By RAEGAN NEUFELD Photos by RORY MOORE
Tiger Media Network
The annual Kansas Book Festival in Topeka took place in September, but the organization collaborated with the Hays Public Library and Forsyth Library to send two authors to Hays on Wednesday for Kansas Book Fest West.
Children’s author Sue Lowell Gallion did a morning and afternoon storytime at the HPL, and mystery novelist M.A. Monnin capped the day off with a presentation for the library’s Cozy Mystery Book Club. She talked about her novel “Death in the Aegean” and showed photos from a trip to Greece, which is where her story takes place.
Monnin also talked about the research she did for her book and the inspiration she took from the places and artifacts she saw on her trip.
“My mind went to ‘what if,’” she said of an artifact that inspired the stolen one in her story. “I thought, ‘how cool would that be?’ and that was the beginning of my mystery.”
M.A. Monnin, Air Force veteran and author, hosts a book discussion during the Kansas Book Fair inside the Hays Public Library. 
Monnin details the trip she took through the Aegean region which was the subject of her book “Death in the Aegean.” 
Aegean presents images of ancient artifacts from Aegean culture. 
Monnin speaks in front of a live audience at her book discussion.
Kansas Book Festival Executive Director Tim Bascom spoke before Monnin’s presentation to promote the festival. It typically features 40 to 50 authors who are connected in some way to Kansas, who give presentations and participate in panel discussions.
“I’ve been talking with the library here about how authors can come out west,” he said. “We try to occasionally do that because we know it’s hard for people to get all the way to Topeka.”
Bascom worked with HPL Public Services Manager Samantha Gill to organize the day.
“I think you get to learn a lot about the behind-the-scenes of what it takes to make your favorite book,” Gill said. “You also get to show appreciation to the authors that put so much hard work and effort into these books and you can support them.”
Forsyth Library Engagement Specialist Anna Towns had the same sentiment.
“If you think about all of the ways that books touch your life, it’s neat to see somebody who’s actually doing that work,” she said. “Especially presentations like this where you get the historical background, you get the research aspect of it, as well as those story-building things that go into it.”
Towns partnered with Gill to promote the event on campus to classes and departments. According to her, Hays is a good place for events like Kansas Book Fest West because of the two libraries.
“It’s nice to have a place where the campus community and the wider community can come and kind of get involved in those bookish activities,” Towns said. “We have great schools and programs on campus, so it’s an easy way to promote the different things and kind of draw different people out for it.”
While Gill said future events with the Kansas Book Festival will most likely follow the same format, Towns said she would also be interested in panel discussions.
“(It’s) interesting to see the different authors play off each other or talk about the different types of works that they’re doing, so I would love to see some more of that, some cross-talk with the authors as well,” Towns said.
Information about upcoming events at the HPL can be found on their website and Facebook page.