November 3rd Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good Morning! Holy mother of pearl it was cold out there yesterday! I didn’t make it there by ten even though I tried.

Canterbury Tales Forever

I got about two miles away when I remembered I forgot my table. Normally Wayne provides tables for us, but there was supposed to be five authors yesterday plus an extra event in the tent. He wouldn’t have had enough tables, so I offered to lend him mine. I turned around and got the table, but, provided everyone drove the speed limit, I would have still gotten there with about two minutes to spare. That’s late in my book, but I would have lived with it.

If I didn't know better, I would swear

this is an actual picture of what I saw

yesterday morning.

Well mother nature threw me a curve ball. There was one downed tree in the road near my house, but when there was a break in oncoming traffic, I was able to go around it. A few more miles up the road, I wasn’t so lucky. The tree was covering the entire road. The detour added an extra fifteen minutes on to my commute.

I get to WaWa to pick up my lunch – this time was padded into my commute, but the detour ate it up – and the place is completely packed. Fifteen minutes later, I’m back on the road. I pull up at 10:15, and there is no parking, so I had to unload in the middle of the parking lot. I yell down to Karen for her to ask Wayne to come grab the table for me, and she said he won’t be needing it.

When Wayne got there yesterday, he tried setting up the tent and the chairs for the readings (that’s where my table was going), but the wind was so strong, the tent collapsed and broke. I’m not 100% sure, but it looked like a few of the chairs broke as well. Then I found out one of the authors cancelled as well. Needless to say, Wayne wasn’t a happy camper yesterday, and I can’t say I blamed him.

Anyway, I drop all my junk off and go hunting for a parking spot, which I found out in East Jabib, trek back, and begin the task of setting up my table. Now there was a challenge. After I taped my banner, top and bottom, to the table, I had to tape the table cloth itself to the table. Normally all my stuff would hold it in place, but the wind was so strong, it was lifting the table cloth and dumping my stuff over. I didn’t even bother using book stands, I just laid the books right on the table. If I had used the stands, they would have become projectiles. I’d swear so of those gusts were in the 50mph range.

Bradly with no "e"

There was one author there yesterday whom I have not worked with yet. His name is Bradly Williams - yup “Bradly with no e”, as he says. He had several books with him, fiction (Charity – What’s in a name?), non-fiction (Love Redefined), and even a tiny coffee table book of artwork and poetry.

Iván Tirado

The concept was really unique. Bradly has a friend, Iván Tirado, 

who is an artist, and the two of them wanted to put together a book featuring Ivan’s art work. So, instead of little blurbs describing the pieces of art like most coffee table books do, Bradly wrote poems inspired by each of the pieces. How cool is that?

Riley with her book
 "Sorcerers"

There was another author, Riley Morton, there as well, but she was not participating in the event. She has never done a book signing, so she wanted to come and observe. She spent a little time chatting with each of us, and we were all extremely impressed with her. You see, Riley is only fourteen and in middle school. How marvelous is that? I love the cover for her book, Sorcerers, and the story looks interesting. We are all looking forward to having Riley join “Authors’ Row”.

These are the guys who sang for us.
I found their picture on the internet.

We did get one nice surprise yesterday. These four men in black pants, black leather jackets, red shirts, and matching red and black ties were walking through Authors’ Row, and I commented, “You’re either in a wedding party or in a band.” They stopped and said they were a quartet - The Buck's County Country Gentlemen, to which I said, “Then you must audition for us.” (I meant perform.) Much to our surprise, they were happy to oblige. They sang one traditional quartet song, and then they followed up with an Irish prayer. It was wonderful. I was so busy listening, I forgot to pull out my camera to snap a picture. Argh!

Hart's Tavern is part of
The Cock 'n Bull restaurant in
Peddler's Village 

Around four, between the wind and the cold, we had had enough, so packed up. Karen, her friend Sharon, and I went to Hart’s Tavern for dinner. Sam bailed on us, but we’ll forgive him. He has a sick dog at home, and he wanted to get back to her. The three of us had a lovely dinner, which was great, but then I had to drive home, in the dark which wasn’t fun. At one point, I had to slam on my brakes because there was a hug buck, a doe, and a fox, all standing in the middle of the road. That was very strange. Were they holding a caucus?

No, I didn't take a picture, I found this

one on the internet. Apparently this

is not as unique an occurrence as I

thought. Who knew? 

I made it home a little after six, and promptly went to bed. I have never been so thankful for my heated mattress pad as I was last night.

Today, amidst grocery shopping and laundry, I have to get some serious writing done. With Saturday’s gala, and being out all day yesterday, I am seriously behind on my NaNoWriMo word count. Day three and I’m already playing catch up – not a good sign.

Oh well, I should get going. I hope you have a great day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge:

Baby it’s cold outside…

You have ten minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count, and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.