November 6, 2014 by Danielle Morrone
On October 19, Saratoga Spring’s local Barnes and Noble held a book signing event sponsored by the Adirondack Center for Writing, featuring several local authors proudly displaying their pored over books. The event took place in three sessions; from 12-2 pm, 2-4 p.m., and 4-6 p.m. The first session featured Anne McCarthy Strauss, Ed Kanze, Mark Supley, Jed Donavan, Stephen Ludd, and Jamie Shefield. The second session sponsored Vincent Morrone, Roger Mitchell, Maurice Kenny, Bibi Wein, Paul Castellani, and Tony Holtzman, and the final session included Gary and Justin VanRiper, Bruce Hiscock, Kim and Pam Ladd, Eric Mondschein, Patricia O’Gorman, and Hearth Moon Rising.
It seems like quite a list, and the event certainly turned out a crowd, something that Barnes and Nobles staff member Rebekah Eustas was quite proud of.
“I think it’s great; I think it’s great we have so many local people, and that so many turned out for the event, and I can’t wait to see if we do it again,” Eustas said.
The event featured authors with all sorts of experiences; from Bibi Wein, who has published not only three novels, but has also written many magazine articles, TV scripts, and literary journals, to novice author Vincent Morrone, who has been published for just under a year now. Morrone is the author of the young adult Paranormal Vision series and romance single “Just Breathe.”
“I’m excited to be here and to be a part of it; my first signing,” he said.
The writers featured at the event sported very different novels, from Paul Castellani’s “Sputnik Summer,” which revolves around a teenage boy who witnesses a murder committed by his best friend’s brother—and must decide whether or not to speak up—to Roger Mitchell’s “The One Good Bite in the Saw-Grass Plant,” which focuses on the plants and animals of the everglades in southern Florida, as well as the region’s spirit. Whereas Castellani’s book resides around the tension of a town caught up in the whodunit, Mitchell’s novel goes by a gentler, if perhaps even more complex pattern. Believing that you can find rhythm in anything, Mitchell hopes to capture this essence in his book, enticing the reader to ask basic questions and to not only read, but listen to his book, like a song. Poems, Mitchell said, were originally written to be songs, so why not appreciate them as thoroughly as you would a piece of music?
“Poems are meant to be heard,” he said.
The Barnes and Nobles book signing this past Sunday heralded quite a turn out. A variety of unknown authors, each with their own styles and themes found their own crowd. People wandering through the store would stop by, and would very often like what they saw. Other times though, these authors, unknown to us, were specifically sought out by those who had so admired their work. Each author, sitting at a series of small tables in a line stretching along the store from the children’s section towards the coffee shop, was well rewarded for their efforts.
