The countdown is on. Two more days of the Alaska State Fair. My assessment of this event – they allow too many people on site. There has to be a better way of doing this. The traffic situation (as if I cared) is quite bad. Now if I had to get there at 6:00 a.m. to avoid an 8:00 a.m. jam, I would do this. So far this year, I have not gotten caught in a snarl.

A few years back I got caught in a fair traffic jam and it took me a couple of hours to get to the fairgrounds. I attempted to explain what happened to other people and found that they were not as empathetic as I thought they should be.

This year, it seems like everyone I have interacted with at any great length has had to wait a long, long time to get to the parking lot.

Now today, Brooke Hartman was to read from her book, The Alaska Train. She was late. I had rounded up the children, and they were waiting. They ended up leaving. So there I was with an empty room and no reader.

I finally emailed her and discovered, lo and behold, that she was stuck in traffic. I had told her to leave early if she wanted to avoid the maelstrom. But no. Well, she appeared at the gate, and I got her ticket and passed it to her through the gate. The ticket taker was wearing a tee short that said, “Books are My Job.” I thought, I need to get one of these. . .

Brooke came through pulling her little suitcase full of books and her display set up. This included a large pull up banner with pictures of her eight or so children’s books on the front. At first, she wasn’t very friendly to me, but she warmed up.

I decided to do as she did and play writerly tennis. We exchanged a number of volleys, with me surprising myself. Yes, I can talk the talk. And I learned a bit more about the publishing world and how to deal. It isn’t simple. It may end up being that writing the book, in my case Shelf Life, is going to be the easy part.

Brooke did end up reading to a handful of children. I rounded them up by going out there and telling them about the event. The flexible parents showed up.

I did have an assist today from Pete who printed up and laminated Becky’s train artwork. And I told a few parents about this. And Pete was there to give an assist. And Alex, who I gave tickets to for Calle, his fiancé, and Larry, his father, gave me a hand.

I did have a revelation, and that is if I do this again, I will need an assistant – me alone is too much. There isn’t even anyone to relieve me.

Two more days. My mantra changes daily.

Next: 235. 8/31/25: Oh, it’s the final day of August