I love going to book festivals. I like volunteering and meeting some great new people. I love seeing expressions on folks' faces when they just buy that great new author's book. Yes, you guessed it. It's book festival time again.
This time of the year, I make the 2 hour trip from my house to Columbia. This is my fourth year as a volunteer with this particular festival. Next year, I hope to be on the other side of the tables, as an author or at least as part of the publisher's exhibitor table, selling all my stories that have come out by this time next year. (Guess I should really get my hiney in gear and write, edit and rewrite and test the stories so I can be on the other side.) If it doesn't work out next February for me to be an author or at least part of the exhibitor's booth for the publisher, then I will volunteer again. I love volunteering because you do meet so many cool people.
So hopefully you all have a good book to curl up with and you have the opportunity to meet authors at different book festivals around the country.
If you happen to be in the Columbia, South Carolina area, stop by the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center and say hello to me. Or come by and see an author on a panel or shop or look around. Bring the kids because this year they have a kids' arts and crafts table and some children's authors doing some book readings. For more on the schedule, check out http://www.scbookfestival.org/index.php?c=schedule and see if there are any panels or speeches you would like to hear - come and enjoy yourself -
Showing posts with label Book Festival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book Festival. Show all posts
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Decatur Book Festival
Yes I know that was two weeks ago but I have been awaiting pictures of the kids dressed up as characters to come to me and have yet to receive them. So I decided I would just have to worry about posting pics later and go ahead and talk about the Decatur Book Festival.
I volunteered and since the kids had to be with me, I decided that they could work too. So after many contacts and all, we finally got everything situated. Of course my money situation didn't cooperate too much but we did get that worked out. Anyway - so we head down to Decatur on Saturday the 1st - drive about 3 hours and land in the parking garage that is basically just a couple of blocks from where the main events are.
The theme this year was "Where The Wild Things Are" and there were some readings and of a course a parade with Wild thing himself leading the way to the square where the kids activities center was set up.
Hailie and Benjamin made appearances Saturday as Frog and Toad - I took a picture of them on the cell phone but since bear doesn't have text messaging, I couldn't email it to myself to have on the computer to post here.
Saturday they were scheduled to be Biscuit the dog and Maisey the mouse. Well, Biscuit made his appearance (I missed seeing him because I was doing some volunteer duties). The guy from Eagle Eye Bookstore was walking around with the Eagle and snapping pictures on his cell phone but I think he also missed Biscuit. From what I understand, Biscuit was being guided back to the area and there was this little dog tied up to a metal chair and when Biscuit walked by, the dog decided to show how mighty he was - so he chased Biscuit, tied to the chair - and thereby was dragging the chair with him. Biscuit escaped.
Maisey was to appear after Biscuit but the outfit was too small for Hailie so Benjamin had to dress up again. The Eagle and his guide were snapping pictures and got some of Maisey. After a short break, Benjamin asked if he could do Frog and Toad again if someone else wanted to do them. So he came back as toad and the young lady who had been a rabbit (Max is what I heard her to be) came out as Frog. Eagle and more pictures.
I walked around some but didn't get to see some of the activities I wanted to do - because I didn't really know when they were or was busy doing my volunteer duties.
Sunday night when we came back to the hotel, of course it being the day before a holiday, we were kind of worn out. So after we ate and all and we finally laid our heads down to rest, the whole world kind of went crazy. The hotel we stayed in shared a parking lot of sorts with another (we stayed at the Super 8 on Chamblee-Tucker and right next to us was the Motel 6)- well someone must have thought they were in a private residence because they decided to blare the music right outside my room. Several other patrons hollered for them to shut up. I called the front desk and was told they couldn't do anything. So, what was left. I'm not from the area and needed some sleep so I could drive back. I called 911 and explained to the operator that it wasn't an emergency but that I wasn't from the area and didn't really know who to call due to the noise right outside my room from these partiers. She even asked if I wanted to speak to the officer when they got there - nope - I wanted to remain annonymous, or as much as possible. The partiers did get quiet but I heard them on the other side of the hotel - at least not at my door. Thank goodness.
Needless to say, we did get some sleep and left out that Monday morning fairly bright eyed and bushy tailed. On the way home, decided to stop at my sister-in-law's and see the girls (I knew my nephew was working and probably my brother too - they had recently moved to a hotel/suite/extended stay place due to the house they were going to rent being rented out from under them - and they are awaiting another place - supposed to be this weekend - but who knows). Anyway - the girls were swimming so the kids (since the hotel I thought we were staying actually had a pool and the one we ended up at did not and they didn't get to go swimming as promised) went swimming - we stayed there a bit and then finally made our way to the house. Of course that is when the whole rest of the month started - at home.
Mini vacations are fun but for someone like me who is out of shape and definitely in need of some exercise, that is too much like work. All in all it was a good weekend and the kids have said they would go back and do it again if they could so maybe next year we will be seen at the Decatur Book Festival as volunteers again and I'll have a real camera that I can load pictures to my computer with having to wait on others to send or post.
Until then - see you all in the postings - E :)
I volunteered and since the kids had to be with me, I decided that they could work too. So after many contacts and all, we finally got everything situated. Of course my money situation didn't cooperate too much but we did get that worked out. Anyway - so we head down to Decatur on Saturday the 1st - drive about 3 hours and land in the parking garage that is basically just a couple of blocks from where the main events are.
The theme this year was "Where The Wild Things Are" and there were some readings and of a course a parade with Wild thing himself leading the way to the square where the kids activities center was set up.
Hailie and Benjamin made appearances Saturday as Frog and Toad - I took a picture of them on the cell phone but since bear doesn't have text messaging, I couldn't email it to myself to have on the computer to post here.
Saturday they were scheduled to be Biscuit the dog and Maisey the mouse. Well, Biscuit made his appearance (I missed seeing him because I was doing some volunteer duties). The guy from Eagle Eye Bookstore was walking around with the Eagle and snapping pictures on his cell phone but I think he also missed Biscuit. From what I understand, Biscuit was being guided back to the area and there was this little dog tied up to a metal chair and when Biscuit walked by, the dog decided to show how mighty he was - so he chased Biscuit, tied to the chair - and thereby was dragging the chair with him. Biscuit escaped.
Maisey was to appear after Biscuit but the outfit was too small for Hailie so Benjamin had to dress up again. The Eagle and his guide were snapping pictures and got some of Maisey. After a short break, Benjamin asked if he could do Frog and Toad again if someone else wanted to do them. So he came back as toad and the young lady who had been a rabbit (Max is what I heard her to be) came out as Frog. Eagle and more pictures.
I walked around some but didn't get to see some of the activities I wanted to do - because I didn't really know when they were or was busy doing my volunteer duties.
Sunday night when we came back to the hotel, of course it being the day before a holiday, we were kind of worn out. So after we ate and all and we finally laid our heads down to rest, the whole world kind of went crazy. The hotel we stayed in shared a parking lot of sorts with another (we stayed at the Super 8 on Chamblee-Tucker and right next to us was the Motel 6)- well someone must have thought they were in a private residence because they decided to blare the music right outside my room. Several other patrons hollered for them to shut up. I called the front desk and was told they couldn't do anything. So, what was left. I'm not from the area and needed some sleep so I could drive back. I called 911 and explained to the operator that it wasn't an emergency but that I wasn't from the area and didn't really know who to call due to the noise right outside my room from these partiers. She even asked if I wanted to speak to the officer when they got there - nope - I wanted to remain annonymous, or as much as possible. The partiers did get quiet but I heard them on the other side of the hotel - at least not at my door. Thank goodness.
Needless to say, we did get some sleep and left out that Monday morning fairly bright eyed and bushy tailed. On the way home, decided to stop at my sister-in-law's and see the girls (I knew my nephew was working and probably my brother too - they had recently moved to a hotel/suite/extended stay place due to the house they were going to rent being rented out from under them - and they are awaiting another place - supposed to be this weekend - but who knows). Anyway - the girls were swimming so the kids (since the hotel I thought we were staying actually had a pool and the one we ended up at did not and they didn't get to go swimming as promised) went swimming - we stayed there a bit and then finally made our way to the house. Of course that is when the whole rest of the month started - at home.
Mini vacations are fun but for someone like me who is out of shape and definitely in need of some exercise, that is too much like work. All in all it was a good weekend and the kids have said they would go back and do it again if they could so maybe next year we will be seen at the Decatur Book Festival as volunteers again and I'll have a real camera that I can load pictures to my computer with having to wait on others to send or post.
Until then - see you all in the postings - E :)
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Decatur Georgia book festival fun
So my kids and I are volunteers at the Decatur Book Festival this weekend and having some good times (I think - I'm a bit stiff from standing at the children's activities things but had fun. Did get sunburned but didn't realize it until I was back at the hotel.
There was a mini writer's conference today and I wanted to sit and listen to one of the panel discussions and it was pretty good. Funny as all get out - it was performed like a game show - should have been performed more like "To Tell The Truth" than "Hollywood Squares" because it resembled the first gameshow. I've seen both shows on gameshow network and felt a bit cheated that it was slated as a the second show. But the comraderie and info was interesting - the four paneists were Hollis Gillespie, John Warner (who is from Greenville which is only a few short miles from where we live, and daughter said she felt she knew from somewhere), Amanda Stern, and Jeffrey Stepakoff (who is known for writing TV shows - such as Dawson's Creek and others to his credit).
After leaving the workshop/panel discussion, the kids wanted to go to McDonald's for supper so I decided instead of eating near the festival we would find a McDonald's closer to the hotel (not that the hotel is really all that far from festival). So we came back up to the hotel road and then explored a little bit. We finally found the McDonald's. While sitting there enjoying our meal, we figured out we were the minority - the whole community was Spanish speaking with a few Chinese or Oriental speaking. We seemed to be the only ones speaking English -
So heading back to the hotel, we saw this SUV that was red and white and had a taxi sign on it - so I commented about how that was a taxi - something I've never seen before. Then Benjamin says - "I saw this one Mexican Taxi and you want to know how I know it was Mexican?" and Hailie responds, "What did it say Taxeye on it?" - now we just rolled in the laughter here because he suddenly realized taxi (pronounced as a long I) that that's how it was spelled anyway - so we were laughing hard by now. We get to the red light to turn on the road to the hotel and then Benjamin goes, "look to your right, look to your right" and there was this van with Spanish writing on it and so Hailie turns and looks and says, "It looks like he's staring at us." So I turn to the right and look over and the man driving the van, nods and then waves at us - it was like he knew what the hell we were laughing about - and when she said he was staring at us - it was like he knew what she said - - so we broke out into the laughter some more - and laughed almost all the way to hotel (which wasn't really too far from that turn) -
So having fun at the festival so far and enjoying some fun time with the kids - see you all in the postings - E :)
There was a mini writer's conference today and I wanted to sit and listen to one of the panel discussions and it was pretty good. Funny as all get out - it was performed like a game show - should have been performed more like "To Tell The Truth" than "Hollywood Squares" because it resembled the first gameshow. I've seen both shows on gameshow network and felt a bit cheated that it was slated as a the second show. But the comraderie and info was interesting - the four paneists were Hollis Gillespie, John Warner (who is from Greenville which is only a few short miles from where we live, and daughter said she felt she knew from somewhere), Amanda Stern, and Jeffrey Stepakoff (who is known for writing TV shows - such as Dawson's Creek and others to his credit).
After leaving the workshop/panel discussion, the kids wanted to go to McDonald's for supper so I decided instead of eating near the festival we would find a McDonald's closer to the hotel (not that the hotel is really all that far from festival). So we came back up to the hotel road and then explored a little bit. We finally found the McDonald's. While sitting there enjoying our meal, we figured out we were the minority - the whole community was Spanish speaking with a few Chinese or Oriental speaking. We seemed to be the only ones speaking English -
So heading back to the hotel, we saw this SUV that was red and white and had a taxi sign on it - so I commented about how that was a taxi - something I've never seen before. Then Benjamin says - "I saw this one Mexican Taxi and you want to know how I know it was Mexican?" and Hailie responds, "What did it say Taxeye on it?" - now we just rolled in the laughter here because he suddenly realized taxi (pronounced as a long I) that that's how it was spelled anyway - so we were laughing hard by now. We get to the red light to turn on the road to the hotel and then Benjamin goes, "look to your right, look to your right" and there was this van with Spanish writing on it and so Hailie turns and looks and says, "It looks like he's staring at us." So I turn to the right and look over and the man driving the van, nods and then waves at us - it was like he knew what the hell we were laughing about - and when she said he was staring at us - it was like he knew what she said - - so we broke out into the laughter some more - and laughed almost all the way to hotel (which wasn't really too far from that turn) -
So having fun at the festival so far and enjoying some fun time with the kids - see you all in the postings - E :)
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Book Festival, meeting publisher and wonderful breakfast story
Okay - I posted that the SC Book Festival was this weekend and that I had met my publisher, Karen Syed. Most delightful woman to talk to. She told me now that I'm published with her, I can submit other short stories to be published - so that's pretty cool - If I have a short story I want published, I can submit - now I'm stoked about getting my stuff out there.
Saturday afternoon, I attended one of the workshops that was available to those preregistered to the festival. It was Dick Cote's Promotion 101 - how to promote yourself and your books. It was an excellent workshop. One of the items he mentioned doing was to have a website, so that is next on my agenda as far as promoting myself. I've found a website I can order mini CDs (another idea) for like $20 bucks for 100 of them. I hope this week to get website up and running, although I'm not sure how long it will take me. Supposedly this free site I'm using is supposed to be very easy and anyone can do it in half an hour or less. I just need to have an idea of what I want to put on the website, and what to call it - scary things but I'm sure once I figure those things out, the setup should be very easy. (I'm using Blue Voda for my website design - so as soon as that is done, I will let you all know. Probably link my blog to my website and vice versa.)
Now being in Columbia for two days, I have a local restaurant that I like to go to and eat breakfast. The restaurant is called Lizard's Thicket and it is home cooked meals, country cooking type food. When I go for breakfast, I always order the creamed chipped beef on toast with a glass of chocolate milk. Yesterday I was feeling the need for some fruit, so I added a banana on the side. I was enjoying my breakfast when this group of three people sat down at the table next to me. Two women and a man. He was very animated and I couldn't help but eavesdrop on the conversation. He was talking about the business or company he works for renting the Atlanta Aquarium for their awards banquet or something fancy - black tie affair.
He tells these two women that they (he and his wife and all the other people at the dinner) had to stand up and wait around. So they finally get to the buffet, and he looks down; there is beef and chicken and vegetables on the buffet - and other sides and stuff, but no fish. (By this time I'm snickering to myself due to the fact that they are in the aquarium and there is no fish on the buffet). He says he is in the mood for fish, so he proceeds to start pointing at the displays behind the servers and tells them he would like that and that and that for dinner. The women are cracking up by now and I was too but not out loud. Then the waitress comes to take their order. He wants an egg and cheese and somethng and mushroom omlette and the waitress shakes her head no at the mushrooms. He starts in on about no mushrooms. I just looked over and made a comment to one of the ladies about him being fussy and she said that was normal for him. I said I could tell by the way he was talking about wanting fish and there was no fish on the buffet. So they invited me over to their table to hear the rest of the fish story. I refused because I really needed to head to the convention center to get to my duties at the book festival.
They kept urging me over and finally the second lady just got up and started moving my food and stuff to their table. So here I am sitting among strangers eating my breakfast. I had my name badge on for the book festival (but that comes in a bit later).
So he proceeds to finish the story of the dinner at the aquarium. After they ate, he and his wife went looking at the displays and they found one case that is supposed to be a rare shrimp like from Africa with only 5 or 6 in existence (my daughter confirmed this as they just went to the Atlanta Aquarium about two or so weeks ago). He was looking in the case and didn't see anything, but then he saw the little eyes looking at him and someone hollered shrimp, and he and his wife were pressed up against the glass. He was very animated telling this and the three of us (me and the two other women) were just giggling away. So his wife wants to go look at the beluga whale display. After they disengage from the crowd, they went to the whale tank. He said one was up at the top (probably getting air or something), one was doing flips or spinning around or showing off and the third was swimming towards the glass. His wife was reading the placard and told him, "You better stand back because they eat penguins and if they eat you, they wouldn't need to be fed for a week."
Now here we all just break out laughing. So fish story over, they start asking me about my name badge and volunteering for the book festival and all. Somehow the conversation came back to my story being published and they were so fun and questioning. They bought my breakfast for me because I was a published author - how cool is that? - I had printed off about 8 copies of the story for some friends who had no internet access or no way to order through the internet and had sold them at the same price as online ($1, although I ended up losing money on that deal, but it was exposure for me) and had sold 6 locally, had two copies in the car - one that I had already signed for another friend to put in the mail and the other one not signed or anything. So I went out to the car and got the last copy and signed it and gave it to them. I got exposure and got a breakfast out of the deal.
So overall, the weekend was well worth it, even though I am having problems getting out of bed and walking around due to having stood most of Saturday and yesterday. My low back and left hip and knee are giving me fits. I can barely put my weight on the left leg to get up from a sitting position to stand but once I'm up, I'm okay - it's just the initial getting up and getting off the bed in the mornings. I do hope this shall pass and that within a week or so I'll be back to semi-normal - lol.
Okay - that is it for me today - see you all in the postings - E :)
Saturday afternoon, I attended one of the workshops that was available to those preregistered to the festival. It was Dick Cote's Promotion 101 - how to promote yourself and your books. It was an excellent workshop. One of the items he mentioned doing was to have a website, so that is next on my agenda as far as promoting myself. I've found a website I can order mini CDs (another idea) for like $20 bucks for 100 of them. I hope this week to get website up and running, although I'm not sure how long it will take me. Supposedly this free site I'm using is supposed to be very easy and anyone can do it in half an hour or less. I just need to have an idea of what I want to put on the website, and what to call it - scary things but I'm sure once I figure those things out, the setup should be very easy. (I'm using Blue Voda for my website design - so as soon as that is done, I will let you all know. Probably link my blog to my website and vice versa.)
Now being in Columbia for two days, I have a local restaurant that I like to go to and eat breakfast. The restaurant is called Lizard's Thicket and it is home cooked meals, country cooking type food. When I go for breakfast, I always order the creamed chipped beef on toast with a glass of chocolate milk. Yesterday I was feeling the need for some fruit, so I added a banana on the side. I was enjoying my breakfast when this group of three people sat down at the table next to me. Two women and a man. He was very animated and I couldn't help but eavesdrop on the conversation. He was talking about the business or company he works for renting the Atlanta Aquarium for their awards banquet or something fancy - black tie affair.
He tells these two women that they (he and his wife and all the other people at the dinner) had to stand up and wait around. So they finally get to the buffet, and he looks down; there is beef and chicken and vegetables on the buffet - and other sides and stuff, but no fish. (By this time I'm snickering to myself due to the fact that they are in the aquarium and there is no fish on the buffet). He says he is in the mood for fish, so he proceeds to start pointing at the displays behind the servers and tells them he would like that and that and that for dinner. The women are cracking up by now and I was too but not out loud. Then the waitress comes to take their order. He wants an egg and cheese and somethng and mushroom omlette and the waitress shakes her head no at the mushrooms. He starts in on about no mushrooms. I just looked over and made a comment to one of the ladies about him being fussy and she said that was normal for him. I said I could tell by the way he was talking about wanting fish and there was no fish on the buffet. So they invited me over to their table to hear the rest of the fish story. I refused because I really needed to head to the convention center to get to my duties at the book festival.
They kept urging me over and finally the second lady just got up and started moving my food and stuff to their table. So here I am sitting among strangers eating my breakfast. I had my name badge on for the book festival (but that comes in a bit later).
So he proceeds to finish the story of the dinner at the aquarium. After they ate, he and his wife went looking at the displays and they found one case that is supposed to be a rare shrimp like from Africa with only 5 or 6 in existence (my daughter confirmed this as they just went to the Atlanta Aquarium about two or so weeks ago). He was looking in the case and didn't see anything, but then he saw the little eyes looking at him and someone hollered shrimp, and he and his wife were pressed up against the glass. He was very animated telling this and the three of us (me and the two other women) were just giggling away. So his wife wants to go look at the beluga whale display. After they disengage from the crowd, they went to the whale tank. He said one was up at the top (probably getting air or something), one was doing flips or spinning around or showing off and the third was swimming towards the glass. His wife was reading the placard and told him, "You better stand back because they eat penguins and if they eat you, they wouldn't need to be fed for a week."
Now here we all just break out laughing. So fish story over, they start asking me about my name badge and volunteering for the book festival and all. Somehow the conversation came back to my story being published and they were so fun and questioning. They bought my breakfast for me because I was a published author - how cool is that? - I had printed off about 8 copies of the story for some friends who had no internet access or no way to order through the internet and had sold them at the same price as online ($1, although I ended up losing money on that deal, but it was exposure for me) and had sold 6 locally, had two copies in the car - one that I had already signed for another friend to put in the mail and the other one not signed or anything. So I went out to the car and got the last copy and signed it and gave it to them. I got exposure and got a breakfast out of the deal.
So overall, the weekend was well worth it, even though I am having problems getting out of bed and walking around due to having stood most of Saturday and yesterday. My low back and left hip and knee are giving me fits. I can barely put my weight on the left leg to get up from a sitting position to stand but once I'm up, I'm okay - it's just the initial getting up and getting off the bed in the mornings. I do hope this shall pass and that within a week or so I'll be back to semi-normal - lol.
Okay - that is it for me today - see you all in the postings - E :)
SC Book Festival and weekend
So this weekend is the SC Book Festival and this is my third year as a volunteer. I had a blast yesterday although I'm paying for it today. I'm very out of shape and have so many parts of my body falling apart. My left hip, knee and foot are really giving me a fit.
I've seen so many people I know from the area this weekend that it's been a blast. I got to meet my publisher and she is definitely not what I pictured her to be but hey - I'm sure I'm not what people expect me to be either.
Be looking for the fast fiction posting tomorrow sometime since Karen will be traveling - it will be tomorrow evening - but I'll be looking for it - (see Karen Syed's blog - per link on side) in order to find out what the contest theme is for this month -
Anyway - figured I'd post something since it's been a while - see you all in the postings - E :)
I've seen so many people I know from the area this weekend that it's been a blast. I got to meet my publisher and she is definitely not what I pictured her to be but hey - I'm sure I'm not what people expect me to be either.
Be looking for the fast fiction posting tomorrow sometime since Karen will be traveling - it will be tomorrow evening - but I'll be looking for it - (see Karen Syed's blog - per link on side) in order to find out what the contest theme is for this month -
Anyway - figured I'd post something since it's been a while - see you all in the postings - E :)
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