Saturday, November 16 | 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Charlotte Hall Library
Learn from local writers and meet new ones! Learn about getting started writing, publishing, and more. The St. Mary’s County Library Author Fair provides an opportunity to meet local authors and browse their works. Authors will give a quick presentation on their works, and have an opportunity to promote and sell their work.
Schedule
11 a.m.: Welcome and introduction
11:10 a.m.: Authors will speak for approximately five minutes each about their writing experiences
12 p.m.: Authors will sit at their respective tables and event attendees can browse the books and get to know the authors.
1 p.m.: “Where Do You Get Your Ideas?”, led by author and featured speaker Fran Wilde.
Featured Speaker
Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
In this workshop intended for writers of all ages and experience levels, we’ll work together to build brainstorming tools of your own, ones that will support your writing for many stories to come. If you have a blank writer’s notebook lurking about, bring it. Also a couple of pens. If not, we’ll have pens and paper at the Library!
Two-time Nebula Award-winner Fran Wilde has (so far) published eight novels, a poetry collection, and over 70 short stories for adults, teens, and kids. Her stories have been finalists for six Nebula Awards, a World Fantasy Award, four Hugo Awards, four Locus Awards, and a Lodestar. They include her Nebula- and Compton Crook-winning debut novel Updraft, and her Nebula-winning, Best of NPR 2019, debut Middle Grade novel Riverland. Her short stories appear in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Tor.com, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Shimmer, Nature, Uncanny Magazine, and multiple years’ best anthologies.
The Managing Editor for The Sunday Morning Transport, Fran teaches or has taught for schools including Vermont College of Fine Arts’ WFCMYA MFA and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She writes nonfiction for publications including The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, and Tor.com. You can find her on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and at franwilde.net.
Author Fair 2024 Authors
Debra Anastasia
Lady Mafia, 2023; Mercy, 2017; Drowning in Stars, 2020
Meet Debra Anastasia, the USA Today bestselling novelist who brings her vivid imagination to life on the pages of her books. With a Bachelor of Science in political science, Debra creates complex and relatable characters in the genre of new adult angst and romantic comedies. Based in Maryland with her loving family, including her husband, two children, and a chatty tuxedo cat, Debra finds inspiration in everyday life and the world around her. Follow her journey as she paints the pretend people in her head and transports you to the world of her stories. Visit DebraAnastasia.com for more information on her latest works and to stay updated on her writing journey.
The Unwelcome Surprise, 2023
Olga Herrera is a Cuban and Ecuadorian author-Illustrator who earned her BFA from the Ringling College of Art and Design. She co-founded Illo Chat, a podcast for Illustrators, and is an active, long-time member of the SCBWI. She also teaches Illustration to seniors in her community and mentors emerging authors and illustrators. Olga is bilingual in Spanish and English. She was born in Miami, Florida, and grew up in Ecuador, a beautifully diverse country that remains close to her heart. She now lives in the picturesque state of Maryland with her husband, two children, and too many pets who patiently listen to her ideas. Her debut picture book, The Unwelcome Surprise, was published by Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan last year.
Ward Huffine
Before the Sun, 2024; Leaving the Yard, 2019; Outside the Yard, 2019
I started writing on a whim in 2018. My subject matter was simply my view of life at the moment. A friend of mine encouraged me to publish my poetry. Since that time, I have published six books of poetry and am working on my seventh. I retired in 2024 after essentially 51 years of supporting the Air Force, NASA, the Navy and a variety of other small business’s as a computer programmer and Test Engineer. I hold a BS in Computer Science and an MS in Aviation Systems. I am an Air Force Veteran. I am married, with 4 daughters, 3 son in-laws and 5 grandchildren. I live in Piney Point, MD.
Just Momma, 2021; Just Like Daddy, 2022; Adeline Visits the Library, 2022
Meredith Johnson is an acclaimed children’s author honored with the 2022 Maryland Independent Artist Award for Literary Art. Her beloved books, including Just Momma, Just Like Daddy, and Adeline Visits the Library, are celebrated for teaching young readers the importance of kindness, imagination, and self-strength in overcoming life’s challenges. Meredith views writing for children as both a privilege and a joy, and she hopes that her stories inspire young readers to discover their own adventures and inner strength.
Making a Way Out of No Way: Lives of Labor, Love, and Resistance, 2024; Listening In: Echoes and Artifacts from Maryland’s Mother County, 2018; Historic Sotterley: Talking and Walking Common Ground, documentary video, 2022
Merideth M. Taylor is Professor Emerita of Theater and Dance at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and a founding member of the African and African Diaspora and Women Studies programs at the College. She is author of Listening in: Echoes and Artifacts from Maryland’s Mother County; co-editor of In Relentless Pursuit of an Education: African American Stories from a Century of Segregation; and screenwriter/director of the documentaries With All Deliberate Speed: One High School’s Story and Telly-Award-winning Talking and Walking Common Ground.
Grace, Grit & Lipstick: Wit & Wisdom for the Modern Female Farmer & her Farm-Curious Friends, 2023
Author and fourth-generation farmer Shelby Watson-Hampton’s book Grace, Grit & Lipstick is an ode to the real lives of rural women. With humor, hard-won wisdom, and a wealth of practical how-to’s, Watson-Hampton’s account of farming-while-female offers farm women at all stages the skills and support to thrive in the farmed life. It’s written for ALL WOMEN, with themes focusing on perseverance, introspection, and determination – but it also has a special focus on women farmers, ranchers, homesteaders and rural entrepreneurs – a perspective you’ll enjoy whether you are one, hope to be one, or just know one from the farmers market that you’re cheering on! If you’re a woman who doesn’t feel you have community, you’re not alone. Lots of awesome badass chicks are here in the online space to make friends, lift each other up, and be there for each other; you just need to find them. Let this book help you do that! Follow the author on instagram @the_farmed_life or on her website, www.thefarmedlife.org.
The Legend of the Sleep-Eating Elephant, 2024; Bugzee and the Bees, available January 2025; Freddie the Flounder, Two book series, 2020
Nocola received her doctorate degree in Teacher Leadership in 2011 but chose to remain in the elementary classroom for her entire 31-year teaching career. She retired from teaching in 2022, but still finds herself substituting and mentoring youth in her Southern Maryland community. Coming from a family of educators, it is no wonder Nocola fell in love with words and reading at a very early age. She enjoys writing poetry and short stories. Her first book, Freddie the Flounder, was written in 1992, but was not published until 2020. Nocola finds inspiration for her most recent stories in her backyard where she and her husband Quincy, are transforming their backyard into a mini homestead, complete with a garden, chickens, and of course honeybees. Check out Nicola’s Facebook; Instagram; and website.
