A love story, books, writing and the county fair

         I’m so proud of my wife, Debbie, and love her very much.
      This year marks 20-years since we first met at the Iowa State Fair. In September, we will celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary. And we just learned last week that our “love story” on how we met at the state fair is possibly going to be featured in the Iowa State Fair Museum across the road from Pioneer Hall.
      It all came about last year while visiting the museum where we saw a poster or display requesting state fair love stories. We filled out a form and left it with the museum curator.
     We had forgotten about it until the other day when I mentioned it to Debbie, as we had not heard anything. A couple days later, we received an email asking us to send in a short paragraph of how we met along with a photo. We are still in the running to be featured at the fair museum.
       I remember the first time I attended the Iowa State Fair in 1998. I was fairly new to Iowa and had heard about the great fair. At that time, all the trams met next to the agriculture building. Those who climb that hill these days to hitch a ride to the campground or Pioneer Hall know all too well how nice it was back in the day.
       I ended up on the wrong tram and landed in the fair campground. I didn’t have my hand stamped (a must anytime you go on the state fairgrounds) as I thought the tram was headed to the parking lot. I was wrong and ended up in the campground and was the last rider on the tram at the gate.
     I thought I was going to have to pay to get into the fair a second time to get out of the fair to go home. Thankfully the gate keeper let me through.
      Making my way down the hill, I ended up hitching a ride with two police officers on a golf cart after asking for directions. I was hanging on for dear life as we zoomed through people and cart traffic on the grand concourse headed to one of the gates. And one of the police officers must have been having troubles at home as he was talking awful about his family with the other officer. I don’t remember a thing he said, but can’t forget the experience.
      Five years later in 2003, I met Debbie in the campground while doing a newspaper photo story on state fair campers. I was walking along one of the camper rows filled with lots of Montezuma families and there she was standing by her family camper. The rest is history.
      At the time, I was actually thinking about wrapping up my time in Iowa in the newspaper business and heading south to my native Oklahoma for a job. God had something different in mind and all is good 25 plus years later.
       And thinking about good, Debbie is ready to release her third book, “Attempting Redemption,” in the Hope Series. Unlike her first two books, “The Auctioneer” and “Moving On,” she did all the work on this book, including the cover design. We had two area people help with editing and appreciate their services.
       We will be making a book order this week and plan to host a book signing sometime later in the month. We will announce it on Facebook and our website at Our Front Porch Books.
       She also has written a novella entitled, “Mister Christmas,” that she plans to release in the fall. The book is about folks in an Iowa town who almost don’t have a Christmas celebration.
      And she has written and is editing book four in the Hope Series, (Accidental Reveal), with a goal to release it in the fall.
     And thinking about books and authors, we are bringing back the All-Iowa Writers’ Conference this year after a three-year hiatus due to Covid. Debbie has been working hard on the line-up of speakers and so far we have four authors booked. The conference is Sept. 16 and is currently slated to be held at the Brooklyn Ruritan Building.
      And I am hoping to offer a short writing course this fall. I will share more details when possible.
      It is exciting times in the book and writing world at the Parker house.
     I can’t forget to mention that it is almost county fair time in Poweshiek County. I will be there the entire fair taking photos of all the award-winning youngsters and their prized animals.
      It’s a lot of work, but a lot of fun. This is my 24th year to cover the Poweshiek County Fair. I’ve taken a lot of hog and other animal photos through the years and love every minute of it. I hope to see you there.
      Come on out to the county fair and sit a spell and let’s visit.
​      Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always.