Each year, the Fort Collins Book Fest chooses a theme — last year was “The Big Think,” and the 2019 events centered around “Food for Thought.” The Fest invited cookbook authors, hosted “foodie walks,” and offered workshops revolving around tea, chocolate, whiskey and more.

I took part in three events at this year’s Book Fest. First up, a Chocolate Flight and Write, which is just what it sounds like: a guided chocolate tasting and a writing workshop in one. I was impressed with how fruitful the workshop was; author Laura Resau encouraged us to use chocolate as inspiration for a poem, a character study, and a short story idea. By the end of our brainstorming we were all jittery and begged Laura not to feed us more chocolate, if you can believe it.

My second event was a lineup of local authors reading in ten-minute increments — and I was one of them, a big swing on my part. I am very involved in all kinds of arts — for example, I help orchestras with marketing, I review theater and help produce shows locally — but I don’t often save enough focus and energy for the creating and the sharing of my own art. Ten minutes to share my own creativity with a room full of strangers: just what the doctor ordered.

You can see my name on the board if you squint!

Stop three at the Book Fest: a tea and cheese pairing co-hosted by Happy Lucky’s Teahouse and Welsh Rabbit Cheese Shop. The tasting took place at the tea shop, a space where I need to spend more time — it has a great vibe, with tea paraphernalia everywhere and uplifting messages tucked right into the brick walls.

My date for the tasting was the inimitable Linda, and we had a ball sampling and pairing six different teas and three cheeses. I do not consider myself the cheese-savviest person in the world, but I fell head-over-heels for the Dutch gouda we were introduced to. I had no idea cheese could taste like coconut, and I am there for it.

Thank you to Fort Collins Book Fest for yet another weekend of completely free events giving me the chance to branch out and try new things — my favorite hobby, bar none.