Tampa Book Buzz

be back soon

Light posting over the next few days, as I won’t be home much. (Regular readers know that this is not unusual around here; sadly, the unusual part is that I’m giving advance notice before disappearing for a few days.)

I’ll be watching movies, making painfully awkward attempts at small talk, gushing over filmmakers and watching more movies at the Gasparilla Film Festival.

book buzz:historic photos of tampa, text and captions by ralph brower

Historic Photos of Tampa
text and captions by Ralph Brower

Remember those carefully-packed time capsules your fourth-grade class buried in the school’s playground all those years ago? The book Historic Photos of Tampa is a time capsule of sorts, a peek into Tampa’s history, carefully packed with a variety of photos from all walks of life.

In the book’s preface, publisher Todd Bottorff states that “this book seeks to provide easy access to a valuable, objective look into Tampa history.” Using photographs from the Burgert Brothers — some not often seen in other photo collection books — Historic Photos of Tampa presents local history in four parts:

(1) Beginning of Cigar City to the Turn of the Century
(2) Tampa at the Beginning of the 20th Century
(3) The Roaring 20s, Great Depression and Economic Recovery
(4) World War II and the Baby Boom

Each chapter gives a brief, one-page summary of the local history of that era and each photograph has a caption that gives additional historical information while explaining the photo’s origins, date and subject matter. The book’s photos are marvelous. There are pictures of famous buildings, waterways, horse-drawn carriages, store marquees, parties, industries, Ybor cigar factories, traffic, parades, carnivals, buildings under construction, and a variety of people: famous, not so famous, at work, at play and walking down the street.

I wish that the captions had received as much time and attention as the photograph selection process obviously did. The captions were oddly inconsistent: some gave a great deal of information while others were short and choppy; some were carefully written and edited, while other captions — too many of them, sadly — had grammatical and typographical errors.

Overall, however, the captions are a small part of the book. Beautiful, wonderful photos are
the center of Historic Photos of Tampa. The photographs are black and white, but the Tampa Bay area history is colorful.

Book Buzzometer: B+

(cross-posted at www.sticksoffire.com)

local author tiva wallon looking for authors for march event

Local author Tiva Wallon is looking for authors to participate in her next event:

“I have a huge event planned for March 8 and 9 at the USA Flea Market at 11721 US 19 in Port Richey from 9 AM-ish until 4 PM. The help I need? Well this event is open to ALL authors. I am looking for authors of any genre to join us. There is a table charge of $10.00 per 4 x 8 table which can be split with other authors wanting to share a table. We will be advertised (for free) on their huge electronic billboard. What I am asking is for any and all authors wanting to join us, to contact me ASAP to let me know. This is a chance for authors to meet, to spread the word about our writing and to sell our books and CDs. All authors keep the money from the sales of their books. They will need to bring a chair and a table cloth and their books/CDs.”

Anyone interested should email Wallon at raven355(at)msn.com and put “USA Flea Market event” in the subject line. Her deadline is February 20.

local author k.l. nappier is having a book launch party on february 23 and we’re all invited

Local author K.L. Nappier’s supernatural thriller Full Wolf Moon will be in wide release as a paperback by the end of this month by Aisling Press. Full Wolf Moon was originally released as an e-book at Double Dragon Publishing (and will remain available as an e-book there).

What fun is a book launch without a book launch party? Mark your calendars for this one:

February 23 — 4-6 p.m.

Panera Bakery and Cafe at Feathersound
2285 Ulmerton Road
Clearwater, FL 33762

In addition to the book signings, there will be entertainment and door prizes.

No werewolves, though, thank goodness. (I checked the Farmer’s Almanac lunar schedule to make sure.)

Hope to see you there! In the meantime, you can watch the Full Wolf Moon trailer on Nappier’s website.

arizona author mathias b. freese

Arizona psychotherapist-turned-author Mathias B. Freese recently emailed me about his short story collection Down to a Sunless Sea, which “presents a variety of styles, providing a different reading experience — poetic, journalistic, nostalgic, wryly humorous and even macabre.”

Reese recently won the 2008 Allbooks Review Editor’s Choice Award for the second year in a row (last year he won for his novel The i Tetralogy, a historical fiction on the Holocaust). You can visit Freese online at www.mathiasbfreese.com.

reading, interrupted

Yowsa, what a week. What a month. What a year. What a life! Sorry to fall off the face of the earth yet again.

If my life were a novel, it would be:

2 parts Judy Blume
2 parts Helen Fielding
1 part Jen Lancaster
1 part David Sedaris
1 part Katherine Ann Porter
mixed with Danielle Steel
dashes of Ian McEwan, Stephen King and Nicholas Sparks

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.