Suffolk, Virginia

By now, Everyone knows I attended a book festival in this city. Not only is the festival just about my favorite, but I love the city itself.

The Great Dismal Swamp lies just outside, and, I would suspect, some of the city lies on reclaimed swamp land. I’ve taken several tours of the swamp, which provided the basis for one of my favorite of my own books: Death in the Great Dismal.

The swamp was established as a wildlife preserve in 1974. It is a peat swamp and the estimate of the depth is 15 feet of peat. When walking through the swamp it is important to watch your footing; the tour guide dropped a pole down and it rapidly disappeared from sight. The preserve is owned by the wildlife. Signs of bears are everywhere. All the insects bite. Unusual birds flutter through the tall, straight pole pines. Truly an amazing place.

Suffolk is also a major producer of peanuts. A short drive around shows peanut farms and a drive through town brings one to the peanut factories. The peanut itself is a curious plant. The peanut is unusual because, although it flowers above ground, the seeds, I.e. peanuts, are below the ground. They have to be dried to release the moisture from the soil.

As is usual with some of the weird plants we eat for food, how were peanuts discovered? Did someone dig up the roots and find the peanuts growing beside the roots? Who figured out they need drying? That they can be roasted?

The Virginia peanut is large and very crunchy, larger than most, and so crunchy my jaw started to hurt. They are a legume, not a nut, despite the name. These groundnuts, originally only eaten by pigs, were studied extensively by George Washington Carver. He developed hundreds of uses for them but credit for making peanut butter lies with Dr. John Kellogg, he of cereal fame.

The Suffolk Author’s Festival

Instead of blogging about books, I thought I would talk about the Festival. I’ve gone many years running; this is one of my favorite festivals. The staff is great, I love the area, and I really enjoy meeting the readers.

I also always sell quite a few books.

This year I also served on a panel. Moderated by Christine Trent (author of Lady of Ashes and the Florence Nightingale mysteries), the panel discussed Balancing Fact and Fiction. Also on the panel were Ellen Butler, Nicole Glover, Stacie Murphy, and Katharine Schellman. Of the panel members, outside of Christine, I’ve read only Katharine Schellman. Expect reviews of the other authors’ books to come. I bought eight books while I was there.

Other old friends I connected with: Heather Weidner and John Dedakis, both of whom have new books out in their series. (For Heather, it is the Pearly Girls.) Some authors I met last year: Maggie King and Mike Marsh I met last year and got reacquainted with this year.

New authors for me: Esme Addison and Lee Clark. I expect to read books by these authors as well.

The headliner was Tonya Kappes who has written more books than I can count.

This festival is such fun I hope to attend again next year.

Albany Book Festival and More

Last Saturday I attended the Albany Book Festival at the Albany University Upper Campus. This is always one of my favorite events as it gives me a chance to talk to both other writers and of course many readers.

Jacqueline Boulden, Carol Pouliot, Chris Keefer, Amy Patricia Meade, Syr Lazlo, Catherine Bruns, Eleanor Kuhns – some of the Mavens of Mayhem.

My contest on Fresh Fiction has been extended through October. Follow this link: https://gleam.io/Jghrh/eleanor-kuhns-september to join and possibly win a copy of my new book, In the Shadow of the Bull, as well as A Simple Murder and a $10.00 Amazon gift card.

Very excited to announce I will be speaking at Newburgh Free Library next Wednesday, October 4 at 6:30. The event is free.

Albany book Festival

Instead of blogging about books I read this week, I wanted to let everyone know about the Albany Book Festival this Saturday. I have attended many times and will be attending again this year.

I feel warm to this event since last year it was the first in-person event I attended.

Besides the local author section, where I will be, the event has talks and a children’s section with games and more. It is FREE.

This will be held at Albany University’s upper campus: 1400 Washington Avenue.

There are many many authors covering all the genres, non-fiction and more.

I hope to see you there.