Since the first alphabet was developed more than 5,000 years ago, humans have been communicating through the written word.
From the driest textbook to the most engrossing novel, writing has the power to educate and move us.
It is the form of communication that will once again be celebrated in Salmon Arm this spring.
Designed for both readers and writers, Word on the Lake runs from Friday evening, May 16 to Sunday, May 18 at the Prestige Harbourfront Inn.
Festival sessions will include both skill development workshops and forums with authors based on questions and answers in an intimate setting.
An inspiring slate of writers, and other experts in the writing field has been developed and will be augmented with several other features including coffee houses, keynote speaker, writing contests for adults and youth, book-signings and much more.
New this year is an event billed as a “Saturday Night Banquet and Loose Entertainment,” with more details to come on.
At the heart of the festival is the opportunity to glean information from talented experts and best-selling authors such as Diana Gabaldon and Gail Anderson-Dargatz.
Gabaldon is the author of the award-winning, No. 1 New York Times-bestselling Outlander novels.
The adventure began in 1991 with the classic Outlander (published as Cross Stitch in the UK) has continued through five more exciting bestselling novels – Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, The Fiery Cross, and A Breath of Snow and Ashes – and presently has some 17 million copies sold worldwide.
An Echo in the Bone is the seventh – but not the last novel in the series.
The series, published in 24 countries and 21 languages, includes a non-fiction volume, The Outlandish Companion, which provides details on the settings, background, characters, research, and writing of the novels.
Gabaldon has also written several books in a sub-series featuring Lord John Grey (another character from the main series): Lord John and the Private Matter, Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade, and Lord John and Hand of the Devils.
Returning to her comic-book roots, she has also written a graphic novel titled The Exile (set within the Outlander universe and featuring the main characters from Outlander), illustrated by Hoang Nguyen, was published in the fall of 2010.
Gabaldon holds three degrees in science: zoology, marine biology, and quantitative behavioural ecology, (plus an honorary degree as doctor of humane letters), and spent a dozen years as a university professor with an expertise in scientific computation before beginning to write fiction. She has written scientific articles and textbooks, worked as a contributing editor on the MacMillan Encyclopedia of Computers, founded the scientific-computation journal Science Software Quarterly, and has written numerous comic-book scripts for Walt Disney.
Her awards include: a 1992 RITA Award given by the Romance Writers of America in the category Best Book of 1991 for the novel Outlander and a 2006 Quill Book Award in the category Science Fiction / Fantasy / Horror.
Gabaldon’s new book, Written In My Own Hearts Blood, will be released in March 2014. The Outlander Series for television began production in Scotland in October 2013.
Reserve tickets for the festival at www.saow.ca. Early bird registration at $165 for members and $180 for non-members ends at midnight April 25. Saturday’s banquet is $35.
Gather up three friends to register with you and enjoy the banquet at no charge.