Hearts Parade of a Lyrical Life

The Book Fair

There was a book fair in town today and I planned to go with Grace, Kayla and Lucy, but after the events of the morning I asked if I could invite Ryan along, which turned into inviting Spencer, then Jon, until everyone came together in a large group to look at books.

The streets of the promenade had been blocked off for traffic and turned into long strips of stand after stand, filled with books on all sides. There were stalls for literary classics, children's literature, up-and-coming authors, and even some stalls where people were trying to promote their own books themselves, hoping they might get a big break. I had been working on a story of my own so I was intrigued at the prospect, maybe next book fair I might join one of the self-published stands in the hopes of reaching an audience. We entered in a group, but we all clearly had different directions we wanted to go in, Grace was interested in the classics, I watched Jon's eyes roll back into his skull while we stood there.

He picked up a book in disdain, "Huckleberry Finn?" He held it limply as if it were infected before Grace snatched it out of his hand and put it back. She was happily searching through. After Grace expressed she'd like to stick around to look through each book the rest of us moved on.

We came to a stand for fantasy authors, well-known and new authors alike. Kayla sparked up a conversation with the lady working at the booth, she had written one of the novels and was emphatically talking about it, Lucy was looking through the books beside her quietly while Kayla grilled the author with question after question about her story and the writing process, the lady seemed quite keen to find someone with such an interest in her story and answered each one happily.

Jon spotted a magazine stand and he motioned for us to follow him. There were all kinds of magazines lined up but Jon of course was most taken with the music section. He and Spencer stood and flicked through them, talking amongst themselves about their favourite artists.

I looked over to the 'Self Published' stand, "Want to go have a look over there?" Ryan asked, seeing my interest was set somewhere else. I smiled and nodded. We left Spencer and Jon to look at magazines while we made our way over to the stand, hand in hand.

It was the biggest stall of all, with many people working there, all aspiring authors. I spoke to a couple about their stories and why they chose to go with self-publishing. Some were parents that had grown fond of telling stories to their children and decided to start writing their own. Others were elderly, and in retirement they found a new love for literature, but no energy to go through agencies, they were hoping to get a book out and give the proceeds to their families, some without families wanted to donate the proceeds to charity. Then of course there were the young authors, students fresh out of school, some still attending, all with dreams of being seen, one day I would be among them. I had no doubt Grace would get a publishing deal before she finished College, but I wasn't as well read as her, my stories were more juvenile than hers. I wondered then what path Ryan would go down.

There was one young girl at the booth, she couldn't have been more than 13 years old. I asked her, "Are you here with a family member?"

"My dad is with me, he said it was worth a try."

I nodded, "It's a very worthwhile pursuit, it's kind of you to support him."

"Actually," The girl grabbed a nicely bound hardcover book, there were only 5 on sale, the rest were all paperback. "It's my book."

She handed it over to me and I let go of Ryan's hand, wanting to treat the book with care. I turned it over in my hands and cautiously opened it to read a page. Her writing was beyond her years, it was surprising. "Your writing is incredible, how did you get it bound?" I asked.

"My grandmother was a bookbinder, reading has always been special to my family, though she couldn't do too many." The girl looked toward her small pile of five books.

"Can I buy this one?" I asked, admiring the craftsmanship, both in the writing and in its form.

The girl nodded excitedly and called her dad over, she dragged him by the arm. "Hello there! You'd be our first purchase of the day!" Her dad beamed with pride.

"It's very well written, and beautifully bound."

I handed over the money and he put it into their small register, talking to me overtop, "That would be the work of my wife's mother, stories are very near and dear to our hearts. Do you write?"

"Yes actually, I'm hoping to be standing where you are by the next book fair." I smiled, Ryan now putting a supportive hand around my waist.

The man smiled at me and started wrapping up my book. "Well if you need it bound, you can contact us, we'd be happy to help our first fan." The father said, his daughter nudging him to stop as she was getting embarrassed. He handed the book over to me along with a handpainted business card with their family businesses details.

"Thank you so much." I took both and neatly placed them in my bag, and resumed to look at more books.

I didn't know what Ryan read, we hadn't talked about books before, sometimes I forgot he was a creative writing major at all with how much time he spent with music. We held hands once more and walked through the fair, I looked up at all the banners that had been hung and grabbed some flyers from a table marking various competitions. There were ones for book analysis, a reading quiz show competition, and what most appealed to me, a writing competition. It was based on a prompt and you were given a word count. The one I liked the look of the most was to be the length of a novella, the prompt was, Your main character has been sheltered all their life, it is a perilous world that they have never known, up until a fateful day where she wakes to find her parents missing, with nothing but a note left in their place . I grabbed it and tucked it into my bag. "Are you going to apply for any of the competitions Ryan?" I asked, now looking at him.

He smiled sweetly and looked at the prompts, he scanned them quickly with his eyes and grabbed a poetry flyer to read it. "I could try this, I don't have the time to write a novella." He chuckled.

I laughed alongside him, then I stopped to ask more seriously, "What are your plans for after College? Do you want to pursue writing?"

He took a moment to think, as if after hadn't been a thought that had crossed his mind, "I don't know. I'd like to write lyrics or poetry if I can, I can be a ghostwriter, that's the goal." Ryan seemed to be questioning whether or not he'd like to tell me more, as if in fear he might jinx his chances somehow, "There's this label, well, there are a few, but this one I like in particular. Well, they have a competition every year for aspiring artists, I'm hoping with the band we might stand a chance at a contract. It's a one album contract, but if you're good they'll re-sign you." Ryan started speaking faster and more mumbled, gaining excitement yet losing confidence at the thought of it. He shrugged his shoulders in surrender realising how thin his chances were. "Then again being a poet sounds fun."

I laughed and held his arm, bringing him in closer, "Don't let your future record deal get you big-headed." I whispered in his ear. He smiled wide and pulled me in to kiss me, our lips met and the world melted around us, feeling him palming my back as I caressed his neck. A familiar voice was overheard and we parted lips.

"Wooooo! Go Ryan!!" Jon was chanting waving his new music magazine in the air, Spencer buried his hands in his face in embarrassment. Ryan and I blushed. Kayla walked over at the noise and punched Jon in the shoulder not quite gently. Grace followed the sound of Jon's voice to join us.

We all stood together again and started walking back to College, we had free parking so some would drive off and others had dorms nearby, it made meeting up before outings fairly easy. I let Ryan join Jon and Spencer to chat and I walked next to Grace.

"Find anything you fancy?" I asked in a sing-song tone.

"Actually..." Grace looked at me blushing, "I found someone." I clasped my hand to my mouth in excitement, Grace spoke quietly to me, "Not a word to Lucy or Kayla, Kayla especially." I nodded, mouth still covered, "Also I found a good condition bound copy of Frankenstien with its original texts! The copy I had at home was an edited edition."

We walked arm in arm chatting about everyone's successes at the book fair, I put my hand in my bag and felt for the business card. Maybe I should get to work on my novella more.