Rocktown Author Festival brings readers, local storytellers together | Arts And Entertainment

Local authors from around the Shenandoah Valley gathered Saturday at the Massanutten Regional Library for the fifth annual Rocktown Author Festival.

The event began at 10 a.m. on the first floor, where authors were stationed at tables for meet-and-greets and book signings. Thirty-six authors attended the festival, which is the most it has ever had.

Cat Burgess, the vice chair of Rocktown Writer’s Guild, attended in order to raise awareness about the organization.

“We’re a community of writers,” Burgess said. “We meet every month. It’s a chance for networking. It’s a time to meet with other authors and focus on something different within the writing and publishing world each time.”

Burgess and the guild have been attending and volunteering at the festival for the past two years. Bridges said the guild was formed two years ago after members met each other at the festival.

“We were so excited to meet one another that we had to form a group,” Burgess said. “We had to form a guild.”

Allison K. Garcia, 43, one of the founding members of the guild, was an author who participated in the festival.

Garcia published her first book in 2017 and has attended the festival since it began in 2019.

“My very first book, ‘Vivir el Dream,’ is about an undocumented immigrant making her way in the world,” Garcia said.

Garcia’s main series, “Buscando Home,” follows an immigrant child growing up. There is also the Mosaic series, which are “queer Christian stories.”

“I wanted to write books ever since I could hold a pencil,” Garcia said. “I remember being really little and writing little stories, and I can remember wanting to be the first kid on the Oprah Book Club.”

Garcia was one of the four authors on the panel on writing diverse characters.

“I love that it’s just a chance to see who the writers in our community are,” Burgess said. “I think the Harrisonburg area of the valley has so many different and really cool components.”

There were three panels held throughout the day. One was on the process of publishing children’s books, the second was on the pros and cons of self-publishing, and the third was on writing diverse characters and narrations.

In between the first and second panels, the director of the library, Zachary Elder, hosted a ceremony to present the finished mural on the side of the building by artist Tyler Kauffman. 

Clifford Garstang, 71, was another author who showed off his work at the festival. He said he got his inspiration for his literary fiction works from his time living all over Asia as part of his past job as an international lawyer.

“I moved back [to America] to go to graduate school after being in Singapore for a long time. Then I got a job at the World Bank in Washington DC,” Garstang said. “I was in DC and still traveled all over for my job in Asia, but when I quit the World Bank, I moved here.”

Garstang started writing full-time 24 years ago. He said he tries to add a little mystery into each of his works, a “question being asked.” This was his second year having a table at the festival.

“I always wanted to write, even when I was in high school,” Garstang said. “But then I got sidetracked by college and a career, so now I finally had time. I love meeting readers, telling them about my books, and getting feedback.”

Garstang has won the Library of Virginia Award for Fiction for his book “What the Zhang Boys Know,” which takes place in D.C. His current project is a book set in a dystopian world inspired by English literature. 

While many of the authors had attended previous festivals, some authors were participating in the festival for the first time. One of these authors was Mary Ruberry, who writes books on spirituality.

“It’s just part of my nature to write, to love language,” Ruberry said. “I have two degrees in communication, and my love of language has helped me to be a writer.”

A.D Stone, 40, another first-time local author at the festival, was selling a children’s picture book that she published last year.

Her book, “Wandering Wixie,” is her first published work. It is about the mascot of her candle company, Stone Cottage Candles. It took two years to get the book published.

“I’ve always wanted to write a book since I was little,” Stone said. “I decided to make a book on how [the mascot] creates his first candle.”

Stone’s table had merchandise based on her book, such as bookmarks, stickers, and necklaces. She hopes to continue the series and expand on the other characters she wrote about in the book.

Garcia said she loves being able to see her books on shelves and wants to come back for the festival next year.

“The library is a really positive place, and the people who we’ve been involved with through the library are just lovely and very nice,” she said. “The other authors are great too; it’s nice to be a part of it.”

Stone agreed.

“It’s at a library, so it’s great exposure,” she said about meeting the readers.

“There’s so many different diversities of interest to take, who the writers are and what the art scene is like,” Burgess said. “I love that the most out of coming here to the author festival, to see who your people are, who you didn’t know, and all these potential friends that are just waiting, looking for you too.”