Chapter 4, Part 1: Cryptid Con Preview

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Good morning, good evening, good afternoon. Welcome back to another
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episode of On the Same Page KCPL Podcast.
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I'm Evan and I'm Tanya, and today we're
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going to be talking about cryptids. Before we
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do that, I want to mention, as soon as you're done listening to this episode,
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go to our website, click on the banner for the podcast and
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scroll down and there's a survey you can fill out. We do want
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to hear from you guys if you're listening, so please fill out that survey.
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Let us know what you think. We hope we can keep making this better and
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better and better for you, our listeners. So do
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that as soon as you're done listening to this episode. We would appreciate that.
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The reason we're talking about cryptids is September is Library
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Card Sign-Up Month. Which we do every single year in the month
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of September. Cryptids has been our theme for the past several years.
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People seem to love it, and it's the same this year. I love it.
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I mean, it is fun. It's like a— it's almost like a prequel to
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the spooky season. Spooky soft. Like, it's, you know,
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it's not full October and fall yet, but we're gonna, you know, have a
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little bit of spookiness with some cryptids. So You know, it's kind of
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a soft launch in that, uh, if you will. Now in
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this episode, we're going to be saying the word cryptid a lot,
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and just in case you don't know what the word cryptid means,
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it is an animal or creature that people claim to see but science
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has not proven to exist. The most famous one
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from our region, the Mothman.
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There's also other ones like Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster,
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and those kind of things that people claim exist, but we
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can't prove it. And so that's what a cryptid is, if you did not know
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that already. Tanya, if I'm correct,
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marketing department, we're doing the same thing we've done in the last couple years with
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the library card sign-up month. Yes, we have cryptid
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stickers. There's Bigfoot, there's Mothman, there's the Flatwoods Monster,
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and then there are lanyards in a few different colors that have all
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the cryptids on them. Perfect. So we will have those available at the library
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for you if you renew your card privileges, if you sign
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up for a card. We'll have those while supplies last. So you
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definitely want to stop on by in September. That's kind of the theme of
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today's episode. This is our first time doing 2 guests. Today we're
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going to have 2 guests on from the Sissonville Library because they have something
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special that they're cooking up. If you haven't already noticed, this episode
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is a little bit early and you'll find out why it's out a little bit
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early later on in the episode. So, uh, welcome Kathy Mason
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and Kayla Stamper from the Sissonville Library.
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Hello! Thank you. Thanks for having us.
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Oh yeah, we're glad to have you because I know Sissonville is known
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for your guys' decorations at spooky time and
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all of those things. So I think you guys are the perfect branch
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to have a Cryptid Con. Yes. Yeah, I completely agree. And we're
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super excited about it. Absolutely. So tell us a little bit about like
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what your day-to-day roles are at work, and then maybe
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a little bit about yourself just in general. Just tell us a little bit about
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you. Hi, I'm Kathy Mason, and I am the branch
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manager of the Sissonville Library. Day-to-day is hard
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to describe because it feels like everything changes
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at the library. A lot of it is working with staff to
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keep the library rolling. This isn't the library.
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Also planning programs and attending an
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awful lot of meetings. I would rather spend time in programs
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personally, but you know how that goes. And about
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me, I crochet. I crochet a lot, do a lot of
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different crafts, but that's the top one. And yeah,
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I'll pass it off to Kayla now. I'm Kayla Stamper.
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I am the branch administrator here. A lot of my day-to-day varies.
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I do a lot of different stuff here. Between helping patrons,
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staff, keeping things running, like doing scheduling.
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Also the makerspace here, a lot of fun stuff. And I
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always try to do arts and crafts, which, um, it's always been
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a day-to-day part of my life because I love to do art. I paint,
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which is why I'm really excited about Crypticon because I do a lot of cryptid
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paintings, Mothman, Halloween.
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Like Evan said, you know, it's like a soft launch I soft launch in
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July for Halloween, and then
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we're going full horror starting August, and then in September,
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cryptids. We definitely like the cryptid stuff at Sissenbell.
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Kayla's fantastic. Her creativity is off the charts. Oh,
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absolutely. I agree. Kayla and I, uh, were— I mean,
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we're all technically co-workers because we work as part of a system,
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but Kayla and I did work at the same branch
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Uh, once upon a time. So in the old days, yes.
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And if you come to St. Albans— St. Albans, right here. Oh, okay.
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Uh, if you've seen on our second floor, if you've been here to St.
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Albans, you'll see on the back wall, on the chalkboard wall,
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there's some artwork that was drawn with some different characters and things.
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That is, uh, Kayla's artwork still here. I've seen
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that and it is fantastic. That was— that
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was Kayla's. Originally the idea was that it was going to change out periodically,
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but it's kind of a staple here now. It's kind of made its home on
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that wall. Same thing. So, and any of the ghost pictures that
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I've shared on social media, that's you all, right? We had a great
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time with that. It was fun. Those pictures are
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great. We know that you, you all like spooky things in Sissonville.
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You guys have this thing that is coming up. You guys are going to be
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doing a Cryptid Con, which As far as I know,
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it's like the first con that
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the Kanawha County Public Library has, has done, at least it's been called
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a con on anything as far as I'm aware. We really just wanted to try
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to do something different. Everybody loves cryptids around here, especially, you know, Mothman stuff.
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So we really wanted to hone in on the idea to
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bring in people to share their love of cryptids. I hadn't
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actually even thought about the fact that it was the first con, and we're doing
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it as kind of a soft con. Easing into
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the thing, hoping to make it pretty regular, I would say. Well,
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I can say that, you know, anytime you're doing something new, there's always bumps
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in the road. So doing a soft, you know, version of it is a
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good way to kind of get in there and see what— see how people respond,
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see what people like. And so that's a really good way
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to handle it, I think. So tell us a little bit about like
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what's going to happen? Like, what are you— what's going on that
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day of the CryptidCon? What does that look like? I am
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really hoping to dress up as Mothman. I've got, I've got a costume that I
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got earlier this year. It's flowy, not too Mothman.
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Work appropriate Mothman. Yes, corporate Mothman.
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I imagine Mothman in a suit and tie for sure.
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Yeah, we're encouraging people to dress up,
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you know, as your cryptids. Crafts, of course. We've got some little watercolor paintings
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of mothman we're going to do, some cryptid notebooks where
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they can either draw cryptids on the front, or I've actually
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used our 3D printer and cut out mothman shapes where they can make clay mothmans
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and then put them in notebooks themselves. Whatever they want to do,
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really creative freedom with it. We're also going to try to make mothman
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antennas that they can create. To wear around as
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well. So I remember when I was growing up and coming to the library,
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like, a particular series about a young boy wizard was
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very popular at the time. You know, they would do these kind of things where
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they'd have different activities and stations set up, and like,
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it wasn't really a con, but it was opportunity experience,
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like where there's different things you could go do. And like, sounds like you guys
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are doing the cryptid version of that kind of experience.
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Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to incorporate, um,
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making some fun snacks, some drinks.
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Um, I make a lot of to-go craft kits too that a lot of patrons
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like to come in and get. So I'm also doing those. I've got a
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UFO one planned out where they can make their own little floating UFOs. Even if
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they come and they don't, you know, want to stay the whole time, they have
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something they can take with them. Nothing stays behind. They, they all get a set.
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Yeah, nothing is left behind, that's for sure. So how was like the
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prep for all of this has been going? Like, how long have you guys been
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working on putting this together and all the, all the pieces
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of it? I think we first started talking about it probably,
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would you say almost last year? Yeah, we definitely started the idea last year.
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And then of course trying to figure out, you know, yeah, the logistics, how much
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we want to plan into it. You know, this being the first con,
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soft beginning, kind of a mashup of con and a bunch of crafts and stuff
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like that to see how people respond to it first. But yeah, it's definitely been
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a year in the works. Of planning. I think it's going to be a good
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one. That's exactly why this episode's releasing early, is because we're
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telling you that this is coming. This is something that's happening, and it's happening on
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the 29th, is that correct? Yes, uh, August 29th.
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It's a Saturday from 11 to 2. Okay, so from 11 to
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2, and it does have some drop-in elements, like you can just come in,
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you know, at noon, or, you know, you can be
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there at 11 when it starts. Uh, it's kind of a come at your own
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pace and see what, see what's going on.
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What would, what would your, like, if you were gonna go hardcore,
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like this goes well and you're gonna do it next
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year, what, what would you like to see happen?
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Definitely, you know, we mentioned before trying the vendor
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route or even getting maybe some speakers from the Mothman Museum or Flatwoods Museum.
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We've been, you know, just getting some people to speak about things and then we
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can have things people can stop in and do. I made cryptids in the window,
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like out of cardboard and stuff, so they can do photo ops. I think it
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would be also fun to maybe have somebody actually dress up as cryptids,
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and we can like print pictures out for them and different things like that.
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Just kind of expand on some of the ideas that we've already started and,
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um, just make it even, even bigger, even better. Will there be any guests this
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year? So not, um, speaker-wise for the actual
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CryptidCon, but after, um, on September 1st
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at 5:30, we are having a virtual author event with
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Paige LaVoy. She is from Florida and she wrote I'm in
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Love with Mothman and the 2 following books. I believe it's I'm
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Engaged to Mothman and I'm Marrying Mothman. Her newest book,
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I'm so excited, is My Boyfriend is a Swamp Monster.
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I have already downloaded it. I saw she released that and I
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believe got on a bestseller list for it, was doing really
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well with it. So I bought the I'm in Love with Mothman book
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when she came to library last year, but I have not read it yet.
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It just keeps getting pushed back, so I need to, I need to start
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the trilogy. There we go. I got the book a couple years
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ago when she was here for the Mothman Festival. I think the library didn't have
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it then. We do now, by the way. I thought it was really cute.
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It is about a content creator who takes a hiatus
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from, from the social media life and moves
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into a little cozy cabin in the woods and meets Mothman,
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gets rescued by Mothman. I love it. I knew I would,
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but it was a good read. I enjoyed it. Yeah,
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well, the reason I asked what your stretch goals were is because
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maybe that will entice some of the people that are listening to just having one
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more reason to come and check out your guys's CryptidCon
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so it has a good turnout. And maybe, uh, some of those stretch
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goals can be something that does happen, uh, next year.
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I mean, I know other libraries have done cons.
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Several years ago during one of our summer library clubs,
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the theme was like involved with like space and stuff
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like that. And I did an event, I called it The Impact of the Stars.
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And it was about Star Wars and Star Trek and how they've
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influenced culture. And one of the things I learned is the
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very first like fandom con
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was centered around Star Trek, and it was at
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a library. It was a small group of people at a library.
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So, you know, libraries have a history when
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it comes to the con scene from the very beginning,
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and they've grown and grown and grown and, you know, become even more popular.
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But I think it's really cool that you guys are getting back in,
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and we're gonna have a Cryptid Con and And we're going to do that.
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I think that's an awesome thing. So I wish you guys
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all the luck and I hope you get a turnout
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and I hope at the end of the day you're absolutely worn out from all
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the amazing fun you had. Yeah, that's always
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what we're striving for. Yeah, because we
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know when we put these kind of things on, it's going to be exhausting.
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There's going to be a lot of little things and you've got to do this
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and that to get ready, clean up, you know, all the fun stuff.
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It's worth it to see people come and enjoy the library
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and give them something to do. And in this regard,
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a way to, you know, not only have fun but to be creative with
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some of the things you guys are doing. So I think it's a great opportunity
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for people to come check out what we do at the library.
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Yeah, exactly. We want to hone that creativity and then also, you know,
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have people learn about the library, what resources we have
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as well while they're here. So it's definitely important.
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And where we're a smaller branch, sometimes it's harder to get
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people out there to know what we're doing. Um, hopefully the KCPL podcast
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helps, uh, promote that. So we're excited about it.
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All right, well, that is the end of our part 1 of
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the episode. Uh, stay tuned,
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and, uh, the next part will come out after,
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uh, the Cryptid Con has happened. But, uh, We're going to be
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keep talking about more things cryptid in the next episode. This has been
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part 1. My name is Evan and I'm Tanya.
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Thanks for listening.