A Day in a Life in Century

We loaded the van and drove to Century on Saturday morning for the Alger-Sullivan Historical Society's fundraiser to "Bring Back Old No. 100" -- the effort to raise enough cash to pay for moving an old steam locomotive that once served the lumber mill in Century from its current location to the James Houston Jones Historic Park off Jefferson Street. There was a jazz band that played on the porch of the old Post Office Museum, and cloggers that danced in the street, and a dancing troupe, and twirlers who performed, and barbecue plates and hotdogs for sale. The Model A Club lined up a dozen different roadsters, coupes, trucks, and so forth -- all "Model A Fords" -- and gave rides around the town for a $5 donation to the cause. I sold books, as did the Escambia County Heritage Book folks, the Alger-Sullivan group, and a couple of self-published authors. There were other venders along the walkway between the museums as well, and a Civil War re-enactment group from Atmore, Ala.

Here's are a couple of curious things for those of you who have never done this:

1) If someone tells you they'll be back for a book before the day is over, they are probably telling you the truth. That has been my experience. You'll think they're putting you off so they can get away without spending money, but they are most likely just delaying having to carry a book around. They'll be back.

2) The people you most expected to want your book -- friends and neighbors from the old days -- are not going to buy one. They are going to come up and hug your neck and fawn over you and talk about you always writing when you were a kid, and dressing up in costumes and playing with their children, and how proud they are, and is that your mama over there by that picnic table? and then they're gone... They are not going to buy a book. They just think it's real cute that you think you're a writer.

And old friends are NOT going to come out to see you. Not. One.

However, strangers will be excited to know that there's a novel about this subject. They'll be tickled by the chapter headings, or the cover photos. They will buy a copy, and bring other strangers to your table to show them the book, and those people will buy a copy. Sometimes, they'll also ask for information on how to order additional copies, how to order autographed copies. (See Matthew 13:57 and substitute "author" for "prophet.")

That's not to say that I had a bad time in Century. Far from it. I had a good time. The turnout was about what everyone expected, but less than we all hoped for. I was pleased to see so many members of my family again, and so many other people I hadn't seen for such a long time, even if they didn't trade cash for my pretty little paperweight.

Please take a minute or two and check out the Pottersville site, which has been updated recently to include PDF files of "The Dispatch." I've been putting together silly versions of the fictional Century paper to pass out at signings and to leave behind to tweak the curious into scanning the Web for more info, and Michael is putting these on the site as PDFs. If you go to the page for Welcome to the Dawning, you'll find the "Java Cafe Edition," and the "Century" edition should be up shortly. In the future these will become an actual and regularly scheduled newsletter both showcasing recent events and giving a schedule of upcoming ones. I'll let you know when that becomes available. The Pottersville site will also begin hosting some the photos from our signing events, so you might want to bookmark it and visit regularly.

Also, watch for this Sunday's Lifestyle front in The News Herald to feature a story about three local writers -- Lynn Wallace, myself, and Lon Prater, who recently had a tale published in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future collection. There'll be info with that story on a joint signing Lynn, Michael and I will be having at the PC Books-a-Million.

Peace.