A day late (okay a few days late) update on the SC Book Festival

Usually this posting goes up within a day of returning if not the day I come home from the book festival. This was a totally different year.

My daughter went to Columbia with me and visited with her sister for the weekend. When we got to Columbia, I couldn't check in (too early) and my master class had gotten cancelled so I had some time to kill. We went to see a movie - saw Confessions of a Shopaholic - and had an enjoyable time. Spent some time with Hailie that we don't get to do much of (well I spend time with her but not like this - just relaxed and no worries).

Of course when we got to Columbia, it decided to rain on us. It was a wet weekend. After the movie, we went to my hotel to check me in and get my stuff taken upstairs. I stayed at the Homewood Suites and enjoyed it thoroughly. I had a pull out sofa if I had needed it; a full kitchenette with a table for dining for two, a king sized bed, a desk and work area. It was great. (yes beats sleeping in my car like last year.) So Heather (my stepdaughter) came by and got Hailie (I was supposed to take them out to dinner but they declined) and I went on about my way doing things I needed to (had to go to Wal-Mart to get a USB cable for my new printer, so went to dinner by myself).

Saturday was a leisurely day as I had planned to attend a couple of workshops and then just hang around my friend's booth and kind of relax. I did volunteer in the SCWW booth for about an hour. I made three book sales over the weekend and that was just from casual conversations and being in my friend's booth and having my wonderful bookmarks available. Those bookmarks were a hit. I probably put a couple hundred in the hands of folks down there over the whole weekend. My friend was also helping by putting my bookmarks in with her sales. It was a great weekend as I got exposure and made a few sales.

Sunday, I came in to see one of the workshops at the beginning. My daughter and stepdaughter came to the book festival about 1:30 and they walked a bit and I chatted with folks for a bit. Finally, they persuaded me to head out since they were hungry and the weather was kind of yucky as it was - rained the whole weekend, which is a first for me in the last five or six years since starting to attend this particular festival (usually rains one or the other days but not all weekend). The three of us had lunch and we went our separate ways, me heading home and my stepdaughter heading back to her home. The S word had come up several times Sunday while I was meandering around the festival. No, it couldn't snow, it was March 1 and that means we should have been having nicer weather coming along. Well, it was raining when I left Columbia and by time I got about 20 miles or so outside of the downtown area, sure enough there were some flakes seen (it was a mix at this time). By time I had gotten about 40 miles up the road, the flakes were even larger and coming down at a pretty fast rate. The ground was starting to show signs of being covered. By time I got to about 20 miles from my home, the weather was worse - snow covered the streets and it was that slushy stuff since it had been raining. The last 8-10 miles towards my town were very slow going since I had to drive at about 30 or 35 on a 55 road - that's how bad they were becoming. By time I pulled in to the grocery store to pick up milk and bread and get over to subway, the parking lots were getting almost undrivable. I made it home in the nick of time because the whole town shut down shortly thereafter - the stores were closing, the food places were closing, although I found out a couple of days later that Hardees stayed open on Sunday, which is ludicrist as the roads were not even drivable and they put their employees in danger.

So this was a weird but good book festival. I was not a volunteer for the festival, but for the SCWW group for a short time, I attended workshops that were very good and I got to spend time with my friend and my daughter that I normally wouldn't have been able to do and it snowed on the way home. Next year, with six books available, I'm hoping that 4RV will have a booth and that I can get on as a guest speaker. Hopefully, hopefully.

I really encourage all authors to attend a book festival in their area as a volunteer or an attendee and then work on getting on as a guest speaker somehow. Books are our friends. Happy reading - see you all in the postings - E :)