2026 Local Author Expo recap
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My table Saturday, with a cameo by the top of my son George’s head
The Greenville Library’s annual Local Author Expo took place this past Saturday. This was my first expo in a few years, and I was grateful to participate again.
The Library hosted us at the Hughes Main Library downtown. They did a good job of including a wide variety of work, including fantasy, mystery, children’s fiction, picture books, poetry, and non-fiction. Nearby were my friends Dana Caldwell, whose The Twelve Kingdoms, the first volume of an epic fantasy trilogy, my daughter is currently eating up, and Paul Michael Garrison, author of a pair of crime mysteries: Letters to the Editor and The Lies People Publish. I enjoyed catching up (and commiserating) with them.
The doors opened at 10:00 and once foot traffic picked up around 10:30 or 10:45 it stayed pretty busy, with plenty of people coming and going. I was surprised and pleased to meet a Substack follower who dropped by my table with his twin daughters. We talked about my books and the intertwined joys and travails of twin fatherhood, which was fun and gratifying. I also got to meet many strangers with a huge variety of backgrounds and interests—a retired cop who bought The Snipers and Dark Full of Enemies, a former Civil War reenactor whose second love is the Vikings, leader her to buy No Snakes in Iceland—and the friendliness of the crowd was as much of an encouragement as the sales I made.
Seeing and talking to readers in the flesh is also a good reminder that we’re made to enjoy each other’s company in real life. I spoke to a number of people who, to judge by the slogans on their shirts or the things they said, have opposed or simply quite different worldviews and opinions from me, but talking over a table of books was an opportunity to enjoy real community, united by courtesy and a shared love of stories. I’d certainly like more of that and less of the online hubbub. It’s a place to start, at least.
A great event, and I’d like to thank my three eldest, who helped me out at my table all three hours. They were not only a big help to me—putting cards and bookmarks inside each book sold, engaging the folks who stopped by with questions, and, in Sophie’s case, even stumping for her favorites of my stories—but it was fun to see them enjoy themselves at the tables of other authors.
They were especially taken with Emily Golus’s World of Vindor series and Sarah Dean’s Midnight Post and the Postbox Clock. I wasn’t able to stop by their tables during the expo, but the kids loved visiting with them. My parents also attended and my mom picked up a couple picture books for our younger kids: Finicky Frances, by Krista Leann, a book about picky eaters (a subject my mom knows all too well) and Adelina Aviator, by Jessica Vana (with nice illustrations by former Disney designer Adam Dix), about a girl who becomes a missionary pilot. Give all of their books a look.
This was a great event and I look forward to participating again—I hope with another book available! I spent much of my spring break last week starting a harsh final read-through of my manuscript for The Wanderer. Stay tuned for more, and I hope to see y’all there next year.
