Page 37 of I Met Him At The Library

“A what?” I questioned my brain immediately going to some sort of Ocean’s Eleven scenario.

“A book convention,” Emily clarified, much to my relief. “We sell tickets, get authors to come in to do signings, and have panels for the authors to answer questions. It’ll be great.”

“Don’t we need like a year to plan a convention?” Levi asked, leaning his elbows on the table.

“If this were a big city con, maybe, but this would be a smaller event. We can reach out to libraries surrounding us and ask to put up flyers advertising it. We’ll get people in from all over, right as tourist season is about to start,” Meghan stated.

“It’s how we get the entire town on board for saving the library. Everyone wins!” Emily stated, staring at me with hope in her eyes.

“Okay, but we would need to find authors to attend instead of only raising awareness.”

“We’ll still contact locally popular authors but now we are asking them to come here and help.”

“Plus, as an editor I have loads of connections to quite a few authors in different genres. Some of them might be willing to help, too,” Meghan nodded.

“I love the idea of a con. I don’t know if we have the time to pull it off.”

“We totally do, because these guys can help,” Emily gestured to my friends.

Glancing at them, the bemused looks on their faces dropped as they realized what they were being volunteered for. I grinned at each of them.

“Fuck … yeah. I guess I can free up some time,” Trey grumbled.

“Great, cause we are going to need a stage built.” Meghan smiled at her brother, to which he rolled his eyes.

“Where are we doing this?” Preston asked.

“The park surrounding the library is controlled by the library, we can use it for whatever we need. We can set up ticket sales at the parking lot entrance. Once the lot is filled, we can send people across the street to the school parking lot. We can set up signing booths along the pathway on either side, until we get to the gazebo where we can put up the stage and set it up Fourth of July style. People can bring their own blankets to lay out on the ground and can sit and watch the panels.”

As Emily was talking, I imagined all of it. We could have donation stands set up all around the park and along the path. If we managed to get quite a few authors, we might bring in enough from the ticket sales and donations to save the library. I wanted to jump up and pull Emily into a big hug for this idea, but I forced myself to stay in my seat.

“Will we need permits for the event?” I asked and everyone’s faces fell at the realization this might not be so easy.

“I think I have a way we can handle that,” Levi said with a mischievous grin while we all turned to him, “Dylan has a few connections. He can get us the permit.”

With hope that the event wouldn’t be thwarted by the council members or the mayor, a smile crept over my face as I said, “This could work.”

“It’ll definitely work,” Emily agreed.

Emily pulled a notebook from her bag to give us all a run down of what we would need to do. We needed to drum up support from the locals first. The bed-and-breakfasts and the nearest hotel had email lists we might be able to take advantage of while also kicking the tourist season off with a bang. Levi volunteered to talk to The Orchard Inn as well as a few other people to get them on board for accommodations.

We set a date for the convention for a couple weeks before the end of the quarter when funding would run out. Hopefully, it would give us enough time to plan and time to set the library up to keep its doors open.

The next afternoon, I met with Emily in the study room with the list of authors who received the most checkouts. The excitement over how this con could completely change the way we funded the library filled me.

Last night as I tried to sleep, I wondered if we could turn this event into a yearly festival to continue to provide extra funds to the library. It’d be a lot of work every year, and eventually, I’d need to bring in someone to handle the event planning. However, raising public awareness could also have the town start reaching out to our council people to demand we keep at least some of the public funds.

Our local politicians did a fantastic job about keeping this situation as quiet as possible. Hell, walking into the council meeting, I didn’t even know they were talking about removing the funding entirely, or how it would be removed so quickly.

Walking into the study room, Emily smiled brightly at me. Her hazel eyes sparkled, and I paused for a second at her radiance.

“Is that the list?” Emily asked, gesturing to the papers in my hand.

“Yes,” I said, finally moving from the door to sit down next to her.

She moved her laptop over, pulling up a new tab so we could research the best ways to contact the authors on the list. Taking the papers from me she began scanning the names on the list.

A gasp escaped her, and she dropped the papers on the table. Her hand went to her mouth and her eyes widened as she stared at the list like it had personally attacked her.

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