I spent all day yesterday at the Community Center in Hermosa, South Dakota. It’s a very small, but nice town south of Rapid City. I’ve been there a few times for different events but haven’t spent much time. A lot of very nice people live there.
The event was a vendor fair, not a specific book/author event like Wild Deadwood Reads the previous weekend. People had all kinds of home-crafted items to sell. I wish I would have had more money. Some very cute things were there.
We watched a little boy run up to the table with all kinds of crocheted critters on it and grab two of them. He wouldn’t let go. When his grandma offered to pay for only one, he still wanted them both. They played a trick on him and got both away from him. He then chose which one he wanted most and that’s the one he got. When he got to my table, he told me his new pet was named Eyes. It did have big eyes on it, so I guess the name was appropriate.
I bought a pair of beaded earrings from the lady’s table next to me. She had a lot of beaded items that she said were made by inmates at the State Penitentiary. Her son works there and brings their crafts to her to sell at craft fairs and they use the money to buy more supplies for the inmates. There were quite a few very pretty items like dreamcatchers, medicine bags, bracelets, and such. I wish I could have bought more.
A man came to my table with a Desert Storm hat on. He looked more like a Viet Nam veteran in age. When I asked him about his service, he said yes, he’d gone on the Desert Storm mission and was the oldest soldier in it. General Petraeus looked him up and told him to go home, he was too old. But the man stayed and did his mission. He said the military life was the best parts of his.
A group of church camp kids came in and one girl was very inquisitive about how I decided to become a writer. She’d written a children’s book and wanted to write more. We had a great conversation about a writer’s life, and she seemed encouraged to keep after it. Later, a woman stopped by and basically said the same thing. She was a new empty nester who wanted to be a writer but was scared to get serious about it. I told her to take the jump and offered to be her cheerleader.
In between all that, I sold several books, 13 to be exact, which may not seem like many to some people. Compared to the numbers who attended, that was fantastic. The event was small, but fun was had by all. By the end of the day, I was exhausted but rewarded myself with a pizza, my favorite food. I hope all those people enjoy my books as much as I enjoyed visiting with them.