Home from Blue Ridge Bookfest

I only have one question after spending two days at a western North Carolina, mountain book event. When can I do this again???

What a cloud nine experience I had.

Oh, yes, believe me, I was in the clouds for two days, literally, with the high elevations and the unforgiving rain. Inside the conference center at Blue Ridge Community College the presenters, the authors and the reader visitors remained dry and entertained, my cloud nine. 

I shared a display table with one of my critique partners, Sandra Warren, and her multiple books.

We filled in for each other, shared each other's books with interested readers. We took notes, collected ideas, and talked out plot lines during the lulls.

On my opposite side, Golden Gate Rabbit Park owner, Loretta Hayward, and her multiple bunny books.

And along the side tables, a fellow SCBWI children's writer, Ann Eisenstein, with her best selling book.

Think we had a great day? You bet. Readers meeting authors, no better way to spend a Friday afternoon or a rainy Saturday.

Lessons Learned held up with the best of them, but the most exciting moment was when a lady bought a copy for the library collection in her bread and breakfast inn. Several visitors to my table were amazed at the concept of a collective memoir, one even wanting to review it for a magazine. I felt like a proud mama standing there beside my book. Mostly I was proud of the community I wrote about, how they endured the struggles and what they had accomplished in the years after the school closed. That's the real meat of the book, the theme, the reason I couldn't wait for people to go home, snuggle in from the dampness outside, and open to page one. 

It's enough to make a mama proud.

Catch of the day,

Gretchen