Book festival to feature eight writing seminars

People who love words can learn how to publish their own books, poems or songs at the second annual Festival of Books in Inverness on Saturday, Feb. 4.

Eight different seminars will offer ideas on how to publish a book, tips on how to attract a publisher’s attention and how to have songs and poems published.

The festival, dubbed Books and Beyond, will feature Nancy Kennedy of the Chronicle as the featured author. Kennedy will conduct one of the seminars, speaking about how to write for the religious market. Other seminars will occur in the morning and afternoon.

Kicking off the morning seminar will be local author Joyce Moore and Bobbi Janson of Hudson.

Moore will present “A Speed Course in Writing Fiction,” while Janson will offer ideas on how to have songs published. Both seminars begin at 9 a.m. Those interested in either seminar should plan to arrive at 8:30 a.m. to buy tickets and be seated before the start of the seminar.

At 10:30 a.m. Kennedy will talk about how to break into the religious writing market. At the same time, Citrus County resident Loretta Rogers, an award-winning author of western novels, will speak about the importance of a manuscript’s first three pages.

Dylan Newton and Terri DuLong will begin the afternoon seminars at 1:15 p.m. Newton, who participated as a newly published author last year, will advise festival-goers about gaining a publisher’s attention with a traditional query letter. DuLong, a Cedar Key resident who is winning wide acclaim for her series of books based in Cedar Key, will discuss the mystique of women’s fiction.

Poet Madelyn Eastlund, who had an accident on her way to the 2011 festival, will deliver a “tweaked” seminar on the “Magic of Poetry.” Concurrently, Kathleen Walls of St. Augustine will deliver information on self-publishing.

In between the morning and afternoon sessions, Florida folk singer and Inverness resident Carly Bak will demonstrate why she is a popular performer by displaying talent on the acoustic guitar and mandolin from noon to 1 p.m. One of her songs is about the now-almost legendary Turner Camp of Inverness, which burned last year.

The Festival runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, 114 N. Osceola, in downtown Inverness, one block north of U.S. 44.

Admission to the authors’ area is free. Festival-goers planning to buy books should expect to pay cash or write checks to individual authors.

Participants planning to attend seminars should buy tickets early, as space will be limited to no more than 30 people per seminar, with the exception of Kennedy’s lecture in the church’s sanctuary.

Doors will be open at 8 a.m. A package of tickets is $10 for all seminars. Any individual seminar will be $5.

More information about the authors, synopses of their books and information about seminars may be found at gfwcwomansclubofinerness.org or by calling 352-634-4216.