Monday, March 15, 2010

The Fabulous Festival in the City of Broken Dreams


Even though one of my friends referred to this town as the City of Broken dreams, I like it here, usually. I love to get out and hike, especially during the winter months. The sunsets here are unbeatable. We are close to some interesting places to visit.

But, sometimes, Tucson events leave a little to be desired. With a million people hanging around town, why do things often seem, well, lackluster?

Happily, this was not the case for the second annual Tucson Festival of Books. Over 450 authors, a myriad of Exhibitors, live entertainment, book signings, kids activities. The event was done exceptionally well.

The kids and I went down yesterday to take it in. The girls enjoyed hearing James A. Owens, the author of Here There Be Dragons, talk about his harrowing and entertaining experiences as an author and a chance to meet the author of The Sister's Grimm books.

Ethan and I went the manly route and heard Doug Stanton discuss his book Horse Soldiers in Afghanistan and Jay Dobyns talk about his experiences infiltrating the Hell's Angels.

This event, after only it's second year, is already one of the premiere book events in the nation. If you didn't catch it this year, be sure do come next year. We'll be there.

And one more thought. Professional writing can be full of set backs and, well, broken dreams. So, maybe it is fitting that Tucson, the City of Broken Dreams, is the place to have a festival of this nature.

And another thought. Doug Stanton talked of how the Special Forces are trained, not to succeed in all they do, but recover from failure quicker than anyone else. So, when your dreams are broken, how long does it take for you to get back at it?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the mention in your posting. I as well enjoyed the event. All the best. Jay