Fall for the Book

The only reading that fit my schedule was on Thursday September 22, 2011 at 8p at the Student Union Building II. The three writers participating in the event read a little bit from their book; Matt Bell introduced his book How They Were Found, Amelia Gray read a couple of her flash stories from AM/PM, and Michael Kimball discussed his new book Us. I have never been at any reading before, thus I did not know what to expect. I assumed the writers will be mostly talking about their books; therefore, I found as much information as I could prior to the reading so I can follow better. To my surprise, the writers opened a discussion, in which most of the people in the audience asked the authors how they became writers. This part of the reading was very interesting to me because I tried to write a novel when I was in high school, and I also brought a friend of mine to the reading event, who currently writes novels. My friend and I learned how consistent one needs to be to finish a book, how patient one must be to handle numbers of publisher’s rejections, and, most importantly, that the majority of writers have a full time job. The writers talked about editing the passages of their book recommended by a particular publisher and that one shouldn’t get discouraged even after 120^th rejection. They mentioned they all were members of some writing club where all the writers share ideas and offer advice, however, they currently have a couple of friends who they share their work with. All three of them were very encouraging for the new writers in the audience.

Hana Pasekova