Book Festival

Columbus Metropolitan Library Book Festival The Columbus Metropolitan Library Festival was the library’s first Book Festival, planned to celebrate its 150th anniversary. They estimate over 30,000 folks came out to check out the festivities. It was 18 months in the making and involved dozens and dozens of staff and volunteers. Over and over again I heard people saying they hoped this was the first annual event. Columbus Metropolitan Library has many good reasons to be […]

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Trish Lewis, Founder of Van Velzer Press

Van Velzer Press

I was fortunate to learn about Van Velzer Press before I was ready to publish my most recent book. In my experience writing is about equal parts actually cranking out words and thinking about what to write while staring into space, waiting for the light to turn green, or trying to go to sleep. Most writers hope to share their work with readers, which requires a team of editors and advance readers who give honest, but […]

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Life Is So Good by George Dawson

People of Hope – George Dawson

Add author George Dawson (1898 – 2001) to the list of authors whose books have been banned. I’ve added him to my list of People of Hope. Banning books has never turned out well for those who toss other people’s works into the fire or remove them from schools and libraries. Trying to stop people from learning history by banning books is about as productive as trying to drain the ocean by pouring buckets of […]

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For Goodness Sake

Do you believe goodness matters? Or that goodness is a virtue? Or that goodness is more prevalent than ugliness, rudeness, and violence? How we see the world boils down to where we look and our sources of information about the world. If we only tune into mass media information, it’s easy to fall into despair; for evil and cruelty are real and reported ad nauseum in media outlets. Yet, if we turn off the flow […]

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Dr. Roger Leslie, author

People of Hope – Dr. Leslie

People of hope are men and women who see a need and find a way to respond to it; doing something encouraging for others. With so much discouraging and upsetting news bombarding us at every turn, it is easy to become distraught and overcome by despair. Living with despair is bad for our mental health. I can’t change the news, but I can counter it with stories about people who find ways to instill hope. […]

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