Yep, I spent another Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday marketing my new book “The First Advent” along with my other five titles. Kathie and I attended the last county fair of the Minnesota summer in the little town of Madison which resides in the county of Lac qui Parle.

I’ve always thought that was an unusual name for a county and assumed it was derived from the native American language but low and behold Google tells me they are French words which mean “lake which speaks”. I think the English interpretation would have been much simpler to use as far as spelling goes but I do have to admit the French words add a little mystery and intrigue.

I just feel a little bit sorry for those little second and third grade 4-H children that have to spell the name of the county on their 4-H records time after time. Not to mention the poor parents that are charged with teaching their offspring the correct spelling of those three French words.  🙂

The Lac qui Parle County Fair has been nicknamed the “Little Minnesota State Fair”. It occurs after the Minnesota State Fair is completed. This allows the county to attract a better midway and entertainment since there are no other county fairs to compete with. For years it has been rated one of the best fairs in the state.

So I thought why not rent a booth in their industrial building and see if I can sell a few books.

This was the fourth fair of the summer that I had to set up my tiny book store and reading chair in a ten foot space. My table was again adorned in a yellow table cloth with my six book titles arranged in six neat rows across the table’s surface. Of course there was always a dish of cellophaned wrapped mints in the middle of the table.

If I was a deer hunter they would accuse me of baiting and I would be fined for tempting the fair goers with sweets! I really don’t think the candy helps to sell books but it sure is fun watching the kids eye the candy and then make their move to grab a piece.

Every fair or craft fair experience is different because the neighboring booths differ with the merchandise being sold as well as the personalities tending the booths. This weekend I was surrounded by booths that catered to woman’s clothing and accessories.

The most disturbing booth was the ladies apparel booth across the aisle from me. They didn’t have a changing room so when a lady wanted to try on a piece of clothing and needed to remove her shirt she semi ducked behind a rack of clothing removed her top and tried on the new item.

When that happened I tried not to stare or even look in that direction. Still I did view more sports bras then I cared to over the four day fair experience! 🙁

The booth next to the “missing changing room” booth helped keep me on the straight and narrow as it was manned by the local Baptist Church. If they caught me ogling at the neighboring booth too much they might call the wrath of God down upon me! And since I needed all the help I could get selling books I needed God in my corner. 🙂

The Baptist booth did remind me of an experience I had with a women who ran the library at the Baptist Church in Fargo several years ago. I was at a book signing for my first book “Nature’s Christmas Story” at a Christian book store in Fargo.

The book store door flew open and in burst this blustering Baptist librarian. She spies my book signing table immediately and charges over. The first words out of her mouth were, “Let’s see what errors about Christmas this book contains!”

Now “Nature’s Christmas Story” is a sweet story about tundra animals in Alaska that hear about the birth of Baby Jesus. They decide to give Jesus a birthday gift but after much discussion no one can decide on a gift. So they proceed to visit Arc-y the angel who lives in the north country and watches over the animals. Now my artist depicted Arc-y as a beautiful female angel. That will later prove to be a problem.

Arc-y suggests since Baby Jesus has given Himself to the world why don’t each of the animals give themselves as a gift to Baby Jesus. What an excellent idea the animals thought and as they brought the message of their gift to the Christ Child in Bethlehem something very startling happens to them. They turn white to symbolize the perfect gift they have given.

Now the arrogant librarian didn’t ask me what the story line was or anything about the book. She began paging through the book and wouldn’t you know she turned right to the page where Arc-y the angel was speaking to the animals. Triumphantly she said, “Ahaa, there is no such thing as  female angels!” And off she strode all puffed up because she had destroyed another inaccurately written children’s Christmas story.

I would have liked to have asked her to quote me the scripture where that fact was stated. I’m not a Bible scholar but since all the named angels in the Bible have men’s names some assume they are only men. But in truth they are not men they are angels. My personal opinion is an angel can appear in a variety of human roles: man, women or even a small child. They appear as whatever the occasion requires.

So when the wife of the Baptist pastor came over to examine my books this weekend I cringed in my chair as she paged through “Nature’s Christmas Story”. When she saw Arc-y she remained perfectly calm and completed paging through the book. There was no triumphant outburst. All I can say is God bless, the Madison Baptist Church. They turned out to be wonderful neighbors throughout the fair and my faith in the Baptist Church responding as true Christians has been restored. 🙂

On Sunday there appeared to be an attempted holdup of sorts. A man from a neighboring booth asked me to watch his booth for a couple minutes while he ran an errand. As I stepped over to his booth to visit with a lady studying his booth I heard a commotion behind me. I turned an there was a man walking off with two of my First Advent books.

Now the man appeared to have special needs because he was not able to speak words but just made a series of grunts. So I explained to him that the books were not free but needed to be paid for. He responded with grunts that I could not understand and then he pulled out a billfold which he showed me.

“You want to pay for them?” I asked. He grunted in reply so I said the books cost $10 apiece. I was so flustered by then that I’d forgotten the books really did cost $14 apiece.

He pulled out a twenty dollar bill and I autographed the books and off he went. I spent the rest of the afternoon expecting his parents to come, return the books and demand their money back.

I was shorted $8 but if he enjoys the books or if he gives the books to others and they are changed for the good, heck it was all worth it. 🙂

I didn’t set the world on fire with book sales but I did come out in the black and that’s the main thing.

Watching all those ladies try on clothes and then watch them stand in front of a mirror and observe how the garment fit on all sides gave me an idea. I think I might add a clothes line to my little book store. I’ll sell t-shirts for men with macho slogans on the front and back.

They won’t need a mirror. All they’ll need to know if it’s large, XX or XXX and maybe be a little fussy about the color. No changing room required for them either since they know the size they know it will fit! That’s the way we men are. 🙂

Until next time.