April 14th of 2018 put Cate and I at the Soiree on State/Cayce Festival of the Arts. The joint effort by the city of Cayce and the Cayce Avenues Neighborhood Association began at noon and ended a little after eight that evening. There were many vendors, food trucks and live music. 

This festival was held the day after my short story collection, Voices, came out. It was the first stop on the In My Head Tour 2018. Tour? Yes, tour. You see, we are looking at each event as a stop on the Voices promotion tour. Though we didn’t have the books for this event, we had a proof copy and pamphlets we had made up about Voices. At the end of the day, many people were interested in getting the print edition when it comes in.

[[As a side note, you can find Voices on Amazon, by going here.]]

To say things got off to a little bit of a rocky start is a slight exaggeration, but still things didn’t go smoothly at first. When we arrived to check in, we were not on the list of vendors. Seriously. We weren’t. I’m not going to lie and say I wasn’t a little concerned. After a few minutes of them trying to locate our spot, they finally found a place for us.

“We’re going to put you in spot 52.”

After driving the length of the vendor section once, we doubled back and finally found the spot, pulled off the road and unloaded. We went to set up the tables and … I forgot to pack the back flap to the tent and the tablecloths. 

Blink Blink

After hurrying to the house and getting behind every slow moving vehicle on the entire planet, I arrived home, found these things and headed back. Yeah, you know what happened. I got behind every slow moving vehicle on the way back. I parked in the designated spot grabbed everything, including  Cate’s Starbucks she left in the car (this alone could have been disastrous) and walked the two blocks to our booth. Yes, I carried her Starbucks coffee like a true man: down at my side so it looked like it was just another cup.

Upon getting everything set up, we still had about half an hour or so before the event started. This gave me time to walk around and check out some of the neat things other vendors had. After perusing for a few minutes, I made my way back to our tent and sat with Cate until people began to show up. Then, I guess you could say it was showtime, though I don’t know what type of show we put on—we were just ourselves. 

There were quite a few positives throughout the day. First, there was a ton of foot traffic. Second, we had seventy or so people stop by and talk. Third, I got to see my niece, Emmy. She is like a good luck charm or something. She is only three, but she has been to all four of the Cayce Festivals. Yes, it is possible. She was born in January and the festivals have all been in April.

A few quick things:

• Wanda, an old friend of mine from all the way back in first grade showed up with a friend. We joked and talked about school. Then they walked off, came back later and bought a couple of books. I went to autograph Wanda’s friend’s book and realized they had not told me her name. I asked and they looked at each other, laughed and told me her name.

  “Or you can just sign it to Wanda’s Friend,” she said. I laughed, and signed it to Wanda’s Friend (yes, I did add her name in there. I’m not heartless, after all).

• I met a woman who said she’s great at watching television. The man with her said, “She has a black belt in watching tv.” Well, that was a first.

• We were invited to two events for authors in the fall. 

• We sold some books. 

• Though I didn’t get to hear much of her singing, Jessica Skinner, one half of Prettier Than Matt, played for a little over an hour. 

• The Kinda Cheezy Food Trailer was the bomb, and not expensive, at that.

• We sold some books. Did I say that already?

• The police officers at the event had a long day, but they seemed to enjoy themselves. At one point they were passing by our booth dancing and having a good time. 

One of the best things that came out of the day was being contacted on my author page by someone who had stopped by our booth and talked about books. She bought a book and took a Brown Bag Story with her. She posted on my page about meeting us  and how she enjoyed the TBBS she got. One of the great things about writing is hearing back from someone who enjoyed something you wrote.

(Just for the record, when you tell someone to reach into the coffin and grab something and they still contact you later, you did something right.)

All in all, it wasn’t a bad day. But it was exhausting. You might not think standing at a booth talking to people and selling books would be too taxing, but it wears you out. it was warm and breezy and we were on concrete. 

And we sold some books …

Until we meet again my friends, be kind to one another. 

A.J.