On the 1st Saturday in November every year there is a Buckeye Book Fair in Wooster, Ohio at the Fisher Auditorium. This year Ron and I went there and it was marvelous. 100 Ohio authors had tables and their books set up. We talked to many of the authors and learned volumes about their writing, publishing, marketing, etc. I was able to talk to Brandon Marie Miller who wrote Women of the Frontier. I purchased the book and she autographed it. She has done tremendous research on this book and it has been published by Chicago Review Press. She told me a lot of detailed information about the publisher. I explained what our memoir was about, and she immediately recommended that we send in our proposal. We have sent it and will hopefully hear something positive and exciting soon. Also, I talked to many women writers including Shelley Costa who writes Culinary Cozy Mysteries and has written great stories for mystery magazines and Amanda Flower who writes quilt shop mysteries that have to do with the Amish, and some history writers. It was such fun. I didn’t want to leave. Ron talked to some of the authors who were also photographers and listened to part of a lecture/presentation in the auditorium. It cost $2 to get in and if you purchased any books you didn’t have to pay sales tax. People were buying bags and even boxes full of books. Ron and I watched as one lady kicked a box of books along the floor toward the check out. It had become too heavy to carry. We are definitely going next year and hopefully will be one of the authors there eventually. If you are interested in books, all types, including wonderful children’s, fiction, historical, Ohio history, etc. you have to go. If you are a writer it is a great place to learn about writers who have gotten published and marketing. We also ate a local Greek restaurant not far from the book fair and enjoyed great Greek food in a lovely atmosphere. The restaurant was not far from the large library. I want to go there sometime also. I hope everyone who is a writer has had good luck getting published this year or will in the year to come. Also, keep writing. We are working on articles, fiction, essays, poetry, etc. and I am trying to send more of my writing out to get published either online or in print. We will let you know about our progress.
We would like to hear from you if you are writing or if you have gotten published.
Ron’s Corner: I too loved the little Greek restaurant. The food was great and it was decorated with hundreds of pictures from a local play company in which the owners participate. While Crystal went from table to table extracting information, I sat in the auditorium and watched several authors talk about their books. The most interesting was Dav Pilkey, who wrote the children’s comic book series Captain Underpants. He had a trivia game for the attending children. Those who answered correctly would win an autographed picture which he drew right in front of us. After the contest he spoke with great passion and conviction about his childhood. He, much like me, was not a conventional learner. At an early age teachers didn’t understand this and were very discouraging. Supported by his mother, eventually he overcame his deficits and excelled at more creative pursuits. He also listed a number of other well know people, who similarly struggled with conventional teaching methods. His list included Einstein and Edison, actors, authors, and others from various fields.
What impressed me post was that he was using his popularity as a platform to encourage children and their parents. I can definite see Crystal and I doing the same thing someday. Marriage is a suffering institution in this country. It definitely needs spokespeople. I see now that our book’s publication is only a first step. Crystal and I work well together. That’s why we work and our marriage works. I foresee a lot of work and a lot of fun in our futures.
