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Aspiring young writers in the Tri-Cities got a boost Friday when about a dozen professional authors converged at the Pasco Red Lion or visited area schools to give tips and inspiration on the craft.
Most of the pros spent the day at the Pasco hotel as part of the second annual Cavalcade of Authors, which was organized by a Richland School District librarian.
A handful of other writers in town for the Radcon science fiction/fantasy convention at the Red Lion over the weekend went out to schools in the Tri-Cities to encourage students to read and to write their own stories.
"I love to read, and now I want to read all the (authors') books," said Brittney Sjoboen, 11, a Richland sixth-grader, in between workshops at Cavalcade.
The event drew more than 200 middle- and high-schoolers from Richland, as well as a group from Kennewick High. The students had to read several books to qualify.
The authors -- Royce Buckingham, Dia Calhoun, Patrick Carman, Brenda Cooper, Lorie Ann Grover, Maureen McQuerry, Ben Mikaelsen, Deborah Reber and Suzanne Selfors -- spent the day leading workshops, signing books and fielding questions from students.
In one of the sessions Friday morning, Buckingham, a Richland native, told a group how he worked on stories for years before finally finding a publisher.
"I'd get letters back from publishers saying things like, 'No,' or, 'No thank you.' One said, 'Your story is moronic. Don't you have anything better to do with your time?' " he said to laughs from the crowd.
"If somebody tells you that you can't do something, what do you do? You practice and then come back and show them," he said.
Buckingham is now a successful author whose novel Demonkeeper is being turned into a movie.
During the session, he helped the students dream up a story line for a screenplay. They settled on an adventure featuring a cat charged with saving the world after Earth falls out of its orbit around the sun.
The brainstorming was great, students said after the session. What was even cooler for two of the teens was learning that Buckingham came from their hometown.
"He's actually from Richland," said Keica Martin, 18, who attends the district's alternative high school, River's Edge.
"It feels like anybody can do it," said classmate Matt Tiffany, 19.
That was the message Seattle author and artist Mark Ferrari took to students Friday afternoon at Pasco High. Ferrari wasn't part of Cavalcade but was asked by organizers of the Radcon convention to speak to students while he was in town.
Ferrari said he hoped to show teens they can have success pursuing their dream careers.
"I grew up thinking that authors lived in this other world," he said.
But he became one and wants kids to realize they can too if they work hard and aren't afraid to try, he said.
Cavalcade and Radcon are separate events, but the science fiction/fantasy convention has been a major sponsor of the student author workshop this year. Radcon covered the cost of Cavalcade's conference rooms and also paid for the students' lunches.
There were several other sponsors of Cavalcade, including the Richland Public Library, Benton REA, Staples and Yoke's Fresh Markets.
Michelle Lane, founder and organizer of Cavalcade, said she hopes someday it'll be a regional event with even more schools involved. The idea is to show students the value of reading and help them understand the fun that creative writing can bring, she said.
"I hope they're inspired to write. I hope they come back with confidence, with the feeling of possibility. That they dare to dream," Lane said.
