When I left my house that morning, the sky was overcast and threatened rain. I was worried it might downpour by the time I arrived in Ann Arbor. All the booths at the Bookfest were underneath tents, but it was still outside – and I hate being outside in the rain. It only sprinkled briefly during my drive, so I saw it as a good sign. The drive itself took me longer than my GPS had predicted, but then again, I had taken the wrong exit at one point and had to turn back around. Needless to say, I’m still terrible at directions and prone to getting lost. But I eventually got there! (This could easily be said as a metaphor for my life.)
The Bookfest was really neat, though. I made 3-4 rounds to really take in all that the booths had to offer. I think I spent more time gazing at all the craft items being sold than at actual books, haha. In the end, I only bought a bookmark for $2. There was even one booth that was not only selling homemade notebooks filled with homemade paper, but the vendor was periodically making the paper at the table. I wish I got to witness it; watching her make paper would have been intriguing.
As for the publishing presses that I personally know, I went over and stopped by my former internship place first. Unfortunately for me, the publisher was not there. She decided to stay in Colorado so that was disappointing, but I understand why she didn’t fly all the way over to Michigan for this. Instead, I spoke with the three girls manning the booth as representatives. (Well, one of them didn’t talk to me. She just listened.) One was an intern for them three years ago, and the other girl was a current intern. It almost felt like a gathering of interns, past and present.
Conveniently, three booths away was where my current internship’s location was. The editor was busy talking to someone else when I arrived, so I actually talked with her husband first. Opened up one of their upcoming fall books that they were promoting, because my name is credited on the inside as one of the proofreaders. Once the editor was free, she invited me behind the booth and we chatted for a good 15-20 mins. One of the things we talked about was what my tasks would be as I transition into a continuing intern. We expressed how relieved we were that it hadn’t actually rained.
At 2:00 p.m., I attended a seminar about YA books. I feel like I’m pretty well-versed in this genre, but I wanted to hear what these authors had to say. There were three authors who were on this panel. One of them actually grew up in the Ann Arbor area. As for another one, I actually own (and obviously read) a trilogy of her books! So I was pretty thrilled about that – even if I felt a little guilty about not reading Joelle Charbonneau’s newest three books.
(The guy sitting to Charbonneau’s left is Caleb Roehrig. He sounds like he would be a cool guy to have as a friend.)
At 2:30, it started to downpour. The joke was that now no one was going to leave the seminar now, thanks to the safety of our large tent. The session only lasted forty-five minutes, so I think that’s my only complaint about it; I wish it lasted a bit longer. Afterward, all three authors were available to sign things. I half-contemplated about standing in line, but I didn’t want to risk spending money for their signatures. Especially since I have never read books from the other two authors.
At that point I was hungry, and I had to think about heading out soon. I feel like I walked through half of downtown Ann Arbor in the rain, trying to find some sort of café to eat dinner at. I finally found an opened sandwich place that I’ve never been in before, and I was quite pleased with the food. It was also nice to rest my feet for a little bit, for my shoes had ripped up my heels from the day before, and I had to keep reapplying a Band-Aid on my worst scab.
But I couldn’t dawdle too long, because I had to be somewhere at 6:00 p.m. Luckily, it stopped raining at this point, so the drive wasn’t too terrible. I was just tired of driving when I pulled into the church parking lot at 5:25.
Overall, I’m glad I went to the Bookfest. It was nice to meet at least one of the editors of the publishing presses that I’ve interned for. I just wish the drive to get there was shorter. And maybe for the weather to be a little bit nicer.
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