by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS
Inspired by the sci-fi and fantasy conventions where she promotes and sells her work, Olympia author Lee French started her own convention focused solely on books. “I go to a lot of science fiction and fantasy conventions because that’s what I write,” French said in a phone interview Monday. “I have friends who write in other genres, and it struck me that there’s not a lot that people who write in other genres can do along those lines.”
Capital Indie Book Con 2, happening Saturday in Olympia, will offer the opportunity to meet and buy books from about 30 Northwest authors — who write, not only science fiction and fantasy, but also romance, mystery and books for children and young adults. “We’ve got people who have small-press-published books and also self-published,” said French, who organized the first Capital Indie Book Con last year at The Evergreen State College and this year moved the event downtown.
“We’re just a block away from the Olympia Wooden Boat Fair this weekend,” said Ellen King Rice of Olympia, one of the authors who’ll be selling her work at the event. “People can walk over and go home with a book.” Rice used Kickstarter to fund her first novel, The EvoAngel, released in March. She describes her book as “a mushroom thriller”; its protagonist is a mushroom-hunting senior citizen. “When you get a little older, these horrible hairs start popping out of the chin,” Rice said. “I thought, ‘What would it be like if instead of these horrible chin hairs, a nice, adorable, older lady started sprouting feathers?’ and I took it from there.”
What: Capital Indie Book Con 2
Where: The Olympia Center,
222 Columbia St. NW, Olympia
When: 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Saturday, May 13
How much: free