Eclectic selection of authors to talk November 9
Travel with CPW to an Aleutian island in the Arctic, to a swamp in the Florida Keys, and into a world of misfits, outcasts and eccentrics during the annual authors’ event on November 9. Three accomplished authors will discuss three different book genres and the stories they depict on Saturday, November 9, at the unusual home of CPW member Donna Bryson.
The newest book by former Pulitzer-prize winning journalist for The Denver Post, Mark Obmascik, The Storm on Our Shores, brings to light the true story of the battle of Attu and the human thread that tragically connects two combatants. When an American soldier retrieves the diary of a fallen Japanese medic, it begins a lifelong campaign to come to grips with the year-long battle that cost too many lives. The book, Obmascik’s third, was featured on CBS 60 Minutes last spring.
On the author’s website, Helen Thorpe, author of Just Like Us and other novels, praises Obmascik’s work: “Mark Obmascik is a master storyteller. He writes with tremendous grace about a forgotten part of our history, telling the same story from two opposing points of view—perhaps the only way warfare can truly be understood. He brings to life in gritty detail the enormity of the sacrifices made on both sides of the conflict, and thus enables us to appreciate the terrible price of war anew.”
Nancy Stohlman, an instructor at the University of Colorado Program for Writing and Rhetoric as well as the lead singer of the lounge metal jazz trio Kinky Mink, will share excerpts from Madame Velvet’s Cabaret of Oddities, a Colorado Book Award finalist. A collection of related flash fiction stories, Madame Velvet’s takes readers on a touching, sometimes bawdy, surprising journey of interesting characters.
“Nancy Stohlman’s writing is so damn sharp here. And each of these shards that make up Madam Velvet’s Cabaret of Oddities is connected by this silly-sad-hopeful-absurd-melancholic web that catches everything you do not want, and you’ll find yourself longing for what’s not caught. But you will end up caught in the web too, with all of that mess. I’ve never read a book like this, and I’m excited to hear all of the conversations surrounding it,” writes Steven Dunn, author of Water and Power, on the publisher’s website.
Jane Bock, a CPW member who writes mystery novels and nonfiction with her husband Carl Bock, will discuss The White Heron, the second installment of the pair’s Florida Keys Mysteries. The retired University of Colorado biology professor’s knowledge of botany and forensic plant science has led Bock to achieve a national reputation as a consultant to law enforcement agencies and involvement in hundreds of criminal cases. She draws on that, as well as her knowledge of place, to craft her stories. The Florida Keys Mysteries also includes The Swamp Guide, which won the 2019 NFPW Fiction for Adult Readers category.
David Z, a reviewer on Amazon, wrote of The Swamp Guide, “The setting is so vivid, you can’t help but swat mosquitoes while you read. The story is clever, complex, and written with a sure hand. Peppered with colorful characters like Snooks and the late Mabel Schwimley, The Swamp Guide is sure to entertain even the driest landlubber.”
Bryson, CPW’s 2019 Communicator of Achievement, and her husband Fred Glick recently converted a 1942 steam plant in Denver’s Clayton Neighborhood into their home. The luncheon event will be an opportunity to see what they did to make the place livable and help revitalize the neighborhood.
The event cost of $25 for CPW members and members of Denver Woman’s Press Club ($30 nonmembers) includes buffet lunch of salads and sandwiches, coffee and morning snacks. Registration begins at 9:30 a.m. with talks beginning at 9:45 a.m. The event will conclude around 12:30 p.m. Books by the featured authors will be available for sale at the event.
Register and pay by November 1, online at https://coloradopresswomen.org/events/ (a fee will be added for those paying by PayPal) or by check and mail to Mary Parmelee, 586 S. Gaylord, Denver, CO 80209. Event address will be provided to registrants the week before the event.
Ongoing CPW Events
Writers Group
The CPW Writers Group welcomes new members interested in stretching into creative writing, whether it’s fiction, nonfiction, poetry or scripts. We meet on the second Saturday of the month. For details, contact Dala Giffin.
Past Events:
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