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VA Book is for Book Lovers: Festival Review PDF Print E-mail
Thursday, 29 March 2007
The AuthorViews team was treated like visiting dignitaries at the recently completed Virginia Festival of the Book -- also known as VABook.

The dynamic duo behind the festival is Nancy Damon and Kevin McFadden -- Director and Associate Director, respectively, of Virginia Festival of the Book. They arranged for sponsorship of the AuthorViews team, providing us with an ideal floor location for filming and enough promotion to trigger advance registrations. Festival producers take note: AuthorViews loves floor space other exhibitors hate: in the back, low foot traffic, bad lighting (we bring our own).

We filmed in the gorgeous atrium of the Omni Hotel in historic Charlottesville, just off a downtown pedestrian mall filled with shops, restaurants, and theaters. The Omni staff bent over backwards to assist us in setting up, with tables, chairs, utility cables and by turning off a noisy fountain.

We filmed every half hour for a day and a half -- about 16 interviews in all -- I'll post the exact list as soon as I check the spelling on the names. VAbook volunteers sent authors to us, others registered in advance, and the remaining slots were filled almost immediately with on-site sign-ups.

The results are just riveting! I can't wait to share the videos with you. VAbook's theme this year was "Crime Wave" and about half the authors we filmed were mystery writers. We also filmed many history writers -- a specialty in the Commonwealth -- and one combo: a "history mystery" set in the Appalachian Mountains.

This year, we filmed a large contingent of African American authors. A publisher of a series of children's picture books was one of the most inspiring interviews I've done. He has persevered in a very expensive genre with spectacular results; just wait until you meet Henrietta the Hyena!

We have few regrets at VAbook -- we can't film all of the more than 200 authors, or attend the celebrity panels while we're working -- and Nancy and Kevin escaped without making their videos again -- but the combination of weather and location simply can't be beat.

The next VA Book is March 26-30, 2008 -- hope to see you there!

STEVE O'KEEFE
President, AuthorViews, Inc.

Tags: Charlottesville, VA, VA BookFair,
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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."
Last Updated ( Friday, 29 February 2008 )
 
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