Darden North, MD

As an author I love to visit book clubs. Recently by video teleconference, I was the honored guest of the Yarn Spinners Book Club of Ackerman, Mississippi. Friend and member Frances Coleman tells me that the club grew from a group of women who like to knit and crochet. They soon found themselves talking about books and decided to devote one meeting each month to having a book club. The program is sponsored by the Mississippi State University Extension Service - Chocktaw County.  Last year the Yarn Spinners read and discussed my newest novel, "Wiggle Room," but in 2015 my second novel, "Points of Origin," a national IPPY award-winner in Southern Fiction, was the focus of intention. Pictured separately  via Skype and Facetime  are the guest novelist and the Yarn Spinners group with guests. The club shared with me the 23 discussion questions it considered including such concepts as what was the central conflict of the novel’s plot, how does one ...

http://www.youtube.com/user/dardennorth#p/a/u/0/zq4ZIVFIvBg Recently I was asked to be the featured speaker at my local library to kick-off the annual membership drive for the Friends of the Jackson (MS) Library held at the downtown Eudora Welty Library. At the last minute, I handed my digital camera to a friend and asked her to take a few pictures. My presentation included a discussion of my writing career balanced with being a doctor and then was followed by a reading from my third novel FRESH FROZEN. I also threw in an excerpt of my work-in-progress, planned fourth novel, WIGGLE ROOM. My friend had the insight to use the video feature of the camera and recorded the majority of the talk, even though handicapped by the absence of a tripod or HD camera features. I took my "free" video and had it professionally edited by Leslie LaCour of Hazel House Marketing for an hourly fee and then posted it on YouTube. I think it turned out to be a nice piece, suitable for inclusi...