Mary Briggs: A Common Life

Ames Library Author Fair March 25, 2023 Saturday, I attended my first Author Fair after publishing A Common Life . It was a fun event with presentations on writing/publishing for authors and the general public and shmooze-time to talk about and sell/sign books. There were a couple dozen or so authors attending and we were an eclectic group! There was a teen author who had written his first book at 14-15 years old and was working on his second, a number of children's book authors, some seasoned authors with several books to their credit, and some like me with their first book at their first fair. I spoke with a number of people about my book and with other authors about theirs. It was a good day! I also attended one of the sessions on “Make Sense of Writing” presented by Michaeljulius Idani, a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Postgraduate Visiting Writer in Fiction and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa. It was an interesting presentation and I enjoyed the ...

To Write, or Not to Write One of the stories that came up while researching and writing A Common Life started with a single line in a diary entry from July 7, 1918: Three of the negro soldiers at C Dodge were found guilty and hung Friday morning. Oh these are terrible times. My initial reaction to reading the entry was, "Whaaaa?!?!?" There were no entries foreshadowing it and she never mentioned the event again. I researched enough to know what happened and why the 3 men were executed. But from the very first newspaper article I read about the hanging, I thought the details just didn't add up. I wrote about some of that for the book (World War I chapter) but I didn't dig more deeply into it because it was peripheral to the diary itself. For A Common Life , I couldn't justify the time to dig into the story behind the headlines and articles I read or I'd have never gotten the book published in 2022. But the story hasn't let me alone. I still find my self th...

Author Fair & Book Signing Event Saturday, March 25, 2023 at Ames Public Library (Ames, IA) The Ames Public Library is hosting a day of events to celebrate published and hope-to-publish authors. I will be there with copies of my book for sale 2:15pm - 4:15pm. Bring your own or buy a copy the 25th and I'll be happy to sign it for you. 1-2pm Presentation : “Make Sense of Writing” by Michaeljulius Idani, a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Postgraduate Visiting Writer in Fiction and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa. It will be located on the second floor in the Rotary Room. Open to  authors and the general public.   2:15-4:15pm Book sale and signing in the Auditorium : Each author will provide copies of their books to sell and facilitate sale of said books (cash, check, card, etc.). The Library will not be able to make change or facilitate the sale of books.      4:30-5:30pm Presentation: “After t...