Celebrating Books

Tahlequah’s newly renovated library always offers a bountiful array of books to choose from. It’s a busy place with many readers coming and going and yesterday’s book fair added a new flavor to the usual activities. The weather could not have been more perfect with blue skies and temperatures in the seventies.

I had fun seeing old friends and meeting new ones. A person can’t be a stranger in her hometown because there’s always somebody I haven’t seen for years or somebody who knows someone I know. The author at a table next to mine looked familiar. As it turned out, I went to church with her and her family when she was just a little girl. The writer of Cherokee County history who shared the table with me was a cousin of a woman I once taught school with. Then there was the retired college professor across from me. I told him I graduated from Northeastern State a long time ago. I ran some names of professors by him, men who had retired or, sad to say, passed on. “Well, that was a long time ago!” he said.  And I answered, “Didn’t I tell you?”

I made a point of meeting other authors. One of them was a descendant of Sequoyah, the Cherokee who invented the Cherokee syllabary.  He, of course, speaks Cherokee as well as English and writes interesting-looking books.

Anyway, the few hours at the library’s book fair were fun and yes, I sold some books, and looked at the work of eight or nine other writers. Subject matter ranged from children’s picture books to fantasy to history to cozy mysteries (mine).  It was fun to meet and greet so many readers and writers; a day of celebrating books!

http://pen-l.com/Mystery.html

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=blanche+day+manos