I was too exhausted to write last
night. It was a really interesting day, however.
Lesleigh came over about 9:15 and we
headed off to downtown Decatur. It’s a little town about 20-30 minutes east of
Atlanta. In recent years, the crumbling downtown area has been revitalized with
little boutiques, restaurants and bars, and pricey condos. I’ve gone there to
the courthouse many times.
The old courthouse is right in front
of the new courthouse, and it’s a small but park-like setting. The book festival meant there were streets blocked off and booths set up everywhere.
There were also many places around there to hear speakers.
Les and I dropped off my books to be
sold at the Emerging Authors pavilion, and headed off to a nearby church, to
hear Mary Kay Andrews and Haywood Smith. The church was packed, mostly with
folks middle aged and older, and there were few men. Both ladies just talked informally and took
questions. They were hilariously funny. I had never even heard of Haywood
Smith, but I am going to get one of her books.
After that, we headed over to
Starbucks for some coffee and a nosh, and chatted. I hadn’t had a chance to
visit with Les in a while, and she is a dear friend, and my third cousin on
Daddy’s side.
We left Starbucks and wandered
around, looking at displays, then headed back to the church to hear Diana
Gabaldon, one of my favorite authors. Well, when we got across the street from
the church, there was a huge line of people, stretching down the block. Now way
would we have been able to see her – the church only holds maybe 300 people.
We decided instead to go to the only
place nearby that had what sounded like an interesting speaker, and went to the
Decatur library to hear a college professor talk about two books she wrote
about Eudora Welty. It was not nearly as interesting or funny, but it was
informative. It got us out of the rain. It was sprinkling, off and on.
We headed next for Twain’s Billiards
and Tap, where I was to speak at the Local Prose stage. Twains is a huge, funky
place, and we had a good lunch. I had eggs and toast and Les had country fried
steak. We split a basket of French fries, which had been tossed in garlic and
parsley and were delicious.
My speaking experience at Twains was
rather disappointing. I did fine, but there were less than a dozen people
listening to me. There was a tiny stage in the corner of the restaurant and I
had to compete with the clatter of food being served, two different televised
football games, and the noise form the billiards area. Most of the people
listening were just other authors waiting to speak. Les said I did well and
wasn’t boring, and frankly a lot of the authors were boring – they read in a
monotone, or couldn’t be heard. The guy right before me was a Methodist
minister and he was good. The lady who read before him was beautiful, but spoke
in a monotone and read too much, and one point pinching off her nose to read in
what she thought sounded like a child’s voice. That was weird.
We left there and headed back to the
Emerging Authors area, and I just took my books and left. Didn’t sell any. No
big surprise. There were many authors’ books on the tables, and folks had to go
in there were the speakers were speaking, to get to the books. They took breaks
for folks to browse, but it was still off the beaten path for most folks. It
would’ve been better to set up the book sales area outside the speaking area, I
think.
When we got home I was utterly
exhausted. Michael was off roller skating with friends. Alesia had been
housebound all day, and had cleaned up and helped me get dinner started, and
really been a sweetie, so I went out with her to drive. She had been lamenting
her lack of practice driving. I always feel like saying “My nerves can’t take
much of it!” which is a southern way of saying “Man, that stresses me out!” but
I have refrained, and simply cited time constraints, which are many. She did
fine, except for missing one turn, and nearly running into a back of a car
because of fiddling with the sun visor. We’ve completed about 5 hours of the 40
required before she can get her regular license. Let’s hope my nerves can take
some more practice..
Bruce came in about 6:30, and we had
a barbeque dinner, with also some fresh sliced veggies and cantaloupe. He eats
a lot, but he eats pretty healthy stuff. He has lost some weight. He has been
back from Iraq since about March. He is getting his house in Columbia ready to
rent, so he can take some sort of Federal job somewhere – we don’t hear much
about the job, but we get short reports on the house. Unlike me, he is a very
private person.
We ended the evening watching the
movie Red Dawn, which was fun to watch with Bruce because he sat there and
pointed out the inaccuracies of the military stuff onscreen.
Today, more book festival. I am
hoping it doesn’t rain…
