Friends of Oak Ridge Library sponsors local authors at Secret City Festival

The Friends of the Oak Ridge Public Library will participate in the Secret City Festival held at the Oak Ridge Civic Center on June 10-11 by sponsoring local writers and authors.

The authors will be in Room C of the Civic Center (next door to the Oak Ridge Historical Preservation Association) autographing and selling their books at the following times:

Friday, June 10

• 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.—Carol Oen
• 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.—Adele A. Roberts, Mark Griffith

Saturday, June 11

• 10 a.m.-2 p.m.—Tim Oesch MD, Ray Smith
• 2 p.m.-6 p.m—Steve Gibbs, Dewaine Speaks/Ray Clift

Featured authors and the books they will be sharing include:

Carol Oen, author of “Songs That Remember,” a senior romance novel. Three characteristics of this sub-genre are older characters, disabilities are central to the story, and the print is 14 point for easier reading. Oen writes during retirement from a career as biologist, information specialist, and manager at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. She is an active member of two writers’ groups and leads classes she calls “Pieces of My Life, Writing Memoirs,” for which she uses a quilt as a life metaphor.

Adele A. Roberts is the author of a series of children’s books, “The Adventures of Sammy the Skunk.” She and her husband currently live in Oliver Springs. As a former teacher and counselor, she has spent many years working with children and parents.

Mark Griffith, author of “Murder Will Out,” has been a part of the Oak Ridge Mortgage Investors Group management team for more than 22 years.

Timothy R. Oesch has experience as a military officer, physician, children’s church director, choir director, piano teacher, musical composer, Sunday school teacher, magician, lifeguard, collegiate athlete, soccer coach, track coach, novelist, and poet (see www.silentwords.com and click on his name in Our Hall of Fame.) He was a pioneer researcher in regard to airborne cyanide and its role in diabetes. His books include “Zarkanis and Colesia,” “In Search of Alania,” “Call to Subterrania,” and “Seruna Savant.”

Ray Smith, Oak Ridge’s historian has more than 45 years of experience at the Y-12 National Security Complex. He has co-produced the highly acclaimed and award winning Secret City set of two 90-minute DVDs that has become the definitive history of Oak Ridge. He has also written 14 books on the East Tennessee area history consisting of nine “Historically Speaking” volumes, “The John Hendrix Story,” “1944 Troop Train Wreck,” “Historical Sketch of Oak Ridge Schools,” “Oak Ridge International Friendship Bell” and “Delina.” Smith has also published four photo books of East Tennessee scenery and the Oak Ridge International Friendship Bell. He continues to publish a weekly Oak Ridge history newspaper column, “Historically Speaking,” which form the basis for annual books on Oak Ridge history.

Steve Gibbs, author of “Behind the Blue Line: Protecting Our Nuclear Weapons Complex,” was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. He served four years in the United States Air Force as a security police officer, with the last year in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. He worked five years as a police officer for the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. While working for UT, Gibbs attended and received a bachelor’s degree from East Tennessee State University. He was hired in 1978 as a security guard for Union Carbide at the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge. He worked his way through the ranks in Oak Ridge, retiring in 2012 as the deputy general manager of operations for Wackenhut Services Inc.

Dewaine Speaks and Ray Clift are co-authors of “East Tennessee in World War II.”

Speaks is a native East Tennessean. His previously published works are “Preparing for International Travel,” an informative travel guide, and “Weston Fulton Changed the World,” a biography of Tennessee’s most prolific inventor. He is a member of the Author’s Guild of Tennessee.

Clift is a native of East Tennessee. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences education and a master’s in industrial technical education from the University of Tennessee. He holds a doctorate in business management from Walden University. Clift worked as an engineering graphics and mathematics instructor at the University of Georgia before joining Rohm and Haas Chemical Company, from which he retired.

Membership forms for Friends of the Oak Ridge Public Library are available in the Library lobby and will be available during Secret City Festival. Additional information about FOL is available from Nancy Hardin, president, at [email protected]. Donations of books, puzzles, CDs, audiocassettes, DVDs, and other publications are welcome any time.

The Secret City Festival is designated a Top 20 Event by the Southeast Tourism Society. For concert tickets and more information, visit www.secretcityfestival.com.