Regina Brett Visiting Mentor Public Library Tonight

Pulitzer Prize-nominated columnist Regina Brett says meeting her readers helps her "refill the well."

"They teach me, they touch me, they tell me their stories and fire me up to keep writing," Brett wrote in an email.

Well, she will have a chance to refill her well when she talks for a packed room tonight at .

Brett will be making an author appearance at 7 p.m. to talk about her writing, her life and her book. The event was sponsored by the Friends of the Mentor Public Library.

Brett has survived a lot. She was one of 11 children, a single mother for 18 years and is a cancer survivor. She took the lessons she learned from life's lumps and used them to write her column for The Plain Dealer.

One column she wrote in particular, titled Lessons Life Taught Me, was traded over continents via the Internet. It extolled such common-sense suggestions as "Life is too short to waste time hating anyone" and "Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple."

The column became so popular she parlayed its themes and messages into a book, God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life's Little Detours.

Brett said her life — even the tough stuff  — helped her writing; and, in turn, her writing helps her put her life in perspective. She said she hopes her writing helps others, as well.

"That's the best praise you can receive, that your writing helped another," she said. "To heal the world, that's why we're all here. I hope my writing does that — heals some wounds, eases some burdens, lightens the load on some hearts."

Registration is already at capacity for Brett's appearance at the library. Of course, people can still come and fill empty seats if somebody who registered cancels. However, librarians cannot guarantee anyone a seat who didn't already register.

Brett finished her email by saying that she was honored to speak at the library.

"Libraries matter now more than ever," she said. "I treasure the gift that they were to me as a child and are to me as an adult. Each library is a center of hope in a community. Please, support them every way you can."

Brett will be selling and autographing copies of God Never Blinks during her appearance.