I got back last night from my speaking engagement at the Pulpwood Queens annual “Girlfriends Weekend” in Jefferson, Texas. This year’s festivities were somewhat sparsely attended; by my own rough eyeball estimate, the crowd during Saturday’s main event, held in the lobby of the local high school, was significantly less than half of what I saw last year—at times, it almost felt like the author-fan ratio was 1:1—and itthere were a whole bunch of book club members showing up for the Saturday night dance party I could swear I hadn’t met before then. On the other hand, that could just be because I didn’t recognize them after they’d undergone their Pulpwood makeovers. Above, for example, are novelists Andrea Portes, Cai Emmons, and Ellen Baker listening to one of the panels Saturday afternoon, and then later that night at the party…
Organizer Kathy Patrick, who took a break from her promotional tour for The Pulpwood Queens’ Tiara-wearing, Book-sharing Guide to Life to return home for the weekend’s events, reasoned that the drop in attendance was likely due to local residents’ fears about the economy, but added that the people who did come spent as much at the side tables set up by Barron’s, a local indie bookstore, as they had last year. (It’s worth noting, too, again by my eyeball estimate, that almost as many East Texans were willing to spend $125 to attend the author panels as I saw at last fall’s book festival in Omaha, which was free to the public.)
More details to come, as I sort through the photos and the notes…