I believe I’ve been to the Rainbow Book Fair every year since it began. As a person who loves books, I’ve always found RBF to be a great place to go to browse/buy books I might not otherwise no about. The mix of authors and publishers in an array of LGBTQ genres, along with the readings and panels, often make it a day-long activity for me.
This year I’m super excited because I’m exhibiting for the first time. I attended in 2010 and worked at the Dreamspinner Press table and talked about my short story release of Rivals, but it was a very small presence on my part (you can read the blog post form that, if you’d like). This year I’ll have half of a table laden with paperbacks, brochures about all my books, excerpt CDs and some other goodies.
I love who my neighbors are for Saturday, too. I”m sharing the table with Bob Glasscock, creator to the Casey at the Bat comic. Bob’s a friend as well as the former captain of the NYC Gay Hockey Association’s Tigers, which means he and I were teammates for many years. His comic’s great and I’m glad we get to hang out for the afternoon. Next to our table is Wade Kelly, who is the author of some of my favorite books like Names Can Never Hurt Me and Misplaced Affection. She’s a friend and always a blast to hang out with. On the other side of Wade is the awesome Sara York, who is sitting near the top of my TBR list right now with her A Southern Thing series. I suspect we’re going to have a fun party going on in our corner of the exhibit hall. If you’re coming to the event, come see us at tables 15, 16 and 17. Many other friends are exhibiting too and I’m looking forward to seeing them, too.
Beyond meeting people during the fair, I’m giddy at having a slot to do a reading. I’ve only read one other time, and that was at Rainbow Con last spring. To be able to read in NYC is off the charts for me. I’ve decided to read from chapter three of Hat Trick. I only get four minutes, and there’s a perfect segment near the start of the chapter that I’m going to do. I know I should probably read from Flipping for Him since it’s the newest book, but I’ve always wanted to read from HT in NYC and it is the entry into a whole series of books so HT it is! The reading will take place between 12:30 and 12:50pm.
If you’re in the city on Saturday, April 18 between noon and six, I hope you’ll come by the Holiday Inn Midtown, say hello, and check all the great stuff the fair has to offer. You can get a list of the exhibitors, readings and panels for the day at rainbowbookfair.org.