Author! Author! Welcomes Diverse Trio of Writers for 12th Annual Benefit

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A South Dakota murder mystery, the tragic flight of the airship Hindenburg, and the conception of Killer Nashville will all come alive Thursday, June 16, when Author! Author! returns for its 12th year.

The 2016 edition of Adult Learning Center of Williamson County’s annual benefit luncheon features author and screenwriter Clay Stafford; novelist Ariel Lawhon and mystery writer Sandra Brannan. Chuck Sherrill, State Librarian and Archivist of Tennessee, will emcee. The event begins at 11 a.m. at Brentwood Country Club, 5123 Country Club Drive, Brentwood.

This year’s event holds added appeal as it helps celebrate the nonprofit Adult Learning Center’s 30th anniversary. Established in 1986 as the Literacy Council of Williamson County, the ALC provides free programs that help adults develop reading, writing, conversation and math skills. This will be Ariel Lawhon’s second Author! Author! appearance. Co-founder of the popular online book club, She Reads, Lawhon participated in 2014 following the release of her first novel, The Wife, The Maid, And The Mistress (Doubleday, 2014). In February, her second novel, Flight of Dreams, was published, also by Doubleday.

Flight of Dreams vividly brings the four-day 1937 voyage of the domed airship Hindenburg to life. Over the course of three hazy, champagne-soaked days, Lawhon’s character’s lies, fears, agendas, and hopes for the future are revealed. While fictionalized, all of the characters are based on real Hindenburg passengers.

The book was featured in People Magazine’s Best New Books section in its March 21 issue and received high praise in a New York Times book section review. Clay Stafford is an award-winning author, screenwriter, and filmmaker. He has sold over 1.5 million hardcover copies of his children’s adaptations and has seen his film work distributed in over 14 languages.

Stafford is the founder of Killer Nashville and Killer Nashville Magazine. The annual Killer Nashville conference brings hundreds of suspense and mystery authors, literary agents and editors from across the country together for a three-day writers’ conference. This year’s conference, Aug. 18-21 in Franklin, features bestselling authors Janet Evanovich and Kevin O’Brien.

In 2015, Stafford edited and contributed to Cold-Blooded, an anthology by some of Killer Nashville’s most prominent writers. Stafford and Lawhon both call Middle Tennessee home but mystery author Sandra Brannan – who loves to personally interact with book clubs and readers –will travel south to take part.

Brannan has created a heart-pounding, award-winning series around the intelligent, ballsy Liv Bergen, a woman who embodies the spirit of the Black Hills of South Dakota. Jacob’s Descent, Brannan’s sixth novel in her Bergen mystery series, was released in March. One reviewer described Bergen as “the love child of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher and Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone.”

After living in Wyoming, Washington, D.C., Washington state, and Colorado, Brannan returned to her hometown in South Dakota, where she lives with her family and still participates in her “other career,” mining.

The annual Author! Author! luncheon has grown each year as the ALC’s signature event and a “must do” by those who love hearing authors share stories about themselves and the characters they create.

“Each year we strive to offer a trio of authors who bring with them diverse backgrounds, writing styles and reading audiences,” said Rita Dozier, the council’s executive director. “We’re especially excited about this year’s lineup. And having Chuck Sherrill, an author and historian in his own right as well as a charming and amusing host as emcee, will make it even more entertaining.”

The authors will meet guests and sign books before and after the event; a limited number of each authors’ books will be available for purchase. A silent auction and door prizes are also featured.

Book clubs are encouraged to attend and members may request seating together. Tickets are $50, of which $30 is tax-deductible. For more information on ALC of Williamson County, visit its website, adultlearningcenterwctn.org. To order tickets or learn more about Author! Author!, visit authorauthoreventtn.org or call 615-224-3471.