Jessica Stephenson who owns and operates the book store, lit. on fire used books in the Sunbeam Building is starting a new monthly author/writer series at her store and it’s called, Get LIt. W/... And filling in that ellipsis for the first month is none other than Yours Fooly! Jessica asked me to be the first speaker at the inaugural Get Lit. open mic party and I accepted! And so...let’s go Get Lit!
Here we are at the Sunbeam Building where lit. on fire is located. They’re in the back of the building...
Right over here! And check out the flyer on the front door! I have to admit that I’ve already got a flock of butterflies flying around in my stomach thinking about giving my talk tonight. Let’s go inside and take a look around.
Wow! The last time we were in here the shelves were about half-stocked, but now the place is filled up to the brim! If you’re looking for some cool used books, this is definitely the place!
Here’s the owner of lit. on fire, Jessica at her desk. Jessica asked me to bring come copies of my two books, 99 Beers Off The Wall and The Boy Who Would Be A Firetruck, so she could stock them in the local authors section. Very cool!
Look, ma, I’ve got my very own section at lit. on fire! I love it and thanks to Jessica for stocking the books!
This is another local author, John Phillips, who’s book, “Comfortably Nowhere,” is also in the local author’s section and you should check that out for sure...but buy mine first!
Here’s a trio of familiar faces, it’s three out of the four chicken wing judges, Brennen, De and John! Always great to see them!
Outside of the store, people are starting to arrive, which is helping to quash mine and Jessica’s, “will anyone show up?” pre-party jitters!
I went over to say to these four and seconds after I took the first shot, there was a little gravity problem there on the end! But don’t worry, no one was harmed in the making of this MBIP photo!
MBIP pal and frequent luncheon guest star, Steve Tarter showed up!
Here’s Chris who we know from the Peoria Historical Society. Chris is still bemoaning the fact that he didn’t get any pizza at our pizza party we had there a while back, but I promised him the next time I stopped by, he would indeed get some pizza pie!
There’s Steve and Kathy, who we last saw at our Saturday night out at One World Cafe!
Here’s Michelle and Todd in the crowd! We haven’t seen them since Todd’s party at the beginning of summer and I was really happy that they showed up!
Suddenly...snacks!
Musician Caron Easley is the host/M.C. for the evening and here she is pre-show with Jessica. Caron’s a really talented musician and you can check out her music by clicking right here!
And here we go! Caron is talking to the crowd and the open mic portion of the evening is about to begin!
And they're off Folks in the crowd took turns taking the mic for reading poetry and playing music.
Here’s Str8 Sounds taking the stage using tapes and a full P.A! Very impressive!
John and De are enjoying the show over here on the sidelines. And see that beer that De has? I gave her that from my very own personal stash because that’s just the sort of kind and loving friend I am!
The book store was open during the show and Jessica was doing a brisk business, which was great to see!
There’s a couple familiar faces over there, it’s Katie and Andrew, who I know from Twitter and it was cool to meet them in the real world! It turns out they live right down the street from the MBIP World Headquarters, so I hope we can hang out again soon!
Frida and Tyler showed up in time to catch the second open mic set!
Here’s the next group of open mic talent. And now it’s the moment of truth, time for me to get up and do my guest speaker duties. I kind of feel like throwing up right now.
I took a shot of the crowd all waiting for me to start speaking, this is really terrifying, but it’s also super exciting and so it’s on with the show!
Here I go! Luckily I do have a motormouth and so I just turned that on and I was off and running. I do sweat a lot when I get nervous and while I gave my talk I kind of resembled Albert Brooks in Broadcast News!
I talked about how I got into writing and brought some examples of my past work including my trivia game, and copies of two of my magazines I published and edited, fishwrap and POP. After my talk, I wrote a curse word in my notebook and told people that the first person to guess the word out loud wins the game and magazines. And the winner is...
Jessica’s boyfriend, Mike Danger! Here he is holding the notebook with the winning curse word written on it. Congratulations, Mike!
After I got offstage, Jessica picked a winner for the lit. on fire swag bag which included a t-shirt, a coffee mug, a glossy print of the show's flyer and the lit. on fire canvas bag holding the prizes! And the second winner of the evening is...
Kathy! Congratulations, Kathy, glad you won!
Here’s Mike and Jessica relaxing as the party winds down.
Thanks to Jessica for hosting this event and asking me to be the speaker of the evening, it was an honor to be the first Get Lit. speaker! And thanks so much for everyone who showed up and made the night so much fun, it was a total blast and I’m already looking forward to next month’s Get Lit. party! We’ll see you all tomorrow!
Lit. On Fire Used Books
929 N Sheridan Rd. — Suite #1A
(In The Sunbeam Building)
Peoria
309-634-5383
Hours: Tuesday - Friday: Noon to 5PM; Saturday: 11AM to 5PM and Lit. is open till 9PM every First Friday.
Related Posts: MBIP Looks @ Books—Lit. On Fire Used Books In The Sunbeam Building and Browsing Time At Waxwing Books.