"Longmire" author to speak at Benicia Public Library

(Originally published in the 1/12/16 edition)

   Craig Johnson, the best-selling author of the “Walt Longmire Mysteries” series, will be coming to the Benicia Public Library for a presentation and Q-and-A session.

   Johnson’s 12 books have been critical and commercials successes, with some placing on the New York Times Best Seller list and others winning numerous book awards. The books follow the investigations of Walt Longmire, a Wyoming sheriff who inquires into crimes within his jurisdiction while campaigning for re-election.

   The books also spawned the TV series “Longmire,” which ran on the A&E network for three seasons with the premiere boasting the highest rated debut in the channel’s history. For its fourth season, the series was picked up by Netflix where it will also run for a fifth season. The Wyoming town of Buffalo celebrates an event called Longmire Days, which Johnson attends along with close to 10,000 others.

   Johnson has done several speaking engagements across the country, including one in Corte Madera last year which Library Director Fran Martinez Coyne attended with a colleague. 

   “My colleague said ‘Well, let’s just email him and see what it takes to get him to Benicia,’” Coyne said. “I had no idea how much it would cost or if I would have to go to a booking agent, so I just sent him an email.” 

   Coyne did not immediately get a reply back to her email or the followup she sent. She stopped pursuing the opportunity until Johnson finally did get back to her.

   “Out of the blue, he sent me an email and said ‘I’m doing some research, I’m in your area and this is the day I have,’” she said. “I had no leeway, I had only one day that he was available in Benicia. I checked my schedule and fortunately my meeting room was available.”

   “It was serendipity for me,” she added. “It kind of just happened, and it worked out.”

   Coyne has watched episodes of “Longmire” and listened to audiobooks of his novels, which she says are very impressive. 

   “The ‘Longmire’ show is actually shot in New Mexico, where I’m from,” she said. “The characters in the books and the series are very believable, and the twists and turns that happen to make it a fun read.”

   Johnson will be screening a “Longmire” episode of his choosing, which will last approximately 45 minutes. Afterwards he will give a book talk and open the floor for a Q-and-A. There will also be books for sale provided by Bookshop Benicia.

   Coyne says audiences should find plenty to enjoy about his presentation.

   “He’s an amazing speaker,” she said. “I’ve only heard him once, but people have come up to me and say they are very excited to hear him again.”

   The event will take place 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 21, at the Library, located on 150 East L St. The event is free, but attendees will need to RSVP through the website, located at BeniciaLibary.org. Friends of the Benicia Library and the Shorelight Inn will be sponsoring the event. For more information, contact the Library at 746-4343. 

   

Author Event features former Benicia herald columnist

(Originally published in the 12/13/15 edition)

   Conservative author and former Benicia Herald columnist Jim Pugh will be doing an Author Event at Bookshop Benicia today to promote his book “Flim Flam Man: A Legacy of Lies.”

   “Flim Flam Man” is a collection of political columns that Pugh wrote for the Benicia Herald and Vallejo Times-Herald between 2009 and 2013. Many of Pugh’s columns expressed his displeasure with Barack Obama’s presidency, which resulted in praise from the area’s right-leaning residents and criticism from left-leaning residents.

   “I knew when I first started writing the column that I was going against the grain because this area is pretty much left-wing,” he said. “Just about everything I wrote kind of ruffled a lot of people, and we got a lot of feedback mostly on the Internet. (Then-editor) Marc Ethier was running an online version of the Forum page, so there was a lot of activity in that time.  Most of that activity was not in favor of my column.”

   Pugh stopped writing his column because of health reasons, but he got an idea to compile all of his columns into one book which he says was a long process.

   “The last year or so I’ve been tied up in getting this book published, which wasn’t all that easy,” he said. “It’s a lot harder than most people realize, but we got it done. We got Random House to do it*, and I think that it turned out to be a pretty nice job.”

   Pugh says his goal is to open readers up to some of the negative things he feels Obama has done as president.

   “We’ve had a man in the White House for the past six years who has done some remarkably negative things to this country,” he said. “Nobody seemed to care or have a reason to do anything or say anything about it. What I’d like to do is open people’s eyes and let them see what exactly has happened to this country in the last seven years.”

   “If they can’t get it from this book, they’re not going to get it anywhere,” he added. 

   Pugh has made his dislike for Democrats clear, but he considers himself more of an independent these days after being disappointed with the Republican Party in the last few years. However, he says he will vote for a Republican in the 2016 presidential election but only if they nominate a candidate he likes.

   “When I vote, I will vote Republican, provided the candidate is acceptable,” he said. “If not, I don’t know what I’ll do. I’d hate to vote for somebody I didn’t like.”

   At the Author Event, Pugh will be doing a meet and greet with store patrons and answer their questions. He believes it will be a good opportunity to talk with residents.

   “I’d just like for people to come in and meet the author,” he said. “If they want to buy a copy of the book, they can do that, but they don’t have to.”

   The Author Event will be held at 3 p.m. today at Bookshop Benicia, located at 636 First St. For more information, contact the store at (707) 747-5155. 

*In actuality, the book was published by AuthorHouse, a self-publishing company. However, it is a subsidiary of Random House. 

  

Literary workshop provides tips on getting published

(Originally published in the 11/27/15 edition)

   Lots of people want to write the next great literary phenomenon but get stuck when it comes to getting their great ideas out into the world. To help people get through this stage, Benicia Literary Arts will host a workshop at Bookshop Benicia titled “Creative Ideas for Getting Published.” The seminar will be presented by Luanne Stevenson, the president of Human Side Consulting in Lafayette. 

   In addition to life coaching and consulting various Fortune 100 companies, Stevenson has gotten books published. Along with Deepak Chopra and Ken Blanchard, she coauthored the e-book “Roadmap to Success.” The book, which provides insights on succeeding in organizations, is available for purchase on Amazon. She is also working on a book titled “Hire Slow Fire Fast.”

   Stevenson will be discussing tips she has learned on getting published, people to talk to and organizations to join in assisting with the process. 

   BLA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging reading and writing in the community and getting creative works published. In addition to the presentation by Stevenson, BLA will introduce new member Michael Denison. Denison has worked in the fields of production, business management and sales, and he has authored screenplays and runs three blogs.

   “We hired him for his extensive work across all social media,” BLA President Lois Requist said. “He's very much into producing content on the Internet, and he's savvy on how to do it, as well as how to bring people to a site, so we look forward to learning and benefiting from his expertise.”

   Requist says she hopes the presentation by Stevenson will give aspiring writers helpful advice.

   “I hope they will come away motivated to go as far with their own writing as they want to and do it more knowledgeably with Luanne's help,” she said.

   The workshop will be held 7 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 1 at Bookshop Benicia, located at 636 First St. The event is free and open to the public. For more information on the event, contact Requist at loquuu@gmail.com. To learn more about Benicia Literary Arts or to submit a writing of your own, visit BeniciaLiteraryArts.org. 

  

Local author tackles press in latest novel

(Originally published in the 11/13/15 edition)

   Past Bookshop Benicia Author Events have featured local writers with ties to the area. The author featured for next weekend’s event, Delfin Vigil, is as local as they come.

   The 1993 Benicia High School graduate’s new novel, “Death of a Newspaperman,” is loosely based on Vigil’s experiences working for various newspapers, particularly the San Francisco Chronicle where he worked as a copy assistant and reporter for 10 years. 

   The book tells the story of a reporter named Desmond De Leon who works for the fictional San Francisco Call in the 1980s. De Leon is fascinated with the history of San Francisco journalism, particularly that of 19th century publishing tycoon and Call founder Charles Sansome, who was shot to death in an editorial dispute. De Leon becomes dissatisfied with the deteriorating moral character he comes to view in newspapers and tries to figure out what Sansome would do.

   Vigil describes the novel as “a love letter to San Francisco and a breakup letter with newspaper journalism.”

   He has had a long history of working with newspapers, dating back to when he wrote stories for Benicia Middle School’s student paper The Viking Press. After graduating from high school, Vigil got a job at the Contra Costa Times shortly before the paper was sold to Knight Ridder.
   “I got a pretty early glimpse of a fading era of newspaper journalism when it was shifting from family-owned to corporate-owned,” he said. 

   In 2000, Vigil got a job as a copy assistant at the Chronicle and became a reporter covering everything from features to breaking news. He held the job until 2009.

   “It was a dream job,” he said. “I knew from sixth or seventh grade that’s what I wanted to do with my life.”

   Vigil described his experiences at the Chronicle as mostly good, but over time he began to see a change in the values of newspapers.

   “I pretty much grew up in a newsroom,” he said. “I was surrounded by people who told me ‘You gotta question authority. You gotta challenge. Don’t be intimidated, you stand up and you challenge.’ As I slowly saw the career that I really valued become devalued and become less of an honest way of making a living, I was really sad to see most people weren’t using that same mentality to our own authority.”

   One thing Vigil enjoyed about writing the book was the freedom to use his own voice.

   “I wanted to do it in the form of literature as much as possible because in journalism you have to be objective,” he said. “When I think of journalism, I can’t be objective. I have very strong feelings about it.”

  Vigil used this voice to channel the need for journalists to question authority in his book.

   “There’s a lot of books about journalism that are the woe-is-me-laid-off-newspaperman-trying-to-figure-himself-out type, and I really didn’t want to write that,” he said. “ I wanted to write a book that says ‘This is not OK’ and that certain authorities should be held accountable.”

   Although his experiences in newsrooms inspired the premise of “Death of a Newspaperman,” Vigil’s experiences in Benicia inspired the creative process.

   “Benicia is very close to my heart,” he said. “For me, it felt like an environment that was very welcoming to writers and musicians. All my memories of growing up in Benicia are of creating something, whether being a part of a band or a record label or performing in the Industrial Park.”

   Vigil also wrote parts of the book during visits to Benicia and even recruited longtime friend and fellow Benicia graduate Scott Bradley to provide the illustrations. Bradley will be joining  Vigil at the Author Event to answer questions and sign copies of the book.

   “It will be something of a homecoming for both of us,” Vigil said.

   Bookshop Benicia owner Christine Mayall praised Vigil for how he captured an era, and she believes that having two speakers will provide a good look into how the book came together.

   “He’s a real renaissance of a man,” she said. “It’s always interesting to hear about the creative process and how they come up with a subject.”

   The Bookshop Benicia Author Event will be held at 6 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 21 at 636 First St. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the store at (707) 747-5155.

Bookshop Benicia to host author event for Michael Cooper's "The Rabbi Knight"

(Originally published in the 10/27/15 edition)

   Bookshop Benicia will be hosting another Author Event, Nov. 15, with special guest Michael Cooper. He will be promoting his new historical fiction thriller “The Rabbi’s Knight.”

   “The Rabbi’s Knight” is set in Israel in 1290, right as the Crusades are winding down. The protagonist, Knight Templar Jonathan St. Clair, is stationed in the port city of Acre where he comes across a cryptic ancient scroll. After he learns that the inscription holds the key to unlock the secrets of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, St. Clair works to learn Kabbalah- especially as the only person who can decipher it is being targeted for assassination.

   Currently a resident of Lafayette, Cooper has had a longtime connection with Israel, having emigrated there in 1966- the year before the Six-Day War that resulted in hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fleeing Israel- and continuing to live in the region for the next 11 years.

   “It was a country that was very different than anything i’d experienced in the United States,” he said. “At the time before the technology explosion worldwide incorporated into Israel, it was a very pastoral country”

   Cooper also recalled the excitement of being able to become immersed in Hebrew.

   “I had always been exposed to attempts to learn Hebrew without really being able to carry on conversations,” he said. “I was going to be able to immerse myself in the language and the culture in a wonderful country.”

   Cooper graduated from the Tel Aviv University Medical School and subsequently returned to the U.S., where he worked at Kaiser Permanente in Vallejo for 30 years as a consultant for children in the North Bay and East Bay. He currently works part time at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, where he says he still sees patients from the Benicia/Vallejo area.

   In the mid ‘90s, he said, two events inspired him to start writing.

   “I developed a desire to express myself beyond medical records and peer-reviewed journal articles,” he said. “Also, the assassination of  (Israeli Prime Minister) Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 struck me very hard, as it did for many people in regards to what it meant for the peace process. I wanted to figure out a way to have some catharsis and expression in regards to that without being too literal.” 

   Cooper published his first novel, “Foxes in the Vineyard,” in 2011. The book tells the story of a Boston University professor named Evan Sinclair who travels to Palestine on the eve of the Arab-Israeli War in 1948 to find his missing father. The book won the Grand Prize in the 2011 Indie Publishing Contest.

   Cooper said that “The Rabbi’s Knight” is actually a prequel to “Foxes in the Vineyard.” Jonathan St. Clair is even an ancestor of Evan St. Clair. 

   “I wanted to create this historical fiction narrative that begins with ‘The Rabbi’s Knight’ and ends with ‘Foxes in the Vineyard,’” he said. 

   Bookshop Benicia owner Christine Mayall said that after having hosted an Author Event with Cooper in 2012, he approached the store again after finishing his latest book.

   “He always said another book was coming, and he finally got it finished,” she said. “He told us, and we were glad to host him again.”

   Mayall said she was impressed by the historical aspect of his books.

   “He pulls in a lot of different elements and really does his research, makes it very interesting,” she said. “They’re very exciting tales.”

   Cooper is working on a third book that centers around Palestine in World War I in the waning years of the Ottoman Empire. He says the book, tentatively titled “Sins of the Father,” will complete the Israeli historical fiction trilogy.

   In addition to being a good read, Cooper also hopes “The Rabbi’s Knight” can provide some insight on the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Middle East.

   “Ultimately, I would hope that putting forth these examples of coexistence between Muslims, Jews and Christians would lead to a sense that there has to be another way apart from listening to the extreme edges of the conflict,” he said. “That conversation has to take place for people who plan to bridge the gap, and it’s that yearning and hope that I would love the reader to come away with the idea that there can be an end to the violence and a reconciliation of peace.”

   The Author’s Event with Michael Cooper will take place at 4 p.m., Nov. 15, at Bookshop Benicia, located at 636 First Street.