By Clay Eals

Words, Writers, and West Seattle, an event designed to showcase local area authors was well attended on Friday Oct. 4 and deemed a success by those participating. The free series is set to continue monthly.

Stephanie Guerra, an Admiral resident, did a great job of describing and reading from her brand-new book "Billy the Kid Is Not Crazy," captivating an audience of 15 who filled all available seats. (We will need to provide more chairs next time.) It also was special because this installment was the actual launch of her book. She had not seen finished copies of the book until she arrived at the event, and she was thrilled. We have the whole thing on videotape (which we won't be able to edit until our volunteer video editor is back from an out-of-town trip). Also, for the first event of the series, it was a good learning experience in that we were able to work on some of the technical bugs and learn what to do down the road.

Stephanie's book is both charming and hilarious, in the voice of a 10-year-old who lives in West Seattle, and there are West Seattle references throughout. Plus, it has great cartoon illustrations drawn from the point of view of the protagonist. The audience was rapt, which might seem a surprise given that it is written for a pre-teen, middle-school audience, but it proved the truism that everyone likes to hear a good story.

Many of those attending bought copies of "Billy the Kid Is Not Crazy," as well as Stephanie's first young-adult novel, "Torn," which was great because from each purchase we received 10 percent under the Barnes & Noble Bookfair program. Stephanie graciously wrote inscriptions and had many one-on-one conversations. She also signed other copies of the books in stock at Barnes & Noble, and they are for sale there.

Clay Eals is Executive Director of the Southwest Seattle Historical Society