My first A2 Community Bookfest — initiated!

November 5, 2024 — Happy November (already)! This past Saturday was my first time participating in the A2 Community Bookfest. It was a seven-hour event with about 100 authors and other vendors set up on the first floor of the Ann Arbor District Library’s downtown branch. It was formerly called the Kerrytown Bookfest and took place where the farmer’s markets are held. I heard I just missed the “excitement” when the library’s power went out during setup! 

I’d missed the deadline last year and so, this year, I was glad when the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Michigan sent out an email for author members to sign up for the event. 

I shared a table with Heather Shumaker, author of The Griffins of Castle Cary, a middle grade ghost mystery/adventure (I bought one), and Isabel Estrada, author of La Mariachi, a picture book about a young girl whose perseverance (her Nana and probably, a wish to Señora Luna) make her dream to join the all-boy mariachi band come true despite the obstacles. Isabel’s lovely book was just awarded the International Latino Book Award Silver Medal for Most Inspirational Children’s Picture Book. Congratulations/Felicidades Isabel! It’s such a privilege to meet such accomplished writers, many of whom have excelled in other areas of their lives, too. And even more importantly, are kind people. We shared nice conversation and related with each other about this election. It seemed to me that all of the authors with our group were in agreement, we all happened to be women.

A highlight of the event for me was when my book caught the eye of a cute little guy, whose name I found out later, is Mac. He picked up my book and flipped through it. His Mom said he loves birds, there’s a lark on the cover and an owl inside. Heather commented how important a good cover is and it’s so true. It’s the first impression of any book and if someone is attracted to it, they may pick it up to find out more. The well-known expression “don’t judge a book by its cover,” makes sense, of course, and has a deeper meaning, obviously. However, taken literally, it’s exactly what we do, judge a book, at least initially, by its cover. 

While Mac’s Mom was buying a book for her daughter, I asked him if he’d like me to write his name on one of my postcards. I wrote his name in bubble (2D) letter, drew some stars and wrote “you’re a rock star.” He seemed pleased with it and was excited to show his Mom, even tugging on her shirt. I wasn’t sure if he could read it himself and asked him. He was a quiet guy, so I read it to him, and he appeared happy about the message. And of course, that made me happy. 

I got the idea about offering to write a child’s name on a postcard from one of the authors, Heidi Woodward Sheffield, I met at a recent event in Northville. So, many thanks to Heidi. (She was at this event, also, and I bought a couple more of her beautiful books for grandniece/nephew gifts.) Everyone loves their own name. As Dale Carnegie (remember him?) said, “Names are the sweetest and most important sound in any language,” and of course, children are no exception.

Back to Mac, his Mom read from How Happy Is a Lark? to him and his sister, which I loved to see. I can’t recall the sequence of events, but one of the authors in our SCBWI group is their school librarian at A2 Steam and he and his sister got their photo taken with her. After, when his Mom asked Mac if he wanted my book, he nodded yes (yay!). He said that he’d already put the book in her bag! She was glad he told her, apologized to me (no need for that), and I personalized and signed his book. I had handed him a copy to look through earlier and so he probably thought it was his! I was especially happy that the book caught his eye and that after hearing and seeing parts of it, he wanted to have it. I believe he was a first grader, which is an ideal age!

Isabel told me that one of her author friends ask the children, who the book is being bought for,  to write their name and she takes their photo. She’s framed the names and photos together as a happy reminder. What a great idea!

During the course of the day, a literary agent from Michigan stopped by the SCBWI table to meet us. She’s looking to take on more Michigan clients. We all exchanged information with her. I handed out many postcards about our upcoming book, Into the Thicket, as well as Lark postcards and bookmarks. I can see my daily author website stats and had 10 new visitors yesterday, mostly through the AADL website, which I thought was exciting. I met children’s book writers, ran into some old friends (authors and not) and sold two books (better than nothing). I was happy to see and get to chat with Ken MacGregor, a prolific local author of horror, and a really cool guy. The AADL provided lunch for us, which was generous and appreciated: Mexican food from Chela’s! YUM.

I strolled over to the children’s section and found my book on the shelf, alphabetical by author’s last name (so I’m KUH) in the picture book section. I hadn’t found my book at a library before, so it was cool to see. I remember the large aquarium from when our boys were younger and we’d visit the library. It’s still home to a “smiling” puffer fish, an orange-and-white clownfish (like Nemo) and several blue, yellow and black fish (like Dory). 

Right next to our three tables I saw Brad setting up Frankenwalnut, which I blogged about a few weeks ago, and the author, Don. He invited Tim and me to The Blue Llama Jazz Club show Saturday evening, but we took a rain check for another upcoming show, with a Grammy nominated jazz performer. Saturday was already a long day for me and I knew I would be ready to head home after the event. I admit to being “oldish.” Dealing with my feet and leg neuropathy can be somewhat limiting. I look forward to putting my feet up in the evenings and rubbing on my soothing and strong CBD ointment and later, Deep Blue lotion. The discomfort is 24/7 but I don’t constantly think of it, thankfully. Something I found called SCENAR therapy has helped enormously! There’s much more to the SCENAR story but it’s off topic. Maybe I’ll do another post about this, mainly because of its potential to help people in a variety of ways, and not many people in the U.S. know about it yet! Although I hear it’s been widely used in Asia and the U.K.

I have one more author event this year: this weekend in Birmingham, 2-4 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 9 at the Baldwin Public Library. I’m looking forward to the event AND being done with these for now, honestly. I’ll be excited to pick these activities back up next year. I’m projecting March, when I’ll have a new children’s picture book under my wing. Illustrations are expected to be completed this month and I will get everything to the publisher. An exciting new adventure I’m embarking on with illustrator John Megahan! Let’s GOOOOO! It’s Election Day (how could we possibly forget!?) so make sure to VOTE!