Leo Maloney, Randy Rawls, Nancy J. Cohen, Alison McMahan
My first bookfair ever. The Florida chapter of the Mystery Writer's Association of America, captained by Nancy J. Cohen, had a panel and table at the Venice, FL. Book Fair.
The panel was organized by Nancy Ann Gazo and consisted of Nancy J. Cohen, Leo Maloney, Diana Madsend and myself, with Randy Rawls moderating.
Nancy Ann Gazo
After the panel we had a booth out on the park in front of the Venice Theatre. Our nearest neighbor was a beautiful pure breed horse that calmly (well, mostly calmly) posed to have his picture taken with admirers large and small.
Other tent-neightbors were Arcadia Writers and the local SinC chapter, as well as some independent authors such as Tygrrrr Express.
Venice is a beautiful little town. Our tent was close to a crepe restaurant, the French Bistro, where we had a lovely little lunch, and then it was back to manning the table.
SinC Ladies!
This was my first experience as an author at a bookfair. Mostly I spent the time waiting for young readers to walk by, and I did sell a few books to young people. When we didn't have people looking over our book-wares, I was able to get to know Randy Rawls and Leo Maloney and check out Nancy J. Cohen's latest book.
I made two great discoveries at the book fair: the first was Randy Rawls historical, Down by the River, set in North Caroline in 1955 and dealing with the repercussions of Brown versus the Board of Education.
The other thing I learned is that humor really sells. Unfortunately I don't write humor, but Nancy J. Cohen does. All we had to do was say "this one starts with the heroine finding a dead bridesmaid under the table at a wedding," or even better, just giving the titles: Peril by Ponytail, Hanging by a Hair, or Murder by Manicure. She also has a story in a new anthology, the Wicked Women Whodunit.