Booth by booth, book by book, 80 authors in Santa Clarita introduced attendees to the world of fiction, nonfiction, self-help, and everything in between, during the second annual SCV Book Festival at the College of the Canyons University Center on Saturday.
From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., over 600 attendees, including students, had the opportunity to meet self-published authors. Proceeds benefited the COC English Department.
Ruth Rassool, adjunct professor in the English Department and chair of the festival for 2025, discussed making the event accessible for the students as they near the end of their spring semester, compared to having the festival take place in June.
“This year, when we wanted to do it again, I went to [COC] President [David] Andrus, and he said, ‘What’s in it for the students?’ ‘Make it for the students.’ So this year, we bought it into the semester,” Rassool said. “We’ve got TLC [creative writing] workshops, a series of keynote speakers, authors all over the first and second floor. It’s been a challenge to organize, but each time you do it, you learn a little bit more, and you do something that’s a bit more successful.”
Workshops for students and attendees included how to write a proposal for book publishing, how to query a literary agent and how to be a “shape-shifter.”
“Even with some of the authors who are here who have published their first book, who might [have experience with] indie publishers, that is a different thing to getting an agent. One of the strengths of today’s event is even if they might not sell a lot of books, some of them will and some won’t, but what they do get is a lot of networking. Especially if they’re new to the publishing world,” Rassool said.
The goal is to host the festival once a year, and according to Rassool there’s already a difference in not only how much it has grown in 11 months, but also how the college and community are receptive to it.
“I think we’ve had more input from the college, that’s the biggest thing compared to last year. There’s a sense of the community coming into the college as guests. There’s much more buy-in from faculty and staff and administration to make this event successful, and now it’s become a College of the Canyons event,” Rassool said.
With the tables and chairs merely set the day before, Rassool finds that authors often mingle and learn from one another.
“When we try to put tables together and arrange the tables and authors together, when I go around, I see a lot of people just having good conversations with their neighbors and getting a lot of good advice,” Rassool said.
Among those who met for the first time are authors Susan Chapman and Linda Killian.
Chapman, who is a first-time published author, spent years working as a speech and ghost writer before publishing “Being.”
“I’m an adjunct professor at COC, and I got an email about this year’s event. I had just written my book, and I thought, ‘Oh, this is a really good thing to do. I want to be involved,” Chapman said. “This book took me about 18 months to write. I knew what I wanted to say and I was very inspired, but I would write out of order. I had to learn how to tailor and become more comfortable with my own voice, as opposed to channeling someone else’s.”
Chapman, who teaches yoga to older adults, as well as mindfulness classes at COC, reflects on combining her love and years of experience for both yoga and writing.
“I have so many more things that I want to write and I just feel very accomplished, and I feel like it’s something very important that I want people to know. It’s a book that’s very near and dear to me,” Chapman said.
Killian, who is the author of three books including her latest self-help book, “Eliminating the Greener Grass Trap,” discussed her incentive for wanting to help others.
“I started my first book in 2012, then two years later I published [my second], and then three years ago was my last one. My books are nonfiction, Christian, and they’re for helping move through life efficiently and living as we are meant to live,” Killian said. “I was inspired to start writing because I was going through some problems in life, and writing helps me process my thoughts and cope.”
While the process of writing is rewarding to Killian, it’s also rewarding for her to see what her readers resonate with the most.
“It’s rewarding when they give encouragement and pick out different parts that mean something to them,” Killian said. “I want people to know that I’m a practical woman that has problems, just like anyone else does, but I’m here to help and encourage in any way that I can.”
