• Congratulation are in order to Dayton native Ann Hagedorn, for winning the Ohioana 2015 Award in Nonfiction for "Invisible Soldiers: How America Outsourced Our Security." Ann was born in Dayton and now makes her home in a small town on the Ohio River. She is the award-winning author of four previous books and has taught writing at Xavier University, Antioch Writers' Workshop and other universities and organizations. Learn more about Ann online at www.annhagedorn.com and about the Ohioana 2015 Awards at www.ohioana.org.
• Alert Dayton reader Wendy Hastings let us know about the novel “Soil” by Jamie Kornegay, released earlier this year by Simon & Schuster. The novel is a darkly comedic debut about an environmental scientist who moves his family to Mississippi to try farming and worries he’s being framed for murder. Wendy shares that a character who goes missing is from Dayton and that the protagonist relies on searching Dayton Daily News archives to help resolve the crime. Thanks, Wendy! We love learning about shout-outs and references to Dayton in books.
• On Tuesday, Aug. 11, from 6:30-8:30 p.m., learn more about how to set your own stories in motion with "Plotting 101: Goal, Motivation and Conflict" with Jeanne Estridge, a Word's Worth Writing Center class held at the conference room of the Oakwood Starbucks, 2424 Far Hills Ave. To learn more or to register: www.wordsworthdayton.com.
• Two award-winning young-adult book writers will visit Books & Co. at The Greene on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 7 p.m., to share their newest works: Mindee Arnett and Erica O’Rourke. Mindee Arnett, who lives on a horse farm in the Dayton area with her husband and children, features 16-year-old Dusty Everhart—a Nightmare—in her novel, “The Nightmare Charade,” which is the final installment in her Arkwell Academy Series, a boarding school for magickind. The first two books in the series, published by Tor Teen, are “The Nightmare Affair” and “The Nightmare Dilemma.”
Mindee is also the author of the novels "Avalon" and "Polaris." Learn more about Mindee and her work at her website, at www.mindeearnett.com.
Joining Mindee on Aug. 12 is Erica O'Rourke, coming from Chicago to introduce her novel "Resonance." Learn more about Erica at www.ericaorourke.com.
• Join Hal McCoy for “From the Press Box: An Evening With Hal McCoy,” on Thursday, Aug. 13, 6:30-8 p.m. at the Northmont Branch of the Dayton Metro Library as he discusses his memoir, “The Real McCoy,” about his many years covering the Cincinnati Reds as an award-winning reporter for the Dayton Daily News. The branch is located at 333 W. National Road, Englewood. The event is free and open to the public.
• Still looking for summer reads? Check out the 35th annual Yellow Springs Bookfair (sponsored by Dark Star Books & Comics in Yellow Springs), which will be held Saturday, Aug. 15, from 8 a.m.-4 p.m., at Mills Lawn Elementary School, 201 S. Walnut St., Yellow Springs. The event is free and open to all ages. Event contact Mary Alice Wilson says 30 dealers from 5 states will be at the event. What’s more, if you have books to sell, you may set up your own tables and chairs to set up a sales table; set-up begins at 7 a.m., and there is no charge for selling books.
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