Well, here I am off to another late start in posting to the Postern Gate. No great surprise, right? Though I hope to get better each time, I haven't been able to set aside the time to write as regularly as I'd like. But this time I have a 'sort of' excuse: we were out of town.
We were invited to the Virginia Festival of the Book to be on a panel discussing "Successful Self-Publishing" last Saturday, March 29th. "He" and our son Ian had been to the annual event once before, but "She" never had. We were both impressed with the site (Omni Hotel Charlottesville), the wide array of subjects covered and activities planned, the quality of the people involved, and the way the staff and visitors managed the five-day event. Kudos to all!
Our friend of many years, Bob Friedman of Hampton Roads Publishing, is and for a decade or more has been a supporter of the festival, and he first broached the subject of our appearing on a panel at this year's festival. We agreed that we would be interested and subsequently received a more formal invitation and readily accepted. After several emails to iron out the details, it was a done deal.
Charlottesville, Virginia is a charming city, home to the University of Virginia and former home to one of "His" ancestors, who owned land in what is today the heart of the old city. It is also about three-and-a-half-hours' drive from our headquarters, an easy drive (considering that we have been to Florida twice already this year).
"She" is also a member of a group called James River Writers, which meets monthly in Richmond. Its March assembling was to be last Thursday evening, so we decided to leave home Thursday afternoon and attend the writers' group on our way to Charlottesville. Thinking we would arrive in time to mingle with the other writers before the program, we were soon disabused of that notion when we found ourselves part of a six-and-three-quarter-mile backup at the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel. However, the evening's program had just started when we got there. So, no mingling.
After the meeting we were too tired to continue the trip and so stayed overnight in a multi-story hotel on the north side of Richmond. We had been asleep for several hours when, along about 2:00 a.m., we heard a loud, sharp sound, like something breaking suddenly, or something hard hitting a window. That was all, until a few minutes later the lights started flashing and a siren sounded repeatedly. A male voice began announcing that there was an emergency, and ordering everyone to go immediately to the main entrance to the building, not to use the elevators but to take the stairs down to the first floor. Boy, that will clear your sleepy head in short order.
We got dressed and filed out into the third floor hall with the other hotel guests and descended the stairs in a rather lighthearted mood. No one smelled any smoke or seemed nervous. The hotel was evacuated completely in minutes. A fire truck pulled up in front with lights flashing, and a ladder truck appeared at the rear of the hotel, but still there was no outward sign that there was difficulty with the structure. So, after a short while we all re-entered the lobby and most made their ways back to their rooms. Maybe twenty had to visit the front desk to obtain keys, having left theirs behind in their haste.
We still don't know what caused the commotion. "He" asked at the desk when checking out the next morning and received some folderol about "someone smoking in the hall", but then, what was the loud noise we heard?
How did it get so late?! Guess I'll have to continue this another day. Maybe tomorrow. We'll see. CDHB
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