I Love Meeting Authors and Readers

As a reader I love meeting authors, and as an author I love meeting readers. I learned many years ago that if you reach out to authors, sometimes they write back. I once received a hand-written note back. The clue is if they have posted their email or have a contact form on their website. Go ahead. Reach out to an author whose book you liked. The worst that could happen is they don’t respond. You might build a new connection or friendship. Remember, behind every book there is a real person who wants to tell a story…to you, the reader. Here are a few authors I have met.

Kudos to author Greg Archer (Grace Revealed). After connecting via email, he eventually became so intrigued he drove over from Palm Springs to meet me. We both wrote books about Poland during WWII. I took him hiking on South Mountain. Ross King, author of Brunalleschi’s Dome, (think Florence Italy) came to Phoenix on vacation to visit friends. Through a separate introduction, we met and I took him to Taliesen West in Scottsdale (think Frank Lloyd Wright.)  Attend a book signing event, go to a book festival, and if you are a writer attend a few writing conferences so you can learn from the best. You never know who you might connect with.

Here are a few of the authors I have had the chance to meet. Who are some of the favorites you have met?

Authors (in random order) Left to right: Alice Hoffman (The Marriage of Opposites, The Museum of Extraordinary Things, and more); Martha Hall Kelly (Lilac Girls and Lost Roses); Harlan Coben (Run Away, Tell No One, and more); Clemantine Wamariya (The Girl Who Smiled Beads); Margot Lee Shetterly (Hidden Figures); Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale, and many more); Markus Zusak (The Book Thief and Bridge of Clay); Greg Archer (Grace Revealed) and I hiking South Mountain in Phoenix; James Conroyd Martin (The Poland Trilogy and The Boy Who Wanted Wings); Pam Jenoff (The Lost Girls of Paris, Orphan’s Tale and more); Sara Paretsky (the V I Warshawski novels); Father Patrick Desbois (The Holocaust by Bullets); Robert M. Edsel (The Monuments Men); Ross King (Brunalleschi’s Dome and more) and I visiting Taliesen West in Scottsdale AZ; Mona Golabek (The Children of Willesden Lane); Andrew Nagorski (Hitlerland, The Nazi Hunters, and more); Juliette Fay (The Tumbling Turner Sisters, and more); Sophie Hodorowicz Knab (Wearing the Letter P: Polish Women as Forced Laborers in Nazi Germany 1939-1945, and more).

I will write a future post on Arizona authors I am proud to have connected with.

#authors #amreading #ilovebooks #Writerslife