Live from Day 1 Calvin's Festival of Faith and Writing
Written by Coach Culbertson
Friday, 18 April 2008
Breaking News: Relief author Margot Starbuck Hausmann from issue 4 just got a book deal from InterVarsity Press for her memoir, The Girl in the Orange Dress: A Search for the Father Who Does Not Fail. All of us at Relief send our congratulations to Margot!
So, wow. We're here at Calvin's Festival of Faith and Writing, and, wow. It's 10:40pm here, 9:40pm back in Chicagoland, and dudes, I am totally cashed. Today was a fantastic day of meeting old friends face-to-face, and meeting a lot of new friends along the way.
Scott Cairns, Luci Shaw, D.S. Martin, Margot Starbuck Hausmann, Stacy Barton, Nathan Knapp, David Long, Christopher Fisher, and several other authors that we've corresponded with over email and published in our pages were stopping by to visit all throughout the day. It was fantastic meeting folks like Andy Meisenheimer, Paul Berry, Susan Cowger, and Kris Christensen for the first time in real live space. And it was awesome to see old friends like Lisa Beth Anderson, Lisa Cockerel, and a lot of others. Holy cow, we must've talked to a couple hundred people today. Oh yeah, I just about forgot to mention that the newest member of our Advisory Board, J. Mark Bertrand is here (like he'd be anywhere else, right?), and it's always fantastic to be able to hang out with Mark.
Poetry Editor Brad Fruhauff had this fantastic idea to build a physical MySpace/Facebook Friends wall, and we started filling it today with posters and t-shirts from old and new friends at the various organizations in the Exhibition Hall. Today we added collateral from Zondervan (thanks Andy for lending us your Fink promo shirt!), Rock and Sling , Image , The Other Journal , the International Bible Society (thanks for trading us shirts Paul!) As we talk more with our colleagues in the industry like Rock and Sling and The Other Journal and get to know them, we'll add more tomorrow!
Most of you know that Calvin is our first conference endeavor, and the response was fantastic. We unveiled the Relief Writers Database today, and they sold like crazy. Our Assistant Editor-Who's-Doing-Cool-Stuff gave a lot of demos of the new software, and authors love it! We raffled off some free stuff, gave out bookmarks donated by Think3 Studio , and sold quite a few copies of Relief and the Diner. I'm kind of wondering at this point if we brought enough books. Fiction Editor Alan Ackmann was incredible introducing Relief to a lot of folks who had never heard of us before today! Thanks also go out to Diner Editor Michelle Pendergrass for helping us to build a great booth where friends old and new can come and sit a spell while we visit.
It's been a long, great day. I know this post is a little rougher than what we usually put up here, but I wanted to get down a few thoughts before I crash. Hit the Read More link to see a few pictures from today, and I'll try to post more tomorrow.
Sounds like you guys are having a Great Time at Calvin!
Wanted to send you virtual greetings ... wishing I was there, too!
I watched the Database video. Everything organized to perfection.
You've made me quite greedy and covetous. I Want It!!!
J.N.K.
So, wow. We're here at Calvin's Festival of Faith and Writing, and, wow. It's 10:40pm here, 9:40pm back in Chicagoland, and dudes, I am totally cashed. Today was a fantastic day of meeting old friends face-to-face, and meeting a lot of new friends along the way.
