This Saturday I attended the Kalamazoo St. Valentines Day Massacre and Winter Tournament of Chivalry at the Kalamazoo County Expo Center. My wonderful friend Sam came with me and, per instructions from the event’s coordinator, we were dressed to the nines. It’s a bit like a mini-renaissance fair and I dressed appropriately (sans the usual corset).
There were originally doubts as to whether I would be able to attend. Kalamazoo is a two hour drive from me and, February in Michigan being what it is, all sorts of bananas weather is possible. Thankfully, the sky was blue and the temperature was in the low 40s all day.
We set out after breakfast and arrived just before one. While there were not nearly as many people as those who attend the summer Renaissance Festival, proportionally, more were dressed up. In the three hours I was there I saw maybe four people in 21st Century clothing.
Thanks to the generous offer from Gloria at Kazoo books, I didn’t have to do much of anything. She had a set up representing her store and she’d purchased copies of my book from the publisher so I didn’t have to bring any of those either! All that I did was sit there, smile, talk to prospective buyers, and sign copies of my book. I also got in some great people watching. It was an interesting crowd to be sure.
I left before the event was over but we sold at least fourteen copies of my book! That’s more than the last two events I did combined!
Not only that, Gloria has invited me to another event in May which I am already looking forward to.
Bye for now!