BWABC Literacy Festival: Authors All Over the Place (pic heavy)

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending the BWABC Literacy Festival! I had an author/vendor table and while my sales weren’t the best, I appreciated the opportunity to connect with other authors and potential readers. The best part of the weekend was meeting so many of my fellow author friends in person, after connecting with them online. We ate BBQ in the hood, traded war stories, talked writing and had an all around good time! It’s the simple things that bring me the most joy.

Christian Fiction writers unite! From left to right: Nicky (Nigeria’s sister), Nigeria, Me, Unoma and Michelle.

I so enjoyed meeting Ms. Evelyn! She’s 79 years old and loves to write about ‘The Adventures of Herman Ant, Private Detective’. She’s an inspiration to me. 🙂

In the pics that follow, you might notice that my hair is different in a lot of them, even though most of them were taken on the same day. See what had happened was that I woke up to a bad hair day situation and was running late, so I decided that getting there on time was more important than looking good…until I realized that people wanted to take my pic. So I went to the restroom planning to fix my bun situation aannnnddd my hair tie broke!  After crying out to Jesus, wetting my hair with my hands and engaging in all kinds of fluffing, it worked out. Those that know me, know that shenanigans like this are just how I roll.

My Author Table!

Michelle Stimpson is the author of one of the first Christian fiction books I read. She’s the reason I knew such a genre existed!

BWABC had wonderful volunteers who would monitor our vendor tables when we had to step away. Kayla was so sweet and helpful! She wants to be a writer too, and I know she can do it. 🙂

Author LaCricia A’ngelle had her whole family with her for support! I loved how they cheered and danced and just had a good time. 🙂

Savvy Book Club was in the house! I fell in love with these ladies at NBCC and was thrilled to see them again. I promised to head to Jackson to be a featured author at their book club and I can hardly wait.

There were so many great book clubs in attendance. Ask any author and they’ll tell you that book clubs are our best friends. They tell it like it is, and support authors. I’ve got nothing but love for them!

There were a LOT of authors at this event and I was only able to get pics of about 1/4 of them. I was hot as all get out (maybe hot flashes? I thought I was too young for that, but whateves) so I decided to limit myself to the authors at the tables closest to mine.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience. I made some new friends that are also pursuing this author thing, and that’s priceless to me. Nobody can understand and support each other like people walking the same path in life, which is why I so appreciated every single one of the conversations I had with other writers this weekend.

Stay tuned. In the near future I have a special announcement to make! Also, I’m going to be sharing my tips for helping to stack the deck in your favor at author events like this one. Because you know that I’m an expert now, right? I’ve attended TWO whole events this year 😉

Do you have connections with people you’ve only ‘met’ online? Have you ever met any of your online friends in person? Did they come off the same in person as they did online? My peeps were exactly the same, and I didn’t feel like I was meeting them, more like just getting to know them better! I’d love to hear your experiences. And if you’re ever in my neck of the woods, holla at me. For real. 

 

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