The Quiet of Fresh Snow
Hushed reader,
Did the return of winter surprise you as much as it did us? Or perhaps you are lucky enough to be somewhere far away from all this white stuff. In that case, we are deeply envious. Although we love many things about this northern country of Canada (especially its fiction!), we could do without the neverending arctic blasts. Especially when the rising temperatures of the last week had our hearts singing and thinking about spring.
The only thing that comforts us on these wintry nights is naturally books. Fortunately, we attended the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair this past weekend, so we were able to stock up before the blizzard. If only we had thought to stock up on groceries as well.
Book fairs are always a treat because of all the people we get to talk to. In Buffalo, we somehow managed to attract all the children yet again (the cats in our display are like a drug to them), but unlike other fairs, the children answering the sweet siren song of the plastic cats were working the fair. Or rather, their parents were and they were bored.
Lured in from across the aisle before the fair even started
Among the many sparkling talents we met was Karah, daughter of A.C. Gifted with an empty booklet from our tablemates and a pen borrowed from Todd, she immediately threw herself into the mighty act of creation. The result was a sprawling tale of glory and renown, filled with detailed illustrations. Dumbo might have been the most famous elephant, but Karah taught us a little something about Buffalo, the flying elephant who wasn’t Dumbo. Buffalo also had a fish friend named Buffalo II. Buffalo’s flight was of course powered by farts. After some suspenseful twists and turns, Buffalo became governor and appointed his animal friends to his cabinet. Both Todd and Jocelyne were incorporated into this delightful tale, with Todd riding Buffalo and Jocelyne being the general heading up the military response to support Buffalo.
- The artist at work
Karah also called Jocelyne and Todd “Miss Jocelyne” and “Mr. Todd”. Apparently, this is a southern thing and she is just barely from the south (Baltimore). We could not have been more charmed.
Of course, we met many people who were not children. Who were also quite lovely and involved us in interesting conversations filled with many tangents. Like the makers of the vegan cookbook, who were also great lovers of beans. (A passionate conversation about bean-loving was had.)
Vegan cooks!
And although author Jocelyne was chosen to accompany The Workhorsery to the fair to give Derek a much-needed break (we have been trotting him out at all the fairs!), imagine our delight when Derek presented himself to us on the day. Dedicated soul that he is, given the day off, he chooses to donate that time to his other passion, Broken Pencil, who were sporting a shiny new banner that could be seen from anywhere in the room. So buyers of Pitouie were sent in that direction to get their copies personalized and perhaps enjoy a little chitchat with the author.
At the end of the day, exhausted and starved, The Workhorsery headed to a delicious Indian restaurant that is our dining hall of choice when in Buffalo (especially now that the delicious falafel restaurant is gone), and happened upon this:
What does it mean?????
PS. Our friends at Wooden Rocket Press have put up a thoughtful review of Pitouie. We are so glad you liked it!
