by I don’t know how I’m ever going to thank Violet Snow and her husband Sparrow. A few weeks ago Violet emailed me to suggest I come up to Phoenicia during the Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice to sell books. She then got okays from the organizers, accepted delivery of boxes of books, got a table and chair for me, picked a place to set up, met me at the bus with the boxes, table and chair, and then kept me company and was basically responsible for most of my sales. Sparrow, meanwhile, handed out postcards about my book on the days of the festival when I wasn’t there.
Violet is a journalist, and she’s working on several projects, but the one I explored the most is News of My Ancestors, which is based on her genealogy adventures. There are a lot of us who are quite rabid about genealogy (me included) but it takes tremendous skill to get someone’s attention away from their own hunt to read about yours, and to get people who think they’re not interested in the subject at all to give it a try.
Violet Snow sucks you in and makes you care, and she does it like that. In, like a sentence or two. Just go to News of My Ancestors and read one post. That’s all it will take and you will see what I mean.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you Violet and Sparrow. I had a wonderful time. You and Phoenicia and your neighbors are GREAT. I took this picture while we were walking to set up. I spent the day surrounded my mountains. I want to live here, at least part of the time. One of the people who bought books rode by on her bike on her way to swim in the river (sobbing with envy) and she bought books on her way back. I want that life.
