Melanie Benjamin is the author of Alice I Have Been and The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb. Her next historical novel, The Ambassador’s Daughter, a novel about Anne Morrow Lindbergh, will be published in 2013. By incorporating her passion for history and biography, Melanie has found her niche writing historical fiction, concentrating on the “stories behind the stories.” An avid reader all her life — as a child, she was the proud winner, several years running, of the summer reading program at her local library — she still firmly believes a lifetime of reading is the best education a writer can have.

 

Sally M. Walker is the author of numerous books for children and young adults, including Blizzard of Glass: The Halifax Explosion of 1917, Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland, and Secrets of a Civil War Submarine: Solving Mysteries of the H.L. Hunley. A firm advocate of daydreaming, Sally tells parents of children who want to be writers the first thing they need to give their child is a library card. After that, the most valuable gift anyone can give to a budding writer is the gift of time – time to wander, time to learn, time to read, and above all, time to dream.

 

The conversation between Melanie and Sally will be moderated by Steve Tarter, Business Editor of the Peoria Journal Star. In addition to his Minding Business blog, Steve writes weekly columns on local media and business. He’s also one of the paper’s four reviewers on the Dining Out beat. When he’s not scouring the business scene for tidbits, Tarter serves as president of the Apollo Theatre in downtown Peoria, a not-for-profit group that shows classic cinema.