Anyone who has ever attended the Tuscon Festival of Books in Tucson, Arizona in March can attest to the fact that it is awesome. 100,000 book lovers descending on othe University of Arizona campus to meet authors, attend lectures and buy books is like a literary carnival. I admit quite a few seemed to lounge around the food courts but I’m sure they managed to buy a book or two. This was my first festival and I expected to sell a couple of books, talk to a few people, attend a few lectures and meet some old friends – not so. I was busy. I sold quite a few books and saw my Amazon e-book traffic spike sharply for a few days.
This is the third year for the TF of B and it seems to be going strong. The weather was perfect, 70s and clear, a typical Arizona late winter day. It looked like every genre was represented from self-help to paranormal romance. I have to thank Severed Press. The cover of my new zombie novel, Ice Station Zombie, drew people like moths to a flame. It is a very catching cover. I could see customers spot it from twenty feet away and veer to our booth. I also met some reviewers to whom I gave copies and got an offer for a private guided tour of Biosphere2 in Oracle, where my newest zombie novel, Judgment Day takes place. I met some great people eager to talk about writing, reading, the weather – anything and hope I made a few new friends.
One amazing artist blew me away. Nick Georgiou, a cut paper artist, had statues and portraits made entirely of strips of paper. His work was awesome and worth the trip. I met fellow Arizona horror writer Lynn Rush and got a copy of her novel, Wasteland. I can’t wait to read it. I saw mystery writer J.A.Nance but couldn’t get through the massive crowd to say hello. I regret I didn’t get a chance to say hello to Weston Ochse or Yvonne Navarro but I really like selling books. it makes me feel appreciated. What amazed me was that the average age for buyers was about 15 and I don’t even write YA novels. I was glad to see so many young readers avid for horror.
Check out the photos I took. They are on my website on the Photo page. I intend to attend Tucson Festival of Books next year I hope I see some of you there.
