Third Wednesdays
Tucker-Reid H. Cofer Library
5234 LaVista Road
Tucker, GA 30084
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Chapter Leader:
Charles de Andrade
5234 LaVista Road
Tucker, GA 30084
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Chapter Leader:
Charles de Andrade
 Q1. Tell me about your self what are your favorite books to read?
A. I am an avid reader and enjoy being a mom. I have three little ones. I love to read mystery and suspense books. Political dramas are awesome. Millicent Hodge is my favorite author. Q2. When did you decide you where going to write a book? A. My first book was written kind of haphazardly. I wrote a book for my daughter and a friend illustrated it. We loved it so much I decided to publish it. Q3. How did you come up with name of your books? A. My books were all titled before writing one word. A Bad Hair Day was based on a little girl that does not want to get her hair done. When I was young these were horrible so I called it A Bad Hair Day. Q4. What are you working on for 2019? A. November is NANO month so I will be writing the sequel to my novel Strings Attached. Also, I’m working on a young readers chapter book. Wish me luck...  Chuck Holmes is a Southerner by birth and by preference. (his words) He spent most of his life as a freelance writer and creative director, writing ads, public television scripts, speeches, training programs, and -as a ghost-autobiographies. As a child of the south he brings a real southern small-town flavor to his storytelling, making the North Carolina town of River Falls a compelling character in The Sing. His short stories have been published in The Southern Reader, Faithlines and other noted media. After a lifetime as a contract writer, Chuck Holmes has turned to his own writings. His novel, The Sing, was published in 2018 and More Than Just Cellular: Musings on Life Past, Present and Eternal was published in 2019. He lives in Tucker, GA with his wife and near his children and grandchildren.
His books are available for purchase on Amazon.
 Alternate Arts: What’s your earliest writing experience?Chuck: The earliest one that I remember was winning $5 in an essay contest when I was in the fifth grade. That was second place; I was shooting for first place. It paid $10. I wrote for the student newspaper all through high school. The newspaper was a junior class project, but there was nobody else who could up with enough synonyms to write the sports column. The first time I actually received a paycheck for writing was when I was 19 and writing for the local weekly.
Alternate Arts: What’s the first thing you remember reading? Chuck: I spent much of my childhood in the local library. The first book I remember from there was Ivanhoe (Sir Walter Scott). At that point in my life (cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians), a knight was a hero I could identify with. Alternate Arts: Who has influenced your writing the most? Chuck: I had two identifiable and significant influences. The first was my mother. She wasn’t a writer. However, she was a voracious reader. We were encouraged to read pretty much anything. Largely because of my mother, our family produced two writers who managed to make a living for many years by stringing words together. The second was Josefina Niggli, who ran the Professional Writing program at Western Carolina. She contended that she couldn’t teach anyone to write, but she could teach us to make a living at it. For years after I was graduated, I sent my work to Josifina, and she would mark it up and send it back. (For a more detailed account of Josefina and her influence, see this post at Chuck’s website.) Alternate Arts: Who or what inspires you now? Chuck: At my age, it may be a little grandiose to call it inspired, but I’m engaged by a number of things. I’ve been married sixty years, and it’s a challenge to keep a marriage fresh for so long. I have four grandchildren, and I want to be an influence in their lives. And I fear for our country in its current political climate. I guess that goes back to the grandchildren. I want them to have the country I had to grow up in, but better...  Gisela Tomlinson is a retired Fitness Professional who is passionate about health and wellness. Upon completing high school she married and started a family. After moving from the big city to the country and when both children started school Gisela took many courses and trained to become a Fitness Instructor on land and in the water; Nutrition and Wellness Specialist as well as a Personal Trainer and Yoga Teacher.
In 2003 she received the "Volunteer of the Year" award for her district. Gisela enjoys swimming, bicycling, reading and travelling with her family. At the age of 39 Rheumatoid Arthritis changed her life dramatically. She is an inspiration to many. Her passion to share her knowledge is the reason for writing her first book, "Moving On" How Arthritis Gave Me a New Life. She is writing another book about health and wellness. Hoschton Fall Festival featured a display of the products such as array of food vendors, craft/info/game vendors, parade, parade waiver, scarecrow 5K run and much more. Thanks to those who came out!  Thank you to Gwinnett County Public Library for this workshop dedicated to aspiring authors/writers, illustrators (new or aspiring), and new authors/writers. We gained insight from international author and speaker, Rhonda Knight, and our established panelists (three authors and an illustrator). Enjoy a Q&A with the panelists, interactive activities, and plenty of fun. This workshop took place on Saturday, September 21 at 1:00 pm at the Five Forks Branch, 2780 Five Forks Trickum Road, Lawrenceville, GA 30044.  Donna Barron, Julie Clarke Mike and Leda Owens were at Art in the Park 2019: September 21st & 22nd Thank you to all who came out to support!  Join us on Saturday, September 21st for our next edition of our popular HEY! Let's Read! Book Festival for Children of Color. A day full of independent authors, dj, food trucks, and giveaways!
Time & Location: Sep 21, 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM Oasis Atlanta, 3462 Delmar Ln NW, Atlanta, GA 30331, USA Click HERE for more info and vendor registration if you are interested in attending.  Alternate Arts: You’ve worked in education, corporations and manufacturing, and you’ve served with a mission group in France. What drew you to writing, and when did you know you had an interest in it?
Frannie: I never really thought about writing because I have a brain disability in language arts. As I aged, I couldn’t find a job. Everybody said I had too much experience in academics and stuff. I turned to the Lord and said, “What am I supposed to do?” That’s when he started speaking to me about possibly writing and I said, “Lord, you do remember that I have never been very good in this area?” Then I said, “Okay!” and “What?” That’s when I started the first book about codependency and addiction because they have always been an issue in my family of origin. So, that was a real natural place to go...  September 14th 21st
Gwinnett County Fair – Books for sale in SCV Camp 96 Booth 5pm-11pm https://www.gwinnettcountyfair.com/ September 21-22 Art in the Park at Hurricane Shoals, Maysville Georgia– Book signing at booth in Arts section from 10am to 6pm on Saturday and 12:30 to 5:30 pm on Sunday - https://www.hurricaneshoalspark.org/art-in-the-park September 29th Oakland cemetery Sunday in the Park– Book signing at D’Alvigny gravesite from Noon to 6pm https://oaklandcemetery.com/event/sunday-in-the-park-2019/ October 12th Presentation/book signing for Jonesboro UDC -11am October 15th Presentation/book signing at SCV Cassville – 7pm October 19th Scribbler’s event at Hoschton United Methodist church at Fall Festival 9am to 3pm includes car show and food – in vicinity of Hoschton Fall Festival October 28th Presentation/book signing for Cumming SCV Camp – 7pm November 10th Book signing at town of Andersonville, Georgia - TBD 14 Authors represented Scribblers at the Decatur Book Festival held on Saturday August 31st, and Sunday September 1st. The weather was beautiful, and as a group we sold 108 books. Three authors made money with Portia Wayne being our big seller with her "Dinosaurs in Decatur" being the top seller. This was followed closely by Mike Owens with his " I Hate Vegetables" poetry book taking second place.. Of the 14 authors, only one had no sales, everyone else had sales. We will be reviewing the show at each of the upcoming meetings. We will be reviewing improvements that can/should be made for next years show. All four of our chapters were represented at the show.  Left to right: Standing: Mary Renshaw, Pat Smith, Margaret Rodeheaver, Meg Lynch, Leda Owens, Marlene Buchanan, David Newton(Pen Name: Samuel Waldwell) Seated: Luanne Scrogan History of the AJC Decatur Book Festival
In February 2005, while driving back from the South Carolina Book Festival with a friend, Daren Wang wondered aloud: Why could Columbia sustain a successful festival while metropolitan Atlanta could not? Atlanta is well known for its many festivals: Dogwood, Music Midtown, The Inman Park Neighborhood Festival, and Virginia Highland Summer fest, just to name a few. These events shape the summer landscape of Atlanta. But despite several earlier attempts, there still was no free festival celebrating the written word. Over the course of that drive from Columbia, Wang hatched a plan to establish a book festival modeled after the overwhelmingly successful Decatur Arts Festival. Decatur, a small town five miles east of Atlanta, is one of the most pedestrian-friendly towns in Georgia, with a strong emphasis on smart growth and independent restaurants and stores. With a MARTA station in the city center, Agnes Scott College forming its Southern border, and Emory University just two miles away, it seemed to be the perfect place for a big book party. Soon, Wang had enlisted Tom Bell––who had worked with him on both his literary magazine, Verb, and his syndicated public radio series, The Spoken Word––to concoct a new hare-brained scheme, The Decatur Book Festival. For more information go to www.decaturbookfestival.com "The eyes of the LORD are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.” Proverbs 15.3 NIV
At any given moment day or night, in every square inch of human habitation, countless dramas are playing out, most of them ordinary and unremarkable, following predictable patterns and routines, while others can be totally unexpected, tragic, even catastrophic. At ground level, this myriad of events may seem unrelated to other events in the vicinity. People go about their business unaware of what others are doing across town or even down the road a piece. But if we could view them all at once as these individual dramas are unfolding, we would see that each is a thread of the same broad piece of social fabric. Sometimes, in the late afternoons, I ride my bike up Phnom Kraom, a hilltop from which you can view a large swathe of the Siem Reap tapestry. To the south are the farms, the rice fields, and the vast expanse of the Tonle Sap with its floating villages scattered across its sky-gray waters. In the other direction is the town with its maze of streets and alleyways, its tight-packed jumble of dwellings and the tireless movement of commerce, traffic, expansion and construction. From that height, one day looks much the same as the one before it. But if you could watch it in time-lapse sequence, you would see it pulsate, beating like a heart, spreading its arms in every direction on a trelliswork of earthen features laid out across a landscape fashioned by the mighty hand of its Creator in times long past before any human being ever existed. All this serves as a reminder that what we’re witnessing is a living fabric of sentient beings generating culture and a civilization, filling every available space with the business of human interaction, activity and the artifacts these phenomena produce... With the Fall season upon us, comes the changing of the leaves, cool crisp air and our ever so popular Fall Festival. Stop by and do some early Christmas shopping with over 75 craft vendors that will line Oak Rd. in front of City Hall. The smell of festival food will fill the air to bring you flavors that will satisfy any palate. A wide variety of food will be available for purchase throughout the day.
The Snellville Senior Center will also be having an Arts and Craft Fair in conjunction with the Fall Festival from 12 - 5 p.m. that is held in the Senior Center. You won't want to miss out on some of the great homemade crafts that will be for sale. Every year, we offer live entertainment, costume contests, and All Day Activity Band is only $10.00 and includes: Bungee Jump, Rock Wall, Inflatables, Trackless Train, Hay Rides and 9-Hole Mini Golf. If you are interested in becoming a vendor, please click Fall Festival Exhibitor Application Packet For further information contact Kelly McAloon at 770-310-0429.  Perhaps the best way to know history is to relive it, which is what authors Julie and Rick Clarke have done and written about…
Alternate Arts: You live, love and write history. Which came first: doing reenactments or writing your book? Julie and Rick: The reenactments came first. We had to follow the steps of the ancestors before we had enough information to write a book...  Donna Faulkner Barron is the oldest daughter of Roy Faulkner, Chief Carver of the Confederate Memorial Carving at Stone Mountain Park. Donna was born to Roy and Juanita in Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta and was raised in Covington, Georgia with her three other siblings, Richard, the oldest and the only son along with sisters Judy and Patti. Donna is married to Ronald Peter Barron and they have two children, Jessica 29 and Peter 24. Donna completed her elementary and high school years in Newton County and furthered her education by attending Dekalb Area Tech in Clarkston, Ga where she completed her degree in Secretarial Science. Donna was now ready for the work force. She interviewed and was hired as a Stenographer for the Georgia State Labor Department where she worked for 5 years. Realizing that this career was ending, she moved back home and began her new adventure in life...being her dad's assistant. She helped compile records using her secretarial skills and in the mid 80's she found herself as the secretary to her dad who was the Curator of the Stone Mountain Carving Museum which was opened for a couple years on Memorial Drive. After the museum closed she and her dad parted their ways and she began her only family as her parents moved to McDonough, Ga. Later on ..30 years later.. using those same secretarial skills she would have never envisioned herself as the co-author of the book, "The Man Who Carved Stone Mountain", that her and her dad along with Kay Stowe Jones wrote. What an honor and priviledge to work side by side with her dad to tell his story and share his legacy forever. I am sure Roy is up in heaven looking down and thinking "I am so glad I invested the money in Donna's education so that one day I could be proud of her accomplishments"..Job Well Done..
Donna on The Doug Dahlgren show.  Click the button below to listen to the May 31, 2019 interview.
 Nina Stacy Thomas is retired from Georgia State University, where her final move up the ladder was in the College of Law Career Services Office. There she advised law students on their career paths and was the editor of the Career Services newsletter. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Georgia State University, and has recently shown paintings in juried shows at the Art Station Gallery in Stone Mountain, Georgia. She lives in Decatur, Georgia where her favorite activity is spending time with her son and grandson in between their work and school schedules. Since retiring she spends time with friends at dinners and lunches and attends workshops of interest. She attends church at Decatur First United Methodist Church. In her recently published book, Appalachian Roots Revisited (...and Maneuvering Life's Briar Patch Beyond), she writes about her love of family, friends and hometown, Pennington Gap, Virginia and Appalachia in general. She includes some of life's challenges encountered and how she overcame them. Plus there is an additional chapter devoted to recipes of her beloved Grandmother, Mama King.   L.L. Wyatt was recruited, at age 21, to Greene County during Prohibition of the 1920s to break up a thriving moonshine industry. Known as the moonshine capital of Georgia, this little area east of Atlanta was the source of liquor for the best hotels in Atlanta and across the South. Young Wyatt’s battles with the bootleggers soon made him a larger than life figure. Stories of his fearlessness, his agility, his honesty and his fairness in enforcing the law rippled throughout the county Greene and swept all citizens up into the aura of L.L. Wyatt. Bolstered by a sense that God was protecting him, Wyatt was totally fearless. He was “shot at, spit upon, bitten, and cursed,” but in five years, he transformed the reputation of Greene County to one of the most crime free in Georgia. For 52 years, he was on the job confronting the ongoing battle between good and evil. Wyatt, at 70, received national acclaim and the attention of Hollywood when he stopped the car of armed bank robbers and freed two hostages.
More than a story out of the past, Sheriff Wyatt shows the reader that one person can change his/her culture. His ideals challenge law enforcement and society alike to hold a firm respect for the law while enforcing it in a manner that preserves dignity. Long before integration, Wyatt was known as “the black peoples’ friend” and the “white people’ friend.” He was a community-oriented lawman before anyone ever heard of one. This story is set in an area rich in Georgia history described well by the author. I just got back to Florida from the book signing in Tucker GA at the local library there. There were about 35 authors present including 9 members from Scribblers: Myself, Mary Renshaw, Luanne Scrogan, Mike & Leda Owens, Pat and Anthony Smith, Marlene Ratledge Buchanan, and David Newton (Pen Name: Samuel Wardwell). We each had the opportunity to speak about our books. I have added the video that was taken of my presentation, as well as pictures of each of the members during their presentations. I believe that Scribblers will be growing, as a number of the authors present were interested in the writing club. I also got to announce the new book in the next series that I am working on. "Eyewitness - The Tears of the Saints" is the first book in the Miracles of Christ series, and will be out in time for the Decatur Book Festival in August. I picked up the artwork that will be the basis for the cover from Dennis Assayac on Friday, and I am pleased with that as well. These book signings are a necessary part of what authors need to do, and this one introduced us to the incredible diversity in the writing community, and the amazing presence of so many Christian authors. That alone made the book signing a success, and there were even some books sold. Please do look at the pictures, and share the video to get the word out on what we are doing at Scribblers, and what I am doing as an author. More information is available about Scribblers Learn more about my books Thanks to everyone who came to the book signing. Grace and Peace, Charles A de Andrade It is official, I registered today for a 10 x 20 space, twice the space we had last year. The other Snellville writers group decided they wanted to get their own booth, so that made my mind up that I would register for a booth twice as big as last year, but not the 4 times as big that I had hoped. But as they say, you get born, you crawl, you stand and totter, you walk, and then you run!. I think Scribblers is somewhere between crawling and tottering. Hopefully next year we will be walking or maybe even running!
So, The cost of the booths was $1,350 and I order two additional tables for $70. So the total paid today was $1,420. I asked for the same area we were in last year, but this year the entire end cap of that row of booths instead of just half. I beleive that will give us the room to actually have 6 - 7 tables. There will be 4 chairs supplied by the festival, and I thought it was easier for us to bring additonal chairs and save the money. Perhaps next year I will even buy the tables, to save the additional fees for that as well! I think you can actually purchase the tables for about what we are renting them for. Of course then we have to haul them there, and haul them out! The cost per author coming this year is $100 for the first book and then $5.00 for each additional book. I believe we will have space for 14 authors and like last year I will put together the space and time plan for the show. Right now we have seven authors committed to coming, representing 20 books. Please review the attached spread sheet and please send me the names of the books you will have on display, and if you are not on the sheet please confirm with me that you are coming:
I charged the booth, which buys us about 21 days before I will need to pay the charge card. So, if you are planning to come to the Book Festival please bring your check to our March 14th meeting that will occur at the library. We are meeting on Thursday March 14, 2019 at the Five Forks Branch Library located at 2780 Five Forks Trickum Road, Lawrenceville, GA 30044-5865. We will be meeeting at 6:00 PM to do the filming for the Speakers Bureau. Make your checks payable to: Scribblers - CdA Consultants Inc. If you are not yet listed, it is because I have not heard from you diffentively that you are coming. If you do want to be included, please let me know as soon as possible. Also, let me know how many titles you will be bringing. Seven Authors have registered and we have space for at least seven more. Right now, we will have 20 books, and I suspect we will be closer to 40 once the final authors join in. I will be sending out another e-mail tomorrow related to the Library and our next meeting. Until then...already getting excited about August 31st and September 1! Grace and Peace, Charles |
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