Scene @ Decatur Book Festival

Tom Bell, program director of the Decatur Book Festival, met “backstage” with former Denver Broncos linebacker Karl Mecklenburg (there to promote his inspirational memoir, Heart of a Student Athlete and bestselling author Joshylin Jackson (The Girl Who Stopped Swimming). Independent publicist Julie Schoerke, who snapped the photo, tells us: “Lots of men, who seemed to be attending the Festival to support their wives, asked lively questions during Mecklenburg’s Q&A and were first in line to have the former football player sign their books.”

“Despite ominous gray skies and an huge football game in the Georgia Dome,” Schoerke adds, “thousands of fans of the books were on hand Saturday standing in long lines to get copies of their books signed by their favorite authors.” Charlaine Harris was another of the authors featured on the main stage for the festival, which has managed to become the nation’s fourth-largest in just four years. (And it was a doubly literary weekend in the Atlanta area, as even more authors and fans showed up for the annual Dragon*Con convention, which also brought a lot of stars from the film, television, and comic book worlds. Anybody got any pictures from that to share?)

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