The Festival Marketplace is the heart of the event

Organizers of the 12th annual West Virginia Book Festival are seeking exhibitors and vendors to participate in the event, which is scheduled for Oct. 13 and 14 at the Charleston Civic Center. The festival, which attracted about 7,000 attendees in 2011, is presented annually by the Kanawha County Public Library, West Virginia Humanities Council, The Library Foundation of Kanawha County, The Charleston Gazette and the Charleston Daily Mail.

One major component of the event is the marketplace, where attendees shop for books and other merchandise at the booths of regional publishers, book sellers, sponsors, individual authors and other vendors with a literary mission.

“Individual authors are welcome to band together to rent a booth,” said Pam May, festival chairwoman. “Please keep in mind that we generally sell out in late July or early August, even though the deadline for contracts is Aug. 15.”

The festival offers something for all age groups. A variety of authors will participate in book signings, readings, workshops and panel discussions. Previous headliners include Nicholas Sparks, Lee Child, Diana Gabaldon and Jerry West, among others. Activities for children include special programs and a section of the marketplace filled with children’s activities. Admission to the festival is free.

A vendor packet is available for download at www.wvbookfestival.org. Visit the website or call 304-343-4646, ext. 246, for more information.

That may be, but fans of West Virginia’s two major-college athletic programs shouldn’t expect many details from the book. WVU is part of a couple of charts, but it and Marshall only get one mention apiece in the book’s text — and it’s an episode that will be instantly familiar to any fan of either school.

Clotfelter is talking about politicians getting involved in college football rivalries — specifically, encouraging schools within a state to play each other. He mentions that the Alabama House of Representatives passed a resolution in 1947 urging Alabama and Auburn to renew their football series after a 40-year hiatus — and the schools did so, the next year.

He also mentioned failed attempts by Kentucky legislators to force Louisville and Kentucky to play each other, and by North Carolina lawmakers to force North Carolina and North Carolina State to play much-smaller East Carolina (although despite the measures’ failure, all of those intra-state battles have since come to pass).

And then, of course, there’s this:

In 2005 the governor of West Virginia intervened in a similar standoff by urging the state’s two major public universities to schedule an annual football game. West Virginia University, a member of the Big East conference, probably making a similar little-to-be-gained calculation, had been reluctant to play the smaller and less prestigious Marshall University. In fact, it had played Marshall only once in the previous 82 years. For its part, Marshall wanted a scheduled game, but felt it would be demeaning for it to accept a “home and home” arrangement whereby all or most games would be played at West Virginia’s stadium. The governor eventually succeeded in brokering a compromise, saying, “It will be the best time you ever had in West Virginia – legally.”

Two things strike me.

One, Clotfelter (or his editor) doesn’t know what a “home and home” series is; by definition, it involves alternating games between each team’s location, so such an arrangement couldn’t involve “all or most games” at one stadium.

Two, he could have at least name-checked Joe Manchin. As we know, Manchin takes his college football very, very seriously.

I was reminded of one of those books this week: “To Say Nothing of the Dog,” a part-comedy, part-thriller about a couple of historians who fear they’ve changed Victorian history so badly that the Nazis will win World War II. But as it turns out, Willis inserted a relatively minor detail in her story that — if it ever happened — could be pretty devastating as well.

In “To Say Nothing of the Dog,” the characters are based in the year 2057, and cats — all cats — have been wiped out by disease. Sad? Undoubtedly. A disaster for humans? Not in the book. But it could be, if you believe the report from LiveScience.com this week. According to their speculation, the feline apocalypse would mean a significant increase in food eaten or destroyed by rodents:

A 1997 study in Great Britain found that the average house cat brought home more than 11 dead animals (including mice, birds, frogs and more) in the course of six months. That meant the 9 million cats of Britain were collectively killing close to 200 million wild specimens per year — not including all those they did not offer up to their owners. A study in New Zealand in 1979 found that, when cats were nearly eradicated from a small island, the local rat population quickly quadrupled.

And if the rodent population shot up, this would of course trigger a cascade of other ecological effects. On that same island in New Zealand, for instance, ecologists observed that, as rat numbers increased in the absence of cats, the population of seabirds whose eggs rats preyed upon declined. If the approximately 220 million domestic cats in the world all bit the dust, seabird populations would likely fall worldwide, while the populations of non-cat predators that prey on rats would be expected to increase.

Maybe that’s the next story in Willis’ time-travel series?

Eh, probably not.

Irene was part of a few West Virginia Book Festivals over the years. That includes the 2010 festival, where she was one of the featured presenters and, according to several people in the room, really gave a powerful performance.

Thanks to friend of the blog Vic Burkhammer, who shot video of the event, and posted it to YouTube, you can see part of the event for yourself.

Several of Irene McKinney’s poems are available online, including one with a sadly appropriate title: “Visiting My Gravesite: Talbott Churchyard, West Virginia”:

But if it weren’t for his ancestors in what would become West Virginia — and one ancestor in particular — would Zane Grey have ever set pen to paper?

Well … probably, yes, he still would have. But there’s no denying that Grey’s first novel, “Betty Zane,” was the story of his aunt and her family, the first permanent white settlers in Wheeling, Virginia (later West Virginia). The story goes that in 1782, during the American Revolution, Fort Henry in Wheeling was besieged by American Indians (with some British soldiers and Tory colonists). The fort’s defenders ran out of gunpowder, and Betty Zane dashed out of the fort back to the Zanes’ cabin, where she gathered up a bunch of gunpowder before running back into the fort.

Did it really happen that way? As the West Virginia Encyclopedia notes, “Some historians are skeptical of the historical accuracy of Betty Zane’s deed, but the legend persists.”

As for Betty Zane’s descendant, he was born Jan. 31, 1872, in Zanesville, Ohio. He tried a few careers, including baseball player and dentist, before he finished “Betty Zane” in 1903. He had to self-publish it, and it wasn’t until his most famous book, “Riders of the Purple Sage,” nearly a decade later that his name as a writer was made.

I’ve never been a big Western fan, but a couple of years ago, I read “Riders of the Purple Sage.” I  wouldn’t call it great literature. It’s got a lot of stilted dialogue and two-dimensional characters. (And if you’re a Mormon, be warned; they are absolutely the villains of the book. Wow, he hates Mormons.) But the story is more nuanced that I expected, and the description of the sometimes beautiful, sometimes bleak landscape of the West is stirring. It’s not hard to see why it’s a landmark in the genre.

As a child of the ’60s, and with an interest in the role West Virginia played in the 1960 election, I’ve always been fascinated with JFK and Jackie. And this detail-rich account is surprisingly satisfying. The writing reveals a mature, thoughtful King who obviously did a considerable amount of research to pull this off. At 800-plus pages it is a tome, but I found myself reading every spare minute for two weeks. Is it too long? Yes, but I didn’t want it to end.

I’m going to give Mr. King another chance. If you are looking for a good story that will see you through the cold winter nights, check it out. You won’t be disappointed.

At the 2005 West Virginia Book Festival, Jack Gantos talks with Ian Perry, 8; his sister, Shiloh, 7; and their mother, Tammy Perry. Gantos was named the 2012 Newbery Medal winner on Monday. Photo by Chris Dorst

The name of the latest Newbery Medal winner may be a familiar one to West Virginia Book Festival-goers.

Jack Gantos, one of the headliners from the 2005 Book Festival, won the annual children’s literature prize from the American Library Association. His winning novel, “Dead End in Norvelt,” is an “achingly funny romp through a dying New Deal town,” according to the ALA.

The protagonist is a boy named Jack Gantos — no surprise, since several of Gantos’ books rely heavily on his personal experience. He spent part of his childhood in the real Norvelt, a community planned by the New Deal-era federal government for laid-off coal miners in western Pennsylvania. (The town’s name comes from the last syllables of the name of the first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt.)

After he won the award, Gantos told The Associated Press on Monday where the idea for “Dead End in Norvelt” came from:

Gantos said he thought of “Dead End” after giving a eulogy for his aunt that looked back on Norvelt’s special past.

“I talked about the spirit of people helping people, and how people really banded together,” Gantos said during a telephone interview from his home in Boston. “And at the end of my eulogy, a lot of people came up to me and said they didn’t know about the history of Norvelt. I love history, and I love humor, so I thought history could use a little humor.”

I’m told by a reliable witness that, when he was at the Book Festival in 2005, Gantos was very funny, aiming his remarks at the children in the audience, but giving the adults enough to keep them interested as well. He talked about the importance of keeping a journal, and how that influenced his novels.

By that point in his career, he’d already been a National Book Award finalist for “Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key” and a Newbery Honor winner for “Joey Pigza Loses Control.”

Speaking of Newbery Honors (a runner-up citation), two of them were named this year: “Breaking Stalin’s Nose” by Eugene Yelchin, and “Inside Out & Back Again” by Thanhha Lai (the winner of the National Book Award for young people’s literature).

The ALA also announced the winner of the Caldecott Medal, given to a children’s illustrator each year. This year’s winner was Chris Raschka, illustrator of “A Ball for Daisy,” a wordless tale of what happens to a little dog when she loses her favorite toy. Several other awards were announced, so if you’re interested, check them out on the ALA website.

Also, several West Virginia humor writers — Karin Fuller, Terry McNemar, Rick Steelhammer and Diane Tarantini — gathered to talk about their work and about humor in the Mountain State.

In both cases, the videos are broken up into several parts on YouTube. Watch them now, or squirrel them away against the 10 long months until this year’s Book Festival.

Authors: Calvin Alexander Ramsey and Bettye Stroud

Illustrator: John Holyfield

Publisher: Candlewick Press

“Belle, The Last Mule at Gee’s Bend” is a timely picture book related to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights era and Black History Month (coming up in February).

In this depiction of true historical events, Alex, a boy of elementary school age, is bored.  He sits and waits on the porch of a rural store in Gee’s Bend, Alabama, as his mother shops. There is nothing to do except watch a mule graze in a garden across the road.

When Miz Pettway, a native “Bender,” joins him on the bench, she tells him the mule, Belle, is hers. She adds, Belle is a hero and allowed to eat anything she wants in the garden.  Alex asks how a mule can be a hero and Miz Pettway explains: Belle had the honor of being one of two mules chosen to pull the farm wagon holding the casket of Martin Luther King Jr. And the story unfolds.

As unlikely as it seems, this picture book about the Civil Rights Era and the efforts to organize voter’s registration in Gee’s Bend, Alabama, tells the painful truth in a soft heartfelt way without being morbid or dwelling on the civil wrongs of the era.

West Virginians will be pleased to note the illustrator, John Holyfield, is a native of Clarksburg.  In addition to producing fine art in his Virginia studio, he illustrates picture books about the black experience.

One of the books I went back and forth on was “Open Season,” the first book in a Vermont mystery/police procedural series by Archer Mayor. There are 20 books, featuring protagonist Joe Gunther. I think I became intrigued by the series a few years ago because someone compared it to K.C. Constantine’s Rocksburg series (which I love).

But I’ve had “Open Season” for a few years and haven’t cracked it, and so this past weekend, I put it in the library donation pile.

And then on Wednesday, I’m checking the Book Festival’s Twitter account (@WVBookFestival), and I see that we’ve been followed.

By Archer Mayor. Author of “Open Season.”

It’s hard to do a full-body double-take when you’re sitting down, but I think I pulled it off.

Anyway, I know a sign when I see one. “Open Season” has been pulled out of the pile, and I’ll be reading it. Soon. (And if you’d care to join me, Mayor says on his website that “Open Season” is being offered as a free e-book for a limited time.)