A Day in the Life- #IndieAuthorDay

International Indie Author Day happened Saturday, October 14th. It was a day for Indie Authors around the world to get together.

I'm proud to say myself and poet Kate Marsh visited with our local Harney County Library and set up an author day at the library. We invited authors and writers from the area to join us for a two hour discussion of writing, publishing, and being creative.

We had nearly 20 people present, which I feel was a good number considering the small community of Burns, Oregon. Authors brought books to set up and sell.The books ranged from Children's, YA, Mystery, Sci-fi, Romance, Poems, and Nonfiction. 

We had refreshments of pumpkin and sugar cookies, coffee, tea, and juice.

The authors were asked in an email who would like to be part of a panel. We had Kate, myself, and four other authors as part of the panel. Most were Indie authors. Three had been published before going Indie. One had never published a book but wrote screenplays, and one was Indie all the way.

The event started with everyone present who considered themselves a writer to stand up, say their name and what they wrote.  It was fun to meet some people I'd only heard their names and see the passion in everyone of them for the story they were writing.

Good questions were asked and discussions were engaging and enlightening. Everyone was patient with those who took longer to tell their writing journey and when the event ended at 4, most people lingered to talk more. We were finally kicked out by the library staff because the library had been closed for half an hour!

Everyone who participated in the day had a good time and enjoyed talking with other writers and learning about the struggles and the triumphs.  It was wonderful to see young people as well as the geriatric set there to talk writing and learn from one another.

The one thing I came away with is the need to have a writing workshop of some kind at the library possibly every other month. I'll be headed into the library to talk with the director of the library and see what we can do.

If you are an author, did you participate in any events for Indie Author Day? If a reader, do you like to hear how an author struggles not only with getting words on paper but the business of writing, or do you just like reading the books for enjoyment without wondering about how the story went from a writer's  brain to the book page?