L.A. Festival of Books Recap

Book festivals: where introverted writers become extroverted spokespeople for their work; where authors meet other authors, fans, and potential fans; and where hordes of people converge at what’s nowadays called “Nerdchella.”

It’s usually warm by the time of year when book festivals abound. Inspired somewhat by the birthdays of Shakespeare and Cervantes on April 23, many book festivals take place in mid to late April. Here in California, it’s already warm, but not ridiculously so; thank goodness Shakespeare wasn’t born in September! There was a slight chill in the air both mornings that quickly dissipated as we set up the booth and met our first visitors and customers.

We started off with our joint venture, a fiction anthology, center stage and in pyramid formation. Many people who asked for stories about L.A. last year came back to our booth to check out our anthology, which includes stories inspired by and set in Los Angeles. The authors of the anthology live up to the Made in L.A. name, too, as most of us live here currently.

Friends and family members, either fellow writers or not, stopped by the booth often throughout the weekend and added to the fun atmosphere. It was a reminder of how blessed we are to have the support of loved ones.

Eventually the pyramid grew smaller and smaller… by day two, we had less than thirty to sell, having exceeded our own expectations about demand at the festival. When we sold out, we referred curious potential readers to Amazon, where the ebook and print book are available for order.

Of course, my book is available on Amazon, too. I sold copies to a few friends and more to people I didn’t know, which was a thrill for me as I haven’t done that before! I took pictures with nearly everyone who bought my book. I also found out that one of my books is going on vacation with one reader, Jennifer, to Cancun!

Sometime on Sunday afternoon, a reporter named Julie Moree stopped by our booth and interviewed me! You can see a blurb of it below. I did my best to put out a cohesive message about my book and the anthology. Upon watching the playback, I didn’t hear myself say any ummms or ahhs, so it seems that my participation in Toastmasters has paid off!

You can see more of this interview at my youtube station, missus.glori.tea (in addition to some impressive musical stylings on the ukulele).

By that point, I was getting a tad giggly, a bit punchy, and pretty tired. The festival life is fun but exhausting. My cohorts Cody Sisco and Allison Rose were there to laugh with me and plan next year’s festival adventure. I’m getting excited about the 2019 festival already.