Meet the Author, July 4 2018

I had some friends who asked me how my Meet the Author / Book Signing went. Fine, I said. I sat up on the balcony of the Imaginary Books, and played my banjo, while a cool drizzly rain came through Cloudcroft, and basically I tried to figure out how I could spend the rest of my life on such a balcony, it was so nice.

That doesn't tell you how my sales went, or whether I am becoming a famous author, or even whether anyone in the Cloudcroft area is reading my books. A couple people are, maybe. I came home with ten bucks, and it all came from a friend of mine, who requested that the extra three (my books are worth seven) be spent on animals; no problem, it already has. maybe this friend will read that book. maybe some people read the posters or at least became aware that i am here, peddling my books, trying to establish an identity as an author. but most people clearly went about their lives as they already had intended, and didn't even look up.

I talked to Ed for a while, and probably should have warned him, that because I write as a way of processing events and developing opinions about them, he would probably appear in my writing eventually. He too is a writer, and a former teacher, and now seems to be selling a few books. He told about how he was in the Pine Stump Mall, over by Dave's, but lucked out when fire swept the place about six or seven years ago, and moved over to the Burro Street Exchange when he could. He said that the businesses downtown have expanded to take up more space; that, in terms of businesses alone, Cloudcroft has grown. But, unlike Ruidoso, which has simply expanded into the nearby hills, Cloudcroft is penned in by national forest, and not expanding anywhere, so it's still the same size, in terms of houses, that it's always been. I said this is certainly true from my point of view, and in fact I have heard of people struggling to find places to rent; there just aren't any.

A cool drizzle came through as apparently now it's the monsoon season. I played the banjo and a few people raised their eyebrows; some even posed me with a bear statue that they had taken from their mom's cabin. Tourists were all over the place, some asking when they'd rope off the street and start the music (this had apparently already happened, the weekend before). Flags were everywhere; people even wore them; Ed even wore one, basically. I didn't hear a bad word. As I've said, I wouldn't mind spending the rest of summer, even the rest of life, up on a balcony like that.