This past weekend, the Nampa Public Library hosted the The 2nd Annual Treasure Valley Book Fair and I wanted to take a minute or two to talk about it.
One thing they did this year was provide everyone who walked in a Passport with the names of every author present. If you got a stamp from every author, you got a free book from…I don’t know where they got this selection–but it was a pretty good one. I got a hardcover of Lee Child’s 61 Hours. The downside to this is that there were several people that just came by, got a stamp, and moved on. My daughter and I had a conversation of a decent length with all of them—and were interrupted more than once by someone just wanting that. It’s kind of a shame, because you could tell that too many people just out for that (we actually had to be reminded more than once by an author to get a stamp—we’d just get distracted by whatever we were talking about). We had some great conversations—too many. We spent about 4 hours at an event we’d planned on attending for 90 minutes. I’d have gladly talked to many of these authors for longer than we did.
We didn’t see nearly as many returning authors as we’d hoped (there was an event in Boise that some of them attended). The cool part of that was that there were many that we got to meet for the first time. I’ve already talked to some about showing up here—and will be reaching out to as many of the others as I can in the next few days.
All in all, it was a great event with a large range of genres, target audiences, and authors represented (which was pretty encouraging) and one I hope is repeated again and again.
Now, I can’t be expected to show up to an event like that and walk away empty handed can I? Were not for a budget (that I stretched to the limit) the stack could’ve been taller. I do have a shopping list of some of the left overs.
(once again, I display my questionable photographic skills).
So much for the progress I’ve made on Mt. TBR this year.
I, again, really enjoyed getting to talk to all of the authors there. Here are the social media (and/or way to order the books of) everyone that I could find. Do yourself a favor and check these authors out!
@artmuseum.edu – zines, etc.
Melaney Taylor Auxier—Children’s, Middle Grade, and Adult Fiction
Neil Ballard—Picture books
Terri Bentley—Historical Romance
Patricia Carroll—Christian thrillers
Erica Dansereau—Christian Romance and Rom-Coms
Death Rattle—Poetry, Zines, and More
Echo Artwork—Pottery, Stickers, and Zines
Jerome Goettsch—Vietnam memoirist
Wayne Hawk—Thriller writer
Sarah Hill—Contemporary Romance
Britt Howard—Christian Romance
Julie Howard—Historical Fiction, Crime Fiction, Supernatural, and probably many other genres before the year is out
Laura Jenski—Cozy Mysteries
Lori Josifek—Christian Children’s Books
Katherine Ecrivain Joy—Christian Children’s Books
Nathan Keys—(big, chonky) Fantasy
Elliott P. Linker—Comic Books for Kids by a Kid (so good to see him again)
Susan Lowe—writer of a story of survival
Kataya Moon—Romance, Fantasy, Erotica, Sci Fi
Patrik Martinet—Fantasy and Crime (with a hint of UF)
Wendy Ann Mattox—Christian Children’s Books
Steve McGill—dark, intense Contemporary Fiction
Rachelle Nelson—YA Fantasy
Christin Nogle—Horror with a touch of Sci Fi
Carla Crane Osborne—Children’s Books (okay, didn’t actually talk to her, she couldn’t make it, but someone who works for her was there–and she was a great spokesperson)
Debra Peck—Non-fiction
Amy Maren Rice—MG Fantasy. One of the first people I met last year, the first person we talked to this year. Really great to see her.
Robin Chadwick Rundle—Historic Romance
R.M. Scott—YA Dark Fantasy
Bonnie Schroeder—Women’s Contemporary Fiction
Nicole Sharp—”Writer of Love, Coffee, Italy and Fearless Women”
Norelle Smith—Fiction, Christian Fiction
Julie Weston—Historical Mysteries
Nancy Weston—Contemporary Fiction
Arnold Ytreeide—Christian Children’s/MG Fiction
Jo Linsdell
Sounds like you had a great time. I wish we had more book events here in Rome. Shame about the people that interrupted just to get a stamp. Glad you managed to have some good conversations though.
HCNewton
The area libraries are really stepping up lately and are hosting more events like this–it’s so encouraging to see (actually, others are doing it too, I’m just better at attending the library ones).
Something tells me that the feedback on the stamps isn’t going to be great and it won’t be back next year. 🙂 There was one author who told my daughter she was going to take the paper from the next person and not give it back until they’d traded a few sentences…wish we had the time to get back to her and ask if she’d done it.