Open Mic At The Book Loft Of German Village

    One of the many gems to be found in Columbus, Ohio is the downtown neighborhood known as German Village.

    And the gem within the gem, as every book-lover in Central Ohio knows,

...is the The Book Loft of German Village,

...a beautiful 32-room book store,

...the rooms of which are an amazing maze of book-lined nooks,

...crannies,

...hallways,

...landings,

...and rooms,

..large,

...and small,

...the books spilling over onto tables outside on the patio.

     In truth, a trip to The Book Loft used to make me feel a little anxious - in the days before cellphones -  as I imagined getting separated from whoever I was visiting the store with and not being able to find them again.
     Fortunately that never ended up happening. Most of the imaginary scenarios that give me anxiety don't end up happening.
     Still, a little over a week ago, Sunday, July 8, I found myself at The Book Loft of German Village once again feeling a little anxious. But this time I wasn't anxious about getting lost in the store, but rather about getting lost in the middle of my open mic book talk,  

...as I was one of the scheduled speakers (even though they got my book title a little turned around on the flyer),

...at the yourbookmybook.com  Authors at the Loft event.

    It wasn't that I'd never spoken or performed in front of a crowd before, but rather that this was my first book talk in front of a live audience,

...not counting last year when I MC'd the Authors, Winners, & Wieners event at Dirty Frank's Hot Dog Palace (See post from 9/30/2017).

   But then I wasn't really talking about my own book, but rather introducing other authors before they talked about their books,

...with a little stand-up thrown in.

     When I arrived at the Book Loft last Sunday morning at around 10:30  some of the guest authors - most of whom I knew from previous book events we'd done together  - had already been assigned their book-selling spaces on the patio.

K. Fetters

Alicia Wiggins and Silvia Rodríguez

     Gary Thomas

Lasondra Burks

T.D. Ashcraft

   And soon thereafter the Book Loft was packed with the usual Sunday crowd,

..inside the store,

...and outside.

   As it turned out I was given a space inside the store,

...some prime real estate at the top of the second-story landing in the heart of the fiction section,

...from where I handed out hundreds of bookmarks, chapter samples and pieces of candy,      

...and sold half-a-dozen books, half of them after my book talk, which went fine after all.

   In fact, once I got into it,

...I was actually pretty chill.

    Miguel Lopez, media production manager from yourbookmybook.com  filmed the book talks.

      Here's the link to mine in case anybody's interested in seeing it:
https://www.facebook.com/yourbookmybook/videos/2110468309210724/UzpfSTEwMDAwNjAzOTI0NDkyNDo4MjcwMTg4NTc1MDk0MTU/
      In truth I was happy enough to have sold six books.  

    I mean, considering all the competition.