Elora Writers' Festival 2015

The 2015 event happened over this past weekend and everything came together beautifully.  Although not as well attended as our last two festivals, it still felt like a rousing success to me.  Here's this year's poster, created in partnership with the local high school's media arts department:

They also did a wonderful job designing our brochure:

Our festival has a blog and here's a linkto follow for a description of the day:

http://elorawritersfestival.blogspot.ca/2015/05/festival-2015-great-stories-great.html

This was the fourth EWF I've been involved with (though for my first one I just showed up and looked pretty) and I must say by the time the day rolled around I was glad to see the end of it.  Don't get me wrong - I love the event and I love the sense of satisfaction of seeing a year's worth of hard work come together on a lovely afternoon in May.  Three years ago I initiated a Q&A session that has been well-received and from which I derive so much pleasure that it should probably not be allowed.
But this year it felt like a slog.  As I was loading the borrowed plants we used to brighten the venue from the local nursery (Little Tree - follow the link and patronize the hell out of them for their generosity)  into my van at the end of the event I was drained.  Physically and emotionally I was spent.

I still had a number of interviews to conduct for the local cable book show I host with fellow committee member and bookstore owner, Roxanne Beale once I got to the committee after party .   The interviews went well (I think) and the party was a wonderful opportunity to decompress with my fellow committee members and better get to know the authors and their guests.

As I drove home in the best smelling car in the world (loaded with live flowers and likely a hundred and one bees) I was exhausted.  It was a year's worth of execution all coming together and this time around it really felt like a year.  I don't know exactly why this one took so much out of me and I'll ponder the reason over the coming weeks.  All I know is that it's a worthwhile festival and it makes the spirit and soul of our community just a little bit richer each year.

Glutton for punishment that I am, I'm already thinking ahead to 2016.