Indy Author Day At Watauga Library 2023

On Saturday November 4th Watauga public library hosted an indy author day to which I was invited, and I gladly joined. Wautauga is a small city located between Dallas and Fort Worth. It is closer to Fort Worth. They also hosted an indy author day last year, which I also partook in. We all had a booth where we sold and signed our books. I did not sell a whole lot, half a dozen, but that’s OK. It is a great way to interact with and get to know other authors, and it is fun.

We also read a short passage from our respective books in front of an audience. My reading went very well. I read one of the shorter funny Bronco stories from my book and people laughed a lot. Well, I had practiced, and I was animating the story a bit. I felt like a comedian. I am including the story I read at the end of this post. If you are an indy author and you live in the Dallas Fort Worth area I suggest you participate next year, just for the fun of it.

Me, Thomas Wikman, standing in front of an audience presenting my book and reading a passage from my book "TThe Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle: Stories and Tips from Thirteen Years with a Leonberger". In the picture I am holding the book and standing in front of a microphone.
Me presenting and reading from my book, The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle: Stories and Tips from Thirteen Years with a Leonberger.
Eleven Indy authors. I am standing on the left in green.
Author group photo. One author had to leave before the photo.
Photo of eleven Indy authors. I am standing on the right and wearing a blue polo.
Author group photo from last year 2022 (me on the right/blue). As you can see it to a large degree the same people.
My author booth from last year, 2022. My booth looked about the same this year.
I did not take a photo of my booth this year, but it looked the same. This is the photo of my booth from last year.

The story I read during reading time (3 minutes)

Bronco’s Hamster Search and Rescue

Back when Bronco was young, the kids had pet hamsters—Moldova and Montenegro. The hamsters escaped from their cages sometimes, but Bronco usually helped us find them whenever they did. Claudia (my wife) would tell him, “Bronco, find the hamsters,” and he would go around the house sniffing until he found them. One time he found them in the linen closet; another time he found them on a shelf in the living room.

On one occasion, a friend of David (our son) trusted us with his two hamsters while he and his family went on vacation. A couple of days later, Claudia noticed that the two hamsters were missing from their cage. The next thing she noticed was that Bronco’s cheeks looked puffy, so she said, “Bronco, drop it!” Out came the two hamsters, both unconscious.

Illustration of Bronco with puffy cheeks
Cheeks full of hamsters (illustration by Naomi Rosenblatt)

In a panic, Claudia started performing CPR on the unconscious hamsters. She put one hamster at a time in her hand and gently compressed each tiny chest using the finger of the other hand. Fortunately, one hamster revived right away. The CPR didn’t seem to be working on the other hamster, but Claudia put both of them back in their cage, and soon the second hamster also woke up. We decided to keep the incident to ourselves. Hamsters don’t squeal.

Illustration showing a hamster in the palm of my wife's hand and her giving the Hamster CPR with the finger from the other hand.
Hamster CPR (illustration by Naomi Rosenblatt)

The question is, Did Bronco try to eat the hamsters? Or did he simply find them and pick them up, intending to alert us to their presence? I’ve asked several people this question, including some who know Leonbergers well. The answer they give is that he tried to save them from whatever danger he thought they might have been in. If he wanted to eat them, they say, he would have tried chewing them. But clearly, he didn’t.

Note: Unless they bought my book, they probably still don’t know what happened

Have you been an indy author day or similar?

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

41 thoughts on “Indy Author Day At Watauga Library 2023”

  3. This is a great story about Bronco! I’m still giggling about it. It reminds me of the time when we had a black lab named Daisy. She was our son’s doggo. My daughter had (and still has) a Quaker Parrot who we used to let out of his cage during the day. Most of the time, he would stay on top of the cage, or move about the house looking for us. Daisy was definitely a bird dog as she’d been pheasant hunting many times.

    Anyway, our daughter Katy had the bird on her finger and she was talking to him when Daisy came up behind Katy and jumped right over her shoulder, taking off with the bird in her mouth. Daisy was always a really good dog, very gentle, but I was still a bit horrified.

    My son told Daisy to drop it, and the bird climbed out like nothing had happened, and flitted right back to my daughter’s finger. LOL We always said Daisy had a “soft mouth.” :D🤣😂

    As for Bronco, I believe he was protecting the hamsters. He probably already knew you’d have him looking for them anyway. haha 😀

    The indie author event sounds like it was lots of fun!

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    1. Thank you, Patricia. It was the kids who picked the names. I had to ask them. Our son was learning about European countries at school and Moldova and Montenegro were his favorite countries. Our daughter agreed to it because Moldova could be shortened to “Molly” and “Montenegro” to “Monty”. I found this out today.

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  7. Honestly, kuddos to Naomi for the wonderful illustrations. They’re truly so…alive. Loved the story as well. Glad you enjoyed the book signing and connecting with other writers. 🙂

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    1. Thank you so much Mary Ann. About my book, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indigo and many other book stores have it in eBook format and paperback. On the right hand side of this blog, at the top, there is a picture of the front cover and if you click on it you are taken to the US Amazon page for it.

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  13. What a fun day, Thomas. I miss face-to-face events – it’s been a long time. Great photos and a great story. I’m so glad Bronco didn’t chew on the hamsters! Lol. I’ll assume the big galoot was being protective. 🙂

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