The UCF Book Festival in a (rather large) nutshell

I think I've made enough of a nuisance of myself raving about the 2nd Annual UCF Book Festival here lately, but I can't let it lie until I 'splain out all the awesomeness that I experienced last weekend. 

So I talked about the Author Reception already, that was held on Friday evening.  That was a fun way to kick off the festivities. On Saturday morning at 9am, they were open for business!

The committee made a concerted effort to make this event much bigger than last year.  One of their objectives was to get local bloggers in on the fun.  Heather (Raging Bibliomania) met Susan Wegmann, an Associate Professor at UCF, at SIBA last fall, which paved our way into this opportunity.  Heather provided my name and Jenny Reed's (Take Me Away) to her, and suddenly we were the festival's official bloggers.  We were provided our own blogging suite and a full page ad in the schedule booklet.    

Above from left to right:  Jenny Reed, me, Heather Figearo

Our suite overlooked the floor of the arena, where the book signings and booths were stationed.  Before the author panels started at 10:00, we scoped out the goodies.  Heather and I bought literary t-shirts from Literary Threads, as well as some bookmarks and some books.  (We're helpless.)





The first panel on my agenda was called "Who Put the Thrill in Thriller", and was attended by mystery thriller authors Tom Lowe (The 24th Letter), Daniel Palmer (Delirious) and Tim Dorsey (Electric Barracuda).  Sorry for the low lighting...we had ambiance.     

I love crime novels, and these guys fulfilled my homicidal, blood-spattered expectations.  My first reaction was...Daniel Palmer, son of Michael Palmer, was quite the handsome dude.  I've been really wanting to read his latest book "Delirious", about which we got some juicy background.  I was more than shocked, however, when he brazenly revealed to us the bad guy of his next novel "Helpless".  How dare he?  He didn't think we would remember this fact once the book is finally published, but trust me, I will.  I wanted to run out of the room screaming with my fingers in my ears.  The real hit, to me, was Dorsey.  I've listened to one of his books (which all take place in Florida) "Atomic Lobster" on audio, and it was freaking hilarious.  His protagonist is a Dexter-ish serial killer with a conscience.  Now I know why his book was so funny.  The guy about made me pee my pants for the entire panel. I wanted to buy him a beer.

My next session, and probably my favorite (sorry I didn't get a picture), was called "Blood and Poison Across the Centuries:  True Tales of Crime & Science".  This session was attended by Holly Tucker (Blood Work), Douglas Starr (The Killer of Little Shepherds) and Deborah Blum (The Poisoner's Handbook). Have you ever wanted to know what it would be like to dig through foreign archives, old moldy boxes and autopsy notes from the 1800's and solve a cold case?  These guys have done it.  Not only that, but this trio acted like they'd been on a publicity tour with each other for three years, they were just lobbing the conversation back and forth seamlessly.  I was SO MOVED by their panel, I went out and bought all three of their books and missed half of the next session so they could sign them.  (she says as she stares at her mountain of books that threaten to fall and crush her)    

The last session I attended was called "Family Secrets", which featured Lori Roy (Bent Road), Susan Hubbard (The Season of Risks) and Eleanor Brown (The Weird Sisters).   

This was a fascinating panel because Lori and Eleanor both just published their debut novels.  Lori used to be an accountant (yay number crunchers!), Susan was a seasoned professor and a writer of both short stories and novels, and Eleanor, well, she was Eleanor!  Like I said in my post Saturday, she is real and candid and hilarious.

After all was said and done, it was time to get the Central Florida blogger community (hot damn guys, we actually HAVE one!) together for an end-of-festival celebration.  As all of you bloggers know, you don't really need to have met someone in real life to have a two hour conversation with them the first time you meet them.  We reflected on the festival, our blogging lives, the books we are reading, and about Florida's bugs.  The poor husbands sat at the end of the table and just shook their heads.      

Left to right:  Jenny's husband and Jenny (Take Me Away), me, Liz (Cleverly Inked), Heather (Book Addiction), Heather (Raging Bibliomania), and Michelle and her husband (My Books, My Life).

So there you have it.  I am already getting excited about next year, and what the festival will bring.  The bigger it gets, the more authors we will attract, and the more attendees will come.  If you are within a driving distance of Orlando (or can figure out a way to coordinate a trip down here at the same time) you must come in 2012.