Indie Book Fest!

This past Thursday we headed off to Indie Bookfest! It’s a fun event for readers and writers and people in the publishing industry, and this is my second year doing it (you may remember me talking about last year’s event — I got food poisoning?) We were in the Caribe Royale hotel this year, and The Schechters took the extra precaution of bringing all our own food for the weekend. (Not even kidding here.)

Thursday night started with a Bar Hop at Disney Springs. Our group went to Raglan Road, which is a favorite of mine, and then on to three places I had not yet visited. Two of them, I’ll happily go back! The third… not so much.

Raglan Road is an Irish pub that was built originally in Ireland, and then relocated to Disney Springs. VERY noisy, very friendly, and very safe if you have food allergies — it’s one of the safest places to eat in Disney Springs if you’re gluten-free. We’ve eaten here often.

After Raglan Road came Jock’s Hanger Bar, which is Indiana Jones themed, and hilarious. And where they apparently no longer take artifacts as payment.

There’s a story there…

They also have this dish called the Temple of Bacon — chocolate covered hickory smoke bacon. Sadly, not gluten free, because the chocolate is cross-contaminated at the chocolatier (remember this…)

However, the presentation is amazing! (and dark. It’s dark in there.)After

After Jock’s Hanger Bar came Wine Bar George. They have one dessert on the menu that is supposed to be gluten free — The Chocolate Experience. It’s a wine and chocolate tasting.

Supposed to be….

Remember how I said that the Temple of Bacon wasn’t gluten free because of the chocolate? Cross-contamination?

The Chocolate Experience doesn’t say on the menu that they use THE SAME CHOCOLATE! The waiter announced it when he brought the wine (some twenty minutes after they brought me the chocolate…). And then he caught an attitude when I pointed out that their gluten free dessert wasn’t.

Needless to say? Not going back to Wine Bar George.

Our last stop was Enzo’s Hideaway, which is supposed to be a speakeasy, but reminded me of my grandmother’s basement in the Bronx. No, my grandmother didn’t have a speakeasy. She did, however, have a party room with a bar. Enzo’s is like that. We had a lovely bartender named Manuel, from Rome, and it MORE than made up for the horrible service at Wine Bar George. Although… two espressos at 9PM might have been a mistake. (I didn’t get to sleep until 1AM).

Friday was Industry Day, and hearing from representatives from Kobo and Draft2Digital, learning about the work that goes into writing and maintaining shared world series and seeing people I haven’t seen in ages. Not a lot of reader stuff, other than some sponsored parties.

Saturday was my busy day — two reader panels back to back, then an interview with the Hanging With Show. I’ll post the link to that when it goes live. I was interviewed by them at SF:SE in 2015, and we’ve both come a long way since then! (And, according to GW Pomichter, the host, I was apparently the inspiration for the show — he said it in the interview.) A quick lunch, then a meet and greet. Then it was set up time for the signing!

Three hours and a few books sold later (and one donated to the Titusville library system!), it was time to be off for the final event of the day – the Festival of Fandom! It was a costume party and a silly competition (trivia and silly party games, and J. greatly enjoyed his first grown-up party).

Sunday morning pack out, one last round of hugs and goodbyes, and then home and crash. Tired writer is tired!

Indie Bookfest is moving to the end of August in 2020, which means it’s not going to work into my schedule for next year. (sad trombone) I do enjoy it, so we’ll see in the future if we get back there.

Our next show is next month — Keiser SuperCon, here in Orlando. Then we’ll be heading out to Tampa for Necronomicon to end off the appearance year.  But for now? I’m going to bed! Gnite!