On Saturday, 14 August, I participated in the Day of Knowledge Book Fair at Millers United Methodist Church in Manchester, Maryland. I’ve sold and autographed my books for years at the annual book fair there, but it was cancelled the last year because of the pandemic. It was so good to be back.
The book fair is held in the church’s hall, a large single-room building with a kitchen. For the fair, the bulk of the room was taken up with tables covered with books free for the taking to one and all. I nabbed a copy of one volume of Ernest Newman’s multivolume Stories of the Great Operas, first published in 1928. On one side of the room, five local authors sat at tables offering to sell and autograph their books. I arranged copies of five of my books (the sixth is an ebook only available on the internet) and spent the day talking to readers and autographing—one of my favorite things to do.
I was pleased, surprised, and enormously flattered when people told me they had bought copies of my books at the book fair over the years and came back to see what else I had to offer. This year I had two new books, Secretocracy and Coming to Terms, both published in 2020.
The kindness, generosity, and good will of the church and its members impressed me once again. The church’s representatives went out of their way to make the visiting authors comfortable. They provided us with food and drink, checked on us regularly to be sure we had whatever we needed, and directed newly arrived people to our tables.
It was, in short, a delightful and fulfilling day for me. I got to do what I most enjoy and came away knowing that I will have at least eight people reading my books for the first time. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Tom Glenn, Writer 