By Heidi Simmons
In the span of one year, the First Annual Rancho Mirage Writers Festival came to brilliant fruition.
Behind the Writers Festival idea, were Jamie Kabler and Susan Rosser. Armed with the exciting notion of seeing their favorite authors and with some seed money from friends, Kabler and Rosser went to the Rancho Mirage City Council where the idea caught on and was unanimously passed. With Rancho Mirage Library Director David Bryant on board, they had confidence the proposed Festival could work.
“We didn’t know for sure we’d get the support of the community. But when the tickets went on sale, it sold out within three weeks,” said Rosser. “There was no need to advertise the event!” Over 400 tickets were sold at $125 each.
The purpose of the Writers Festival is to celebrate writers, readers, books and ideas.
Over 20 published writers attended the Festival. A. Scott Berg, Joseph Wambaugh, Lisa See and Jackie Collins were just a few participating. Collins’ appearance was two fold: she closed the Writers Festival and opened the Rancho Mirage Speaker’s Series.
The Festival began on Wednesday, January 15, with check-in at the Rancho Mirage Library. Author A. Scott Berg was the first to speak at the Helene Galen auditorium that evening. Although Laurence Luckinbill’s one-man show “Hemingway” was canceled due to a health problem, the mood and energy at the Fest was off to a good start.
For the next three days, the library was open only to festival attendees and authors. A Festival ticket included valet parking and a boxed lunch. There was always hot coffee available and during lunch there was live jazz music.
The schedule of authors was carefully planned allowing for an opportunity to see every writer participating in the event. Two authors spoke every hour from nine in the morning to three in the afternoon in two library locations. Lunch was at noon. The library used the Community Room and the Bighorn Room — the area of the Rancho Mirage Library between the checkout and the librarians’ desk just outside the computer room. A Festival planner or moderator introduced authors, who would speak for 45 minutes with 5 minutes for questions and answers.
Less than two miles from the library, tucked off Country Club on John Sinn Road, the Helene Galen Auditorium at the Annenberg Center for Health Sciences at Eisenhower, served for a beautiful gathering place to hear evening keynote speakers.
“Our very first writers festival is exactly what we envisioned,” said Bryant. “The energy, the dynamic quality of moving readers within our library and to the Galen Auditorium, to meet the authors, whom we selected, has worked perfectly.”
Rancho Mirage resident Holly Hughes, a life coach, Fung Shui artist, photographer and poet, attended the festival. “It was a lot of fun,” said Hughes. “I met some very nice people. It was great to hear the authors talk about their books and their process of writing. I learned a great deal and enjoyed the whole event.”
New York resident and participating author Chris Pavone attended the Festival. “It’s not difficult to get New York writers to come to the desert in the middle of January. But this is a fantastic model for a book festival. This very finite audience and finite number of events I think really intensifies the experience for everybody. It’s organized wonderfully and it doesn’t at all seem like a rookie. As a rookie myself, I recognize when other rookies are doing very well. I’ve had a lovely time. I feel like I’ve been here a week and it’s only been a day and a half. That’s because I’ve met so many interesting people. This is a great festival and I hope that it goes on forever.” Pavone’s book is The Expats. It is his first novel.
“These authors are so smart. They are absolutely the most incredible, creative, inspirational thinking, that I for one, have ever encountered at a conference,” said Bryant. “The Q&A has gone very well because our ticket holders are so smart. Their questions challenge these great writers.”
Marge Dodge served as a moderator for the festival. She is Treasurer of the Palm Springs Writers Guild and President of Friends of the COD Library. Dodge remembers when Kabler first talked about his idea. “I didn’t think it could be done in a year,” Dodge said. “And here we are. It’s awesome. It’s really amazing. It has exceeded my expectations.”
There is no doubt about the future of a Second Annual Rancho Mirage Writers Festival. Organizers were encouraging participants to get their tickets now. The 2015 Festival is scheduled for January 21-24. Tickets during the Fest were offered at $150. This week they are at the full price of $175.
“At the end of each day, a few of us reprise what happened. We know of a few small details to improve on for next year, but what we wanted, came to true!” Asked if he was enjoying himself, Bryant said, “I’m on cloud nine. I’m pinching myself every night.”
