Fall for the Book Festival
In September, I attended a few sessions of the Fall for the Book Festival in Fairfax, Virginia. I had heard about the event for the past few years and was extremely excited to finally be able to attend some of the sessions during the week-long event.
However, I now doubt whether I will attend again. The session I was able to attend was informative in both the subject matter and the publishing success. But I tried to attend more events than I succeeded in. With a schedule that had been printed earlier that morning, I dutifully entered Old Town Hall at a few minutes before the scheduled beginning of the session only to find out that the session’s time had been changed and the talk was just ending. With this having been the last session I could attend for the day, I left with a distaste of the festival.
Even so, the event that was successful (only because I had arrived at the location a half an hour early), included four Civil War authors who discussed the facet of the war and its focus on local history. Many of the authors discussed how they became interested in the subject matter as well as their research process.
Chuck Mauro focused his research on the portions of the Civil War that occurred in Fairfax City, allowing him to point out locals throughout his presentation. “When you’re writing about history, you’re really writing about what you would like to know,” Mauro said. “You’re satisfying your own curiosity.”
Ed Trexler studied local families and discussed the parade through Old Town Fairfax with President Jefferson Davis and 30,000 troops, which Trexler says was one of the largest Davis Parades.
Karla Vernon developed an interest in history through one of her children’s school projects. From that, she began studying the life of a particular character who sparked her interest. Dressed in Civil War attire, Vernon spoke of the timeline she was able to compile through various letters and other historical documents.
Don Hakenson, a local historical tour guide, grew up in Fairfax City. He remembered his third grade teacher reading stories each day about Virginian, and he looked forward to these times. He began to take mental notes of events in each story. “I did it for me. I did it for selfish reasons,” Hakenson said of why he wrote and self-published his books. “I sold every one of those books and it was the best decision I ever made. There are a lot of places where people lost their lives and that should not be forgotten.”
With a turnout of more than 20 people, this session was interesting and inspirational. I would have enjoyed attending more festival events. Maybe I will give them another try next year….