Wow. Wow! Wow, what a weekend. The third Decatur Book Festival was, by overwhelming acclaim, the best one yet. It’s going to take me weeks to process all that happened over the weekend, but a few highlights that stand out for me right now:

• The Madeline Children’s Parade, in which many a little girl was dressed like Madeline and one little boy wore an Iron Man costume. (Someone has to protect Madeline from the military industrial complex, right?)
• Nearly 1,200 people rapt and laughing for over an hour as former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins launched his new collection, “Ballistics,” read poems, and told stories. When was the last time you saw a poet get that kind of reception?
• Walking into The Escape — our new, dedicated space for teenagers — to find an ultra cool literary salon underway, so cool that I quickly exited lest the square old guy bring down the groove.
• Getting stopped on the sidewalk by Robert Scheer on Sunday night so he could tell me about all of the incredibly impressive author friends and colleagues of his who he wants to bring with him to the 2009 festival.
• Seeing Doug Crandell’s petting zoo set up on the Agnes Scott quad, writers hard at work on exercises inspired by wigs, flannel, and other props.
• Getting a kiss from Hollis Gillespie through her mobile kissing booth window.
• Crouching down to let Hollis’s daughter dress my head with a series of wigs and hats for my mug shot at the Writers Conference Happy Hour. (Yes, there are pictures. No, I’m not going to tell you where to find them.)
• And seeing you — about 70,000 of you — filling downtown Decatur for three days of celebration with fellow lovers of writing and reading.

The thing is, for all that I saw, I saw very little of all that happened. If you were out there, you know what I’m talking about. There’s just too much going on all at once to get to more than a small fraction of it all. So I’ve been scouring the Web to see what you saw. Here’s what I’ve found so far (in no particular order, because it would take forever if I tried to order them). Add your own posts or those you’ve found, in the comments.

Baby Got Books

Adam J. Copeland’s Top Ten Festival Highlights

Author Deborah Wiles

Author Sarah Prineas

Author Elizabeth Dulemba on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday

inDecatur was all over the festival. (And I finally got to meet him in person.) I won’t even try to link to them all, but here are some of particular note:

• Round-up of Various Other Bloggers Pre-DBF Posts
• Lull Before the Book Storm
• Great Weather for Decatur Book Festival
• Billy Collins Reads/Speaks to Packed Crowd
• Food
• Don’t Miss the Last Day of the Decatur Book Festival
• Plan Your DBF Day, Or Just Wing It
• There’s More Than Books at the Decatur Book Festival
• Video of Storytellers
• Post-Festival Wrap-Up
• Round-Up of Blog Reviews of DBF

Chamblee 54 on Day One, Pictures and Reflections

Southern Shelter on Patterson Hood

That Weird Quiet Girl in the Corner

SharpBlog

Scoffery

Wren’s Nest (includes link to pictures)

Vivian

Library Stew

LarameeKid on Sci Fi and Fantasy Panel

GotPoetry on Billy Collins

…

(Phew!)

What else you got?

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