The West Virginia Book Festival: The End

The Book Festival is over for another year and I am kind of sad to see it end. It is a cray time for for me as I try to wear two hats all weekend: first hat is as a library staffer who has responsibilities for the giant used book sale, the second is the storyteller hat I wear when working in the storytelling guild's booth and performing at our festival events. It was easier for me this year because another teller took over responsibility for organizing tellers for the festival; all I had to do was be there for my telling time and work a while in the booth.

For guild members, the Book Festival is a time for us to get together to tell stories, meet listeners and talk to each other. Facetime is a rare opportunity for us, although we are finding more opportunities to be together as we add guild events to our annual calendar.

Storytellers: Donna Wilson, Suzi Whaples, Otto Ross, Paige Tighe, me, Bill Hairston, Keith Maynard and Katie Ross. This picture was taken on Sunday morning, so a few tellers had already left to head home. Notice that I brought my rocker from the porch with me? I planned to be comfortable when I had time to sit a while. It was apopular spot when I wasn't in it, too.

The used book sale is always a big deal for me. I like to help set it up on Friday, especially the Collector's Corner. That's also where I do most of my shopping, because there are so many books that relate to my interests in folklore, stories, and history.

Visitors to our booth browsed my materials but often seemed to be more interested in the free candy, like this lady. I did sell several copies of my new CD and met many interesting people throughout the weekend.

Across the aisle from our booth, WV Writers had an active booth too. I like having them as neighbors because I'm in both groups and writers are just good people to hang out with. It was encouraging to see such strong interest in the writers guild. Our booth stayed steadily busy all weekend. although sales were not as strong as in the past, I did make several good contacts for future performances, and the storytelling guild gained two new members.

Today I'm tired but not exhausted and a little sad to see the time with my storytelling friends be over, at least for now. Some of us will be together again in November at the WVU Mountaineer Week storytelling concert, so I'm looking ahead to that.