Last Call to Reserve Seats for Signatures Author Series on December 4

Published: 10/28/2015

Signatures Author Series features 'Gone Girl' Author Gillian Flynn plus a VIP reception, Visiting Authors and more. Reserve your seat online today.

Nineteen authors from The Woodlands and surrounding areas will round out the literary lineup at the 11^th Annual Signatures Author Series to be held on Friday, December 4 at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel. The 2015 keynote address will be given by Gillian Flynn, author of the runaway hit, Gone Girl, an international sensation that spent more than 100 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list and was made into a major motion picture. Her other books include Sharp Objects and Dark Places.

The annual Signatures event is sponsored by The John Cooper School Fine Arts Council and also features a VIP book signing and the Visiting Authors portion, featuring the literary talents of authors who will be on hand to discuss, sign and sell their books before and after the luncheon.

"Every year we seek to also highlight the talented authors who live in our immediate community," said Patty Black, who chairs the Visiting Authors portion of the event. “We are very pleased to have put together a well-rounded group of talented authors who represent a variety of genres.”

This year’s Visiting Authors will encompass adult and adolescent fiction, poetry, self-help, finance and history genres, as well as creative cookbooks and a holiday book for children.

In adult fiction, author Pete Fusco offers up Church of Martyrs, the story of an ex-priest’s involvement with seven statues of early Christian martyrs abandoned in a Catholic church. “These statues are hard to ignore, even before they meddle in human affairs!” Fusco, a retired airline pilot who lives on Lake Conroe, explained.

Pretty Enough For You author, Cliff Hudder, teaches at Lone Star College–Montgomery. His story follows a “n’er-do-well” immigration attorney who is attempting to juggle an angry wife, an inscrutable stalker and an obsessed girlfriend, as he tries to unscramble an unsolved murder case.

The Fajitas and Beer Convention is the story of Manolo and Salvador, who unintentionally end up in a wealthy American border town neighborhood where 10 Mexican gardeners work. Each man tells a tale with its own plot and moral lesson. Author Roger Rodriguez is a professor of sociology at Texas A&M International University and teaches English and sociology at Lone Star College–Montgomery.

For those looking for non-fiction, Dean Harman, founder and CEO of Harman Wealth Management and partner and co-founder of Alphalytics Research offers Win by Not Losing: Why Wall Street’s Conventional Wisdom Fails Investors–And How They Can Do Better. A Woodlands resident, Harman is frequently quoted in national media and has testified before the U.S. Congress about the financial services industry. All proceeds from his book will go to The John Cooper School.

A history professor at Lone Star College–Montgomery, Craig Livingston’s first book, From Above and Below: The Mormon Embrace of Revolution, 1840-1940 won the 2014 Mormon History Association prize for best book in international history. The book demonstrates how 21^st century Mormonism's arch-conservatism was preceded by a pro-revolutionary worldview that was dominant from the 1830s to the 1930s.

In the self-help genre, Corinne Weber’s personal memoir, Where the Monster Weights, is more than just a girl's struggle with an eating disorder. Her journey unearths teenage insecurities and doubts with honest and raw descriptions of the breakdown of relationships, the pain of isolation, and her subsequent lack of self esteem. Through faith, friendship and love, she finds the strength to recover.

Thru Thick and Thin; Facing Obesity thru the Eyes of a Loved One speaks to the needs of an often-overlooked group–the supporters and family members of obese and morbidly-obese loved ones. As the wife of a world-renowned laparoscopic surgeon, Dana M. Rosser educates people on how to support a loved one’s challenge with obesity, one of the largest epidemics in this country today.

According to author and resident of The Woodlands, Anne Reizer, mature women do not often hear “You look sensational!” Beautiful Encore: Makeovers for Mature Women suggests that looking good is not just a superficial endeavor but it can lead to confidence and success in all facets of life. Reizer uses real-life models to demonstrate that looking sensational over 50 is not difficult.

Taking a more spiritual direction, Robert Spruce and Sherri Petrek explore new spiritual relationships between men and women in A Journey of A New Person, Harden Not Your Heart. One of the precepts of this book is that God sent woman to be man’s companion. She is equal in every way, just different in the way she processes things, making man and woman together, a wonderful image of God as we merge the two different natures into one no matter what the venue or circumstances. Spruce and Petrek both live in The Woodlands.

Two poets will bring their works to the Signatures Visiting Authors lineup.

In Postcards Home, Dede Fox invites us to thumb through a photo album of favorite places and compelling images, from Texas and beyond. She writes of family, travel, the joy of perception and reflection, the arts, and the facets of her Jewish heritage. Each poem introduces characters in deeply personal, yet universal situations. An educator, Fox taught with the Houston’s Writers In The Schools program.

Award-winning poet and 2011 Texas State Poet Laureate, Dave Parsons, offers Reaching for Longer Water, a collection of his most compelling poems from his previous four collections hailed by poetry luminaries. Both tangible and cerebral, Parsons’ poetry lifts its readers into a new, transformational reality with a depth of insight that is truly exceptional. Parsons currently teaches creative writing and racquetball at Lone Star College–Montgomery.

Several authors feature books to capture the imaginations of young adults.

Memories of growing up in Nacogdoches, the oldest town in Texas, afforded Belle Whittington summers full of adventure with her friends, which she calls on often for her young adult fiction. Monarch is the third book of her Cicada trilogy, which is preceded by Cicada and Firefly. She promises that this final installment will “end the trilogy with a bang.”

Finding Paris is Joy Preble’s latest novel for young adults. It is the story of two sisters who are separated in Las Vegas with one leaving a cryptic note. The search begins and we learn the lengths to which they go to protect each other, and the winding road that brings strangers together. Preble is the author of the Dreaming Anastasia series and the Sweet Dead Life series for young adults.

A former figure skating coach and resident of The Woodlands, Kristin Rae’s first young adult novel is Wish You Were Italian. The story follows a boy-crazy young woman in Italy who attends an art school for the summer. She loves the freedom, quits the art program and is quickly wavering between the attention of two young men, one American and one Italian.

In Clueless In New Orleans, Adventures In Adolescence, Jack Saux takes us on a journey into adolescence in his sixth novel for young adults. One kiss removes his character from a simple life of fishing and hanging out with his pals, to the pursuit of something he does not understand. As he sorts through the complicated emotions, he discovers the body of his parish priest, and becomes the killer's prey.

Kim O’Brien, an English teacher at Lone Star College–Montgomery, is the author of seven romances and a series of non-fiction picture books for children. Her first teen mystery, Bone Deep, is about a teen who discovers romance and danger as she strives to solve the mysterious disappearance of her best friend who vanishes during an archeological restoration project.

For families with young children getting ready for the holidays, The Magic Gingerbread House is the story of a very special Christmas when five of Santa’s elves come to live in a newly built gingerbread house. Pamela Franks built her first gingerbread house 32 years ago. Today she is a real estate agent with four grown children who lives with her husband in The Woodlands and says the elves still visit!

Two cookbook authors will be part of the Visiting Author segment of the Signatures event.

Returning this year is teenage foodie Joshua Weissman, who lost over 100 pounds by “turning from trendy diets to real food.” In The Slim Palate Paleo Cookbook, he shares how he developed a sensible, yet still indulgent, philosophy of eating for health and happiness, along with some of his favorite recipes. Weissman is a real-food advocate and food blogger at slimpalate.com.

Lynn Wilson, a military spouse for 38 years, collected recipes and party ideas while traveling the world with her husband and compiled them into At Ease – A Salute to Creative Entertaining. Organized by month, the book shares everything from a simple seafood boil on the beach to an elegant sit-down dinner. Each party includes a theme, invitation, decorations, activity, menu and recipes. A portion of Wilson’s book sales will go to military family programs.

“This is always a highly anticipated portion of our event and we always enjoy shedding light on our visiting authors,” said 2015 Signatures Co-chair, Meg Garrison, who co-chairs the event with Denise Hayes.

“The continued success of this event is made possible by sponsorships at varying levels, ranging from individual seats for $150 apiece to table sponsorships at $5,000, $3,500 and $2,000 levels,” Hayes added. “Higher level sponsorships benefit from attending a VIP reception with the keynote speaker. “We have had sell-out audiences the past few years, so I would encourage guests to register online early.” Reservations can be made online at http://www.johncooper.org/Page/Giving--Events/Special-Events/Signatures-Author-Series.

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