Sunday Schedule, Saturday Summary

This is my schedule for tomorrow... I'm reading 2 of the 3 series that Susan Wittig Albert has written, so that's why I'll be there. The comics forum is being moderated by a friend's husband, so I am hoping more to see her, and the handmade places book looks like an interesting one; we might be able to take some ideas away from it to incorporate on the homestead.

11:30-12:30 Women Writers of the Southwest:

Janis P. Stout, author of Picturing a Different West, is professor emerita of English at Texas A&M University as well as dean of faculties and associate provost emerita. Other works include Willa Cather: The Writer and Her World, A Calendar of the Letters of Willa Cather, Willa Cather and Material Culture, and Coming Out of War: Poetry, Grieving, and the Culture of the World Wars.

Susan Wittig Albert is the co-editor of What Wildness Is This: Women Write about the Southwest as well as the founder and president of the Story Circle Network, a non-profit organization that encourages women to write about their lives. She has written over two dozen mysteries (in three mystery series, including the China Bayles herbal mysteries series) and also writes a regular column called "The Herbal Thymes" for Country Living Gardener.

12:30-1:30 The Texas Comics Scene

We've asked four of the state's hottest graphic novelists and comics creators - both writers and illustrators - to talk about their latest works and what's going on in the Texas comics scene. Come hear how Texas is influencing the comics world.

2-2:45 [plus signing time] Yard Art and Handmade Places

Relatively few people in America build their own homes, but many yearn to make the places they live in more truly their own. Yard Art and Handmade Places profiles twenty homemakers who have used their yards and gardens to express their sense of individuality, to maintain connections to family and heritage, or even to create sacred spaces for personal and community refreshment and healing. Jill Nokes, an authority on native plants and ecological restoration, traveled across the state of Texas, seeking out residents who had transformed their yards and gardens into oases of art and exuberant personal expression. In this book, she presents their stories, told in their own words, about why they created these handmade places and what their yard art has come to mean to them and to their communities. Krista Whitson, the photographer who collaborated with Nokes on the book, will also be at this session.

I wound up leaving about 20 minutes later than I'd planned--Anthony had woken up and needed a start on his morning routine before his daddy got up--but I still made good time and arrived at the first session with enough time to eat my breakfast (juice and protein bar) and to finish labelling the books I'd be releasing that day. I received three books in the free totebag ("Read, read, read. Read everything." (Faulkner) it says), all bound galleys or manuscripts: The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz, The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, and Songs Without Words by Ann Packer. The talk by authors Jane Hamilton and Valerie Martin went well [details to follow in Monday's blog]. It ended a bit early, so I had plenty of time to walk over to the Methodist Church (which is a historic landmark--so I snapped a picture of the plaque) for the Tribute to Molly Ivins. The sanctuary was pretty well packed, even the upstairs. After this, I dropped by the BookCrossing table, and said hey to Heather and Bruce, and I was really surprised that they remembered me, as I hadn't seen them in a few years. I ate my lunch on the capitol grounds, and was eventually joined by a little boy who was polishing off a yummy-looking cookie. On my way over to Rick Riordan's reading, I walked through a few of the tents, and picked up a copy of the Texas Observer (Molly Ivins contributed to them for 6 years, I believe). Riordan was promoting the latest in his Young Adult series, so I was surrounded by many school-age kids. The series looks promising, though, maybe even good enough to start collecting for Anthony. Finished there, I walked back over to the BookCrossing table, and gave Heather a much-needed break. I received another free book (Rituals of the Imagination by Thomas Moore) and a nice handful of labels. The last forum of the day, Lit Crit, was semi-informative, but I was a little disappointed with some in the panel. One was (IMO) too full enough of herself to be taken seriously, but then again, she's getting paid for what she does, so what does this little blogger know?