"Bette Davis Ice"

Spent the day the Ben Wheeler Book Fair in Ben Wheeler, a small town here in East Texas. Like most small town book fairs in these parts, it was well organized but poorly attended, and most authors sold only one or two books, if any.

I didn't sell any, but I expected that. I took my typewriter and banged out the first draft of my latest story, "Bette Davis Ice", between 10 and 2. It was a good use of my time, and a promotional trick I've used before. Here is a photo Patricia took of me at the keyboard.

The book fair was at an old historic school that is now used as the town library. Patricia did school work on her laptop (and also brought me lunch, since I was in my throes of creativity).

One author who DID do well was his-own-self was Joe Lansdale, who was there with Kasey. Some people showed up and bought STACKS of his books. Joe and Kasey were also guest speakers.

The first draft of "Betty Davis Ice" is ten pages, and when I finished Joe was nice enough to read it. He said it was fun, and definitely showed Howard Waldropian influence. Kasey thought it was a hoot, too.

Despite the lack of sales, it was a fun day, and we enjoyed the chance to meet Joe and Kasey again.

Now I need to run "Bette Davis Ice" through OCR software and start editing it. BTW, the Maguffin of the story is that a Brit can't tell the difference between the way a Texan pronounces "eyes" and "ice".