Fair & Square

Photo by Ruth Gault-Hunter

Morning, kiddies! I'm actually writing this on Saturday afternoon, so pardon my cheerfulness, as I'm sure I'll be a lot more cranky on Monday.

Please disregard that lady's behind.
She sat in a chair shortly after and
it collapsed, but it was equipment
malfunction, not her fault.

This weekend I was part of the Not So Square Arts & Literary Festival at Mt. Vernon, Missouri. It was my first live event selling paperback copies of The Treasure Hunter's Lady. They reported before the event that they'd have about 19 authors. There were tons of crafts and lots of authors in a nice air conditioned building. Which was great because when I first got there I thought I was going to smother to death trying to set up my table. The six-foot monster folds in half and is remarkably difficult to set up by oneself thanks to that. In retrospect, I imagine it would've been easier to unfold it before I put the legs out. I will consider that in the future, possibly. Unless I forget.

Then it was unfolding and unfolding and unfolding and unfolding (no joke) the plastic tablecloth. Too much tablecloth for my table. But it looked good. Scatter some pretty glass rocks on the table, set out the literature which included business cards, invitations to my Twitter chat and FB event on the 17th, the hand written author sign I made. And a few other decorations including the coupe de grace of the table, the airship. 

I worked way hard on that, although credit for putting it together goes to my husband. Thanks, husband. But I put two coats of paint on it, painted the edges in a metallic-y pinkish color and blew up the balloon. And I wrote out that little sign and made up a B.A.T.S. registration number for the Bright Hope. Yes, my handwriting is atrocious.

When I arrived I was informed that *ahem*, my booth was double booked. I had to scooch over and then share with another author who read the same poem to prospective book buyers about a dozen times. It was amusing the first time. The second, third and on, oh lord. I mean, dude, do you want me to pick out a sexy part of my book to read to people? No, so maybe just tell them about your book instead of repeating the same poem.


It was quiet. I heard a lot of people say that buyers just weren't buying. I sold a copy to my mom. I'm not sure why, she already has a copy. One of the highlights was a piece of cheesecake with chocolate cake under it and cherries on top. Oh, my, it was superb. And then someone stole my author bio/what is steampunk page. I only had one because I figured someone might read it. So . . . okay, that was bizarre.

I admit, I wasn't as outgoing as I could have been. In fact, I was quiet. The guy next to me was chatty, chatty, chatty with people, but I kind of think he was angling for the Best Booth Award and one of the criteria was being super-friendly as well as creative with the table. I don't think he was going to win creative, because I mean, dude, you're sitting next to an airship. Really, there's no competition next to that. Not that I won the award either, but an airship, people.
Guy got a little cranky toward the end of the day because his sales weren't very good. I was thinking, couldn't you have waited until you got in your car to have a hissy fit? Real suave, older gentleman who acted like a four-year-old.

Um, yeah, I definitely need to work on my outgoing-ness. I stutter when I'm nervous and I shake a little too. I'd like to blame it on a disease. Maybe a few steps away from crippling shyness. That's like a legitimate thing, right? At least I managed to make eye contact with almost everyone. That's one of my biggest hang-ups, even more than stuttering.

It was fun. I would do it again, you bet. Granted, sales were not as awesome as one would hope and I got a few of those looks that say, there are boobies on the cover! But you can't win them all, right? Here's a picture of PeeWee just to round off the post. He's adorable, so it works.