Authors in the Park returns to picturesque Mount Dora on Saturday, March 30th for the “Spring Into Art” event featuring twelve authors from the Central Florida area. The event will feature a casual author meet and greet from 2:30 to 4 p.m. and an exclusive gallery walk from 6 to 8 p.m. featuring the artwork of Amy Sellers. The event will be held rain or shine inside the Renaissance Building at 411 North Donnelly Street in downtown Mount Dora.
Mark Miller, co-founder of Authors in the Park, said, “We are excited to be back in Mount Dora. It’s my adopted home town. The people are great and the downtown is unique with fabulous dining and delightful shops.” His website is
www.MillerWords.com.
In addition to Amy Sellers artwork, she will have her children’s picture books available. The other participating authors include: Janet Beasley, president of JLB Creatives (The Hidden Earth Series); Valerie Hart, a member of the Association of Food Journalist and weekly food writer for the Leesburg Daily Commercial (The Bounty of Central Florida); Jean E. Lane, young adult science fiction (Lill and Mewe and the Secrets of Mars); Gary Larson, local businessman (HighFive Your Life); De Miller, local Christian filmmaker (Murder in Mount Dora); Jeanne Selander Miller, London International Book Festival award winner for Best Spiritual Book of 2012 (A Breath Away); Mark Miller, young adult fantasy and inspirational (The Empyrical Tales); Theresa Oliver, writer and independent publisher (Angels Among Us); Keith Rommel, psychological thriller (The Cursed Man); C. Kevin Thompson, Christian suspense (The Serpent’s Grasp); and Elise VanCise, photojournalist and award-winning author (Don’t Touch).
“Since our debut event last December, Authors in the Park has grown beyond our wildest dreams,” Janet Beasley, one of the three co-founders of the event along with Mark Miller and Jean E. Lane, said. “Our long term goal is to help promote and support the many talented authors we have in Lake County, and throughout Central Florida.”
During the meet-and-greet, readers and fans are encouraged to come speak to the authors, get autographs and discover some incredible new books, which will be for sale during both the afternoon and evening sessions. For the gallery walk, expect to hear live entertainment and taste complimentary appetizers provided by event sponsor One Flight Up Café (
www.oneflightupmtdora.com). Amy Sellers art will be presented at each of the authors’ tables and she may even have a few surprises, Miller said.
Authors in the Park can be found on Facebook at
www.FB.com/AuthorsInThePark and on Twitter (
@AuthorsPark, #AIP). Follow them for upcoming events and special announcements. According to JLB Creatives executive Jean E. Lane, “Authors in the Park plans to have at least four author events each year and plenty of opportunities to showcase local and independent authors.”
The March 30th event starts at 2:30 p.m. and after a brief intermission, the gallery walk begins at 6 p.m. It all happens in downtown Mount Dora at the Renaissance Building, 411 North Donnelly St.
Bil Keane, the creator of the beloved Family Circus cartoon, has died. He was 89 years old.
The AP had this tribute: “Even with his traditional motif, Keane appreciated younger cartoonists’ efforts. He listed Gary Larson‘s ‘The Far Side’ among his favorites, and he loved it when Bill Griffith had his offbeat ‘Zippy the Pinhead’ character wake up from a bump on the head thinking he was Keane’s Jeffy. Keane responded by giving Zippy an appearance in ‘Family Circus.’”
IDW Comics has been reprinting classic Family Circus cartoons. We’ve included the cover image from the second volume in the series.
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Used to be that a kid who “didn’t like to read” could be found perusing the newspaper every Sunday for the colored comic pages come rain or shine. Now thanks to a host of different factors the comics page is no longer the go to place for kids to get their comic fixes. That honor now belongs to the world of webcomics, where kids can find all their favorite funnies in one easy-to-locate spot. The golden age of the funny pages has passed, but comics will always be there for kids in one format or another.
Thinking about all of this got me to considering those comic strips souls who over the years have tried their hands at picture books. Though I would have thought the transition from one to another would be intuitive, oddly few folks have ever gone for it. So out of curiosity I thought I might try to round up those cartoonists who have made bold stabs at also conquering the world of small fry book publishing to (as you shall see) various degrees of success.
Berkeley Breathed (Bloom County, Outland, Opus)
Of all the author/illustrators on this list, Breathed seems the most dedicated to trying a wide variety of children’s fare. Rather than limit himself to picture books, he has also gone so far as to pen the occasional novel for kids as well (Flawed Dogs). The problem is . . . well . . . doggone it, I love the man. I do. I consider early Bloom County to be a stroke of genius that twisted my young reader self in the perverse woman I am today. But the simple fact of the matter is that he’s not particularly good at children’s books. There are far worse writers than him out there. Of course there are. But when all is said and done his books don’t wind up on that many Best of the Year lists for a very good reason. Even when they’re turned into films (Mars Needs Moms) they flop. Though, to be fair, Hollywood credited that flop to the fact that folks don’t want to see films with the word “Mars” in the title.
Lynn Johnston (For Better or For Worse)
There are two ways for a cartoonist to make a picture book. The first is to come up with original ideas and characters. The second is to take already existing beloved characters and just give them more space. Breathed has done both (his characters from his strips have appeared in the books Goodnight, Opus, The Last Bassalope, and A Wish for Wings That Work). Johnston, to the best of my knowledge, has only written one picture book so far called Farley Follows His Nose. Starring characters from For Better or For Worse it’s actually not half bad. Were it not for its prominent creator, of course, the book would not stand out in any particular way, but it’s a nice extension of her talents.
Wal
My husband Matt pairs well with me for a number of reasons. Amongst them is our mutual inclination to collect things we love. As such, Matt has systematically been holding onto all his issues of The New Yorker ever since he got his subscription in college. Over the years these issues have piled up piled up piled up. I was a Serials Manager before I got my library degree and one of the perks of the job was getting lots of lovely magazine holders. For years these holders graced the tops of our bookshelves and even came along with us when we moved into our current apartment a year ago. Yet with the arrival of our puir wee bairn, we decided to do the unthinkable.
Yes. We ripped off all their covers.
Well, most anyway. We have the complete run of New Yorker text on CD-ROM anyway, and anything published after the CD-ROM’s release would be online anyway. Thus does the internet discourage hoarding.
In the meantime, we now are the proud owners of only three boxes worth of New Yorker covers. They’re very fun to look at. I once had the desire to wallpaper my bathroom in such covers, but that dream will have to wait (as much as I love New York apartments and all . . .). For now, it’s just fun to flip through the covers themselves and, in flipping, I discovered something. Sure, I knew that the overlap between illustrators of children’s books and illustrators of New Yorkers was frequent. I just didn’t know how frequent it was. Here then is a quickie encapsulation of some of the folks I discovered in the course of my cover removal.
Istan Banyai
Zoom and Re-Zoom continue to circulate heavily in my library, all thanks to Banyai. I had a patron the other day ask if we had anything else that was similar but aside from Barbara Lehman all I could think of was Wiesner’s Flotsam. Banyai is well known in a different way for New Yorker covers, including this controversial one. As I recall, a bit of a kerfuffle happened when it was published back in the day.
Harry Bliss
Author and illustrator of many many picture books, it’s little wonder that the Art Editor of The New Yorker, Ms. Francoise Mouly, managed to get the man to do a TOON Book (Luke on the Loose) as well. And when it comes to his covers, this is the one I always think of first.
These reenactments of Gary Larson’s The Far Side on Flickr are worth a chuckle or two. Make your own!
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Hope all is well,Looking Forward to Mt. Dora...Can I get some Kudo's for my book on your web-site ?
I believe SILVER and HAWKINS to be a truly extraordinary and unrivaled follow-up to the most fascinating pirate and adventure story ever written by the author Robert Louis Stevenson’s, Treasure Island. The Pirate Adventure Continues, Is Fun & Easy Reading, with a Simple Plot & a Surprise Ending that will be heartily relished by younger as well as mature adults. Will Good Conquer Evil or Will the Infamous Prevail? Find out matey’s by reading my book SILVER and HAWKINS. For the die-hard fans the original characters that remained alive from Skeleton Island, are described in my book with the same persona and similar idiosyncrasies, just about a dozen years older. The new characters that I fictionalized, are introduced throughout the story bringing with them humor, romance, excitement, danger, murder, lies and deceit. Behaviors found in Men of Fortune are abounding in my story, “those who read it will be the lucky one!”
Great post! Looking so forward to networking with other local talent, meeting new fans, saying hello to those already familiar with Maycly, and best of all...helping worthy authors to be discovered! See you there ;-)