Mud. When I look back at this Faerieworlds experience, the first thing I will undoubtedly always think of is mud. For this event, I shared space with Shannon L Reagan, a puppet crafter, writer, fellow Olympian, and friend. We also shared with two other people across a 10×30 space, of which about 7×10 was for Shannon’s and my use. This was the space when we got there:
And this is how we set up.
The rain stopped overnight on Thursday, allowing us to set up with things outside the canopy on Friday. And then the rain began again and only gave us brief bits of respite through Sunday. The part you can’t see is the top of the small hill I stood on to take this picture. The path between our side and the other side of this vendor alley was intended for cars and therefore only packed earth with rocks for traction.
The mud got bad on Saturday and positively treacherous on Sunday. As a point of note, not a single book was lost to the elements, which can be attributed to my foresight in bringing 1 gallon Ziploc bags to put them inside of while we figured out how to rearrange everything so it all sat under the canopy. From that point on, it was far too cold and miserable to get pictures of the space, not to mention dicey with the level of charge on my phone.
I sold a good number of books, enough that I’m considering going back next year. No promises, and I still have to think about whether it’s truly worthwhile or not with the weather and the fact that I detest camping. My poor little Ragbrai backpacking tent was not up to this challenge and will need to be replaced with something bigger and warmer and more waterproof should I elect to go again next year. (At least I didn’t have to store my books in it, or I’d have a handful of soggy books.)
Cosplay pics!
