Around Oconee: Library offers fiction-writing tips

The Oconee County Library is offering a daylong workshop Saturday on the art and process of fiction writing, taught by author and college professor Brian Jay Corrigan.

The workshop will run from 10 a.m to 4 p.m. "The Shape of Words" is a sprightly and informative seminar that takes the hopeful writer from idea to contract.

Corrigan covers subjects ranging from character and setting to dialogue, plotting and developing your individual voice, while also giving an important understanding of how the book market works, how to find the right agent and why you should write. Although this seminar will focus solely on fiction writing, the techniques covered are useful for nonfiction and memoir writing as well. Registration is required, with workbook purchase highly recommended.

Corrigan is an award-winning international author and Georgia Board of Regents teacher of the year, and has been writing stories since childhood when he won his first national award at 17 with a full-length play. His first novel, "The Poet of Loch Ness," won the Bancroft Prize in literature and The Florida First Coast Writing Award. In 2006, Corrigan was named Author of the Year in the debut fiction category by the Georgia Writers Association.

A professor of Renaissance literature, Corrigan is recognized worldwide as an expert in Shakespeare and has delivered lectures at the Shakespeare Association of America, the International Shakespeare Conference and the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon.

Tour of incarceration

Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry will lead the Saturday stroll in Watkinsville starting at 9 a.m. Saturday in front of the Oconee County Courthouse on Main Street.

The sheriff's walk will center on a tour of the high-tech county jail on Experiment Station Road. Participants will be ferried to the jail for the tour.

Berry, a son of an FBI agent, has worked in law enforcement since 1978. He worked drug cases as a member of the University of Georgia's police force and later worked as an investigator in the district attorney's office for the Western Circuit.

Berry was elected sheriff in 1992 and oversees a $7 million budget and 95-member staff. Berry has served on several boards, including the All Hazards Council and the Police Academy Advisory Board, and is a trustee of the Georgia Sheriff's Retirement Fund. He will begin serving as president of the Georgia Sheriff's Association in 2012.

The tour costs $5 per person, and Concerns of Police Survivors (www.nationalcops .org) will receive the proceeds in honor of Deputy David Gilstrap, who was killed while guarding a crosswalk at Oconee County Primary School. For information, contact Pat Priest at ppriest@charter.net.

Politics and food

The Oconee County Republican Party will host a dinner meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Watkinsville Community Center, 191 VFW Drive. A Southern-style dinner by Countryside Catering of Winterville will be served at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free, but donations will be accepted. Reserve a place for the dinner by contacting OconeeGOP@ gmail.com.

Congressional candidate Cason Sisk and state Insurance Commissioner hopeful Stephen Northington will be on hand.

Booths available at Oconee Fall Festival

The Oconee Chamber of Commerce's 36th Annual Fall Festival will be Oct. 17 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Rocket Field behind the Eagle Tavern in Watkinsville.

The chamber is renting craft and food booth spaces. Contact the chamber office at (706) 769-7947. The chamber also is recruiting volunteers for the event. Contact Julia Estess at jestess@occoc.org to sign up.

The annual festival includes daylong music, crafts, arts, food vendors and activities for children.

Library Friends gear up for bargain sale

The Friends of the Oconee County Library's Book Sale will be held Thursday through Sunday at the library.

The Library Friends have collected donations including a wide variety of books, audio books and movies in excellent condition, all to be sold at bargain prices.

Thursday's special preview sale from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. is for Oconee County Library Friends only. Anyone who is not a member can join at the door for $10. Regular book sale hours are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 to 5:30 p.m. Sunday.

The sale is open to the general public, and Sunday is "Bargain Bag Day," during which anyone can fill a grocery bag with books for $3. The sale includes more than 200 titles of first-edition and collector's books starting at $2.

Other items include works by Georgia authors, plus fiction, nonfiction, children's and audio books and movies.

All proceeds benefit the library. For more information, call (706) 769-3950.

Kay's screenwriting workshop looms

Local writer Terry Kay will conduct a workshop called "Take One: a Fundamental Look at Screenwrit

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