‘Celebrate Authors’ event introduces first wave of its writers

The Friends of Thomas Branigan Memorial Library (FLB) are bringing back “Celebrate Authors” after a year off because of the pandemic. The event will be held 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 19, in the boardroom and Roadrunner Room on the second floor of the library, 200 E. Picacho Ave. It is free and open to the public.

Celebrate Authors 2021 will feature authors from Las Cruces and surrounding area with books published in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Here are the first five authors signed up for this year’s event.

• Eric Norway, whose book is entitled “Better Lucky Than Good.”

“This book is a collection of true short stories about flying and working on aircraft,” Norway said. “It illustrates many things one should not do with airplanes.”

Norway is retired from law enforcement and aviation-related employment. He has lived in west Texas and on the Southwest border for 27 years.

“I write because I really can’t help it,” Norway said. “I hope others find the same sense of accomplishment and satisfaction from writing that I do, and less of the frustration that comes with it.”

• George Pintar, of Las Cruces, has found inspiration in New Mexico’s landscape and rich history for several of his fictional writing pursuits, the author said.

“I love to paint word pictures of the things I see in life,” Pintar said. “I have been able to reflect on what makes New Mexico’s history, culture and economy tick.”

Pintar’s most popular works center on a curious character named Chile Charlie, a Midwest transplant to New Mexico and a fictitious stand-in for Pintar himself, he said.

Pintar has researched, written and self-published nine fiction and nonfiction books in the last several years, including solving a murder that took place more than 170 years ago in the small town of Madrid and interviewing new characters about the Old West in New Mexico.

At age 89, Pintar’s drive to pursue a writing career has never been more prominent, he said.

Visit GeorgePintarBooks.com.

• Award-winning author L. C. Hayden writes the Bronson and the Brent Thriller series.

Hayden’s mysteries have hit the Kindle, Barnes & Noble and Pennsylvania top-seller lists, she said, and were finalists for the Agatha, LCC, Silver Falchion and Readers’ Choice awards. Haydon’s nonfiction angel/miracle series consists of spiritually uplifting books.

In her latest release, “When Doubt Creeps In,” Bronson’s best friend isn’t returning calls. Has his friend become a killer and a thief?

Hayden also has been a public speaker about major cruise lines. In 2006-07, she hosted Mystery Writers of America’s talk show, “Murder Must Air.”

“Believe in yourself” is Hayden’s advice to would-be writers. “Don’t ever let anyone discourage you from writing – and that includes you. Go for it!”

Visit tinyurl.com/LCHaydenbooks.

• Larry Stocker was born in Waukegan, Illinois, and grew up in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. He has degrees from Eastern Illinois University and from New Mexico State University and has been a teacher of youth dealing with behavioral health disorders for more than 30 years, Stocker said.

Stocker has self-published books which he has written during the last two decades. One of the books, “Bad Dude Bread,” has been considered as material for a movie, Stocker said. “Hollywood, how cool is that! I would go in a flash.”

His latest book is “The Race of Tan and Others,” which he described as “short, slightly weird, diverse, nostalgic and a little funny.” Stocker is now at work on “The Race of Tan, Part 2,” the story of a woman “who doesn’t talk because she realizes that talk is just one step away from fighting. Her name is Karin and she is trying to stop the world from blowing itself up again.”

Stocker’s “Life on the Rio Grande” will soon be available, and is a bound collection of views of the world from La Llorona Park in Las Cruces “sitting on the music-playing bench,” he said.

• Mary Armstrong is an author and published playwright. An Iowa native, Armstrong lived around the country before moving to Las Cruces in 2010. Her one-act play “It is Blood” was performed by Las Cruces Community Theatre in 2017. She has numerous unpublished short stories, along with a futuristic novel that she plans to complete after a cross-country road trip.

At the beginning of her book “The Mesilla - The Two Valleys Saga: Book One,” the fictional Jesus Messi tells readers he is “writing his memoir about the 10 years leading up to the murders of Col. Albert Jennings Fountain and his young son, Henry, to gain a better understanding of what for 30 years he has thought was a senseless act of violence,” Armstrong said.

“The Mesilla” (and later books in the series) will delve into the differences and similarities of the two valleys during Jesus’ coming-of-age saga, she said.

“This historical-fiction book takes you into the growing town, political turmoil, courtroom dramas, Wild West incidents and the events that led to one of the country’s most infamous unsolved murders.”

Armstrong said her passion for writing “comes from my love of reading and storytelling. By no means am I a wordsmith. I believe in plain speak and that extraneous embellishment only clouds the prose. Steinbeck is my hero.”

Armstrong’s advice to writers is “Read! and write! Share your stories and seek feedback from people whose opinions you can trust.”

FBL started Celebrate Authors in 2014. It is looking for more local authors to participate in this year’s event.

For authors who want to sign up (the deadline is July 15) and for more information, contact Joy Miller at joyemmamiller@gmail.com and Alice Davenport at 575-527-1411 and adavenport@totacc.com, or visit her at Moonbow’s Book Nook, 225 E. Idaho Ave.,  No. 32.