November 23, 2014
I worked that big craft fair close to the city today.  Things went differently than expected.  On the plus side, it was housed at a high school, and a LOT of the kids were there to help out.  I mean how thrilled was I to be told upon registering that if I drove around to the back, there would be minions...(I mean students), to help me unload my car!  I went in feeling like a rich lady who had personal valets.  I was inspired and moved by the amount of work the school body did to decorate (all the figureheads on the gym walls were dressed with x-mas hats and there were large presents everywhere).  It really felt like the holidays, and the piped in repeating holiday music was even on a cycle that didn't make me want to tear my hair out.  So all pluses. On the down side, the large crowds I was anticipating, the droves of people promised, the throngs of buyers...must have been out to lunch...but not at the craft fair's cafeteria, if you know what I mean.  There were much fewer buyers than I had prepared for, though the ones that did buy largely bought more than one of my books.  I tried something new this time with the contest, a raffle for a free book that anyone was entered into when they bought at least two books.  Unfortunately, this craft fair was three times the cost to rent a table as the past ones, so I basically broke even on my costs.  The good news is that I drummed up lots of interest, including drawing the eye of a representative from the local university, who informed me that they keep copies of books from all of Newfoundland's authors.  Therefore, she's going to mention me to her board, and possibly order a (or some) books.  I did meet some wonderful people, one of which was an inspiring young man (teen) who created his own business called "Stranded".  It has a wonderfully powerful message, and I encourage you all to check it out. The only real down side to my journey today was that the helpful teens at the end of the day had become too scarce to help carry all the stuff back OUT to the cars.  I guess life is never perfect, but today was fun on the whole.