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Monday, October 1, 2012

Highlights of a Great RenFest Weekend

Nine days down, three to go. My fourth weekend at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival proved to be the best yet - in terms of sales, in terms of visitors, and in terms of overall memories.

I revamped my tent design a bit by adding a cardboard castle and table with toy knights and crowns for coloring. In addition, I fashioned a make-shift banner out of card stock and string. Neither lifted my tent to the level of my neighbors, but they did up the appeal factor.

Sunday looked to be a good day early on when I'd sold two books within 15 minutes of RenFest opening. Then I headed off to my first reading of the day where I had to contain myself mid-reading from expressing surprise at seeing a friend in the audience who I'm not sure I'd seen in more than 20 years.

The friends and family kept coming throughout the day, but with all due respect to everyone who visited, my favorite guest was my nephew's four-month-old son, Ross.

Other highlights including meeting four authors from a local writers' group. To my fellow compatriots in the Monday Night Writers group - we need to hook up with these people! They definitely know what they are doing!

Two of my favorite memories from all my days at RenFest snuck their way in toward the end of the day. Crowds for most of my readings are sparse (under 10), but its all about quality, not quantity, right? In any event, my last reading of the day didn't turn out to be a reading at all, but a... a "listening"? I talked to a four-year-old girl who was inspired by the book Library Mouse to make her own book about shapes which she then was determined to sell to friends and family. I told her she better contact RenFest to set up a booth next year!

Back at my tent, I had another four-year-old encounter. This time, I got to be the recipient of a story time. Here's pretty much the whole story: "There was a little volcano. There was a big volcano." Don't get any ideas, though. That story belongs to Hunter.

Thanks to everyone who came out to support me, buy books, or share their writing and storytelling experiences! It was a great weekend.

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