Odyssey Mercado and her children’s book.
Steve Cassady donates his new book to Amy Boese and Daniel OBrien from the Merced County Library.
Author Steve Newvine with his collection of books.
By SUSAN WALSH
Mysteries. Poetry. Nonfiction and academic research.
Thrillers. Children’s Books. Young Adult SF / Fantasy.
Comics. Autobiographies. Coloring Books with poetry and affirmations.
Authors writing in many genres for many interests and age levels took part in the first Merced Author Fair last weekend sponsored by the Merced County Library and the UC Merced Center for the Humanities.
Three panel discussions were presented during the course of the event: Writing Children’s Books, Writing Nonfiction, and Translating Research into Comics. Authors donated books for the Merced County Library collection as well as books for a drawing for participants. At her table, poet Dawn Trook worked on interactive poetry projects with children and wrote tiny poems on request on topics from flowers, to boys, to trombones, and to pizza.
Over 20 local authors participated including Mike Biddison, Hannah Williamson, Donald Barclay, Joyce Dale, Holley Moyes, Lilia Pulido Fernandez, Steve Newvine, Felicia Rhapsody Lopez, Kathleen Hull, JoAnna Wendell, Steve Cassady, Hub Walsh, Susan Walsh, and Lane Jacobs.
Odyssey Mercado, an elementary school student, was probably the youngest author present. She and her mother, author and illustrator Ileisha Sanders, were two of the panelists in the writing children’s books discussion.