Book Event Season is here

Book Event Season is here by CK Van Dam

We’re moving into “Book Event Season,” when authors meet with readers at book fairs and speaking events. You can find me at the following events.

Top Ten Books for 2023

Top Ten Books for 2023 by CK Van Dam

It’s the time of year when Top Ten Lists start popping up, so I decided to look through my GoodReads list for 2023 and see which books I rated the highest. Interestingly, my list contained a good mix of fiction and non-fiction books

The SD Humanities Council Speakers Bureau

South Dakota Humanities Council Speakers Bureau

The Speakers Bureau is the collection of humanities scholars who present on a variety of topics comprising the humanities – including, but not limited to, history, culture, language, literature, philosophy, arts and sciences, and heritages.

First Book Talk for Lone Tree Claim

First Book Talk for Lone Tree Claim by CK Van Dam

During the talk, I introduced the new characters and briefly summarized the plot. Then, I read an excerpt from the book that encapsulates Katie’s and Jake’s personalities and relationships.

Happy 70th Anniversary, KELOLand

If you live in South Dakota, northwestern Iowa or western Minnesota, you live in KELOLand. “KELOLand” was the invention of KELO-TV’s founder, Joe L. Floyd. He took the new station’s “call letters” and created a brand that is still dominant today. The station will celebrate 70 years of broadcasting on May 19, 2023. That’s a milestone in […]

Conversation with readers

Part of publishing a book is going out and talking about the book — having conversations with readers. That’s where I am in my “publishing journey” as I refer to it. I must confess that I prefer to write words on paper than speak words to groups of people. So, I ask the audience if we can […]

Obsessed with printing presses

The Printing Revolution started in Germany around 1440, when Johannes Gutenberg invented moveable-type printing presses. As a Journalism major, I spent hundreds of hours at the Printing and Journalism Building on the campus of South Dakota State University. Even the building name put “printing” before “journalism.” We toured the now-ancient press room, learned the basics of […]

Podcast questions: What’s your favorite book?

Answer to the podcast interviewer: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle Part of marketing a book includes being a guest on podcasts. I must admit that it’s kinda fun. The podcast questions have also given me a new insight into myself. One of the questions that podcasters like to ask authors is “What’s your favorite book?” […]

What motivates you?

I volunteer on several boards, and at a recent meeting the organizer asked a “warm up” question to get the group ready for work. She asked: “Tell us about a meaningful extra curricular activity you did as a child or teen.” Not being athletic or musical, my extra curriculars were mostly academic — like the […]