Eye Opener Press
Featured Author - Brenda E Smith
Upcoming Events
Date TBD Author Talk at the Monmouth Public Library
Date TBD Author Talk at Anodyne Bookstore in Searsport
Past Events
12/14/24 Bangor Book Fair - Bangor Public Library
This is the pre-holiday book event of Northern Maine. A hundred authors and hundreds of shoppers come together in this festive event. Books make great gifts, especially books signed by the authors. Hope to see you there!
12/3-12/7 Becoming Amazed: Discovering the World with Eyes Wide Open launch!!!
Eight new adventures in six different countries! From Bolivia's rugged landscapes to Ethiopia's hidden tribal territories, from the enigmatic villages of Pakistan to the leech-infested forests of Sri Lanka, Brenda’s escapades are both awe-inspiring and terrifying. She confronts everything from revered idols exacting mysterious revenge to navigating eerie second-dimension spaces. The stakes reach their zenith in the brutal murder of a friend by terrorists—a moment that forces Brenda to reckon with the harshest realities of the world she craves to explore.
Don’t just read about adventure—experience it. Dive into Becoming Amazed and let Brenda’s journey inspire you to chase your own wild dreams.
11/16/24 Penobscot Shores Arts & Crafts Fair
Every November, Penobscot Shore hosts an Arts and Crafts Fair featuring crafts from its residents and local vendors. Hundreds of people visited us this year from 9am -1pm. They found great gifts and treats for themselves including: woodcrafts, jewerly, creative cloth pieces, books, honey, yummy baked goods and of course a white elephant table.
11/9/24 No Shelf Control Book Sale in South Paris
Brenda and five other local Maine authors will host a mini book sale at the Deering Memorial Community Center. Genres represented will be romance, historical fiction, women's fiction, dark fiction and memoir. Each of the authors will do a short reading from one of their books. One lucky shopper will win a fabulous book lover's door prize.
10/22/24 Author Talk at the Reading Public Library
The Friends of Reading Public Library invited the public to attend an event where Brenda to discussed her book Becoming Fearless. Brenda lived in the town of Reading, MA for over 20 years frequently using its resources.
10/17/24 Quarry Hill Retirement Community - Book Discussion
Over thirty residents and friends of the Quarry Hill Retirement Community in Camden, ME gathered to hear Brenda describe how she found herself in the wilderness of Tanzania back in 1981. A delicious sample of African snacks including chicken peanut satay skewers, banana chips, and baked banana cake balls added to the ambience as Brenda's vivid descriptions transported the participants to the jungle river she rafted.
9/12/24 Wayne-Winthrop Women's Book Club Author Talk
An Augusta Senior College instructor, Janet Cowperthwaite, with whom Brenda had taken a writing class convinced her book club to read Becoming Fearless. She then invited Brenda to
attend one of their meetings to answer questions about her adventurous journey and get a look behind the scenes of how her first book came together.
7/27/24 No Shelf Control Book Sale at Belfast Free Library
Brenda and five other local Maine authors hosted a mini book sale at the Belfast Library. The genres represented were romance, historical fiction, women's fiction and memoir. Each of the authors did a short reading from one of their books. One lucky shopper won a fabulous book lover's door prize.
6/17/24 Flint Memorial Library in North Reading, MA - Book Discussion
It was a real treat for Brenda to return her home town of North Reading where her grandmother served as the Town Librarian for 26 years. Brenda has fond memories of hours spent helping out the Childrens' Librarian when she was young. Many friends turned out for her welcome home.
6/15/24 Seaglass Village in Wells, ME - Book Club Author Talk
The members of the residents' book club and several friends crowded into the clubhouse library to hear Brenda, a former owner of a cottage home at Seaglass Village, describe how her rare medical condition led her to try her hand at writing. It astounded many of the residents to discover that Brenda lived such an adventurous life when she was younger. They're excited to know another book is on the way.
5/8/24 Quail Ridge in Boynton Beach, FL - Private Book Club discussion
A friend who read Becoming Fearless and loved it, pitched it as a selection for her Book Club to read. Although Brenda would have enjoyed jetting to the Atlantic Coast of Florida to meet with the group, she hosted the meeting using her Zoom account. Having already read the book, the book club members had a slew of questions about the trip and why I ever agreed to participate in such a dangerous undertaking.
7/25/24 Rivers of Ink Book Reading - Penobscot Shores
5/7/24 Rivers of Ink Book Reading - Belfast Free Library
3/29/24 Rivers of Ink Book Reading - Ellsworth Library
A group of eight authors of prose and poetry who contributed their writings to the Rivers of Ink themed anthology about the Penobscot River read their pieces from the book to an appreciative audience. The Penobscot river watershed covers 8,500 square miles of Maine forestland. The native tribe called it what translates to "where the white rocks jut out describing the river's widening near Bucksport and Orland before it empties into Penobscot Bay. Brenda read her essay A Penobscot Bay Love Letter.
4/30/24 Augusta Senior College - Self-publishing at UM Klarh Center
​ 4/26/24 Belfast Senior College - Self-publishing at Penobscot Shores
Brenda taught a half-day workshop on what an author needs to know to self-publish a book. Based on her own experience, she explained the options available to authors in the publishing world today. Then she detailed all of the steps involved from getting a word document off your computer into the form of an ebook, print book or audiobook.
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2/29 The Deborah Lincoln House in Belfast - Book Reading and discussion
The Deborah Lincoln House in Belfast invited Brenda to join their residents for a reading of selected sections of her book. A lively discussion followed about the details and outcome of the trip. All expressed interest in hearing more stories about
12/9/23 Bangor Authors' Book Fair
Brenda was selected to be one of a hundred local authors to participate in the 2nd annual Bangor Author's Fair being held at the Bangor Public Library. This fair featured both seasoned and debut Maine authors. Books make great gifts to give the readers on your holiday shopping list. She sold both paperback and hardcover versions of her book at the fair.
11/15/23 Interview on Belfast Alive
11/2/23 Beyond Fearless: A Conversation with Brenda Smith & Richard Bangs
Brenda & Richard Bangs reminisced on Zoom about their raft trip through the Selous Game reserve in Tanzania, on which Becoming Fearless: Finding Courage in the African Wilderness is based. Richard gave us a sneak peek at his new book The Art of Living Dangerously.
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Watch a replay of this fascinating Zoom event at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07mCDPZvJhA
