Riverhaven Books

September 24th

with Bruce Machart

The Necessity of Loneliness:

While anthropologists now tell us that our human evolution is vitally intertwined with our "tribal" behavior, with our "instinctive" desire to form human connections, to establish and join "groups," to make friends and seek partners, to befriend and love, the very act of what I call "empathetic" writing depends, to a great extent, on our ability to resist this urge, to foster our own solitude, to embrace and protect our own loneliness.  In this way, we must eschew real-life human connection in an attempt to realize the rewarding connections we forge with the fictional "human beings" we breathe into life on the page.  This has forever been the greatest emotional challenge for writers:  How do we balance the necessary loneliness with our seemingly innate need to connect with others?  The answer may lie in the essential truth of the narrative arts -- If characters are rendered truthfully and empathetically, they become, for both writers and readers, human beings.  In this way, writers travel through solitude toward the very remedy for loneliness.  Through an investigation of some pivotal literary works, and through a frank discussion of the challenges of "the aloneness of writing," we will seek to reconcile the apparent contradiction of the writer's life, one which suggests that solitude is essential to the writer's ability to connect with his/her fellow human beings.

October 29

with Kevin Symmons

Paranormal Romance

It's scary how much research is involved in writing! Between that and the theme of witches in Kevin's newly released novel, Rite of Passage, published by Wild Rose Press, this is sure to be a memorable evening. Please mark the date!