IN THE PIPELINE:

This past Tuesday was the 21st annual Authors Festival in Huntington Beach, and once again, it was a day for the ages. Sponsored by The Friends of the Library, the festival divides about 40 or so authors up among grade schools and middle schools in Huntington Beach where the writers make presentations, answer questions and sign books. Afterward, there is a gathering at the Central Library for more book signings, readings and other book-related activities.

This is about the seventh year I’ve participated, and in that time I’ve had the pleasure of visiting many local schools. Authors are chosen by schools through a lottery system, and this year I was invited to speak to the sixth grade at Dwyer Middle School, sharing the bill with a wonderful children’s author and poet from Jamaica named Monica Gunning. The Authors Festival Committee (which includes Irma Loper, JoAnn Rankin, Gail Page, Ruth Siegrist and Melody Tokunaga) has the event worked out to the finest detail, and as usual everything flowed like clockwork.

We authors are assigned volunteer mom escorts at our appointed schools to get us from point to point. Any equipment we need is ready and waiting, and lunch is usually held with the teachers at some point in the day. This year I want to call particular attention to the spread put out by the Dwyer PTSA — because it was sensational. The room was beach-themed, the buffet was very satisfying and the company was excellent. To Hospitality Co-Chairwomen Debby Miller and Gina Reed-Kraus, along with Gloria Hu and Kelly Morrissey — a sincere thank you — you spoiled us. (Laurie Benson, who escorted me around, also made the day more than pleasant).

When it came time to speak to the kids (in groups of about 200 or so), I was reminded why this event is so vital to the city. Attentive, interested and curious, the kids I spoke to were terrific. I end up saying that every year, though, because it’s always true.

It seems kids look forward to Authors Day not just because it’s a break in the routine, but because it’s an escape into something many of them genuinely seem to enjoy — the world of creativity and ideas; a place where they are reminded that simply with a pen and paper, almost anything is possible. And as always, after an exhilarating day of communicating with a mob of bright, interested kids, you cannot thank the teachers enough. After all, they’re the ones who stoke the fires of learning day after day — and they’re the ones who create the order and framework necessary in order for a program like this to truly thrive at the school level.

After the presentations at Dwyer, it was off to the library to join fellow authors at tables where we compared notes on the day, greeted young readers to sign books and basked in the glow of an event that celebrates the written word. A highlight for me was when Ryan Shuman, a Dwyer sixth-grader, arrived at my table with his family. He came to get one of my books signed, because a connection had been made earlier in the day.

For an author, it doesn’t get much better than that. Or when you hear from another Dwyer student, seventh-grader Kaura Grande (whose mom, Krystin, helped organize the Dwyer event), that she wants to be a writer when she gets older. She describes the inspirational fiction she writes now, created with the purpose of giving young people a chance to read prose based on morals and values, and one feels good about the next generation of writers.

At the library, the organizers and teachers told many authors they inspired the kids on this day. But it’s important to realize just how much the kids inspire us, as well. Writing is such a solitary endeavor, that often it isn’t until you appear before a group of young people before you really appreciate what you’ve created. It’s their innocence, wonder and interest that helps push a writer to forge their next idea. So to all of the authors, screenwriters, poets, lyricists and other artists-to-be, we thank you for another fine Authors Day, something special in Huntington Beach that has become its own work of art.

CHRIS EPTING is the author of 10 books, including his latest, “Led Zeppelin Crashed Here, The Rock and Roll Landmarks of North America” and the forthcoming “Huntington Beach – Then & Now.” He also hosts “The Pop Culture Road Trip” radio show on webtalkradio.net. You can write him at [email protected].