This weekend was the first Kerrytown Bookfest downtown, and Comrade Steven and I had a panel scheduled "How to Break into Publishing," a perennial favorite topic, on which we have discoursed at length and can do again at the drop of a hat. (Cue hat).
Unfortunately, this event suffered from first year kinks. When we got there, we found the program listed us as generic Science Fiction writers, and we got all of two people at the talk, one of whom just wanted autographs. On top of that, there were demonstrations going on at the back of the tent, and they asked us to keep it down.
Sigh. The guy who set it up was very nice and apologetic though, and we'll probably try again next year.
The festival itself looked to be loads of fun, and I was sorry not to have time to browse around. I did find two magnifacent research books: A Taste of History, 10,000 years of British Cuisine, which I will be using immediately to design meals for my Arthurians, and...and oh I love this: Beeton's Book of Household Management, originally published in 1861. It is a wealth of hard to find Victorian facts, such as the exact duties of all the servants, and their wages, menus for plain and formal dinners, tons of recipies, a section on medicine and another on legal formalities. The author quotes authorities such as Florence Nightingale and Dr. Johnson and extolls the virtues of a kind, economical yet liberal mistress. I'm having so much fun with this book.
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