Books -- reading and writing.
Home, cooking, the weather.
And whatever connections I can make between these chapters of my life.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Fun Times in Carolina!

The BOOKMARKS Festival is the best!

I loved meeting new friends- what great volunteers. And randomly running into authors I'd forgotten I knew, and new ones I'm happy to know.

Every time we turned around, somebody was feeding us, leading us, asking for an autograph.

Here's a whirlwind recap, in pictures, of my three days in Winston-Salem.

I figured it was going to be a good day when my driver was holding an iPad instead of a big cardboard sign.

Being picked up by this Dude at the Greensboro airport kicked the weekend off.





On Friday I visited two schools. It was hat day for these fifth graders. If you made a small donation to the school's chosen charity, you got to wear a hat.

I'm not wearing a hat, but I am sharing my Junk Poker box. 






With my new writer friend, Monika Schroder, 
all dressed up for our party at the fabulous RENOLDA HOUSE. 






Also at the Renolda House? (The only thing I dared snap a quick picture of. Amazing American art. Great tour, knowledgeable docent.)

Who remembers what these machines used to hold?







 Downtown Greensboro has some amazing history. An easy walk from the hotel to discover this sign. You can read more about this event HERE.




The day of the festival started off sunny and hot. 

The two fabulous ladies in charge of my StoryLine interview, on the air-conditioned bus. 
(Great questions, Jane!)





Over 7500 visitors. Tons of fabulous events. Food. Games and puppet shows. Great volunteers.



(Here I am with Crystal, volunteer extraordinaire and librarian friend, 
who escorted me, introduced me, and kept me safe during the storm. )



And did I mention? BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS.
Everywhere.

The rain held off till I started to speak. Then the skies opened up. Thunder. Wind.
Fortunately I was indoors, not under a tent.

But the books were under tents, so those amazing volunteers scurried to whisk them into safety
and everybody took cover. 
A great event. Thank you, volunteers. Thank you, BookMarks!

5 comments:

Augusta Scattergood said...

I seem to use a lot of AMAZINGs in this post. I started to go back and edit. Then I realized, they are all true. Great times!

Crystal Steele Joyce said...

It was a great day! We thoroughly enjoyed meeting you as well! I have enjoyed the BookMarks Festival for 8 years and love getting to meet such awesome authors. I look forward to sharing your book with my 5th graders and hopefully, keeping in touch with you and your future projects. Thanks for visiting Winston-Salem! Come back soon!

Kimberley Griffiths Little said...

BookMarks Festival sounds like an amazing event - and so much fun! I love the pictures, especially that iPad with *your* name on it! So cool!

Hopefully I can attend one day! :-)

Jamie said...

Thanks, Augusta! You were terrific and we loved meeting you. We hope we get to host you again. Thank you for all the wonderful comments. Best of luck on the rest of your book tour! -- Jamie Southern, BOOKMARKS

Jamie said...

Thanks, Augusta! You were terrific and I enjoyed meeting you. Wish we could have had more time to chat. I hope we get to host you again. Thank you for all the wonderful comments and best of luck on the rest of your book tour! -- Jamie Rogers Southern, BOOKMARKS