Recovering from Book Fair HELL

It wasn't hell as much as it was a 3 hours jaunt through Tropical Storm Hanna with 2 young children to arrive at a book fair in the far westerner corner of Maryland. A bit like Northern Exposure meets Twin Peaks.

It rained, and rained, and rained all the way there. It was an interesting event that might have been enhanced had we not arrived car-lagged, hungry, burdened, overwrought, shouted-out, road weary, and generally already at each other's throats after driving with two whining kids. Yeah, there might have been a better way to deal with it all....like, staying at home, for example.

The event was not terribly well attended and for the community of Cumberland, Maryland, Hanna was not the issue whatsoever as it never reached that far corner. It was home-grown neglect. Old fashion apathy. Which ought not subtract from the heroic efforts of the Frostburg University Center of Creative Writing nor their ringleader, Gerry LaFemina.

I don't take much from the first George Bush's administration, but I do appropriate his "thousand points of light" phrase from time to time, and I do here because it's necessary for folks like LaFemina and his students to add to the culture. As I had been able to contribute with Bardfest in Berks County, PA so these stubborn and eager volunteers have done in Cumberland, Maryland. I also want to note the wonderful generosity of the library in Cumberland and the small presses who also ventured great distances to attend this event. I was glad to meet Reb Livingston for No Tell Motel, for example, who lives close to us in Northern Virginia.

But we were numb from the journey there and drank just enough coffee to pile back into the car for the equally long drive home, which included a huge 45 minute parking lot sometimes called Interstate 66 (east bound) due to a nasty accident we never saw but believe was out there....somewhere.

We have eleven months to contemplate any further involvement with this event, but if you live within fair driving distance, we highly recommend you check it out. Western Maryland Publishing Fair.