Molinari Reads at Arlington Army Navy Country Club, Oct. 14, 2021
2021-10-14 18:30 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | OK
Award-winning humorist Lisa Smith Molinari, author of The Meat and Potatoes of Life: My True Lit Com, will read from her memoir at the Army Navy Country Club in Arlington, Virginia, on Thursday, October 14, 2021. The event is open to ANCC Arlington members and their guests. Members please log in to register on the ANCC website.
Light refreshments will be served at 6:30 PM in the Fort Richardson Room, followed by Lisa’s reading and discussion at 7 PM.
Cost to attend is $6 per person. Copies of the book will be available for sale.

Lightfoot on Military Spouse Panel at IAM Conference, Oct. 15, 2021
2021-10-15 10:30 - 11:30 (America/New_York) | OK
Lizann Lightfoot, author of Open When: Letters of Encouragement for Military Spouses, will be a panelist speaker at the International Association of Movers (IAM) Conference in Orlando, Florida, on Friday, Oct. 15, 2021, 10:30–11:30 AM Eastern.
Lizann’s panel is part of a new IAM military track, where professional moving companies can learn more about the details and specific challenges of military moves. For the first time, a panel of military spouses will speak to conference participants to improve communication between military families and moving companies. Lizann is one of three military spouses selected to speak on this panel.
Session description:
IAM Learning Lab: Military Spouse Perspectives on the DoD Moving Process

Join us for this special, first-ever session where we feature a panel of military spouses to discuss the moving process from their perspectives. Hear what it’s like from their eyes; and how it might be different from what a non-DoD family experiences in their move. What makes for a successful move? What increases their stress during an already stressful time? Ask them questions and make sure you understand a military move from their side of the process.

The panel will be live for those attending in person, and also streamed on the IAM website for those with a virtual registration.

Veterans Experience Project Showcases Photos by JT Blatty, November 11, 2022, New Orleans
2022-11-11 10:00 - 18:00 (America/Chicago) | OK
JT Blatty, author of the forthcoming memoir Snapshots Sent Home (Elva Resa, 2023), will read excerpts from her manuscript and talk about her photojournalist exhibit “Front Line, Peace Life” during Bastion Community of Resilience’s Veterans Experience Project (VEP). Sponsored by Got Your Six, a Bob Woodruff Foundation Initiative, VEP takes place Friday, November 11, 2022, 10 AM—6 PM Central, at Gallier Hall, 545 Saint Charles Ave, New Orleans.
The hands-on event explores diverse military experiences through artistic expression and interactive exhibits, including visual art, the written and spoken word, performances and curated discussion panels, followed by a dialogue with the audience to provide further understanding into the servicemember experiences. A number of nationally renowned veterans will be presenting at VEP.
JT will take the main stage at 1:30 PM. As a photojournalist, JT’s work has been featured in many publications, including Bloomberg, Oxford American, and The Daily Beast. She spent the past four years in Ukraine. “Front Line, Peace Life” shares the stories of Ukrainian volunteer soldiers fighting to preserve their country’s democracy.
Bastion is an intentional community for returning warriors and families with life-altering injuries, with a mission to provide a supportive living environment for injured veterans and families and a holistic approach to community integration.
The event is free and open to the public. For more information about Veterans Experience Project, visit JoinBastion.org.
*Photo with this event posting is a portrait titled Yulya “Valkyrie” Tolopa by JT Blatty.
Valkyrie crossed the Ukrainian border from Russia in 2014, when she was 18, inspired to understand the true events of the Maidan revolution versus reports from the Russian media. By June she was on a bus heading to the frontline to fight with the Ukrainians against the Russian invasion. She joined the Aydar Volunteer Battalion and helped liberate and defend towns in the Luhansk region until 2015. She served on the frontline in the Ukrainian Armed Forces as a Russian citizen until 2019, protected by Ukraine from Russia’s request for extradition. She finally received Ukrainian citizenship in 2022, after a six-year battle fighting Ukraine’s law requiring her to renounce her foreign citizenship on Russian territory, where she is not safe and is wanted as a traitor.

Lightfoot Speaks at Airlift/Tanker Symposium Nov 10, 2023
2023-11-10 13:30 - 14:20 (America/Chicago) | OK
Lizann Lightfoot will be a seminar speaker at the annual Airlift/Tanker Association Symposium on Friday, November 10, 2023, 1:30-2:20 PM CT. The author of Open When: Letters of Encouragement for Military Spouses will present a session called “How Military Spouses Develop Warrior Hearts When Military Life Isn’t Getting Easier.” She will share her personal stories and offer encouraging advice for a variety of military life situations.
The Airlift/Tanker Association Symposium is a premier professional development forum with an aim to develop airmen into joint leaders. The 2023 Symposium and Tech expo is at the Gaylord Texan, Grapevine, Texas, November 9-12, 2023.
Lizann will be available to sign copies of Open When throughout the event.

JT Blatty Signs Snapshots Sent Home Memoir at Octavia Books, Sat. Feb. 24, 2024
2024-02-24 16:00 - 17:30 (America/Chicago) | Octavia Books, 511 Octavia St, New Orleans, LA, 70115-2055
Documentary photojournalist JT Blatty will read from her new book, Snapshots Sent Home: From Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine—A Memoir, and talk about her experiences as a US combat veteran and photographer in Ukraine, at a booksigning event hosted by Octavia Books, 511 Octavia St, New Orleans, on Saturday, February 24, 4–5:30 PM Central Time. The event takes place on the second anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Like many post-9/11 combat veterans, JT Blatty struggled to regain her sense of purpose in the years returning home from Afghanistan and Iraq. Then, in 2018, a chance encounter brought her to Ukraine as a documentary photojournalist, drawn in by the familiarity of war and those who serve in wars. She discovered Ukraine’s volunteer soldiers, a tribe of revolutionaries, ordinary men and women, most without military training, who in 2014 self-deployed to the War in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine. Over five years, as she embedded with them on the front line in bunkers and forests, and in Kyiv flats, creating a photographic/audio archive, JT’s story began to blend with theirs in a universal bond of combat veterans, compelling her to stay as a new war began.
“… Snapshots Sent Home is an intimate, finely-written memoir about the truths and realities shared by soldiers everywhere. Moving between the author’s experiences in Ukraine, where she lives and works as a photographer, and before that in Iraq and Afghanistan, where she served as a US military officer, Blatty ruminates about the nature of comradeship, patriotism, longing, loss, life and death; memory and love. ‘Butterflies on fire’ is a phrase that makes a debut too, but you will have to read this devastatingly moving book to understand its meaning. Snapshots Sent Home should be read by anyone who cares about what we do on history’s battlefields, and about how we process what we have done afterwards. This is a lot more than a book about snapshots. And JT Blatty is a lot more than a photographer and former soldier. She is a helluva writer too, and I am certain that what she says here will stay on in readers’ minds for a long time to come.” —Jon Lee Anderson, staff writer, The New Yorker; author of Che Guevara and The Fall of Baghdad
Books will be available for sale at the event through Octavia Books.

Military Culture Discussion with Corie Weathers, Fort Liberty, Feb. 28, 2024
2024-02-28 18:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Gaston Brewery & Taproom, 421 Chicago Dr, Fayetteville, NC, United States
Fort Liberty area friends, join Corie Weathers, author of Military Culture Shift, for a rich discussion on some of the key shifts happening in the military today. Event takes place Wednesday, February 28, 6:30-8:30 PM Eastern at Gaston Brewery & Taproom, 421 Chicago Dr, Fayetteville, NC. This in-person event will be a casual opportunity to connect and engage around relevant topics with your military community. Taco Arepa (food truck) will be available and the Taphouse has a selection of drinks and non-alcoholic drinks for purchase as well. Don’t have a copy of her latest book Military Culture Shift? You can add it to your free RSVP ticket and a signed copy will be reserved for you! Bring your spouse, bring a friend, this discussion will be perfect for service members and spouses from every generation!

RSVP

Teri Weber to Speak and Sign Books at 36th Annual Women in Aviation International Conference
2025-03-27 - 2025-03-29 | Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, Denver, 6700 N Gaylord Rockies BlvdCO, Aurora, CO, 80019, United States
Air Force pilot, mother, and children’s book author Teri Weber (Operation AviationTM series) is a featured author and educational speaker at the 36th Annual Women in Aviation International (WAI) Conference, March 27-29, 2025, at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, Denver.
Her picture books Fly with Mytai, Toad the Tanker, and Moose on a Mission will be available for purchase at the on-site bookshop. Teri will sign books at the Authors Connect Meet & Greet on Thursday, March 27, 10-11 AM MDT.
On Friday, March 28, 2:30–3:30 PM MDT, Teri will lead an educational session titled “Work-Life Integration: The New and Improved Work-Life Balance.” The term “work-life balance” implies two distinctly separate priorities, but this way of thinking is antiquated and unaccommodating to modern women. Two of the most important elements of life—family and career—do not innately conflict with one another. To foster stronger relationships with loved ones and minimize stressors associated with competing agendas, we should be instead pursuing “work-life integration.” In this session, Teri will discuss how to deliberately blur the lines between “work” and “life” to create a more enmeshed, inclusive, and sustainable lifestyle for professional women and their families.
On Saturday, March 29, Teri will attend Girls in Aviation Day, which brings together girls ages 8-18 for an empowering career panel featuring leading ladies in aviation and aerospace. The Aviation for Girls crew will experience more than 25 unique hands-on STEM activities related to aviation, flight, science, technology, navigation, space, and more lead by role models in the industry. During lunch, attendees will hear about the career journey of keynote speaker Jessica Cox, who will encourage attendees to reach for their dreams and design their own destinies.
The Women in Aviation International Conference is an annual event that offers networking and mentorship within the aviation industry to approximately 15,000 participants.
Find the full conference schedule and registration at the Women in Aviation website.

Ayyar and Aldeman Featured Authors at Virginia Assoc of School Librarians
2025-11-06 13:00 - 2025-11-07 13:00 (America/New_York) | OK
Children’s book authors Kristin Ayyar and Gabriella Aldeman will present and sign books at the Virginia Association of School Librarians (VAASL) conference held in Williamsburg, Virginia, November 5–7, 2025. Along with other SCBWI-Mid Atlantic authors, they will talk about their books and author visit offerings, and sign books in the exhibitor hall.
Kristin Ayyar, author of Countdown ’til Daddy Comes Home and Countdown ’til Mommy Comes Home will present on November 6 at 1 PM Eastern and sign books 1:45–4:30 PM following her presentation.
Gabriella Aldeman, author of Paula’s Patches, Squawk of Spanish, and Un graznido en español, and translator of Contando los días hasta que llegue papá and Contando los días hasta que llegue mamá will present on November 7 at 8 AM and sign books 10 AM–1 PM following her presentation.
