Mark R. Hunter's Blog, page 83

There Was a Trace of Stones

Many thanks to the Stone’s Trace Pioneer Festival for hosting Emily and me Saturday, right on the front porch of an historical building that’s in our latest book. Sales could have been better, but we got to wander around a little, and there was plenty to see—I’ll post a bunch of photos later on. They’re well organized, and the dedicated reenactors were fascinating.

Now on to Noble Art Gallery for one last Albion book signing this year on October 3rd, then a very busy day with the last two scheduled signings of the year on October 10th: the first at Joanna’s Dealicious Treats on Main Street in Kendallville, and the second at the Cupearer Café in downtown Auburn. More info to come, of course.

Turns out we’re just a small part of Stone’s Trace

While we’ll be at the Stone’s Trace Pioneer Festival all day tomorrow (Saturday), don’t forget the event goes on the whole weekend, and offers a lot of attractions. It runs from 10-5 Saturday and Sunday (at the junction of US 33 and SR 5, south of Ligonier), and I’m told we’ll be set up at the Stone’s Trace Tavern with our books. But there’s a lot more going on than a book signing:

Johnny Appleseed will be wandering around telling stories, and the Stone family itself will be at the Tavern (as represented by the Theater 33 drama group).

There’ll be a bagpiper, Punch and Judy puppet show, pioneer games, and face painting, and continuous entertainment onstage. It’s all for an admission of only $5, with kids 12 and under free.

The Stone’s Trace Regulators will be showing off their skills with muzzle loading rifles, knife and tomahawk throwing, and old time archery. Not to be outdone, soldiers at the Civil War encampment will have a military field hospital that hopefully won’t be needed—even though they’ll be firing off cannon over the weekend.

The Village Blacksmith Shop will do their thing with iron forging, and you can find blanket traders in the rendezvous reenactment camp.

Handmade pre-1870 era wares will be for sale at the pioneer craft booths, while food vendors fill your belly and whet your whistle. Believe me, whistles are almost worthless if they don’t get whet from time to time. I’m thinking that Indian fry bread sounds awfully good, not to mention the pork burgers.

Just park at the West Noble Schools across the highway, and catch a free shuttle ride to the festival—and don’t forget to stop by and say hi to Emily and me. We’ll be the ones who won’t look very authentic compared to the people who know what they’re doing. Learn more on the Stone’s Trace Historical Society website:

http://www.stonestrace.com/festival.html

Oh, and We Renewed Our Library Cards

We had a great time at the Kendallville Library last night, although I suspect my speech rambled a bit (and I may have talked too fast once or twice). Many thanks to Mindy Patterson and the rest of the library staff, and I’m grateful to those who came to hear about history and our writing—and everyone who came bought at least one book!

Now, across Noble County to the Stone’s Trace Pioneer Festival, where we’ll spend all day Saturday. It’s safe to say we’ll run into some history buffs there.

Don't forget tomorrow night!

Don’t forget, our appearance at the Kendallville Public Library tomorrow night isn’t just a book signing: We’ll give a short talk starting at 6:30 p.m., followed by a Q&A, and then a pop quiz. (Kidding, no pop quiz.) Sure, we’ll sign and sell books too, but when a person appears in front of a fireplace in the adult department of a library, they should dish out some information!

A fireplace, how cool is that? I mean, not literally.

So, please pass the word on to all your friends. If you don’t have friends, pass the word on to all your enemies. If you don’t have enemies, you really should get out more. We’d like to have so many people there that we could whip a crowd into a frenzy, maybe by having prizes taped under their seats or something. I could stand there like Oprah: “You get a toaster! You get a toaster! You all get a toaster!

But I don’t think I could sign a toaster. At least, not without some kind of metal engraving tool, and Emily won’t let me use power equipment.

Of course, everyone knows the Kendallville Library is at 221 S Park Avenue … if you have any questions for them, they’re at 260-343-2011. You already know where to find the authors.

Old Clothes and Corn Liquor

It occurs to me that the Stone’s Trace Pioneer Festival starts a week from today, which means Emily and I have until next Saturday to find outfits that make us look more or less like pioneers. On a limited budget, just like the actual pioneers. We have it covered, as long as we don’t have to wear hats, and if people don’t look too closely at our footwear.

I think it’s neat, the way they go to such lengths to give people a taste of what things were like a century and a half ago. It can’t be perfect, of course, especially in our case. This is the first time Stone’s Trace has hosted a book signing, but I don’t think they’ll ask me to use a quill pen, or only sell leather-bound books. On the other hand, I’m almost positive they won’t let me bring a jug of corn liquor, so it’ll all even out.


Hm … what did Hoosier pioneers drink? Paging Google …


It seems locally distilled whiskey was popular. I don’t drink much: A jigger of that stuff, and I’ll be signing my name “Mfcks Hinknickle”.


It’ll all work out. And preparing takes my mind off something much scarier: three days earlier, on September 9th, I have to give a talk at the Kendallville Public Library. Well, I don’t have to, but if somebody asks me to talk about my writing, I’m going to do it.


What happens after that is what they get for asking.


Now that I think on it, do you suppose people will show up hoping to witness a train wreck? Well, that’s fine—maybe they’ll feel so bad for me they’ll buy a book. But I’m actually not terrible at public speaking, as long as I have something of a script to go by. I’m a writer—so I write what I’m going to say, and it should work out fine. Guess I should get started on that.
We’ll be fine as long as I stay away from the moonshine.

Location, Location, Location …

Sales Specialist Sarah at Arcadia Publishing updated me on which local retailers are carrying Images of America: Albion and Noble County:

Albion Village Foods, 605 S. Orange Street in Albion

Black Pine Animal Sanctuary, 1426 W 300 N (west of Albion)

Doc’s Hardware, 122 N Orange Street on Albion’s courthouse square

The Noble County Historical Society, which operates the Old Jail Museum just west of the courthouse square



While my two book signings next week are onetime events, you can pick up a copy of Albion and Noble County at those locations during any normal business hours. Not after normal business hours.

The Old Jail Museum has limited hours, but I’m told the Historical Society will be selling the book at the Albion Harvest Fest, September 19-20 at the Saddle Club. Meanwhile, we’re hoping to get it into more retail establishments across Noble County, and it can be found at the usual online places and at least one Fort Wayne Barnes & Noble.


Remember, when you don’t buy history books, time travelers get stranded with their great grand-mothers-in-law. Don’t strand time travelers.

Buy a Book, Save a Pigeon

Two book signings next week—see you there!

http://www.kpcnews.com/community/kend...

If you can’t make it that’s fine, but remember: Every time you don’t buy one of my books, Donald Trump’s hair strangles a pigeon. Think of the pigeons.

Upcoming Book Signings (and Q&A)

I realize Hoosiers don’t pay as much attention to book signing season as they do to high school football (and who blames them? Signings don’t have cheerleaders.) Still, I’ve got some upcoming dates to let you know about:


Sept. 9, 6:30 p.m. (Wed): Emily and I will be at the Kendallville Public Library, which happens to be in Kendallville, at 221 S. Park Avenue.

I’ll give a short talk about history, and writing, and stuff. Afterward, if you want more sensible conversation, Emily will also be available to answer questions. I’m talking professional questions, not “what did you ever see in him?” questions.

There will be books. Well, obviously there’ll be books—we’ll be in a library. But we’ll have copies of all of our books, too, not to mention you’re welcome to bring books you already have for us to sign. I mean, books we wrote.
The KPL event calendar is here: https://in.evanced.info/kendallville/...


Sept. 12, 9 a.m.—5 p.m. (Sat): We’ll make the trip to just south of Ligonier for the annual Stone’s Trace Pioneer Festival, which does indeed take place … well, you know. Stone’s Trace is rich in history and is mentioned more than once in our newest book, Images of America: Albion and Noble County. Located near the junction of US 33 and Indiana SR 5, the Pioneer Festival goes on all weekend.

We’ll be there all day Saturday—initial information was 1-5 p.m., but that was my fault for thinking too small. I understand that on Sunday, September 13th, Margaret Hobson will be there with her books, The Iron Men of Indiana 44th Regiment.

Now, we’ll have all of our books available there, but the non-historical ones will be low profile, as the Pioneer Festival concentrates on immersing visitors in the historical experience. This is also a good chance to pick up a copy of Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights: A Century or So with the Albion Fire Department.

Learn all about the Stone’s Trace Historical Society here: http://www.stonestrace.com/


October 10th, 10 a.m.—2 p.m. (Sat): Six authors will gather for two book signings: The first starts at 10 a.m. at Joanna’s Dealicious Treats, 201 S. Main Street in Kendallville.

(They have great cookies … but never mind that, I’m anxious to try the moosetracks ice cream.)

Really, can you get a better place than a book store/coffee shop/restaurant? I think not. And they’ve got those cool rolling ladders to use when searching for books, so it’s worth stopping in to see your local authors … even if we talk with our mouths full.

More info on the other authors later (one is Emily and another is my fellow Kendallville Mall writer, Rita Robbins), but for now here’s the Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/dealicioustr...


October 10th, 3 p.m.—7 p.m.: Emily and I haven’t confirmed for this one yet due to scheduling stuff, but as of this writing the other authors plan to head from Joanna’s over to the Cupbearer Café, at 138 E. 7th Street in Auburn.
Imagine how caffeinated everyone will be by the end of that day! More importantly, the Cupbearer also is an ice cream parlor, so maybe I’ll take that night off work and loosen my belt.

We haven’t visited yet ourselves, but from the photos the place looks inviting and comfortable. Their website is here:
http://www.cupbearercafe.com/


More info to come … and more signings? Remember, if you pick up one of our books elsewhere, you can drop by any time to have it signed. Whether it adds or subtracts from the book’s value is the chance you take.

Our New Website Is History

As part of the book release for Images of America: Albion and Noble County, we’ve decided to include some extras—bonus materials, especially for people who like history and/or local people. I mean for local people, not for people who like local people. This is going to be a separate website from www.markrhunter.com, although each has a link to the other. This is because the regular website can be a little challenging to update, and the male half of this writing team is a notorious Luddite.

There were three things we wanted to bring you:

More photos: historical ones that wouldn’t fit or that weren’t quite good enough quality, and modern pictures of historic localities. There are places with historical significance that aren’t represented in the book, and we hope to fix that. Also, you might see photos here of events at historical locations.

More information about historical places mentioned in the book. It’s so photo heavy, and the only place to write was chapter openings and captions—and you all know how wordy Mark can be.

Additions and corrections pointed out by readers. For instance, we’ve already learned more about one photo in the book, information that didn’t come until after it went to press.

So we now have a website called, to avoid confusion, Images of America: Albion and Noble County. It can be found here:

http://markrichardhunter.wix.com/albi...
We’ve already put up a few photos, with more to come. Word will go out via blog whenever there’s an update—let us know what you think.

First time at Barnes and Noble

Our first time at Barnes and Noble:

http://markrhunter.blogspot.com/2015/...