Room for Dessert at Celebrate South Orange

Hallie Durand will bring Dessert to Sparkhouse Kids on Saturday at 2 p.m. The local author will sign copies of the hot-out-of-the oven release "No Room for Dessert," as well as "Mitchell's License," which comes out on Father's Day. (Think gifts!)

Better known around town as Holly McGhee, the author looks locally for inspiration. When she published "Dessert First," in 2009, she appeared at Sparkhouse with  Jenny Brown, to whom the book is dedicated, and Maisie Mansfield-Greenwald, whom Durand called when she came down with a bad case of writer’s block and could not come up with a name for a fondue.

A book signing  sounds like a good way to get ready for the Celebrate South Orange community supper -- especially when it means dessert first!