Yesterday I attended the 3rd annual Books by the Banks, an awesome book/author fair put on by the Public Libraries of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. It runs from 10 AM to 4 PM, with panel sessions beginning on the hour every hour, 3 panel sessions at a time. Guess how many I went to? :P I had a great time, met several wonderful authors and ran into a few people I know, and then went home and passed out for 3 hours because I was so exhausted, lol.

Here are the highlights:

The Author Pavilion, where people can purchase books from 80+ authors (not all of whom led panel sessions, many of whom were local) and get them signed.

Celebrities! Curious George, Clifford, the Cat in the Hat, and a random turtle I didn’t know all made appearances in the kid’s corner.

Sharon Draper is a Cincinnati local, former teacher at Walnut Hills, and author of Copper Sun, Tears of a Tiger, and the Ziggy and Sassy series for children. She did a great job tailoring her talk to this particular audience (adults and children as opposed to just one or the other) as well as interacting with and incorporating us. In return, she had some obviously loyal fans of all ages.

Garth Stein, author of the acclaimed and beloved Art of Racing in the Rain, which is narrated by a dog named Enzo. He began with an impassioned plea for Cincinnatians to pass Issue 7 (a levy for the public libraries) and then alternated between telling funny anecdotes and reading passages from the book. Overall a great talk and a really nice guy. Also, he had incredible blue/gray eyes. The two women sitting next to me might have been a little in love with him.

Jennifer Weiner, chick lit / women’s fiction author. Her books include Good in Bed, In Her Shoes, and most recently Best Friends Forever. I love that she writes about full-bodied women and isn’t afraid to tell her publicist that the models on her covers need to be digitally fattened with Photoshop, not made thinner. I also love how she is so comfortable with herself, telling Jew jokes and talking about her mom coming out of the closet at age 52. She was hysterical, and genuine, and totally won me over. I will be buying her books in the future. (I didn’t buy any there because they only had the newest book in hardcover, and I’m sorry, I’m way too broke to buy a $27 book right now.) But seriously? LOVE HER.

Ellen Schrieber is another Cincinnati local, and the author of the Vampire Kisses series. She actually wrote the first book back in 1998, before all this Twilight/True Blood/Vampire Diaries craze, so I give her credit for that. Also, she was very sweet, unique (as you can see), and did a great job fielding questions from her younger, somewhat fanatical audience.

Me + Garth Stein. Maybe because I was tired, but I felt super awkward going up to the author tables yesterday, so Garth and Jennifer were really the only people I approached. Jennifer left a little early so our conversation was brief, but Garth was pretty nice, chatting about how his career as a documentary film editor contributed to his storytelling sensibilities, taking this picture, etc.

My one regret is that I didn’t ask any questions (during the panel sessions or during these private conversations) about e-books. I felt like the whole how-is-technology-affecting-reading issue didn’t get addressed yesterday.

But whatevs. It was a fun day full of jokes and reading. Plus I got to imagine, “Oh, how will I answer that question when I’m sitting up on that stage?” ;P What more can you really ask for?

A recent conversation with my mom about why my friends don’t love me comment on my blog got me thinking about the various ways blog readers interact with the blogs/bloggers they love. Or don’t interact, in many cases.

Mostly I think people either don’t know what kinds of things make a difference, or else they are busy, lazy, and/or averse to putting themselves online. But really, supporting a blogger can be very quick, easy, and/or anonymous.

So, inspired by the post “If You Love a Writer,” I decided to create a short list of things that you can do to help a blogger you love.

• Read their blog! This is #1, and a big fat duh.
• Subscribe. For those of you who don’t know what that means, subscribing to a site’s content automatically sends anything new from that site to your feed reader. Your feed reader could be your browser (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, etc.) or a web-based service like Google Reader. Usually you can subscribe to a site by clicking the RSS icon that appears on its page, or by manually adding the site’s URL to your feed reading service. Not only does subscribing look good for those sites, it also creates a convenient one-stop shop for all your online reading.
• Visit the site. At least for posts you really like. Because RSS readers are great (lord knows I love mine) but advertisers are concerned with the number of unique page views/visits a site gets more than they are concerned with subscribers. Also, some bloggers get really obsessed with excited about their stats. I mean, I don’t. Of course not. I could care less. It’s not like I do naked cartwheels around the house when my stats go up. BUT. Some bloggers do.
• Comment. Real bloggers don’t just want to shout into the wind; we want a discussion! Even if you disagree with us. Although we’ll probably like you better if you agree. And send us brownies.
• Link to them. If you have a website too, there is no better way to increase your audience than to find other blogs and link back. Whether once in a post, or permanently in a sidebar. Also, you should comment on those blogs and let them know that you linked, because they might return the favor. The World Wide Web is one giant sea of love, my friends, so start swimming! Personally I’ve made some great friends that way. (You know who you are!)
• Facebook them, Tweet them, Stumble them, save them to Delicious. Whatever. Pick your favorite social bookmarking site and go wild! This usually results in increased/random traffic from people who would otherwise never hear of the blog. Some of them are bound to stick around.
• If the blog has ads, click on the ones that interest you. I’m not saying you need to generate false hits for them — in fact, it’s better not to since many ad networks check for suspicious/fraudulent clicks — but if that new car looks good, or that recipe sounds tasty, go check it out! Ideally marketing is meant to inform you about products and services that are a good fit for you. Seriously.

I think that’s it… Is there anything else y’all can think of?

In my opinion, all of these things are a relatively low commitment. For those who prefer to limit their online presence, reading, subscribing, visiting, and clicking ads can all be done anonymously. Personally, I do all of these things for the blogs I love (though not necessarily for every post, of course) because I know what it’s like to be on the other side of the screen. I guess that’s my motto: “Do unto other bloggers as you would have them do unto you.”

Believe it or not, this was not intended to be a pathetic attempt to generate more activity on my blog. But hey, if that’s how it works out, I certainly won’t complain!

(And if that isn’t how it works out, it’s fine. I’m used to how things are now. And as for my mom, well, I’m sure she’ll forgive y’all someday.)

Several nights these past two weeks, I’ve had nightmares about taking my laptop near water and ruining it. Fortunately in real/waking life, I am not so dumb. When we went to North Carolina a couple weeks ago for Andy’s cousin’s wedding, Gatsby (my MacBook) stayed safely inside the beach house.

Simone (my camera), however, was forced to take some risks.

The wedding was beautiful, and appropriately themed:

And, since the entire back half of our plane had come to North Carolina specifically to golf, we thought maybe we should set aside a couple hours to take advantage of what is apparently some of the best golfing in the country. We had to rent clubs, and I played in my glasses and flip flops, but whatevs. Totally worth it.

Last but not least, I present Andy’s family. Or like, 1/4 of it.

They clean up nice, don’t they?

- The secret’s out! Sophie is forced to tell someone about her identity as super-blogger Capital S.
- The L-bomb. Felix dropped it, and MJ doesn’t know how to deal. Can Dr. Storm help her out?
- When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Claudia looks for an escape from her strained relationship.

“Episode 31: Wanna get away?” — check it out!

Since it’s almost the weekend, I figured this might be a good time to drop a few links to awesome stories I’ve recently stumbled upon. Because, you know, you’ll actually have time to read them, and thus WILL.

I discovered Angi Becker Stevens through Eric‘s link to a contest at The Collagist, and I absolutely fell in love with her stories. She writes short fiction the way I want to write short fiction. Check it out for yourself:

• “Even If You Were Here” in The Collagist
• “My Girlfriend Leaves the Atmosphere” in SmokeLong Quarterly
• “Ghosts and Monsters” in Storyglossia

I plan to read more of her work (listed on her blog) but already I predict and hope for great things for her.

Speaking of great things, Sherman Alexie rocks! I feel like an idiot because he’s been around for a while and I never bothered to read him. Also because I keep mixing his name up with Salman Rushdie. Whoops!

Anyway, Sherman Alexie is a hilarious-but-literary writer, and I highly recommend his story story “War Dances” in the New Yorker. I plan to check out his book of the same name.

That’s it for now. More of my own writing coming soon (!!) in the form of a new episode of Twenty-Somewhere.