DBF Recap

What this Decatur Book Fest post lacks in timeliness, it more than makes up for in enthusiasm. I had big plans for the book fest, so big they required two separate posts to enumerate (1 and 2). Though I largely missed most of the authors I intended to see, the Book Fest weekend was still chock full o’ fun.

My daughter (age 3) and I were sidetracked almost immediately out of the gate on Saturday morning. Instead of hitting the Fest straightaway, we were lured to the Dragon*Con Parade downtown. We essentially traded the entire morning schedule and part of the afternoon for Eric Estrada on a motorcycle –

– and storm troopers on Peachtree Street. There was also candy.

When the parade was over, it was time for lunch and naps. (We had been up late the night before for the Braves game.) Following the eats and sleeps, we were finally ready to hop on the train to the Fest.

Since we arrived between readings, I decided on a lap of the booths surrounding the square would be time well spent. Some of the highpoints:

• I finally got to meet the elusive Lain Shakespeare near the Wren’s Nest tent, where we had just purchased a copy of the hot off the presses Soy Nut Butter high school lit journal.
• We then picked up a free C-Span Book TV reusable bag to use for all of our “aware” shopping needs.
• We visited author Aaron Petrovich at the Akashic Books tent. I bought their book New Orleans Noir, which is a redundant title if you think about it.
• We visited two toy stores on the square. Completely un-book fest related.
• Beer.
• We spent some quality craft time at the kids’ tent. My daughter made book marks for her loved ones.
• I ran into Decatur Beth on my way into the Little Shop of Stories for ice cream and to read books on the big sofas. Beth graciously took a Sherman Alexie book to get signed for me so that I could attend to my daddy duties at the LSOS. Thanks, Beth! At LSOS we picked up a copy of the very excellent book Rainstorm and bought an edition of Uncle Remus stories.
• Which, of course, meant that we had to double back to get the paperwork for our free Brer Rabbit shirt from the Wren’s Nest tent. Whew!

Our evening at the fest concluded, we headed over for the panel discussion at Wordsmiths. Many thanks to my support team, H and K-L, for keeping an eye on my daughter during the panel. Read that recap here.

Sunday we got off to a much better start. We arrived just as the fest opened for business. We were just in time to see children’s author Melinda Long speak. After a brief intro she read her books How I Became a Pirate and Pirates Don’t Change Diapers. Pirate joke: Why couldn’t the pirate kid see the movie? It was rated Arrrrrrrrrrrrr.

After coloring some more bookmarks and getting another pinwheel at the Target Children’s Tent, it was off to lunch. We burned at least an hour retracing our steps from the day before trying to locate a missing sippy cup. No dice.

The one thing that I wanted to accomplish Sunday was to catch Chuck Klosterman. Unfortunately, so did everyone else at the festival. When we arrived around the start time – a rookie mistake – the event room was sealed off. Additional seating was available in a nearby room where the event was being simulcast. Simulcast? If they were prepared to simulcast the event, why not prepare all the way and have a room that would fit everyone? Grrrr. Rather than sit in an over-crowded room watching Chuck Klosterman on TV with a three-year old that was knocking on nap time, I opted to hit the road.

My daughter and I had a great time, even though I accomplished almost none of the pre-game plan. If you’d like to read an account of the action written by someone who actually saw more than one author read/talk. check out Decatur Beth’s excellent recap.