New logo for Charlie Hudson Writes

So much for posting right after returning from my trip. I was greatly delayed in getting home on Thursday, Friday was incredibly hectic, Saturday was the Book Fair, and yesterday was up-ended by a series of unexpected events combined with scheduled things. Let me dwell on the pleasant though with the Book Fair. Actually, in all the hub-bub of prep, I forgot to take my great banner. Oh well, next time.

Let me describe the scene for you for what we believed to be Homestead’s first formal book fair. The historic (not yet rebuilt) Seminole Theater is to the left of the downtown Losner Park as you face it, with an overhang over the sidewalk. The stage for the park is in the right corner and the historic Townhall Museum is across Krome Avenue behind you. The Kiwanis had their Just-One-Book give-away (a wonderful program they have been doing for more than a year) on the sidewalk at the Seminole Theater. There were ten 10×10 tents set up on the left side of the park – two rows of five tents – with mostly two authors per tent (had a few no-shows, but still, fifteen local authors). The band was on stage, the lecture series by some of the authors was in the Museum, and there was a writer’s workshop upstairs. The downtown restaurants were open, food trucks and other vendors were arrayed along Krome Avenue.

It was a very warm day with more sun than clouds and that was a bit uncomfortable for the tents that were placed catching the sun, although since the Fair was 4-8 p.m., the conditions were pleasant by 6:00. There was a wonderful mix of ages in the crowd and it seemed that a lot of people lingered. Estimated attendance was around 400, which is the usual for similar gatherings. The atmosphere was exactly what we had hoped for and notwithstanding the inevitable few glitches, the feedback was that, yes, this should be an annual event. Now that we have the foundation laid, it will be using “lessons learned”, so the next one will be even better.