Bookmark It, in Orlando FL, held a book fair Sunday with forty authors showing off their latest titles. It was a beautiful sunny day with a light breeze and lower than normal temperatures for this time of year, 83 degrees. I was with my co-author Jorge Sastre and we had three books out for sale, one being The Collectors.
We had done book signings before but this was our first book fair. We would be sitting down with many other authors, all selling our blood, sweat and tears. On display was years of our lives in 189 pages for $10. The personalities there were all different, yet each of us bonded instantly because we all knew what the other had gone through to get there. But in the back of each of our minds, the other author is the competition. So friendly but watchful eyes scanned the table tops, seeking out a similar book and inspecting, with admirable smiles, though in our minds we were looking for flaws or ideas for our own book covers.
All that sounds cynical but really it was a good time and I made some great new contacts. Hell, I'll even mention a new book I picked up, Doc Voodoo Aces&Eights by Beating Windward Press. I met the author, Dale Lucas when he came over to our table to complement us on the artwork for The Collectors (thanks Tom Wolfe!) Dale is a cool guy and we swapped stories on how we got our art work done. Doc Voodoo looks great!
