Writers, Readers Rub Elbows at Author Expo

WARWICK, RI — The 11th annual RI Author Expo at Crowne Plaza Warwick Saturday drew a healthy crowd of readers browsing the works of more than 125 local authors.

Writers of all genres packed the halls and banquet room at the hotel for the event, hosted by the Association of Rhode Island Authors (ARIA). The free-admission event included writing panels, speakers, pictures with Santa, and raffles.

Sponsors included Cardi’s Furniture, WADK 1540 AM, RI State Council on the Arts, Stillwater Books, Flori Fundamentals LLC, and Coastal Credit Union. Funding was also provided in part by a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, through an appropriation by the Rhode Island General Assembly, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and private funders.

Steve Porter, owner of Stillwater Books and organizer of the event, said he estimated about 1,400 people attended the expo this year. The crowds were steady and kept authors chatting about their writing and sometimes selling it, throughout the day 10 a.m. 4 p.m. at the hotel.

Volunteers Julius Piercanuzi and Luke Patterson were canvassing the event, asking people about their experiences this year.

The ever-genial Jon Land, Rhode Islander and author of best-selling thrillers, including his Caitlin Strong series and several of the well-known Murder, She Wrote series, cheerfully greeted readers and signed copies of his works.

Porter, whose business Stillwater Books (newly transplanted from Pawtucket to New London Square Plaza, 1745 Main St., West Warwick) staffed a table at the event, spoke with Dr. Mary Anderson, author of The Happy High Achiever, due out in Sept. 2024. The doctor of Clinical Psychology said that her book was borne of her experience treating high achieving professionals — driven, determined but also riddled with stress, self-doubt, and worry. “They struggled with unhelpful self-talk and behavioral habits that kept them stuck, mired in anxiety. I call it: high-achiever’s anxiety,” Anderson writes on her website. She looked for a reference book to point her patients to, came up empty, and decided to write it herself. She just learned the book will be published by Grand Central Publishing Balance, an imprint of Hachette Book Group.

Anderson praised the Association of RI Authors and the book expo, noting it’s a helpful group whose members supported her efforts to become a published author. It’s been a great resource in connecting her with fellow authors, she said. She said she was at the expo to say hello to her writer friends, and to share the news of her book deal with Lisa Tener, book writing coach and author of The Joy of Writing Journal: Spark Your Creativity in 8 Minutes a Day. But there are others at the Expo worth talking to, she said.

“Everyone here has such creative energy,” Anderson said.

A few rows over, Herb Weiss, prolific health and aging columnist for several Rhode Island publications, including the Warwick Beacon and the Woonsocket Call, had his collection of columns, curated for timeliness, Taking Charge: Stories on Aging Boldly (Volumes I and II) on hand for browsers and buyers. Weiss told a story about a woman who was struggling with her husband as they tried to decide how to care for her spouse’s aging father. The advice and inspiration she gleaned from his books, she said, likely saved her marriage, as she told him. With that kind of impact from your writing, he said, “It doesn’t matter how many books you sell.”

Beside Weiss, Paulette Stout, author of “Bingeable contemporary fiction that says the quiet part out loud,” according to her website, or as she put it during the expo, “All my stories take on different social issues.”

Nearby Weiss and Stout, Gledé Browne Kabongo, author of psychological thrillers, said her works focus on gripping, unflinching tales of deception, secrecy, danger and family. She said she’s been writing about 10 years.

Fantasy author Liz Sauco was at the expo promoting her latest novel, Lost Blades, about a thief on the run from crimes he did and did not commit joining with a ninja trying to help his country break free from the Empire, pulled into an ancient battle. Stationed next door to her at the expo was author and storyteller Mark Binder, writer of gripping tales “Cinderella Spinderella” and “It ate my sister.”

Linda Skibski, retired Orientation and Mobility Specialist for the blind and visually impaired, a teacher in Michigan and Rhode Island for 37 years, was at the expo to talk about her memoir focusing on her late wife, who died of ovarian cancer. The book is titled, “Forever, Joanne: A Story of Love, Loss, and Leaps of Faith.”

The memoir theme continued next door with Kim Harris Stowell of Providence and her memoir about her mother, “Marn, One hell of a Broad,” about her struggle to raise three young daughters as a single mother in the 1940s, living on not much more than her wits and ingenuity.