Binding Time

I spent part of last Saturday in Martinsville at Binding Time Café's Local Author Book Festival, where a bunch of local authors had been invited to set up tents and tables to sell and sign their books. I had neither tent nor table; I set up my display in the back of my PT Cruiser, which took up considerably less space than a tent:

Here's the Binding Time entrance, complete with a sign on the door announcing the event:

And here's a closer look at the sign:

Binding Time used to be a bookstore with a café section. Now it's a café with several shelves of books for sale, most by local or regional authors. Here's the outside, complete with decorated dinosaur and large coffee cup:

And here's the inside. Carter Greer, who had some of his late father's books for sale outside, is at the counter. Behind the counter, Bonnie is concocting something tasty.

Keister Greer's book, The Great Moonshine Conspiracy Trial of 1934, was a big seller in Franklin County. (I bought my copy when it first came out for sale.)

Libby Bondurant and Tom Perry, both of whom have books at Franklin County's Artisan Center, had a big display. Libby will be at the Mountain Spirits Arts Festival in Rocky Mount on October 1. I think Tom might be there, too. He'll be at the Artisan Center's Spring Fling in Rocky Mount this coming Saturday.

Here's a closer look at the multitude of local history books he's written and published under his Laurel Hill imprint:

Since I'm a fan of regional history, naturally, I came home with a couple of Tom's books. Libby has sold thousands of her cookbook, Grazing Along the Crooked Road—and a copy of it came home with me, too.

Below, Libby poses with Karen J. Hall, who's published two books about the Blue Ridge Parkway—Building the Blue Ridge Parkway and The Blue Ridge Parkway. Karen will also be at the May 7 Spring Fling in Rocky Mount. 

A closer look at Karen's books, both published with Arcadia Publishing (and a copy of each came home with me):

I loved octagenarian Margaret Adkins' first book, Echoes, her memoir of living in Fieldale.  I was glad that she'd continued her memoir in Two's Company. I brought home a copy with me and can't wait to read it. Margaret will be at Piedmont Writers table at the Mountain Spirits Arts Festival.

Another Piedmont Writer coming to Mountain Spirits is Dorothy Hemenway Carter. She wrote her YA novel, Facing Fallout,  while a grad student in children's literature at Hollins and decided to self-publish through CreateSpace. (I'd already gotten a copy from her the previous week when I spoke to her English classes at magna Vista High School.)

Another member of Piedmont Writers, Lynn Dudley, socializes with Libby and Dorothy.

If my camera hadn't malfunctioned, I'd have posted a lot more pictures of some of the other authors. (I confess: Two  pictures on this post were "grabbed" from another site.) I had a great time at the Book Festival and enjoyed talking to other writers, many of whom I hadn't met before. I even sold and signed some books. 

Here are the books that came home with me (sorry about the fuzziness, but my camera was glitchy):

I'll add them to my large stack of book to be read. So many books, so little time. . . .

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