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From Flaming Fingernails to Peter Pan - An Author's Tale April 26 at Pythian Castle

April 17, 2012 — Mystery writer and New York Times best-selling author Ridley Pearson will regale listeners with tales of the twists and turns of his writing life -- including his rock band with authors like Stephen King and Amy Tan -- at  7 p.m. on Thursday, April 26, at Pythian Castle, 1451 E. Pythian St., Springfield.

His talk: "From Flaming Fingernails to Peter Pan - An Author's Tale."

The event is free but tickets are required for admittance. Pick up free tickets at any branch of the Springfield-Greene County Library District or the Mobile Library.
 
 In a recent interview with KSMU radio's Missy Shelton, Pearson said he plans to talk about the long road to becoming "a somewhat successful writer."

Pearson explained, "There are certainly more successful writers than me. I had a school of hard knocks graduate program of eight and a half years of trying to be a published author and I go through some of that.”

Here's more about Pearson:

He has more than 40 novels published in 22 languages in 70 countries. He has had his novels adapted to both network television and the stage. He has also co-produced and written documentaries for television. Ridley has appeared on the Today Show, Good Morning America, Craig Ferguson, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and has been reviewed in major newspapers around the world.

Ridley began his career as a singer/songwriter for an acoustic rock band and spent nearly a decade on the road.  Today, he continues his music as a founding member of The Rockbottom Remainders, a '60s rock 'n roll band featuring best-selling authors.

Following attendance at Kansas University and Brown University, Ridley’s songwriting led to script writing, and script writing to novels.  His first work, "Never Look Back," was published in 1985. In 1991, Ridley was the first American to serve as the Raymond Chandler Fulbright Fellow in Detective Fiction at Wadham College, Oxford University, England. In 2008, he was a visiting professor in the College Of International Language and Literature at Fudan University in Shanghai, China.
 

A Q&A session and book signing will round out his lively presentation on Thursday.

Pearson’s visit is funded through grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Friends of the Library.

This event is part of the Library’s Big Read 2012 program series, a one book, one community celebration that this year focuses on the 1930 classic detective novel, “The Maltese Falcon.”  

For a complete schedule of Big Read events or more information, visit thelibrary.org/bigread.
 


PRESS CONTACTS

Vickie Hicks
Community Relations Director
vickieh@thelibrary.org
(417) 616-0564
Morgan Shannon
Copywriter
morgans@thelibrary.org
(417) 616-0566

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