Events › Local Author Showcase

Local Author Showcase
Saturday, Nov. 22nd, 1:00 - 3:00 pm at the library
*All ages welcome!

Meet Local Authors
Learn about their books for: Children, Teens, & Adults
Book Signings, Scavenger Hunt, Refreshments, and Bookmark Workshop!
Book copies available for purchase.

Fun for all ages!

Chrysa Smith - http://www.wellbredbook.net

Chrysa has been a writer for decades. She writes for both adults which she finds both interesting and challenging, and children, both fun and challenging. Since 2007, she’s written nine children’s books for audiences PreK-2. Her work includes six silly talking dog stories, two curious stories about a gritty city girl’s adventures and a sweet book about faith. She’s the recipient of several awards for her works, and many a thank you note from children she sees at school author visits. She lives in Bucks County, PA with her husband Mark, and a wild little Bichpoo, Bailey.

Nancy Viau - https://www.nancyviau.com/

NANCY VIAU is the award-winning author of the following picture books: Splish, Splash! First to Last, Pruett and Soo, Today Is a Beach Day, First Snow, City Street Beat, Look What I Can Do! and Storm Song. Look for her next title, Hanging Out with Gram, to be released in April 2026. Nancy is also the author of several novels for kids ages 8-12, including Samantha Hansen Has Rocks In Her Head, Something Is Bugging Samantha Hansen, Just One Thing! and Beauty and Bernice. A former teacher and librarian, and forever a kid-at-heart, Nancy loves to visit schools, libraries, and bookstores across the U.S. to present assembly programs, story times, and writing workshops. In her spare time, you’ll find her searching for inspiration on biking and hiking trails near her New Jersey home and in all parts of the world. Connect with Nancy on Instagram: @NancyViau1 or via her site: www.NancyViau.com.

Ellie Kirk - https://www.elliekirk.com/

Ellie Kirk is the author of ELEANOR THE COOK and BONNIE BAILEY AND THE FAIRE OF WORLDS. She lives at the southernmost tip of New Jersey where she spends as much time as possible at the beach rescuing stranded horseshoe crabs, picking up litter, and petting lots of dogs. When Ellie’s not at the beach she enjoys working in her pollinator garden, a safe haven for bugs, birds, and bees. Ellie also makes the best homemade cannoli in all the land (shells and filling!).

Deirdre Palm Adams - https://www.deirdrepalmadams.com/

Deirdre Palm Adams believes in living a life filled with joy and gratitude. She is a the founder of the “Love How Good You Feel Brand” who is highly energized and passionate about helping others reach their full potential and live their best life.

Not afraid of hard work, she enjoys a successful career in Fashion, is a best-selling author and leverages her entrepreneurial spirit in her e-commerce digital marketing & wellness/natural beauty business. She is

a high energy mentor that thrives on transforming mindsets while helping others achieve a well-balanced, limitless life filled with abundance.

She values family, friends and of course is obsessed with her Poodle named Rocky who is the star character in her best-selling children’s book series, The Adventures of Rocky. This heartwarming tale includes three books, “Don’t Be Bullied Rocky”, “Don’t Worry Rocky”, and “Don’t Be Afraid Rocky” that encourage children to believe in themselves.

A jersey shore girl at heart, Deirdre enjoys the beach life with her husband and together they created a life of love, laughs and dreams!

You can learn more about Deirdre Palm Adams and The Adventures of Rocky on www.deirdrepalmadams.com

Website: www.deirdrepalmadams.com

Email: deirdre@deirdrepalmadams.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deirdre-palm-adams

Rhonnie Jones

Rhonnie Jones is a proud graduate from the home of the Institute of Children's Literature located in West Redding, Connecticut. He is a dedicated children's writer. He helps our formal educators entertain and educate our students simultaneously. He believes that educated children make better grownups. Better grownups make better parents. Better parents make better families, which make better communities. This collectively makes better countries, which altogether makes a better world in which we have to live, Love.

Karen Ann Kennedy

Karen Ann Kennedy is a local author of several books. Karen enjoys reading, writing, cooking, and gardening, and is very active serving at her church. Karen is also a decorated veteran of the United States Army, serving her country for eight years including a tour of duty in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm. Karen currently resides in Egg Harbor Township with her beloved cat companion, Samuel.

Demitrius Covington

Inner city kid that spent some time overseas in military and started to write down my experiences.

JJ Lair

JJ Lair has been writing and publishing for years. He participated in several arts and writing groups over the years where he met and worked with amazing authors through the years. His stories are about blue collar characters that find themselves in extraordinary circumstances. JJ has a blog where he writes about history, music, book reviews and culture.

www.JJLairauthor.net

Neil MacNeill

Neil MacNeill is the pen name of Neil M. Szigethy, an award-winning copywriter of advertising, marketing, and sales training content. Neil grew up in a small town close to the Jersey Shore, and the 59th Street beach in Ocean City was his favorite destination. He currently lives in New Jersey with his wife, Martha. The Poe Puzzler is his third novel.

Toni De Palma

Toni De Palma’s first YA novel, Under the Banyan Tree, was a Kirkus New Voices Pick. Toni has published numerous novels for children and young adults, including the YA novel, The Devil’s Triangle. Toni wrote, directed and produced the short film, Marty’s Calling, selected by the Chelsea Film Festival. Butterfly Summer is her first novel for adults. It takes place on the Italian island of Ischia, the island of Toni’s ancestral roots.

www.tonidepalmabooks.com

Michael Bellinger

Despite having been declared legally blind for over the past twenty years Michael T. Bellinger has a Bachelor's degree in Accounting and a Master's in Education. He has worked in public accounting as a CPA and in a parochial school as a volunteer classroom teacher, where he taught computers and technology to the K-8 students.

Michael enjoys listening to music and audiobooks, and his tastes in both are eclectic. He enjoys writing poetry when the inspiration hits him and he is currently working a new novel.

Michael and his wife Lisa have been married for 33 years, and together they share two grown sons. They live in a small town in NJ.

Maria K. Alexander

Award-winning Contemporary Romance

Maria K. Alexander is an award-winning author of the Tangled Hearts and Pelican Bay series. She writes about women who are fearless in pursuit of their ambitions. Her stories have strong connections with family and friends. When not writing, she loves to read, bake, crochet, play pickleball, bike, visit the beach, and watch romantic comedies. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and juggles a full-time job. You can keep in touch with Maria at: http://mariakalexander.com

Tom Minder

Tom Minder lives in southern New Jersey with his wife Paula. He is a member of the South Jersey Writers' Group and The Writers’ Coffeehouse. His story Burning for Rehoboth won a judges award in the Beach Nights anthology from Cat & Mouse Press, 2016. His short story Stopping for a Bite was included in the 2023 Halloween anthology for Trembling With Fear magazine.

His initial novel, The Long Harbor Testament, was published January 2017. His second, The House Always Wins, came out in October 2018. His latest, The Ferret, was released in April 2021, all through Black Rose Writing.

https://tomminder.weebly.com/

Jennifer Shirk

She is a USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of sweet (and sometimes even funny) romances for Montlake Romance and Entangled Publishing. Her novel, FIANCE BY FATE, a 2015 Readers' Crown Finalist, became an Amazon #1 bestseller for Series Romance. And recently, WRONG BROTHER, RIGHT MATCH won the Sweet Traditional category of the 2017 Golden Quill Contest and became a #1 Amazon bestseller for Holiday Romance and USA Today bestseller.

She serves on many volunteer boards in her community, but is most proud of her work on the Ocean City Free Public Library Board of Trustees, where she has served as President since 2014. She resides in a beach resort in NJ, and when she's not involved in all the above, she's taking care of her most treasured possessions: her husband, daughter, and two grateful rescue dogs.

Vincent Malfitano

Retired Career Prosecuting Attorney and Grand Jury Chief, and former Ocean City Lifeguard is making his literary debut with 3 (yes, 3!) fast moving novels, all of which you can find on Amazon.

Husband and father of five, and a first-time grand pop, he grew up in a household full of kids in a neighborhood full of kids, who all went to middle class schools also full of kids. Family get-togethers were full of kids; every day dinners were full of kids, so were weddings, funerals, Sunday Masses, Confession lines, skating rinks and movie theatres. Not malls though. Malls had not yet made their debut. Halloween could bankrupt a person. Christmas? Time to mortgage the house.

His comic style spills over into every aspect of his life. His acerbic wit pierces the heart. Not everyone likes that. But as a reader, you’ll find a deep and sympathetic tenderness which smolders just under the surface of every quip.

His intimate acquaintance with the twists and turns of the human heart is the basis of all three of his debut novels, and his protagonists run from the very young (in his novel, “Sir Floppy is Dead, and Mr. Boots Murdered Him”), to teenage (in his novel “The Tragedy of Tristan and Isolde”), to adult (in his novel “Ocean City New Jersy, America’s Greatest Family Resort”).

So if you love solving mysteries, fast moving plots, and blow-your-mind surprise endings, that still somehow leave you feeling hopeful and even excited about life, you’ll love this author.

Mickey Flagg

Paranormal Fiction with a twist of fate.

Memories of a Hunter's Moon - Second Place Fall 2025 BookFest Awards Fantasy -Paranormal & Urban, Romance-Paranormal

Haunting Melody - International Impact Book Awards Winner for Young Adult Fiction - Teen Fantasy

Night of the Crescent Moon- First Place Winner 2025 Spring BookFest Awards

Award-winning author Mickey Flagg’s imaginative world is full of mystical warriors, witches, not-so-normal vampires and teenage ghosts. She writes paranormal fiction with a twist of fate and more than a hint of romance. With eight novels in the genre, spinning tales that include the paradox of love and intricate family dynamics is a passion. She is a contributor in a book on urban music education and has been published in Still Standing, a web-magazine about loss and healing. A life-long New Jersey resident, Mickey is a member of Liberty States Fiction Writers, NJ Author’s Network, and NJRW. Find out more about her novels at www.mflagg-author.com

Jonnie Comet

Have you ever dreamt of someone who didn’t seem to know you were alive? Here is a romantic drama set back in the not-quite enlightened 1970s, when hair was long and shoes had high heels and there was still a chance The Beatles might get back together. Liberally embellished with gas-guzzling hot rods, classic rock- and-roll and slang expressions that predate Disco, it’s the love story you've never read, of lead singers and cheerleaders, of daydreams and detentions, of infatuation and insubordination, of love and literature class, with a special twist to the finale so you can't wait to see what happens come graduation. High school was EXACTLY like this. ‘The American Graffiti for the next generation’ –The Times. ‘Eerily reminiscent of The Great Gatsby, fifty years on; an anachronistic romance replete with Platonic love made right through virtue’ –The Absolutist.

About the author: Jonnie Comet is an educator, editor, musician, artist and writer from Surf City, New Jersey. His fiction includes Love Me Do (1990); Pamela; or: Virtue Reclaimed (2000); Gothic Night (2004); and the Deirdre, the Wanderer series (2002-2010). He is also the editor and principal writer of the A Tale of Two Paradises social-fantasy series. He lives on a yacht sailing the North American east coast. Comet Tales is the Author’s online presence at authorjonniecomet.blogspot.com

K. T. Roberts

'Tis the season for Christmas cheer in the quaint little town of Cape May, New Jersey where widow, Mallory Gardner, is hanging on for dear life as she struggles to keep her business afloat and help her daughters deal with the loss of their father. But that isn't easy for daddy's little girl who blames Mallory for her father's death.But when A. J. Miller waltzes into her store eighteen years later, things get a little sticky. He's looking for redemption and second chances. She's looking for peace of mind and a happy family and it does not include a man who ran off with her best friend during their college years. AJ is willing to do whatever it takes to win back her heart, but that wall she's built around her won't be easily chiseled away. Christmas is a time for forgiveness, for romance and cheer, but will the spirit of the season help AJ break through those irresistible forces and immovable objects to win her heart? And if he does . . . can she trust him?

About the Author

K. T. Roberts loves all things mystery and thriller, including cozy mysteries. In fact, she’s been known to tread the same book over again. Growing up in small town America, she lived across the street from a police station and often witnessed cuffed criminals being dragged into the precinct. It was then that her love for the men in blue developed and her need to create stories that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Although, she never became an officer of the law, her sister did, and she’s her source for authenticity. Penning her first crime novel in 2012, the creation of the Kensington-Gerard Detective series was born. Now working on her fifth novel in the series, Sleeping with the Enemy will be released in 2021.

K. T. finds inspiration from researching true crimes and is passionate about writing suspenseful novels with crazy twists. Twists you never see coming. She knows her novel is good when she finds herself so wrapped up in her stories, the only thing that calms her down is a handful of chocolates. Her inspiration for her first crime novel was created through a conversation of idle gossip, and the rest is history.

Her thriller novels have elements of mystery, suspense, and romance. She is also the author of the Cape May Capers series, and Christmas romance.

When she's not absorbed in a novel or working on her next thriller mystery, her favorite past time is utilizing her culinary skills of creating pastries or gourmet meals for family and friends.

Larry Schardt

Dr. Larry Schardt is an award-winning, best-selling, multi-genre author. He is also a speaker, entertainer, and Penn State University professor.

His books include “My Runaway Summer,” “James Conner: Triumphs of a Football Hero,” 4 stories in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and stories in several anthologies.

“My Runaway Summer” is a memoir about running away (from abuse in Pittsburgh) to Ocean City in the summer of 1970. It’s a coming-of-age novel, with life lessons, and a history of Ocean City from the perspective of a “flower child era” 15-year-old.

Larry’s stories and daily Facebook and LinkedIn posts (and weekly vlogs) focus on fun and inspiring life lessons.

Jason M. Worchel

Jason M. Worchel is an adjunct professor at Stockton University who holds a BA in History from Albright College and an MA in Religion from Harvard University. Jason is also a "living historian" who recreates the material culture of 5-7th century Britain. He lives with his wife and three daughters in southern New Jersey.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Jason%20worchel