Join Bookmark It for another exciting month of Wine & Sign Fridays! Throughout the month of June, they’ve invited Florida authors for signings and sippings to help you get inspired to explore and discover the great state of Florida.

Eric Dusenbery, author and photographer behind Florida Soup: Putting History On the Table, features experiences alongside poignant portraits of food producers in Florida. The collection offers a rich harvest of storytellers, from a tobacco-spitting blue crab fisherman to a rancher who reminisces about Depression-era farming, woven into a compelling look at historic cooking habits, food production and recipes that defined the family and community in rural and small-town Florida. Eric writes, “Our state is unique in its food consumption and production practices both from a historical perspective and present-day realities. Florida has a rich harvest of storytellers from a tobacco-spitting blue crab fisherman who recounts commercial fishing practices of yesteryear to a rancher who reminisces about Depression-era farming and a few other surprising tales. This is a project on Florida’s love affair with food and storytelling.”

• When: Friday, June 26, 6-8pm
• Where: Bookmark It (Downstairs at East End Market)
  3201 Corrine Dr, Suite 109
  Orlando, FL, 32803
• Cost: Free (free wine tasting from Quantum Leap Winery)
• RSVP: to the facebook event page (appreciated, not required)

A day-long celebration of books at the Orlando Public Library. Come and check it out for book signings, panel discussion, and writing workshops!

The Author’s Fair in Library Central will feature 26 authors of all genres from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. NYT Bestselling Author and Printz Honor recipient Rick Yancey will give the keynote address at 11 a.m. and sign immediately after his talk. Yancey’s book The 5th Wave is now a major motion picture, releasing 2016. From 12 p.m. to 4 p.m., there will be panel discussions for both readers and aspiring authors.

Attending authors are: R.L. Austin, Kait Ballenger, Vivi Barnes, Stacy Barton, Richard Lee Byers, E.M. Caines, Doug Dillon, Lucienne Diver, James Driggers, Christina Farley, Maria Geraci, Lori Goldstein, Shane Hinton, Nathan Holic, Trisha Leaver, Ethan Long, Tawdra Kandle, Marianne Kirby, David Lapham, Lynne Matson, Amy Christine Parker, H.D. Smith, J.A. Souders, Jeff Strand, Nancy Robards Thompson, Lynne Waddell. (Subject to change.)

• Saturday, June 27, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Orlando Public Library
• Stay up to date by RSVPing to the Facebook event.

We’ve all heard campfire stories designed to provide a collective shiver; we’ve all heard traditional ideas of heaven and hell. But how can we use these concepts in our fiction in ways that enhance our writing?

In this workshop, author Heather Startup will examine several novels and one short story, searching for commonalities among their portrayals of the afterlife as well as the unique aspects of each story. Heather will discuss techniques to strengthen characters, the narrator’s reliability, and your story as a whole.

Stories for discussion include: “Louise’s Ghost,” by Kelly Link; The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver; The Third Policeman, by Flann O’Brien; and The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James.

• Tuesday, June 23, 7 p.m. at the OCLS Alafaya Branch.
  12000 E. Colonial Dr.
  Orlando, FL 32826

Register here. For more information, contact the library at (407)-835-7323.