My Eden Mills Experience

Last weekend I was lucky enough to travel to Eden Mills for the Eden Mills Writers' Festival. Ever been? If not you should. It was a gorgeous warm sunny day, which was perfect for listening to readings and talks from writers of all different genres. And what a village! Charming and friendly.

My day started out with a rather long drive, but if you've hung around this blog for awhile (just check out my Transportation Tales thread) you know I'm used to driving. Anyway, the only thing of note other than the detour right before Eden Mills, which freaked me out because I'm never sure I'll get back on my planned route and I obsess about being late, was a roadside sign just as I crested a hill. Said homemade sign was impossible not to notice:

SLOW DOWN!!

YOU KILLED 

OUR CAT!!!!

That got my brain spinning. There's a sad story there, isn't there?

Anyway again, I strolled the street and browsed the display tables of literary events, places, publishers, and artists. I ate excellent ginger ice cream! And look at the stream and one of the concrete road bridges that runs through the village.

Creek? Stream? Idyllic however you label it.

What a bridge. They don't make them like this anymore.

I listened to as many of the readings in the children's area as I could. My turn came following Ted Staunton. Um, if you've never heard him, all you need to know is that he performs a chicken song which had us all bok-bokking and head bobbing along to his guitar and stellar singing voice. How do you say: hard act to follow???

The audience was terrific. I love that the plane flew overhead just as I got to the bushplane page in Let's Go!. Couldn't have ordered that better. And sharing Counting on Fall under the branches of huge shade tree just seemed appropriate. Of course The Bookshelf had all the festival authors' books displayed for sale. It was an honor to sign several books for people.

"Counting on Fall" on display. Yay!

Special thanks to Deb Loughead, organizer of the children's area programming, for inviting me. Loved talking with you over dinner! Janet Wilson you are so warm and welcoming and make amazing pies and artwork. Jill Bryant, it was a pleasure to sit at the signing table beside you and to get to know you. Other amazing creative people I was lucky to connect with: Teresa Toten, Helaine Becker, Susan Hughes and Lisa Dalrymple. In short: What an event!