So, the Weinachtsmarkt in New Braunfels has been going on like a well-oiled machine for a good few years now: four days of serious Christmas shopping, at a wide variety of booths set up in the Civic Center  . . .  which, by the way, is a very, very nice venue as civic centers and conference facilities go. It’s all pale limestone and heavy wood beams on the inside, and for Christmas, lavishly decorated with hundreds of slender green Christmas trees decorated with white lights. On this last Saturday, it was crowded, crowded, crowded – especially at the end of the hallway where we set up shop, as that was where Santa Claus was. All during the day, we watched a procession of babies, small children and larger children, all dressed up in their best holiday outfits, trooping by to have their picture taken with Santa. In New Braunfels, this seems to be the venue for that particular holiday tradition. The Market is one of the premier local events, and publicized widely, so it wouldn’t be as if we would be sitting in a lonely corner, watching the occasional shopper wandering in, and trying to slip past without catching the desperate eye of the author.

 Having a book fair/author tables, for local authors – well, this is the very first year they offered this, and I leaped on the opportunity with considerable enthusiasm. For one, I’ve done a few talks about my books and local history in New Braunfels, and being that the Trilogy has a local setting, right there in that very place, and concerns many of the ancestors of people who currently live there! – how better suited could a venue be? There would be other authors, too – so that if we were left to ourselves during the whole time, at least there would be other writers to talk to. And the second reason; it’s a holiday craft and merchandise fair; people are coming with money intending to shop until they drop, looking for that perfect unique gift. An author at a holiday fair is not in competition with every other book in the place, as it is at a bookstore book event.  

The author tables were set up along both sides of a wide corridor, running from the parking lot/s out in back, to the main entrance in front, which practically guaranteed lots of traffic, even if were just from people looking for the ticket table, or the bathrooms. The tables were smallish, so the stacks of books that I had brought: the hardbound Trilogy, three leftover copies of Book 3 of the Trilogy, To Truckee’s Trail, Daughter of Texas, and a single example copy of Deep in the Heart filled it up rather nicely. During the morning, the table next to us was occupied by an energetic lady of certain years, selling the Assistance League of San Antonio cookbook – her table was covered with stacks of the cookbook, ten deep – and by early afternoon, she had pretty well emptied it, through dint of tirelessly pitching to all who passed by, glanced at the tables or even slowed down a little. In the afternoon, her place was taken by another indy author with a series of children’s books; like me, she had a bit of a local following, or at least recognition.

Most gratifyingly, I was recognized by a number of ladies who remembered me from the talk I gave in the spring to the Lindheimer Chapter of the DRT, and another handful who had read one or another of the books, and were just thrilled to bits to have a chance to buy the latest installation from me  . . .  although it was a bit awkward, explaining that one book was the prequel to the Trilogy and another was the sequel to the prequel, which began to sound an awful lot like Danny Kaye’s ‘chalice from the palace’ bit. Our stacks of books also diminished nicely: all the copies of the Complete Trilogy and  Daughter of  Texas sold out, plus two of the new edition of To Truckee’s Trail, and I passed out a lot of informational flyers about the books to readers who wanted them in Kindle or Nook editions. Still have to see the after-event bump-up in internet sales, though.

In two weeks, we’ll be at anothe community Christmas celebration and craft sale – at Goliad’s Christmas on the Square, which will be the official-official book launch for Deep in the Heart. We are just hoping that the weather will be pleasant, for this will be outdoors. The Author Corral will be next to the Chamber of Commerce building, should you be looking for us!