Preserving Yesterday...Enriching Today...Inspiring Tomorrow
Bear Lake County Library is hosting a Family Storytelling Night on September 27th, @ 5:30pm. Join Special Guest Patrick Mitchell for this storytelling workshop! Learn to celebrate your family’s individual and community history, heritage, and culture. Plus, create a family storyboard to take home. Patrick is the founder of Down to Earth Dad
Bear Lake County Library will host Pearl Whitfield for a free reading and discussion from her newest novel, “Apsara,” which has been awarded a Kirkus Star. The event will be at 5 pm on Monday October 2 at the library, 138 North 6th Street, Montpelier, ID.
“Apsara” is the story of a young girl in a remote village in 12th century Cambodia, who loves to dance and is chosen to train as an Apsara (court dancer) for King Jayavarman VII. Apsaras dance to bring heaven to earth, blessing the land with prosperity. Bopha walks from her home to Angkor Wat, and begins a life she could never have imagined.
This work of historical fiction grew from an experience that Whitfield had in 2013, in Cambodia at the museum in Siem Reap (the town closest to Angkor Wat). The book had a long incubation after 2013, but then was written in less than two years. She says. “In a way, it wrote itself. I just had to sit down and listen.”
Whitfield has been writing for much of her life, mostly unpublished essay and memoir. She explains, “About 25 years ago, I committed to doing “The Artist’s Way” process, which has been very helpful in allowing me to write relatively free of my self-critic, and given me skills for recognizing blocks and releasing them. The other major influence that freed me to start to write was a series of workshops in each of Unlimited Body and Unlimited Breath, and being introduced to the idea of Creative Questions.”
“Apsara” is Whitfield’s second novel. Her first, “The Storekeeper, A Tale of Small Town Life,” is a story about a man who moves, after his wife dies, to a small town in the inter-mountain west of modern day USA. Ralph buys the mom-and-pop store, enters into community life, and starts to heal from his grief.
Both books are available at selected independent bookstores who order through the publisher PonderosaSage. They are also on Amazon in print and kindle format. “Apsara” is also available as an ebook read by the author, on Audible, iTunes and Amazon.
You can follow Whitfield on Facebook, enjoy her musings, watch videos of readings, and check her book tour schedule: https://www.facebook.com/pearl.whitfield.169
For more information call the Library at 208-847-1664