The Texas Book Festival 2014: I Stay in a Tiny House and Meet Lots of Authors

Call me geeky. Call me a retro-hippy girl. Call me whatever you want, but I've always wanted a tiny house. How could I pass up the opportunity to rent one for our Texas Book Festival weekend in Austin? 

And what did I learn from the stay here? A tiny house is...well, tiny. And going up and down rather steep stairs twice a night to a loft bed might be a bit much at 58. But cozy. Beautiful. And quite ecological and economical, I think.

And...surprise! Who would guess that the owner of the tiny house is...wait for it...an author!

Look what she left for me at the tiny house!

And then it's time for the book festival. Gloriously beautiful weekend weather at the Texas Capitol for the festival. Thank you. 

You'll be happy to know that Texas continues to be properly defended from those who would invade our Great State.

I exclusively focused on children's books this year. My first stop was a presentation, complete with a sitar and drum serenade from a musician who once privately played for Gandhi, for the new children's book, Grandfather Gandhi.

Pat Mora and her new book I Pledge Allegiance were next. Grandma becomes a citizen in this one.

It just can't be a Texas Book Festival without author Mac Barnett. He presented his new book, Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, sans illustrator Jon Klassen, shaming his friend for his failure to show up this time. Facing the blank page, Barnett tells us, is "like having homework every day for the rest of your life." Being an author is pretty nice, though, because he gets up in the morning, walks ten steps to his desk, and "that's my morning commute." 

The Big Reveal. TLA Librarian of the Year ("This ain't your grandma's library") John Trischitti and a crew of twenty elementary students read blurbs for the Texas Bluebonnet nominees. You'd be proud to hear these twenty Texan kids read so beautifully, despite the fact that the blurbs had been presented to them only moments before the reveal. A couple of the authors of the nominees were happily present to appear at the reveal, including Separate is Never Equal author/illustrator Duncan Tonatiuh (left) and Grandfather Gandhi author Bethany Hegedus (right).

The awesome Jacqueline Woodson along with fellow kids' authors Isabel Quintero and K.A. Holt talk about the ways they use poetry as both reflections and windows in their writings. 

A great way to end the first day was with Dallas chef Dean Fearing. He shared recipes from his new cookbook, The Texas Food Bible, though he admits he's not from Texas and he never intended to become a chef. When questioned from the audience about the next wave in cooking, he replied cheerily, "The Texas Food Bible!"

I've been to Book People in Austin many, many times, but I've somehow failed to obtain an iconic Devoted-Reader-in-Front-of Fav-Bookstore photo until now.

Another must-visit stop on this trip was at Recycled Reads, a resale shop for the Austin Public Library system. They always seem to have some sort of paper arts on display.

 

Sunday, the last day of the festival, was devoted to escorting children's authors around the festival. In the past, I've always been assigned to one author, but this year the Powers-That-Be apparently learned of my author-escorting gifts and sent me scurrying to escort six including Chris Barton (his Shark vs. Train continues to be a favorite at my library), jaunty Melissa Guion (Baby Penguins Everywhere), friendly Molly Idle (Flora the Penguin) and Nathan Hale (Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales). Nathan Hale was the only one who seems to know of my true navigating abilities.

Nathan Hale's presentation was amazing. Here's a taste.

You never know who you are going to meet in the author green room at the festival. Nathan Hale, in his session, told us a cool story from earlier in the day in the green room, while he was waiting to present. Had to share his Facebook post:

Hanging out in the author green room at the Texas Book Fest. Nice older gentlemen is sitting at my moderator table/meet-up spot. I walk up, sit down and ask if he's my moderator. He says no, he's moderating another panel on law enforcement. I make standard festival-related small talk, "Hot out there, huh?" "Is this your first time at the festival?"

At one point, somebody came up to him and said, "Pardon me, sir, I just wanted you to know how much the show meant to me."

I asked what show the person was talking about. He said, "Oh, I worked on M.A.S.H." I asked if he was a writer for the show.

He said, no, I was on the show. 

It was Mike Farrell, aka Captain B.J. Honeycutt.

I am an idiot.

And that was my weekend. Full of delightful stories.