ICRS 2007_ Wrapping it Up

(Above, Gina and one of her all time favorite authors, Randy Alcorn, & Jerry Jenkins and his lovely wife.)

To close on our coverage of ICRS (International Christian Retail Show) 2007:

This was my first time going to the show. It was something I'd always assumed I'd do for the first time after the publication of my first novel.Things rarely turn out the way we think.

(Brandilyn Collins at her book signing for Coral Moon.)

Ane and I attended ICRS as media. Name tags are color coded at the show so others can easily tell if they need to be nice to you or not. (Not really.) Our tags were red. I gathered red was the color of media, clever woman that I am.

We spent some time asking others what their colors meant. Funny that every person felt their color was the lowest on the totem pole. Ha.

Green I think was people who were thinking of joining CBA. Yellow was for exhibitors (which included authors). Purple might have been international distributors. I don't really remember to be honest. But that gives you an idea.

We arrived to the show on Sunday and registered. We ran into my friend Don who told us it was a good idea to register early because the lines would be long the following day. We also ran into Brandilyn Collins whose mending ankle must have made the show torture as walking is the thing you do most of there.

Ane and I grabbed some Starbucks and preceded to wander around the showroom trying to figure out what the heck everyone was doing.

This year we figured we'd hand out some business cards to set up interviews, figure out what the show was about so we could report something back to you all, interview Jerry Jenkins which we'd set up previously and basically just try to not look like lost tourists.

I only attended two days of the show and not even full days but from what I could gather about ICRS, it seems authors go to make themselves known to book distributors and do some interviews while they're there. They also meet with their agents to discuss projects future and present and do some book signings.

I think agents go to pitch editors, meet with authors and what else, I have no idea.

I think media go to have so many personalities conveniently in one place.

The show isn't quite as interesting as I thought it would be. In reality it was like an upscale flea market set up. Booth after booth of wares. There were a lot of "hospitality suites", which were publishers which rented rooms so their authors would have a place to hang out, be interviewed, and what else, I have no idea.

There was a media room which was way too noisy to conduct anything other than a print interview but it was nice that it was there. We used it to regroup.

Ane and I spent most of our time hanging around the publishing house booths. They were all thankfully grouped together. We ran into Carmen Leal, Karen Ball, Deb Raney, Creston Mapes, Claudia Mair Burney, Camy Tang, and the list goes on and on and on.

Everyone was hurried. In the hallway we passed Randy Alcorn and Austin Boyd on separate ocassions trying to find their way to rooms where they'd be interviewed. It is really easy to get lost as the set up is several floors and huge.

Before our interview with Jerry Jenkins, I was nervous. New friend, Rhonda Rhea was so sweet and prayed for me. The prayer paid off because the interview went off well.

We met Jerry in Tyndale's hospitality suite. His wife was there and is just the loveliest and sweetest woman from what I could gather.

Jerry is so soft spoken that on the video, you can hear me clear as day, but his sounds like the adults in the Peanuts cartoons: Waw waw waw waw. Luckily we also tape recorded it and Ane transcribed it. We'll run that next week most likely. We ask some tough questions, so I hope you'll tune in for that.

The last thing we did was walk the floor trying to find the weirdest Jesus junk. I started to take a picture of what I thought the winner this year was when God convicted me. I put my camera away and told Ane, "You know, I can't know what the heart of the people who made that is. For all I know their motivation wasn't money but spreading the Gospel. Who am I to judge? Maybe someone will come to Christ because of it. You never know. " One man's trash is another's treasure and all that. I thought some products were silly and I felt a bit icky with all that marketing of my faith, but God will judge the hearts of men, not I. I'll assume the best and hope others will assume the best of me.

That's all folks. If you attend ICRS and can add to what I've said here about what everyone's running around trying to accomplish, I'd greatly appreciate the wisdom.

(We still have two vodcasts left to bring you: Jerry Jenkins and Tracy Groot).