Our Day at the York Book Expo 2017
Today’s CIA is replaced with my account of the York Book Expo 2017. This was our third appearance at the Expo, and unlike the first year, when I forgot the table banner, or last year, when I screwed up our cookie plan, this one went off without a hitch.
The expo was moved from the fairgrounds to the Wisehaven Banquet Hall on the east side of York. It was a beautiful space, commonly used for wedding receptions. There was a ground-floor level with parquet flooring for dancing, a stage, and a bar area. The second floor overlooked the first, and there was a deep room set aside there for more tables.
With 115+ authors and several regional publishers attending, we occupied the entire facility. There were plenty of book-buyers on hand, and we had one of our biggest-selling days ever. We moved a lot of Teresa’s bags, both in sales and giveaways (buy a book, get a bag to put it in!). Best of all, several customers remembered us from previous years.
It’s nice to stand out.
I only wish we had more books. Volume 4 of the 223B Casebook series is at CreateSpace, but we hadn’t received our books in time (my fault, I’m afraid). We’ll have them for the Winter Arts Show on Nov. 4 at Hershey High School, however.
The Authors I Met
The only disadvantage of attending the book expo, for me, was now having enough time to talk to the other authors. Everyone has a story to tell, if you give them enough time for them to tell it. Here’s who I met.
There are certain people you meet who leave you feeling better for having met them. Jennifer C. Foxworthy was one of them. The longtime Navy veteran, who flew combat missions in three wars (Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq), exudes enough energy to power a battleship, much less a sleep-deprived and anxious bookseller. Her enthusiasm and vivaciousness makes her a natural as a motivational / inspirational speaker, which is especially needed in her area of surviving abuse. She published a memoir / anthology “Tomorrow My Sunshine Will Come,” in which survivors of domestic violence tell their stories.
As a member of that cohort who have more than two decades of wedded bliss under my belt, I’ve bemoaned the lack of mysteries featuring happily married couples. The way romances and TV shows put it, all the fun’s up front, between the Meet Cute and the Clinch with Wedding Bells (“Castle” I’m looking at you!). So it was good to meet Millie Mack and learn about her Faraday Murder Series. Her three books feature Charles and Carrie Faraday, who live in the quiet beach resort of Pear Cove when not getting involved in murder and mayhem.
The reviews of her book are few but uniformly positive. One in particular compared Carrie and Charles to Nick and Nora Charles from “The Thin Man.” That’s good company to be in.
Millie also runs a blog for mystery lovers, “Dark and Stormy Night Mysteries,” where she talks about her favorite books and interviews authors.
Eileen Haavik McIntire is also a mystery writer who set her 90s Club series at a retirement village. She also modeled her heroine after Nancy Drew, taking her first name and titling two of her mysteries after the Drew books. How would a 90-year-old Nancy Drew act? Let McIntire show you.
I’m a fan of historical mysteries, and lived in the Baltimore area during the ’80s, so on impulse I bought “Runaway Fire” by Donna Bertling. Set in Mob Town of 1904, her story follows Anna Bainbridge, who begins the book by jilting her fiancée, acquiring a Brownie Box camera, and entering the world of newspaper reporting.
Finally, I spent time talking to my neighbor at the next table (who took my picture for this post). Robert H. Laudeman published his first military thriller “The Liberation of John Gruneburg” recently. He brought along his book’s editor, Colleen Glennon.
There were two other people I met whose picture I didn’t get:
* Ann Criss, who provided delicious samples from her “Peanut Butter Passion” cookbook. Her website is My Peanut Butter Passion.
* George G. Moore, who is in the middle of revisions for his first science-fiction novel “The Music of Mars.” With Teresa working on her “Steppes of Mars” series, I suspect I’ll be hearing more about the Red Planet in the future.