Benjamin Franklin is credited as having said, “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” 

Last spring, I was totally absorbed in trying to write something worth reading–and in fact, today The Illuminator Rising is on an Amazon Top 100 list! Woohoo!

This summer, I’ve been busy trying to catch up on the other half.

So for the next few weeks, I’m going to be sharing posts about some of the events that have brought color and life into this summer. Some of them may or may not wind up as ingredients in the creative soup for The Voyages of the Legend, Book 4!

Today takes us back to the Bay Area Book Festival (June 4-5) in Berkeley, CA!

It is a special, special thing to have an entire city rope off its downtown for a 2-day extravaganza just for bookworms. While I was 500% exhausted afterwards, it’s so fun to just be able to strike up a conversation with anyone in a crowd, knowing that you have a love of books in common.

My wonderful mom was my table buddy and partner in crime for the weekend. She used her whiz artistic skills to paint Voyages of the Legend designs on the hands of visiting readers!

Fun, huh? It was also a pleasure to get visits from some friends and family, including my aunt who lives some distance away 🙂

I got to network with some literary colleagues of all stripes: librarians, teachers, and fellow authors, to name a few.

One of the coolest booths I saw was an artisan who makes shelves, etc. out of (humorous) groupings of old books. Look closely at these titles, and see if you don’t laugh.

But the best thing was seeing so many kids enjoying reading. Two girls purchased copies of my books, then immediately dashed off to the lawn to start reading them. Whole groups of parents and kids sat down together for outdoor storytimes. It reminded me of some of the happiest moments of my own childhood, and restored my hope that not all kids are growing up as screen addicts. Not these ones, at least.

So, while this introvert couldn’t have been happier to curl up in the silence of her own room after all the activity, overall the Bay Area Book Festival was a jolly, literary, inspiring weekend.

Hope you can make it next year!