Breaking down the festival

We had a great time – it’s always fun to see our friends and meet new readers. Nothing ceases to amaze us as much as people recognizing us because they’ve read our stuff. Makes an author giddy, is what it does.

Also, we successfully stalked one of our favorite authors – Gail Carriger of Souless fame. She was hysterical – just as her

That’s her in the orange! Isn’t she cute?

books suggest she would be. She said, and we quote, “Aren’t you two the cutest?” We agreed. We are! She autographed our well-read copies of her books for us. Sadly, we have no idea what her personalized notes say. It’s possible her handwriting is worse than Ava’s. We don’t care. We love you, Gail!

All those wonderful things aside, we all know in a situation like this, the people watching is the best part.

For example, there was the strange little man who showed up in front of my booth and stared at my books for maybe three minutes.  That might not seem long, but it is when that person refuses to say anything. His intensity was alarming, but not really inviting of conversation. Suddenly he looked up, dug around in his bag, and handed me a piece of gum. Which I promptly threw away. No words were ever spoken and nothing you said to me could convince me to eat that gum.

Then was the old man who showed up and engaged me and two other authors. He was obnoxious. Really obnoxious. He insisted on taking up five minutes of my time by telling me about a dream he had the night before. In this dream he set all the Mattress Firms stores on fire. I know that we’re always complaining that newspaper articles leave us with more questions than they answer, but I REFUSED to ask him any questions about this dream of his. What I will say is that if anything happens to the Mattress Firm stores, the police should call me and I’ll tell them everything I can remember.

There was a great deal of giggles when Ava was asked out on a date. Seriously! And then another man ENTIRELY told her she was beautiful. Let’s just say, Ava had a very good ego day at the festival.

I had some victories as well. I didn’t get MUCH of a sunburn. There’s a bit on pink on my right arm and hand, but mostly I made it through unscathed. That’s seriously amazing.

On the other hand, the wind was outrageous and my allergies went completely berserk. By Sunday I had no voice left and I’d gone through enough Kleenix to suggest you move your entire retirement account to that company. As I write this now, I’m have said Kleenix shoved up my nose because I’m just tired of blowing it at this point.

Also, on the first day I wore a dress with a circle skirt.

Who wears a dress like that on a blustery day? It takes a special kind of idiot, I assure you, and I am that idiot. Also, and most importantly, I do NOT have the ass to carry off the Marilyn Monroe move. To all those I may have offended, I give you my apologies. Go ahead and make me the butt of your jokes (Ha! see what I did there?) on your own blogs.

Our next writerly event together is in May. We’ll see if we can hold it together until then.