Author Fest of the Rockies

Last week was the Author Fest of the Rockies in Manitou Springs, Colorado. Thursday evening, my husband and I attended the VIP Reception for speakers and staff at the lovely and historic Avenue Hotel B&B located right next to the Manitou Springs Library, which put on the festival. Local restaurants, bakeries, and coffeehouses provided food, wine, and coffees and teas for the reception. The first photo shows me standing in front of the B&B and the second shows the mass of people in the dining room where the food was served.



The third photo shows folks on the front porch, including Natalie Johnson, standing, owner of Black Cat Books in Manitou Springs. Natalie worked tirelessly on the program committee and handling book sales at the event. She is an enthusiastic supporter of the Manitou Springs library and local authors, and I love browsing the eclectic collection at her store. I highly recommend it!


The fourth photo shows me talking to garden writer Sandra Knauf and mystery author Ann Parker. The fifth photo shows the wine bar just inside the front door and the last photo shows me talking to women's fiction author Barbara O'Neal. I highly recommend both Ann's and Barbara's books! Seated next to Barbara is Carleen Brice, one of the keynote speakers, whose first novel, Orange Mint and Honey, was made into a Lifetime Movie Network film.




I didn't attend the Friday sessions because I hadn't made my weekly page count goal on my work-in-progress and had to write. I got enough done that I could attend all day, Saturday, though. I went to middle-grade author Lindsey Eland's session first thing in the morning and introduced myself to her because she lives in Breckenridge, Colorado, which I hope will become my full-time home soon. It's nice to know at least one published author in the community now!

I also attended Mike Befeler's session on "Mixing Humor, Mystery, and Other Characters." Mike always generates belly laughs in his talks and his books! The New Face of Jazz author Cicily Janus delivered an inspiring keynote address at lunch. The photo below is of me with some of my table mates, Shelley--who bought books written by the other three of us, Margaret Brettschneider, and Ann Parker.


After lunch I split my time between Ann's session on "The Six Elements of Fiction" and romance author Janet Lane's session on "Forget Your Screensaver--You Need a Scene Saver!" Then I co-presented my session on "Getting Serious About Series Writing" with fellow mystery author Laura DiSilverio. The next two photos show us at work. And no, we didn't coordinate our animal print outfits beforehand--it just worked out that way. Call us a couple of wild women!



After the Saturday sessions ended, the final event of Author Fest began, the Author Showcase where the over thirty authors who presented at the conference signed books and talked to readers and aspiring authors. What a great day!