Greg Lilly to appear at the 18th Annual Virginia Festival of the Book

Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Williamsburg, VA • March 9, 2012) Greg Lilly, author of Scalping the Red Rocks – a Derek Mason Mystery, will participate in the 18th annual Virginia Festival of the Book. The Festival, which takes place March 21-25, 2012, is held in venues throughout Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Virginia, and is now the largest educational book event in the mid-Atlantic, drawing a cumulative annual attendance of more than 20,000 attendees.

Lilly joins authors James Church, Corban Addison, Thomas Kaufman and Brad Parks for the “Murder, Murder Everywhere” panel on Crime Wave Saturday (March 24). The panel discusses how the combination of character and location create unique settings for mysteries.

Lilly’s novels are acclaimed by critics for their sense of place and settings that act as characters in the stories. Drewey Wayne Gunn from Lambda Literary magazine praises Scalping the Red Rocks for its “vivid sense of place.” Author Keith Pyeatt says the mystery “showcases Greg Lilly’s mastery of characterization, setting, and suspense.” AOL Travel listed the new novel as an Editor’s Pick in Sedona (Arizona) Culture, alongside John Wayne’s movie Angel and the Badman and the Glenn Ford western, the original 3:10 to Yuma, which were both filmed in the desert resort town. “For a good airplane read,” AOL lists, “try Greg Lilly’s Derek Mason Mystery, Scalping the Red Rocks. Lilly, a former Sedona resident, so thoroughly captures the town’s personality and culture that a favorite game among the locals is guessing who the characters are based on.”

The “Murder, Murder Everywhere” panel is a collection of mystery writers who will discuss using setting as a character and plotting device. The panel is free and open to the public – Saturday, March 24 at 10:00 a.m. at the Charlottesville Omni Hotel, Ballroom A.

The Virginia Festival of the Book runs March 21 - 25 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Authors, illustrators, storytellers, and other publishing professionals from across the United States are participating this year, including
Jeffery Deaver (Carte Blanche),
Lee Smith (Mrs. Darcy and the Blue Eyed Stranger),
Charles Shields (And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut: A Life),
Edward Ayers (America on the Eve of the Civil War),
Kwame Alexander (Acoustic Rooster and his Barnyard Band),
Kathryn Erskine (Mockingbird),
Nikki Giovanni (Bicycles: Love Poems),
Sharyn McCrumb (The Ballad of Tom Dooley),
Nikky Finney (Head Off & Split),
Jill McCorkle (Going Away Shoes­–Stories),
Barton Seaver (For Cod and Country),
Nick Galifianakis (If You Loved Me, You’d Think This Was Cute),
and many more.

The mission of the Virginia Festival of the Book is to bring together writers and readers and to promote and celebrate books, reading, literacy, and literary culture. Full details on the entire five-day festival are available at vabook.org. More information on Greg Lilly and his novels can be found at www.GregLilly.com.

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