Julie Schoerke was walking past the children’s and YA authors’ tent at the Alabama Book Festival last weekend when she caught up with Charles Ghigna, Margaret McMullen, Helen Hemphill and Laurel Snyder—four of the 60 writers who turned out for the event. “I can’t believe this Festival is only in it’s 4th year,” Schoerke enthused. “The director of the Festival, Jay Lamar and her staff, worked their tails off and the event ran absolutely perfectly as far as I could tell.”