Bulletin report
Celebrate Authors 2023 will be in the Roadrunner Room on the second floor of Thomas Branigan Memorial Library, 2-4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 1.
Friends of the Branigan Library (FBL) is partnering with MOONBOW Alterations and Moonbow’s Book Nook to sponsor this year’s event, said event coordinator Alice Davenport. FBL started Celebrate Authors in 2014 to showcase area authors.
Celebrate Authors 2023 will feature authors from Las Cruces and the surrounding area with books published in 2021, 2022 and 2023, Davenport said. 45 authors will participate from more than 270 authors represented at Moonbow’s Book Nook, 225 E Idaho Ave., No. 32, she said.
MOONBOW Alterations and Moonbow’s Book Nook will make monetary donations to Children’s Reading Alliance and Spay Neuter Action Program after the 2023 Celebrate Authors event. Guests and participating authors can contribute.
For more information, contact Davenport at 575-527-1411 and adavenport@totacc.com.
Here is information about some of this year’s authors and their books, provided by the authors.
- If you’ve ever heard “You should write that down,” author and life story coach Karen Ray's book is for you. “Tell Your Life Story: 10 Tips and Techniques to Write Your Memoir,” will help you capture your one-of-a-kind stories. Perhaps you’ve struggled with how to begin your memoir or family history, what to say, or even wondered if you can or should do this. The easy exercises, tips and prompts in Ray’s book will put you on the fast track to getting it written. She believes everyone’s life story is priceless. Ray lives in the high desert of southern New Mexico and enjoys reading, writing, anything outdoors and all things rusty and dusty. She loves to travel and collect stories of lesser-known people and places.
- L. C. Hayden is the author of the Harry Bronson Thriller Series, Aimee Brent Mystery Series, angel/miracle series and other series and standalones. Her works have been finalists for the Agatha, Silver Falchion, Reader's Choice and LCC Awards, and has hit the Pennsylvania Top 40, the Barnes & Noble Top 10, and amazon.com Kindle category bestseller lists. Hayden is also a public speaker, presenting workshops and speaking to clubs and on cruises. In 2006-07, Hayden hosted the Mystery Writers of America’s only talk show, “Murder Must Air.” Hayden’s latest release, “That Last Ghost Dance,” is set at the Paiute Native American Reservation Nevada and has been nominated for the 2023 Reader’s Choice Award. Visit www.lchayden.com and find Hayden on Facebook.
- In her book “Count It All Joy,” Norma-Jean Sims-Coachman traces her journey as a biracial child growing up in the 1950s, traveling the world with her Latvian mother and Black military father. The story recounts her teenage marriage and the stresses, hardships, family secrets and tragedy of life as they built a family together. Throughout a tumultuous life, Sims-Coachman clung fiercely to hope and an innate optimism that her faith in God would anchor her and her family. Grappling with economic instability and periods of great grief through much of her life, she realized it still held hope and began a vibrant new chapter, sharing her determination to live every day with intention. Sims-Coachman lives a life of hope and encouragement with her husband, Dale, in New Mexico.
- Bill Cavaliere is the author of “The Chiricahua Apaches: A Concise History,” a documentation of the people called the Chiricahua Apaches. The book chronicles important events that occurred throughout their f history and compiles major episodes relating to their ancestral homelands, called Apacheria. Cavaliere is an independent scholar who retired after 28 years in law enforcement. He worked for the U.S. Forest Service in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona and was sheriff of Hidalgo County, New Mexico. Cavaliere is president of the Cochise County Historical Society. He and his wife, Jill, live on a ranch. Articles by Cavaliere have been published in historical journals and magazines. He was a contributing author for the book “Cave Creek Canyon: Revealing the Heart of Arizona's Chiricahua Mountains.”
- Eli Greenbaum is the author of “Emerald Labyrinth: A Scientist's Adventures in the Jungles of the Congo,” published in 2017. He is a two-time National Geographic explorer and full professor of evolutionary genetics at UTEP where he teaches undergraduate and graduate-level courses in genetics, herpetology and biodiversity. Greenbaum is also director of UTEP Biodiversity Collections, the university's plant and animal natural history collections. Since 2007, Greenbaum has led 10 expeditions to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Uganda where he has worked with an all-Congolese team of herpetologists to survey the amphibian and reptile biodiversity of Central Africa. His work has been covered by CNN, Newsweek, The Washington Post, NBC News, National Geographic Daily News, Africa Geographic Magazine, Reptiles Magazine, Smithsonian.com, Nature.com, and The Huffington Post.
- Margaret Bernstein’s first children’s book is “Malu and the Pineapple Seed.” Bernstein is a Las Cruces artist who has reported news and feature events for several major city daily newspapers, and has taught English, journalism and art in public schools. Las Cruces artist Rebecca Courtney provided the art for Bernstein’s book. “I hope the open drawings allow children to picture Malu as looking like them so they can go with Malu on this journey,” Courtney said.
