However, the week total was a solid 21,800.
The Hill Country Book Festival also counts as Nose to the Grindstone, just a different track on the grindstone--I had agreed to do this back at the first of the year, and had regretted it steadily since. I had a speaking part (45 minutes to talk about research techniques) and had to spend the rest of the day (got there at quarter to 8, left around 4:30) being "up" and present to people who wanted to talk about their books, my books, writing, etc. Thank goodness I was not tied to one table (Hill Country Bookstore took care of selling the speaker-writer's books; everyone else had a table or half-table to babysit. But it was exhausting and I came home absolutely flat.
It was a first year for this Festival, which this year was held at the Georgetown Public Library. For a first year, it was well-organized--attendance wasn't huge, but you don't expect that on a first time, esp. not when it's the day of the Texas-OU game and that's right down the road. The glitches were mostly predictable, and they got lots of suggestions from others, so I didn't add mine.
For the show-and-tell part of my presentation, I brought swords and a five-page handout I'd written. Luckily, writing nonfiction doesn't engage the same part of my brain as the book.
Today, at church, I bugged out after the first service because I was shaky-tired and fainting in front of the congregation and ruining the anthem is not my idea of good chorister behavior. I lay down in the women's vesting room for about 40 minutes and was then able to drive home...carefully.
