Article by Tiziano Thomas Dossena
Part 1 OF 4
BEA’s annual encounter in New York (which by the way has missed a step last year by exhibiting in Chicago instead) started under a bad auspice on Wednesday, May 31st. Our journalists encountered uncompleted booths, unreliable directions and basically no real Show, leaving the premises after a useless attempt to make sense of the disorganization they stumbled upon, a first for this usually magic exhibition. Fortunately, BEA partially redeemed itself on the two following days, although some lagging problems puzzled me. What happened to the beautiful organization behind the previous years, when at the autographing boots you could confirm the identity of the book to be signed also by photographs? What about their APP giving you some information about the book and author you are attempting to retrieve? And the missing information on the pamphlets about the books’ content? Well, life is not perfect, and I guess mishaps happen, but I do believe that the much smaller number of exhibitors was tied to last year’s abandonment of the City that never sleeps.
Regardless, there were still plenty of great surprises that made up for the disappointments. One of these was the large number of first-time authors assembled in an easily reached common area. There, you could find Thomas Jerome Wright Sr. presenting to the public his spiritual guide to finding themselves through the awareness of “technology’s many lies”, Ninety-Nine Lies and One Truth. This is a book about awakening mass consciousness.
Another ‘spiritual’ uplifting author/book was Carmen Ashe with her I Have a Purpose, the riveting and uplifting story of her life, in which the lessons learned are used to pass on to the readers her understanding that ‘we all have a purpose.’
An interesting book from that section was also The Thirty Year Diet: The Journey Of Me, Fat Girl and My FOPA by Robin Nutter, a hilarious recollection of her 30 years battle with diets and her long standing identification with the ‘fat girl’ persona.
Interestingly enough, in the proximity of these writers there were also two other fascinating authors with their books.
The first was Fred Clark Sr., born December 1930, who was studying abroad in Cuba when the revolution broke out and the university closed. He stayed and wrote a murder mystery inspired by his time there, The Door Of Death. Clark went on to become a lawyer and work for Prentice Hall as a senior legal editor. The manuscript laid dormant for over fifty years and was finally published on Amazon with the help of his son in 2015. Clark is likely the oldest first time author at BEA 2017.
The other pleasant surprise was the 16 years old Harley Zed Mona with his Our Guardian Renegade, a science fiction saga with a huge cast of vivid characters and factions into the fray. An Art Book with colorful illustrations of the various characters and symbols is also available. I am certain this book will be followed by others, since it opens a new world (Senia) to the lovers of Science fiction…. Mona may be the youngest first time author at Book Expo America 2017.
In the same exhibit area there were also previously published authors who have truly original titles to offer, such as Alex Alico (the author has previously published 35 books!) with his The Favela Kid, the first of a three book series about the epic struggles and triumphs of a young man in the Favelas of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil and in Queens, New York., and Kaz Lefav with her NEMECENE saga of Science Fiction about a toxic future flooded by dead oceans and poisonous gases… Great marketing tools came with the books, such as a canvas book to hold them and greatly illustrated bookmarks and tarot cards…
