There were seven us, all authors, on a Dickens of a   night. We were invited by our local independent bookstore, noteBooks, to sign books as part of the  evening festivities, which included late night shopping, Christmas caroling, musical acts, and visits with Santa. I wore my leather Victorian lace-up granny boots, a long black skirt, white blouse with a gold laced vest, and a fur trimmed hat shaped like Santa’s. The funny part was that I wasn’t in costume because those are my real clothes.

Next to me at the author’s table, Pat Woodruff had on a long black hoop skirt, a lacey top, and black Victorian heeled boots. She had the newest book, Strange Tales of Floyd County, and did the most actual signing. The rest of us bantered back and forth, greeted guests, and drank tea or coffee out of mugs that David St. Lawrence had given us with the name of his book on the front, Danger Quicksand: Have a Good Time.

But mostly we spent our time being entertained by Lee Chichester’s live falcon, CJ. Lee, author of Falcons and Foxes in the U.K: The Making of a Hunter, also has hawk. I had thought her falcon was named “Seajay” because it squawked like sea gull, but Lee told me CJ was short for Crow Jo, a variation of Mo Jo, which had been the name his original owners had given him. Back then he hunted ducks, now he hunts crows. CJ had his eye on the decorative sequined fruit in a bowl between David and me, and in particular the red apple, because it looks like blood, Lee told us.

Our books ranged from a children’s storybook to a book about death (mine). One of the signers was a child who had published a coloring book. Fred First of Slow Road Home fame was there, glossy eyed from having just attended another book event the day before, which he blogged about HERE.

After an hour of bookish book sitting I had a strong urge to play hooky. “I’m going out to not smoke a cigarette,” I told the bookstore owner as I headed for the front door. Outside it was unseasonably warm with just the right amount of chill in the air, and a few Dickens-like characters floating around. It wasn’t long before I found Santa sitting on a bench in front of the courthouse. It might have been the first time I had seen a completely available Santa, as though he was there just for me to fulfill a childhood fantasy. David, who was also playing hooky, snapped a photo of us. “Have you been good?” Santa asked. Of course, I denied any wrongdoing, but wasn’t able to elaborate because some children had come by and were waiting for their turn with Santa.

The new Village Green building sparkled with white lights. People were mulling about. I was out in front of Doug Thompson’s Blue Ridge Muse, taking a photo of the lit up window, when Doug and his wife Amy invited me in. Amy showed me the Christmas mugs she had purchased for the occasion from Angels in the Attic, our town’s popular thrift shop. Doug was busy talking to shoppers, but later that night he visited the book signers at noteBooks and took some close-up shots of CJ, which are likely to turn up in next week’s Floyd Press.

Angels in the Attic was my next stop. I was drawn in by Christmas red in the window. While trying not to buy a little girls Santa dress for the granddaughter I don’t have (yet), I caught some impromptu Christmas caroling. If Santa wasn’t enough to get me in the holiday spirit, this was. Dr. Sue Osborne and her son Mars were joined by singer Kari Kovik. Judy Weinzenfeld accompanied them on violin as the woman behind the check-out counter in bright red prairie hats hummed along.

See the video recording of the Angels in the Attic caroling session HERE.

~ Colleen Redman is a writer from Floyd who blogs daily at looseleafnotes.com. Her writer’s bio can be found HERE.