Commerce, Texas -- The Fred A. Tarpley Memorial Writers Conference is scheduled for Saturday, October 14, 2023. The conference, sponsored by Silver Leos Writers Guild of Commerce, will once again be held at scenic Webb Hill Country Club located at 438 CR 2358, Wolfe City, Texas.
A 9:30 check-in starts the day with an expected wrap around 2:30 p.m. The non-refundable fee of $35 for non-members includes conference materials, a buffet lunch, refreshments, and door prizes. To register for the conference, send check or money order along with address, daytime phone, and email to SLWG Conference, P. O. Box 1123, Commerce, Texas 75429.
Registration must be postmarked by October 6.
A confirmation email will be sent following receipt of payment.
Speakers for the event are three experienced authors whose topics will touch on Historical Fiction, Cozy Mystery, and Nonfiction. Morning and afternoon sessions by J. Eugene Porter and Rusty Williams serve as bookends for Linda Pirtle’s luncheon keynote presentation.
Books written by each speaker will be available for purchase at the conference and can also be found at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com among others.
J. Eugene Porter starts the morning by sharing his methods for Mixing Fictional and Real-Life Characters While Maintaining Accuracy in Historical Fiction. In his series The Naval Odyssey of Professor James Brand, Porter takes dry historical facts and develops stories using fictional interaction based upon the real events and people of World War II, bringing history alive for an enjoyable reading experience. Visiting battle sites and museums around the world give Porter the opportunity to research military, diplomatic, and economic records in search of obscure facts. He uses those facts to tell the broader story of a military operation, diplomatic incident or changing priorities of wartime logistics. Whether a battle in the frozen Aleutians, a sinking ship in the South Pacific, or dodging the Nazis in North Africa, interspersing fictional protagonists with WWII heroes gives readers a more personal understanding of historical events.
J. Eugene Porter has published seven novels in the series that traces the timeline of WWII with an eighth volume in progress. He is also the author of a mystery novel, The Container Affair. Porter ended his thirty-year career at GTE/Verizon as Director of Sales and Marketing Training.
Other business associations include the Professional Society for Sales and Marketing Training; American Management Association; Marketing Science Institute in Boston, and a twenty-two-year faculty position in the Executive Development Division at SMU’s Cox School of Business.
The author and his wife reside in Rockwall. The author can be reached at porterjeugene@gmail.com.
Ms. Pirtle published her first novel, The Mah Jongg Murders, in 2015, earning a five-star Readers Favorite Award and an instant fan base. Books two and three, Deadly Dominoes and Tarot Terrors both earned Best Cozy Mystery Texas Authors for 2018 and 2019 respectively. The fourth book of the series, Scrabbled Secrets, was published in 2020. The Christian series reveals how people bent on evil can ruin an innocent, fun game.
Ms. Pirtle is also a member of the Underground Authors, a cooperative effort between multiple authors who created the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles. The singularly written books are set in a small town in the Texas Hill Country where murder and mayhem reign. Her current contributions to the series include The Dewey Decimal Dilemma and The Dog Gone Diamond Dilemma.
Before becoming an author, Ms. Pirtle served as editor for many great books currently in the marketplace. Linda Pirtle lives in Fort Worth with her Standard Poodle, Piper, and can be reached by lsgp2019@yahoo.com; https://twitter.com/LindaPirtle1; and www.facebook.com/linda.pirtle.10.
Nonfiction author Rusty Williams finishes up the day with The Challenge of Finding Different Biographical Styles to Differentiate Between Characters. The author of six books with five on Texas topics, he covers history as told through the stories of the people who lived it. More often than not, history is driven by the well-known men and women read about in newspapers and text books. Yet, it's the ordinary folks who dealt with the consequences or benefits of actions of the well-known that can be the most interesting.
Williams’ research leads him to the real people trying to navigate day-to-day life under the shadows of big events. The author sees more drama in the story of a cash-strapped young farm couple trying to raise a family and find work during hard times than the story of the economics during the Great Depression.
His latest work, Texas Loud, Proud, and Brash: How Ten Mavericks Created the Twentieth-Century Lone Star State describes how Texans gained the reputation of being oversized, cocky, loud, and sports-crazy, while wading in oil riches. Rusty Williams’ career began in the newsroom writing for The Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star Telegram, San Antonio Express-News, and Associated Press. He currently lives in Dallas and continues to contribute articles to history magazines, journals, and websites. He also enjoys speaking to groups about historical subjects. Contact him at rustywilliams2004@yahoo.com.
For more information concerning the Writers Conference or Silver Leos Writers Guild in general, contact Brian Dowsley (saddletramp@embarqmail.com) or Bobbie Purdy (bobbie@arlanpurdy.com). Silver Leos Writers Guild is a chapter of the Texas A&M University-Commerce Alumni Association.