A Report on the Bangor Book Festival

This is easy, people: any book festival that provides free Dunkin’ Donuts is a book festival that demands my support. Demands, I say!

I headed up to Bangor (pronounced BANG-gore for you flatlanders out there–it’s a hard “g”) for the festival this past weekend. TRC decided he wanted to come with me, and I’m very glad he did. (Though let’s be honest. I’m pretty sure a large reason for him wanting to come with was that I’d be driving for 3+ hours, and that meant he’d be able to play his 3DS for that amount of time. Who said having strict limits on video game time didn’t bring a family together?)

The festival itself was on the small side, though it brought in a fair number of local authors. (No sign of Bangor resident Stephen King. Sorry, folks.) I had a presentation at 10:15 where I discussed my writing, YA and Middle Grade genres, writing groups, and just about anything else people wanted to chat about. I also did a signing at 12:30. (I realize that me telling you all of this after I already did it . . . is less than effective. In my defense, the schedule wasn’t finalized until the middle of last week.)

Really, it was a great festival, and one I hope sees more attendance in the future. Everything’s in place for a great time. TRC and I went to a “draw off,” where two different illustrators would draw whatever the crowd asked them to. TRC requested a Minecraft Creeper carrying a bazooka, and he got to take home the result. (The illustrator didn’t actually know what a Creeper was. Thankfully, TRC was wearing a Minecraft shirt with a Creeper on it–so crisis averted!)

It was also the perfect time of year for a long drive through the Maine countryside. People pay money to see the kind of foliage I saw on my drive. 🙂 It was a fun way to spend the weekend, and I’m really thankful for the invite. Always nice to feel authorly once in a while. 🙂