What do books and tools have in common? Nothing! Except both were featured in two events last Saturday. The April Tools and Flea Market, a fundraiser for the Methow Valley Community Center (MVCC), was held in the community center gym and parking area, and the Methow Valley Author’s Fair took place at Casia Lodge and Ranch.
When I caught up with her, Anita Lintz, the MVCC’s outreach coordinator, was busy organizing tables and pricing items. This was her third April Tools, and it was her idea to add a flea market to increase the number of vendors. The vendors sold everything from tools to antiques to collectibles — but many of the items offered were donated by the community. If your dream was to make craft beer, a professional-quality setup for home brewing had been donated. This year, Anita said, the MVCC “cleaned out its closets” to bring out items for the sale that had been stored away for some time.
I strolled over to a table featuring sports equipment and clothing and was pleased to find some of my favorite brands — Arc’teryx, Patagonia, Marmot, and Horny Toad — in my size. Only later did I learn that they’d been donated by the husband of a woman who recently passed. Judging by their quality and style, she must have been an outdoorsy athlete. At another booth, a vendor was selling gorgeous antique lamps. I nudged my husband over to his booth, and the vendor was quite willing to “give us a deal” on an art-deco-style pole lamp.
Anita said to remember the Tools Sale when you have items sitting around after missing the “return by” date or an Amazon purchase you didn’t want to ship out from a faraway UPS store. Although the sale is over for this year, she wanted to emphasize that the MVCC is separate from the Senior Thrift store, so tuck away those items, especially quality tools you don’t use anymore, for next year’s sale.
Greg Wright — author, poet, and publisher — organized the second Author’s Fair in the Cascade Room of the Casia Lodge on Saturday and Sunday. Last year, he introduced authors, their work, and the newly created Methow Valley Authors Library, a collection of books by over 100 local authors shelved on the main floor of the lodge. This year, the fair focused on new work by Methow writers.
The idea for an author library and Authors Fair came from Greg’s research for a card game he created about local authors. He discovered that there are over 300 writers in the Methow Valley when those who write children’s books and contribute to the Methow Naturalists Journal are included.
Greg started his writing career as a journalist, then went on to publish non-fiction books, poetry, and novels. He published his first book with a small press but wasn’t happy with the results, so he started his own publishing company. He works primarily with people who have a hard time finding other ways to get their books published with the goal of “giving first-time authors a good experience so that they want to write more books.” This year, he’s published over 10 books for local writers.
When I entered the Cascade room, its huge windows showcasing the Sawtooth Range, David Lukas was reading from his new non-fiction book, “Language Making Nature,” an invitation to expand our perspective on the use of the English language and its relationship to the natural world. He and 30 other local writers shared their work that weekend, and many of their titles were available for purchase and signing. The fair closed with Lynette Westendorf’s “Meditations: One World,” a piano suite with accompanying poetry composed by Cindy Willians Gutierréz and Greg Wright.
And I came home that weekend with some great new clothes, a stunning table lamp, and new reading material.
