There’s nothing more stimulating than a roomful of intelligent women to inspire great conversations. And that was definitely the case as roughly 130 women, and a few brave men, attended the 35th annual Book Author Luncheon hosted by the Vero Beach Branch of the American Association of University Women last Saturday afternoon at the Vero Beach Country Club. The luncheon featured award-winning author Lisa Unger, whose psychological thrillers have earned her well-deserved spots on the New York Times Best Seller list.
Prior to lunch Unger signed copies of some of her 15 novels, including “Ink and Bone,” which debuted in June 2016, and took advance orders for “The Red Hunter,” due out April 2017.
Guests could also purchase raffle tickets to win wonderful items donated by 36 local businesses to support the mission of the AAUW to “promote equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, philanthropy and research.”
“This is one of the more active AAUWs; a lot of philanthropy,” said Carole Strauss, who chaired the event, citing roughly 160 in their current membership. “We give scholarships to women who have gotten their associate degrees from IRSC [Indian River State College] and are pursuing a bachelor’s. We’ve also got two paid endowments, $90,000 and $75,000, that we gave to national.”
Members frequently tutor at schools and with English as a Second Language students, support STEM and STEAM activities and, to inspire the next generation, have sent young women to the National Conference of College Women Student Leaders in Washington, D.C.
“We now have an IRSC AAUW Student Club with 20 members,” said branch President Linda Barker. “We’ve sent five women already and we just chose two for this spring. We’re kind of like a pass-through. We get the funds from our donors and members and we donate those funds and also volunteer at the organizations so we see where the money goes.”
“We all know that education is ground zero for everything. It’s the foundation of our lives and what we can contribute to the world, so the fact that your organization contributes so much is a gift, and so I applaud you,” said Unger. Sharing that she began writing at an early age, she credited her mother, a librarian, for instilling a love of reading but said her father, an engineer, felt she would need a “real” job. She now jokes with affection, “My father still looks at me like I’m the equation he just can’t solve.”
Unger began her first novel in college at age 19 and had a successful job in publishing before it was published 10 years later, which essentially launched her career as an author. Speaking about her thought process, Unger said the seeds of a story can germinate from anything.
“The books are all character-driven; every book is kind of like a journey,” she said, adding that she doesn’t know what will happen in a novel until it reveals itself to her.
“What drives me is that I get up every day and I think that I can be a better writer than I was yesterday, and that I have a craft that I hone as well as a passion in me that still burns. There’s all sorts of hills and valleys in the life of every creative person making his or her living with their art.”
For more information, visit verobeach-fl.aauw.net.
