If, as most avid readers have, you’ve fantasized about bringing together some of your favorite authors so you can pick their brains and eavesdrop as they talk to each other about their craft, you might have thought it was just that – a fantasy.
Louisvillian Jennifer Laslie, though, picked up the phone and made it happen.
June 19 and 20, Laslie, with partner Anna Coy, will host the Louisville Authors Event at the airport Crowne Plaza. Tickets are currently 75 percent off. You can choose to attend the first night’s meet and greet and one of the signing time slots, or get the VIP pass, to attend everything, including the after party Saturday night, with a DJ, photo booth, desserts, cash bar and lots of mingling with writers and other fans.
Laslie created the event last year. “I was writing a book blog (that I’ve not been writing during the planning of this event), and in Facebook communities, sharing, talking about books. That’s how I found my authors.”
Last year’s kick-off Authors Event was held at the Galt House, with 40 authors in attendance. The response was so great that Laslie started the planning for the 2015 event the first day of the 2014 event, looking at the venue and starting the sign-up and waiting lists for authors.
It takes a full year to organize. “It’s a lot of stress, working full time, and having to put my book blog on the back burner,” Laslie says.
This year, 60 authors will attend, from Louisville and other parts of the U.S. One of them will be Laslie herself. After last year’s event, she was inspired to start doing her own writing, with the support of mentors and friends from this group of authors and elsewhere. She has published two young adult novels and is eager to spend more time writing. And while she greets her fans, this year, her husband will help make sure everything is going smoothly at the event.
To others who would like to write, or take the next steps in their writing career, Laslie says, “Get a mentor, preferably someone who has started at the very bottom. I have, and I now have a network that I can ask about anything. It’s a process, and it gets better each time. You’re going to make mistakes, but don’t let it get you down. Self-publishing is so exciting right now, there are so many platforms and tools you can choose from.”
Other authors at this year’s event include Fern Creek author Linda Bullock, who wrote a novel based on her parents and how they met right before the 1937 Louisville flood; Scarlet Wolfe, an Amazon romance and erotica best seller (“Hey, sex sells,” says Laslie); and Louisville writer Courtney Houston, author of Flicker.
A wide range of genres are represented this year, from young adult to romance to urban fantasy, says Laslie, so grab your book-loving friends and come out to meet and support local authors, face to face.
Photo: Toski Covey Photography
