Pirate Festival!

Once again, An and I were at the Milton Pirate Festival! We love it there! Where else can you spend the weekend dressed like a pirate having a blast? This weekend, I got to do readings from my books onstage at the Thirsty Parrot Pub, and I think I'm getting over my nervousness sharing my work live. It's always difficult trying to pick a random spot from a novel. I never know if I'm making the right choice. I want to introduce the characters to potential readers, grab their interest with something exciting, but at the same time, I don't want to give too much away. Anyway, the first day I chose the Prologue from Sitnalta, and I think that went well. The next day I chose the first chapter from Sitnalta, and for the last, I went with Chapter 17 from The Strings of the Violin. I don't know why, but I liked that one. It was fun to read, a nice mini capsule adventure, that ended on a bit of a cliff-hanger. I enjoyed it. It felt like a bit of a performance piece. Also, there weren't to many long foreign words to stumble over. Those make me nervous. I know how  to pronounce them, they just make me a bit nervous. An and I opted not to do a reading from Bath Salts. This is a family festival after all. :)

The last day of the festival, we also had a major rainstorm (or two). For the last couple hours, An and I gave up on selling books. We packed everything into the middle of the tent, and went to the tavern for the pub sing. There was a lot of puddle jumping going on by children, and lots of adults! The actors from the mud show made a mud sliding competition in front of the tavern, and everyone was fairly soaked through at that point.

After the pub sing, we went back to the tent to pack everything into the car, and I had one of the more terrifying experiences of my life. We folded the tent in, and as we started shaking the canvas roof off the frame, a spider the size of a small squirrel flew off and went right down the front of my bodice. I screamed and An rushed to help me. She quickly untied my laces, and I tried to shake it out (while protecting my modesty). I thought I was successful, so she began to retie it. I then felt the thing start to creep across my torso and shrieked again. We ran to the car, and Clara, another girl who was working a booth helped shield me as I ripped off my bodice, and grabbed another top. I was not going to wear the spider bodice a second longer! I got redressed and we made our way back to the pub.

All things considered, it was a great, successful weekend. Tons of fun. Can't wait for next year!




Pictures!

Pirate selfie

An and I having a duel

The mud people build a "boat"

Hiding from the rainstorm with An and Jeff

Shoes proved to be useless with all the mud

Pub sing in the rain

An and Clara singing along