Simpsonville author wraps up workshops, book signings today 11/14/2009 12:33 AM
By SUZANNE R. STONE Staff writer
Simpsonville author Vonda Skelton brought inspiration for her fellow writers in the Aiken area Thursday.
Skelton led a writing workshop Thursday evening at the Aiken County Public Library, co-sponsored by Abundant Vine Christian Store and the Friends of the Aiken Public Library. Some 20 aspiring authors paid the $10 entry fee for the workshop, which was divided into two sections: an hour-long talk by Skelton, followed by an hour of hands-on writing exercises.
"I hate to tell you folks, but writers are a weird bunch. If you haven't figured that out already, you will tonight," Skelton told the workshop participants. "We are a volcano of words: we're always writing them, speaking them, thinking them, and we have to get them out somehow. We see how we can manipulate things so they're not quite the truth and not quite a lie. We see stories everywhere we go - everything that happens to you in your life can be made into stories."
Skelton detailed four things that keep people from writing, even when they want to: fear of failure, fear of success, fear of the emotional transparency found in the best fiction and fear of the costs in time, money and effort.
The workshop was one of several events the writer led in Aiken. She was at Redcliffe Elementary School Thursday morning and Millbrook Baptist Church Friday morning for workshops with student writers and gave a talk at the Sugar and Spice Ladies Night at Millbrook Baptist Church Friday evening.
She will do a book signing from 10 to 11 a.m. today at Abundant Vine Christian Store's new location in Langley, 100 Old Depot St. on the corner of Highway 421 and Old Depot Street.
Skelton is the author of the Bitsy young adult mystery series, including "Bitsy and the Mystery at Tybee Island," "Bitsy and the Mystery at Amelia Island," and "Bitsy and the Mystery at Hilton Head Island," and said she recently completed a research trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for her next Bitsy mystery. She has also written "Seeing Through the Lies," a nonfiction guide for Christian women, and maintains a website and author blog at www.vondaskelton.com.
For more information about today's book signing, call Abundant Vine Christian Store at 642-7859.
Contact Suzanne Stone at sstone@aikenstandard.com.
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