The next chapter in the Great Valley Bookfest takes place on Saturday, Oct. 14, at the Orchard Valley complex anchored by Bass Pro Shops at Union Road and the 120 Bypsss.
The free book festival is from 10 a.m. to 4 pm. It is an opportunity for authors and book lovers to join together in a festive environment.
At the Great Valley Bookfest, you can mingle with your favorite authors, discover new ones, or pick up that book you have been dying to read. For children, a book festival is a great place to develop a love for reading.
The heart of the annual celebration of literacy is Author’s Alley. Not only will they have books for sale but they are always happy to engage people in conversation about books and writing.
The Friends of the Manteca Library will also be staging their annual used book sale. The committee works year round sorting books to make it easy to search for your favorite genre or author. Books range from 25 cents to a $2.
There is also a poets corner plus a writer’s nook.
The writer’s nook features hourly programs starting at noon that are conducted by authors.
Jennifer K. Morita, as an example, will speak at noon about character driven mysteries along with fellow authors Claire Booth, Jessica Cline, and Richard Meredith.
Morita started her writing career as a journalist, working her way up from a small weekly newspaper in Paradise, California to The Sacramento Bee. She spent several years juggling freelance jobs with being a stay-at-home mom.
Six months into the pandemic, after purging, painting and baking along with the rest of the world, Jennifer decided to give her pipe dream of being a mystery author a chance and wrote the book floating around in her head for twenty or so years.
Her debut, “The Ghost Of Waikiki”, will be released by Crooked Lane Books in the fall of 2024. Learn more about Jennifer by following her on Facebook or Instagram. She is still working on her website.
At 1 p.m., four San Joaquin Valley write4rs will share pathways from starting books to being published.
Authors Rae Rankin, Mariah Clark Skewes, and Pam Atherstone at 2 p.m. will present “Wiring and Publishing 101 for Indie Authors.” They represent the Northern California Publishers and Authors group.
The 3 p.m. program presented by Gold Country Writers is centered around: “Relationship marketing for your specialty book – your ideal reader and who can help you get your message to them?”
More details are on the website gvbookfest.org. That said, it has only a partial listing of the authors that will be in attendance.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
