I write where the mood takes me. I know some authors have a set or favorite place where all their writing takes place, e.g. a cozy corner of their house where their computer is set up and they can take breaks to look out of the window, or get a cup of coffee. They are more disciplined than I am. I don’t have a set place. I actually renovated a room in my house as a library, with built-in wooden bookshelves and a corner nook for my desk and computer in front of a window where I can look out onto the cemetery opposite. The cemetary has a pond in front of a really cool stone-arched chapel my grandkids call “the Castle” because that's what it looks like. See the illustration from Book 4, Gappy and the Thieves. The library was meant to be my writing place. I spent so much money on it, and it’s perfect. It’s even got a fireplace. The problem is, I seldom feel like writing there unless it’s a miserable day outside and the warm reddish wood glowing in the light of my fake gas fireplace is calling to me. Maybe this is the reason I sometimes take my computer to a little artsy coffee shop. Or sunk into a comfy couch at Starbucks or Panera’s, enveloped, I go where the mood takes me. My issue is sunlight, or indeed any bright light. I can’t get enough light, and I write much better with light. In fact one of my favorite writing places is the parking lot of a park called Frear Park, which is just down the road from my house. When I was writing Book 6, Gappy and the Witch's Curse, I found that I really enjoyed coming home from work and parking in the parking lot at Frear Park by the tennis courts. I would write for hours, longhand, looking out onto a wide expanse of green grass peopled with the occasional kids playing a pickup game of softball, or a Dad flying a kite with his young son. I suspect that as I work on Book 7, or, rather, Book 1 of the Teen Vampire Adventures, which I think might be titled Gappy in Disquise, I'll be spending a good part of my after-work hours sitting in Frear Park.
Well, the festival didn't start off too well, but it ended up being great. The night before the festival, the organizers called and told me that there was a problem. They were opening all the boxes of authors' books which had been ordered for the festival, and mine were missing. They asked me I had some books I could bring. Luckily, I did have all the titles on hand, so catastrophe was averted. However, the next morning, when my husband and I were loading the car with books, posters, graveyard dirt and rattlesnake juice, I bent over to get something out of the trunk and bam, my back went out. I immediately straightened before it could get too bad, but it was still pretty bad. I'd hurt my back doing the same kind of bending motion the week before and that had been much worse. I took painkillers, gritted my teeth, and prepared to endure the day. When we got to the Academy for Girls, we met Greg Maguire, the author of Wicked. He was there early to sign books and was giving a presentation before the festival opened. I had bought tickets for hubby and I, which included a continental breakfast, but we were so busy getting our table just right in the next building, putting postits with stickers of prices in the backs of the books, arranging posters and Gappy's snack for people to share, that we didn't have time to attend the presentation. This is what our table looked like. A bit blurry, but not bad for a phone camera. At 10:00 a.m. the doors opened and the festival began. Some kids looked dubiously at the graveyard dirt and rattlesnake juice but all in all, they were a big hit. Luckily no one spilled any on the books. We had our laptop playing the illustration video on a continuous loop and people would stop to look at it. Early in the day, a woman came by our table, saw the Gappy books and said she would buy all six titles. She didn't even read the backs of the books. A total of 1200 people attended the festival and we sold lots of books. I was actually glad that the bookstore had screwed up our book order because we had brought enough books with us, whereas some of the authors, whose books the festival organizers had ordered for the event, ran out of books. Lunch was laid on for the authors in a private room, and afterwards, we had a dessert party, or rather, a cake party, i.e. cup- cakes and slices of cake. The organizers made all the authors feel special and it was a very nice atmosphere. It was fun meeting the other authors and hearing about their books and the other festivals that they attended. There seem to be a few around this area, so I'll be researching those for next year. I did a reading towards the end of the day, reading some paragraphs from books 1, A Surprise for Gappy, and 3, Gappy is Kidnapped. Next time, I would like to do a reading earlier in the day because the crowd was thinning out a bit by then. However, a little group of teenage girls came to listen and asked questions and were interested in hearing about Gappy's adventures. They discussed what power they would choose if they could have a magical power and liked the picture from Book 3, where the camp counselor has his arm stuck in the wall. In the room next door was another author who had written a book called Poopendous. I don't know what it was about, but I would guess it might be about stupendous poop. My apologies if that is not the case. All in all it was a good day, and I look forward to doing it next year.
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AuthorStar Donovan, author of the exciting Young Vampire Adventures, a series of books about a normal boy named Gappy, who gets the shock of his life when he learns that he is turning into a vampire and then proceeds to hurtle from one dangerous adventure to another. Gappy makes it to TV!!
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