Four Minutes of Fame Stand-up Literary Event

Last Monday, Kym Brunner, Katie Sparks, and I hosted our first Four Minutes of Fame Stand-up Literary Event where more than ten authors shared excerpts from their books, illustrations, and book trailers with a fun and enthusiastic audience.

Here's Katie, Kym and me just before the event started.

In order from left to right:

Kym Brunner started off the event with an excerpt from her upcoming release, WANTED: Dead or in Love, to be released by Merit Press summer 2014. You're not going to want to miss this book, so keep an eye on my blog because I'll be sharing more news as it gets closer torelease date.

Next up was Katie Sparks who read from one of her works-in-progress, a fun and witty picture book that gives a new twist to some familiar fairy-tales.

Veronica Rundell shared an excerpt from her current work-in-progress for young adults. She's an amazing writer and I just know she'll find a good home for this novel.

I split up my time by showing the book trailer for Hold Tight and then reading from the book.

We learned about Working Horses from Pat Kummer. Did you know horses only sleep three hours a day? I sure didn't!

Susan Kaye Quinn not only entertained us with her Mindjack Series Book Trailer, but she shared an expert from Open Minds, book one in her best selling series.

Again, from left to right:

Terry Flamm read an excerpt from his adult detective novel set in the eighties, leaving us wanting to know more.

We got to hear the barnyard animals in Cock-A-Doodle-Oops give their best cook-a-doodle-doo as they tried to wake the hard working farmer from his slumber when Lori Degman was up. This humorous picture book will be available next spring

Jennifer Wagh wowed us with her story of the dress maker, which was nominated for the SCBWI Sue Alexander award a couple years back.

We learned a little about how Mike Kelley adds color to his graphic novels while he shard with us several pages from his graphic novel, Barker the Beagleman.

And last but certainly not least, Allan Woodrow gave us a sneak peek of his entertaining middle grade novel, The Pet Wars, coming to stores soon.

Throughout the evening we gave away fun prizes. I think everyone had a good time. I enjoyed hearing snippets from everyone's work: from picture book to an adult detective story, works-in-progress to published novels, the room was bursting with talent, and I was happy to be a part of bringing everyone together.

This was our first event and it went smoothly. A big thanks goes out to everyone who read last Monday, my sister for taking the pictures, and the wonderful audience. We'll be planning another stand-up literary event in the near future. Who knows, it might just be near you and we'd love to see you!