptist as the baptiser of Jesus Christ and a symbolic cornerstone of Christian conversion. It is possible that, later on, some took it as meaning the son of their own father called...
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