I wrote a book, so, how to I get it published? Ann Lowe will discuss the ins and outs of the details involved in self-publishing. She will have samples of a book and book covers she designed, as well as tips for working with printers. Ann Lowe is an experienced Graphic Designer who started out as a brochure designer and progressed through art director for children's textbooks, and on to catalogues and book jacket designs. She was educated at the University of London and worked for many years as a graphic designer with major corporations in New York City. Among these were HBO, Ziff-Davis Publications, Time/Life Home Video, and the Oxford University Press. Currently she does freelance designing in Silver City.

It has been said that buying a Nikon doesn't make you a photographer, it makes you a Nikon owner. Come see the works of, true world-class photographer, Michael P. Berman who will share his gift of an artist's eye. The Texas University Press published his latest book, Trinity, which contains his stunning photographs of the Chihuahuan Desert, in October 2009. Michael will show some of his photographs from this and other publications. Michael Berman is a 2008 Guggenheim Fellow photographer. His works have been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Amon Carter Museum in Ft. Worth, Texas, and the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe. He also has received painting fellowships from the Arizona Commission On the Arts and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico. His paintings and photographs have been reviewed in Art in America and exhibited throughout the country. Michel resides in the Mimbres in Grant County.

Does an asteroid have your name on it? Or is this just the stuff of another 1950s "B" grade Sci-Fi movie? Perhaps we earthlings are exempt from an astronomical collision, but don't bet on it! Come hear Gary Emerson's educated view on planetary fender benders. Most of Gary Emerson's forty-year professional career was spent in astronomy and space science. For the past thirty years he has operated his own observatories. He has published data and images in many professional journals and currently teaches "My Favorite Universe" and other popular astronomy courses at WILL.

Come explore the history and culture of traditional Irish music. Enjoy a bit of tune lore and some lively fiddling by Eileen Sullivan. Eileen is a graduate of the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and has years of violin and fiddle teaching experience. She has been playing fiddle and traditional dance music for over a decade and has played in several Albuquerque dance bands including, Boxwood Consort, Bailiwick, and Wren and Caledonia. Eileen taught violin at Lawrence University in Appleton, WI and at Western New Mexico University. She taught the course, Introduction to Traditional Irish Music through WILL and recently presented an Irish fiddle workshop for the NM Musical Heritage Project at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

The Centennial Saloon, built in 1875 had been a Silver City landmark, gathering place and watering hole since its earliest days. The site of the original foundation on Manzanita Ridge is all that remains of the building today. Several Silver City luminaries, including the Bells and the Abrahams, had owned the saloon. Visiting entertainers performed there, and many deals were hatched and executed on the premises. And speaking of executions, Ada Hulmes, the piano player at the Centennial, shot her lover, Jack Brown, there in 1891. The presentation will string together amusing and horrifying anecdotes to illustrate life during Silver City's colorful past. Liz Mikols is an amateur historian, who read her first book about Silver City in 1993. After retiring from the corporate world, she and her husband, Joe, located to Silver City over a year ago. Now Liz is able to spend time investigating the more interesting facets of Grant County and Silver City history. Liz has been a member of the Historical Society of New Mexico for over a decade and regularly volunteers at the Silver City Museum. Liz received a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley (biology) and a MFS from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

The Mimbres people once lived in what is now Grant County (and other counties in southwestern New Mexico, too.) They flourished between 200 and 1200AD. Come hear Mimbres Culture Heritage Site Director (and archeologist) Marilyn Markel's assessment of this fascinating and enigmatic culture and their successful adaptation to a rather harsh environment. Most importantly, why did they leave? Marilyn Markel lives next to the Mimbres River surrounded by the Gila National Forest. She is a native New Mexican and studied Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of New Mexico. Marilyn has worked on numerous excavations of Mimbres Archaeological Sites and has specialized in the history and archaeology of the Mimbres area.