TAHLEQUAH — Avid readers and writers hoping to be published were in luck Saturday.

The Tahlequah AuthorFest featured a variety of books for purchase, along with friendly writers willing to share their knowledge and enthusiasm during workshops and while sitting at their booths.

Each writer had a unique reason for writing books, with most based on a personal experience that prompted them to write about it. Some wrote to help others, and some to help themselves through the writing process. The reasons why people write are as diverse as the topics available at AuthorFest.

A promise to her mother to rewrite a story her grandmother had written in the 1950s led Carolyn Steele to write “Preserving Family Legends for Future Generations,” a 2010 first-place Heartland Bookfest winner.

“The research rekindled my love of history, and I discovered I love writing,” Steele said.

Comic book aficionados would have found Green Hornet short stories by Terry Alexander tempting. He’s mostly written horror stories, with some about history of the Civil War and Native Americans, but he had wanted to do the comic book stories for years.

“Writing is fun because you create your own little world,” Alexander said.

Working for the FBI out of college and seeing old files prompted Michael Koch of Coweta to pen tales about gangsters from the 1920s and ‘30s.

“There’s such a rich history in this area of Oklahoma; it’s fascinating,” Koch said. “They usually robbed small-town banks where oil money was, and they could get in and out real quick.”

Promoting literacy is what author of “Glamour” Brandi Barnett appreciates about AuthorFest.

“It’s a hidden gem,” Barnett said. “It promotes literacy and supports literacy programs with the silent auction.”

A former teacher, Barnett wrote her book to teach young people that beauty comes from within. It combines European fairy lore with American Indian traditions of “little people,” and centers on a girl who kidnaps fairies to steal their glamour to make the world a prettier place. It will be out on Kindle soon.

One visitor – Thomas Herrera, 9, a student at Hulbert Elementary – was hoping his mom or grandma would buy “Ghost in the Dark,” a book about space.

Making people more aware of literacy – especially kids – motivated Marsha Coles to create AuthorFest.

“And so people can meet the authors,” she added. “Last year, we gave five schools $100 each from the Silent Auction for their literacy programs. This year, they’ll chose different schools.”

The Claremore Friends of the Library donated to the event, she said.

“Reading opens a new world and opportunities for personal growth,” said volunteer Mara Webb.

Chelsey Hunt, 11, and her mom, Shirley, came from Muskogee.

“I read a lot,” said Chelsey, who is now reading “Tinkerbell and Her Friends.”

An employee of the School for the Blind, Shirley Hunt was seeking writers to come to the school to help their aspiring writers.

Andrea Watson, a sophomore at Locust Grove High School, “reads everything, especially fiction.”

“I’m reading ‘Count of Monte Cristo’ at school, but I’m also reading ‘First Rose’ for the third time,” Watson said.

“First Rose” is about near-death experiences, Watson explained.

“Picking the first rose of spring prompted me to write the book,” Mary Barton Wilcox of Locust Grove said. “And for my father-in-law, who is 95, and said he just couldn’t imagine what heaven would be like.”

Accounts of her clients’ experiences with near-death experiences she collected as an ordained minister, Christian counselor and a psychotherapist became “First Rose.”

“These are actual experiences of people or how God had comforted them in a dream after losing a child,” Wilcox said. “Life is a weird mystery, how it unfolds into the next one, like a rose.”

After losing his mom to Lou Gehrig disease, writing “Serenity” made Bill Hanks feel absolutely warm: “There was a peace.”

His self-help book is about the positive light of recovery from addiction.

“My best compliment was from my dad,” he said. “It has some funny stuff and the good stuff about life in it. Although this book was written by me for people like me, the reality is that you don’t have to be a drug addict or alcoholic to benefit from a spiritual pilgrimage that has led millions to peace of mind from desperation and despair to hope and serenity.”

When she found it difficult to get published by the big houses and didn’t want to pay for self-publishing, retired teacher Vivian Zabel started her own publishing company. Three years later, they represent 50 writers.

For her grandson, a reluctant reader, she started writing books about sports to catch his interest.

Local award-winning poet Karen Coody Cooper said writing is like breathing.

“I have to do it,” she said. “It’s fulfilling to have your work published, and see it grow up like a child.”

Her book, “Fault Lines.” earned the 2010 Best Book of Poetry award.

Jess Davon Joslin thought her great-grandmother’s journey on the Trail of Tears needed to be told, so “A Trail of Broken Promises” came into print.

“It embodies what women went through at that time, people with regular lives forced from their homes,” Joslin said.

“Love triumphs over all” and “faith in God” are themes in the book.

“There are so many stories out there; everybody has a story,” Joslin said.

Jeannie Thompson, of Tahlequah, also writes from family stories in “Cherokee Friends.”

“I thought the stories were interesting and wrote so my grandchildren would have a little bit of family history,” she said.

A second book about the same family, but during the Civil War, is in the works.

“Woman Beautiful” by Amanda Schwab, offers a Christian point of view of the six aspects of beauty every woman deals with: mental and emotional, relational, spiritual, physical, financial and sexual.

“If you can change a woman, you can change a home, and if you can change a home, you can change a community,” Schwab said.

Her love for women and for the Lord prompted her to write a book to help and encourage women. Her next book to be released is a sequel, but geared toward what men really need to know: “Sex, Submission and Spirituality.”

Giving a voice to quilts and their journey, “Devoted to Quilting” by Nita Beshear is a collection of uplifting stories.

“The Making of Okie” was an emotional outlet for retired teacher Donna Barnard of Wilberton.

“I write what I feel,” Barnard said.

Her Christian romance book started out as a short story in a creative writing class.

From a small town near McAlester, writing about quilt stories was fun for Barnard.

Illustrations from her life that she applied to scripture to led Nancy Rowland to write a devotional book, “Never the Same Again.” Now she has opportunities to speak to women’s groups about the benefits of living their lives according to the word of God.

 “It’s been the most amazing journey of my life, digging deeper into the word of God and encouraging others to do the same,” Rowland said. “Nothing is impossible with God leading you. It will happen not because of you, but because with God all things are possible.”

Letters from an engineer who worked on Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose evolved into “A Matter of Trust” by Sherrilyn Polf.

“These letters offered a wonderful background to offer a phenomenal history of World War II,” Polf said. “The character runs from moral values and finds out she really needs what mommy and daddy tell her: moral values.”

Private investigator Dale Whisman not only draws from his experiences when writing, he found something to do while on surveillance.

“I love being a writer as much as writing and meeting people,” Whisman said.