For the past three years, Al and I have had a trade show booth at Agribition, sharing information about and selling our Prairie books. Come take a walk with me and see what I saw earlier this week at...
Arriving Sunday evening to set up - the sun was setting on a parking lot that had only a touch of snow that was melting.
We're ready to welcome customers and random passersby to our booth (#141 in the Agribition Building).
Apples seemed to be the fruit of choice for the show this year. They were being sold at one booth (with samples available for everyone) . Other apples were being given away at another booth just around the corner from the first one.
Yummy either way!
I was intrigued by this bull that was just hanging around as I walked to another area of the show. After I took this picture, the man in the photo informed me that this was the bull that Heath Ledger rode in the movie Brokeback Mountain. I seriously considered climbing up on that air-filled platform to touch the place where Heath Ledger's back side had been. Sigh. I decided against it, valuing my front teeth more than the chance to touch great(behinded)ness. Curse you, klutzy body!
Around the corner from the fake bull was this real live animal - a horse named.....
Get it? Winn Dixie - the U.S. store?
Pretty punny.
And this was the reason for my early-morning travels to another area of the show - an interview with CKRM Radio's Colin Lundquist (on the right & below with me).
As an aside, I worked at CKRM in 1978, writing radio commercials for a year or so. (How many ways can you advertise a tractor? Turns out there are many.)
Thanks, Colin, for the great interview. Deja vu all over again.
You have to have saddles at Agribition.
And cowboy hats.
And huge belt buckles. (This one's attached to a winning bull-rider.)
Cool, huh?
And now to the business at hand.
Here, Al is chatting with some customers about our books.
A young lady is checking out Dave Driver's book SuperMom and the Big Baby.
This Aussie who now lives in Alberta bought some books and wondered aloud if it was politically correct for him to own The Little Coat, written by Alan Buick, a Kiwi. After much consideration and some guffawing, he decided it would be okay and assured us that he would likely enjoy this bestselling true Christmas story as much as others have.
Here I am (on the left) with seven-(no, wait!)eight-time-cancer-survivor Dionne Warner (the 'bald chick' in the centre) and Eleanor Sinclair (on the right). Dionne came by to sign Never Leave Your Wingman books and laugh with us for a few hours. Eleanor stopped by for a few minutes to sign some of her fast-selling book Our Lamps Were Heavy before checking out the rest of Agribition. I am holding a copy of my newest book The Sailor and the Christmas Trees. It's a Christmas story (did the title give you a hint?) about an event that actually happened during the Second World War. I wrote the book for children ages 7 and up, but it's being enjoyed by adults and seniors as well.
By the time we left Agribition on Wednesday night, the melting snow had turned to ice and was covered with fresh snow... which continued to come down for the next day, making travel all over the province quite treacherous.
Still, these are hearty Prairie people, so we're sure they'll shovel out or wait for a bit for the snowplows and gravel trucks to make the roads safe again. Then they'll come take in the last two days of Agribition.
If you're planning to attend Agribition on Friday or Saturday, November 23 and 24, be sure to stop by our booth (#141) in the Agribition Building. We'd love to see ya.
Drive safe, everyone! And Yee Haw!
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