Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Peters Township Public Library is hosting a “Romancing the Readers” event on February 3rd – and we think it’s the perfect library date / opportunity to pick up a signed book to celebrate the season!
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Join eight local authors as they share information about their craft and answer questions from the audience! A panel discussion will be followed by light refreshments, book signings, and opportunities to purchase books from the authors. Registration is required to help plan this event.
1:30-2:30 Author Panel & Discussion in Multipurpose Room – Limited Seating, Click here to register online and reserve your seat!
2:30-3:30 Book Signings & Sales in Lobby
View the authors and their works below!
Michael Buzzelli
Michael Buzzelli is a stand-up comedian and sit-down author. As a comedian, he has performed all around the country, most notably, the Ice House, the Comedy Store and the Improv in Los Angeles. As a writer, Michael Buzzelli has been published in a variety of websites, magazines and newspapers. Buzzelli is a theater and arts critic for ‘Burgh Vivant, Pittsburgh’s online cultural talk magazine. He is also a Moth Grand Slam storyteller and actor. Buzzelli has presented workshops on humor to the Romance Writers of America and the Pennwriters Conference.
His books, Below Average Genius, a collection of essays culled from his weekly humor column in the Observer-Reporter, and his romantic comedy, All I Want for Christmas, are on sale at Amazon.com. His short story, “Study Buddy” is in a collection of LGBTQ romance short stories titled, Winter Break.
Annette Dashofy
Annette Dashofy is the USA Today bestselling author of fifteen mystery novels. Helpless is the 12th in her six-time Agatha Award nominated Zoe Chambers mystery series with What Comes Around (Zoe Chambers # 13) slated for release in May. Keep Your Family Close is the second in the Detective Honeywell series set along Lake Erie. And her standalone, Death By Equine, won the 2021 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award for excellence in Thoroughbred racing literature. She is a board member of Pennwriters and is president of the Pittsburgh Chapter of Sisters in Crime. Annette and her husband live on ten acres of what was her grandfather’s dairy farm in southwestern Pennsylvania with their very spoiled cat, Kensi.
Lainey Davis
USA Today bestselling author Lainey Davis lives in Pittsburgh with 3 feral sons, 2 rescued rabbits, and 1 tired husband. She writes steamy, contemporary love stories with grouchy heroes, strong heroines, and plenty of fiascos. She’s excited to find out how much coffee is too much.
Carrie DiRisio
Carrie Ann DiRisio is an author of both young adult and adult novels, with a love for stories that surprise as much
as they delight. She resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she spends her days writing, drinking coffee, and practicing her baking skills in case she’s ever called upon to join the Great British Bake-Off as an American contestant. Her most recent published work is a Regency-inspired romance, with an espionage twist.
Susan Helene Gottfried
Susan Helene Gottfried is the heavy-metal-loving, not-disabled enough divorced Jewish mother of two. A freelance line editor to authors of fiction by day, her select roster of clients tend to hit bestseller lists, and more than a few have quit their day jobs. It’s not entirely her doing, but like does attract like.
Tales from the Sheep Farm is her offer to her fellow diverse authors to create a world in which all are welcome. Come dream and build it with her.
Susan holds a BA (University of Pittsburgh) and MFA (Bowling Green State University) in English Writing and Fiction, respectively. She lives with a couple of cats in the Pittsburgh suburbs, just West of Mars.
Sheryl Nantus
Sheryl Nantus is an award-winning romance writer published by Entangled, St. Martin’s Press/Swerve, and Harlequin’s Carina Press. When she’s not writing, she is sipping tea, playing board games and writing haiku. A total fangirl at heart, she met her husband through an online fanfiction community and currently lives in Pennsylvania.
Linda Rettstatt
Linda Rettstatt began her writing career at the tender age of 18 while working as a classified ad clerk for her hometown newspaper. She covered the local community theater stories no one else wanted to cover, and she did so with enthusiasm, insisting upon a by line. Rettstatt’s creative nature steered her into a career as a semi-professional folk musician for a number of years. Finally, in 2002, she sat at a computer determined to find out if she could write a novel. That novel and three more were contracted by a small press. She moved from small press publishing to self-publishing in 2014 and has forty-eight novels and novellas and several short stories in her bibliography. Her work twice won the prestigious EPIC eBook Award.
In April of 2021, Linda retired from her social work position in NW Mississippi and relocated back to her home state of Pennsylvania where she continues to write and to offer services as an editor and writing coach.
Melissa Wiesner
Melissa Wiesner’s mother didn’t allow her to watch much TV as a child and, instead, made her play with paint, colorful pipe cleaners, random bits of fabric, and other crafty things. This set up Melissa for a lifetime of creative pursuits, and it was only a matter of time before things took a bookish turn. A night owl, Melissa began writing novels when her early-to-bed family retired for the evening. She is the author of emotional women’s fiction and romantic comedies. Along with her charming husband and two adorable children, Melissa splits her time between the big city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and rural West Virginia.
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