Take a Chance! Come to the Gaithersburg Book Festival!

by Elizabeth Zipf
Richard Montgomery High School, Class of 2014

For me, when I’m considering going to something like the Gaithersburg Book Festival, one of the main problems is that I don’t know anyone to go with. What I’ve found, though, is that although you can invite your friends (and should!), you don’t necessarily need to. You already have something in common with anyone coming to these events. You love books. That’s enough to get a conversation started.

Once you’ve got a conversation, of course, it’s fairly easy to keep talking. The fact is, bibliophiles (book-lovers) are generally interesting people. Often, they’re authors or poets or something equally interesting. They’re easy to talk to – and they’re willing to talk.

And there’s lots of things going on this year at the Festival to talk about! There’s a brilliant line-up of writers coming to speak – from Maggie Stiefvater, who wrote “The Scorpio Races,” to Fred Bowen, who writes the KidsPost section in The Washington Post. There’s going to be something there you like!

And when you and your new friends need something else to do, check out the writing workshops. The best part is, they’re absolutely free. (Thanks, Writopia!) For those of us that aren’t quite invited to speak at festivals yet, they have sessions on mysteries, plays, short stories – and, once we do get invited, they have one on speechwriting!

So take a risk. Chances are, you’ll find cool stuff to do and cool people to talk with. You won’t know if you don’t come! Carpe diem.