Mobile Literary Festival postponed and Civics 101

cj Sez: Well there you have it…the 2020 Mobile Literary Festival is down, but not out!

From the pen of co-chairwoman Jodie Cain Smith: I’m so sorry to announce that the 2020 Mobile Literary Festival will be postponed until this COVID-19 outbreak improves.

Unfortunately we do not know when that will be. This decision was not made lightly as I am so proud of the presenters and panelists we’d gathered this year. Because I firmly believe this program will delight and educate our attendees, I hope that once we reschedule they will all be available to participate.

We WILL reschedule. I will keep you updated with all information regarding a new date.

Carrie and I went back and forth as to what the best decision was. In the end, postponing made the most sense. Our first concern was the health of our at-risk attendees. Several have underlying medical conditions or live with someone who does, several are senior citizens, and let’s face it, all of us are in contact with someone who is at risk of serious complications from this virus.

Considering physical space within the library, social distancing would be nearly impossible to achieve. Our second concern was that if we hold the festival as scheduled, no one will attend. That would be a waste of resources - our faculty’s time and knowledge would be wasted on empty seats, our bookseller risks losing money, the library would suffer from unnecessary staff increases and festival setup.

Again, as soon as we know the new date, I will post it (on the Mobile Literary Festival site on Facebook). To say I am deeply disappointed that one of my favorite days of the year has to be postponed is a gross understatement but the risks are too high to ignore.

Hopefully, this virus will be contained soon and we can move forward with our celebration of literary arts on the Gulf Coast.

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The 2020 Census is coming to your mail box (or front door) soon, if a notice hasn’t already arrived.

   It’s Civics 101, folks. (Do they even teach civics in school anymore?) Our answers, required by law to remain confidential, are turned into anonymous numbers…statistics. What follows is my brief paraphrasing of some information about why our honest responses matter:

   Census results are fed into the algorithms that determine how billions of federal funding dollars are doled out to states and communities each year. States apply for federal funding for health clinics, fire departments, schools, and even roads, highways, and bridges. The census results also determine how many seats in Congress each state gets. (You can take a look at what’s happening in our nation’s capital right now and know that’s an important aspect to consider.)

The census is mandated by the U.S. Constitution in Article 1, Section 2: The U.S. has counted its population every 10 years since 1790. (That’s been a personal plus for me. I’ve used census results from the 1800s to track the whereabouts of my ancestors after their arrival in the United States.)

Read more here:

Importance of the Data and the Impact in Your Community

See how your answers can shape your future

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   Mobile author and WKRG TV news reporter Bill Riales has launched the latest novel in his Noah Sky series. 

   DEADLINE is available on Amazon at https://amzn.to/2TU39Vr    

   (P.S. When you take the time to leave a brief review on Amazon, it's magical for authors...just saying.)

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   That’s it for this week’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

   Autographed print copies of my novels CHOOSING CARTER and DEADLY STAR are available at The Haunted Book Shop. Anthologies in which I have stories, including THE POSSE, the Bienvenue Press Christmas charity series, and the Mobile Writers Guild PIECES series, are also available there.

   If they don’t happen to have a copy of any book(s), by any author that you want, they’ll place an order for you.

   TO ORDER (and support an indie bookstore) contact The Haunted Bookshop here: The Haunted Bookshop  Angela Trigg, the awesome owner and an award-winning author in her own right (writing as Angela Quarles) will be happy to ship you the book(s) of your choice. If you’re in Mobile area, do stop in at the book store; it’s a neat place to browse.