- April 23, 2024
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Tony Marlow was one of 17 local authors invited to attend the 2nd author signing at the Flagler Beach Library. Photos by Jacque Estes
Tim Baker and Becky Pourchot are both Flagler Beach residents and authors.
Tony Marlow, who has owned the Golden Lion restaurant in Flagler Beach with his wife Carolyn since 1992, seemed to be surprised to be one of the 17 authors invited for the second Author’s Book Signing Event at the Flagler Beach Library.
The statement, “I didn’t know you wrote,” received the quip, “Nor did I,” from Marlow. “I wrote a postcard once,” he added. Yet on the table in front of him were stacks of his finished book.
The book signing was full-circle for Marlow. who wrote much of his novel, “A First Class Fool,” long-hand in the Flagler Beach Library reading room. He took the title from a song he wrote, by the same name, blaming Jimmy Buffet for luring him to the Caribbean and his adventures.
Another long-time resident and business owner, Toni Treworgy, who owns Island Cottages with her husband Mark, has written more than her memoir, “Writings in the Sand.” She also an accomplished singer and had her CDs for sale.
The very personal story is about Treworgy and her brother, left to care for their dying mother and themselves, after their father left them, and how she found strength through the challenge.
“The book takes place before I was born and right up to where I am,” Treworgy said. “The miracles I have sustained through that experience have been breath-taking powerful.”
Most of the authors started writing in earnest after they moved to Flagler County. They wrote historical fiction, science fiction, inspirational stories, young adult fiction, crime fiction and mysteries. They came from all walks of life, balancing their need to write with their day jobs.
“When I moved here I had no job, no friends, and lots of time,” Tim Baker said.
Baker moved to Florida in 2006 and has written 11 books in that time, co-authored books, and Marlowe credited him for helping him get his book published.
Next to Baker, author and friend, Becky Pourchot’s soft cover book featured the ruby slippers (open-toed) and an Oz Dorothy would never have imagined.
“My first book was about growing up Jewish in the Midwest,” she said.
Two friends, both educators, shared a table under the white tent on the library front lawn. Terri Klaes Harper intended the first of her series, Memoirs of an Ordinary Girl to be for young adults, but the former English teacher at FPC, discovered women also enjoyed and identified with the pangs of the high school years that are the backbone of her stories.
Next to her Diane Bixler had “Murder in D Minor,” a book she initially wrote for her grandmother and then forgot about for a number of years. After rereading it, she made a few changes, published it, and started on her next book.
Ruth Young, the Flagler Beach librarian, was beaming as she visited with each author and those who came to see them. She said she has already read some of the books that were featured, and that many can also be found on the shelves in the library.
“I feel it’s important to support our local authors,” Young said. “That’s why we’re here right? This is, after all, a library.”
