On November 3rd I headed north to Wooster, Ohio, so that I could participate in the Buckeye Book Fair. On Friday evening, at the authors’ reception, I got to meet and speak with lots of other authors – some of them were actually staying at the same Bed & Breakfast, the Market Street Inn (http://www.marketstreetinnwooster.com/), which allowed for a continued friendly exchange over breakfast on Saturday morning.
One of the people with whom I enjoyed a lively discussion at the reception was C.F. Payne, a nationally recognized illustrator of New York Times best sellers. His new book is Mickey Mantle: The Commerce Comet. Our energetic conversation occurred when I mentioned one of my other books, Virginia Bakery Remembered. When he found out that the recipe for the bakery’s famous Schnecken was among the 70-plus recipes in the book, he got very excited. His family loves that cake! He told me immediately that I needed to put a copy aside for him…which, of course, I did.
My table partner on Saturday was Jeff Suess, the author of Hidden History of Cincinnati and Lost Cincinnati. Jeff is the Cincinnati Enquirer librarian who keeps the newspaper archive and writes a weekly column about Cincinnati history; he actually helped me when I was in my research phase for Lost Tea Rooms of Downtown Cincinnati. Jeff searched his files for me when I was hoping that some food column readers might have at some point over the years asked the columnists to obtain recipes from some of the bygone tearooms.
The trip to Wooster was a success. Of the books that the event had ordered, I sold out of all the copies of Virginia Bakery Remembered, sold all but two of Lost Tea Rooms of Downtown Cincinnati, and even sold some copies of From Eulogy To Joy that I had taken with me.
