Wordstock 08

Wordstock.


I found this:


I escorted Rolf Potts' to his workshop.

Abby filled water bottles:
Abby, my brother Ahimsa, my friend Damien and I all volunteered our time today. Abby helped a blind lady out, and met and escorted some intriguing authors; Damien really wanted to see just one guy--Willy Vlautin. He bought his book, traded assignments so he could escort him, and planned to ditch out early just to attend his reading. But Willy Vlautin didn't show up. Boo. Poor Damien.

I wanted to escort Andre Dubus III (The House of Sand and Fog) or Rolf Potts (a vagabonding travel writer). Damien got handed the Rolf Potts assignment. I talked Damien into trading with me so I could escort him instead. ("Talked into" is a lie. I grabbed it out of his hand greedily, then realized I was acting like a grabby obnoxious baby, so asked nicely. Not a pretty moment for myself.)
That was the highlight of my day. We chatted a bit, I escorted him to his workshop, and I invited him down to the Ale House sometime this week for a beer, on me.

I, uh, also didn't have a time keeping device so had to keep asking him for the time, and didn't know any questions he asked me. So. There's that. One could say I wasn't the best author escort, but I would argue my passion and dedication more than makes up for my prepared-edness.

My brother Ahimsa was there from 9am to 3pm.

He did a lot of escorting and answering questions and also attended several panels and readings. There was a great panel of authors discussing their first publication, which he found helpful. One guy, 66 years old, finally got published, after trying since 1966. Sheesh. What tenacity! His name is Seldon Edwards. This is him:
It was a fun day. Then again, anything involving books, words, literature, authors, etc etc will be always be viewed as a fun day for me.