Thank you to everyone who visited us in the Louisiana booth in the Pavilion of States at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. in September, and for signing up for our book drawing. A winner has been drawn. Ci Ci Johnson will receive a free copy of my latest book, MUMBO JUMBO, STAY OUT OF THE GUMBO, illustrated by Jennifer Lindsley, which was selected to represent the State of Louisiana at the Book Festival this year!
My husband Scott, Jennifer and I had a blast handing out Mardi Gras beads to families at our booth at the Festival. We were dressed in authentic hand-made Cajun Mardi Gras or Courir de Mardi Gras attire.
Each year in Louisiana, two strikingly different Mardi Gras celebrations take place; one in New Orleans and one on the Cajun prairie. In New Orleans, royal pageantry prevails with kings and queens riding atop floats along city streets. In the rural Cajun Mardi Gras, townspeople, dressed in fringed French Medieval-inspired attire, walk or ride on horseback from home to home begging for ingredients to make a communal gumbo at the end of the day on Fat Tuesday.
In Cajun Mardi Gras, the most prized ingredient is a live chicken that will end up IN the gumbo. Not so fast! In my book, MUMBO JUMBO, STAY OUT OF THE GUMBO, the chicken is clever and goes about warning all of the animals to hide. In the end, the Cajun revelers enjoy gumbo z'herbs, a vegetarian gumbo!
Thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth, and for making our National Book Festival experience extra special this year!
Mardi Gras is February 13, 2018! Come on down!
—Johnette