Long Overdue Newsletter - November 2025
- Chris OBrien
- 7 days ago
- 6 min read
Well, my pants are fitting a little tighter, the number on the scale is a little higher, and I'm getting ready to have my favorite sandwich of the year -- leftover turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce on toasted bread. A sandwich so good, even Subway copied it!
Speaking of stepping on the scale, three weeks ago, I packed two suitcases full of books for the Texas Book Festival in Austin, Texas. Brought down over 100 lbs of Long Overdue books, representing 24 of our 25 titles (we're currently sold out of Oh Mother How Funny).
Ashley, Caleb, and I -- and Addison, she's just still in Mama's belly -- flew down the Friday before the festival. I love traveling around Christmas time. All the giant wreaths and ornaments in O'Hare. Feels like a scene from Home Alone. Which makes me check a few extra times that our son is with us.
Landed and wasted no time diving into the Austin food scene. Because as much as this annual trip is about books, a close second place is food.
We went back to the hotel and ate the tacos on the top floor. What a view! Two tacos in, we were politely told hey, no outside food, but they gave us the "traveling with a 4-year-old" exemption. I felt bad, especially since their doorman already helped us carry in 100+ pounds of books. Whaddaya got, bricks in here? Not far off!
Shoveled a few more tortilla chips into my mouth. Caught the Kansas Jayhawks basketball score out of the corner of my eye. Nice! We were up at halftime over North Carolina. Ultimately lost the game, but that's alright. Long season. Pack it up. Call it a night.
Saturday morning. It's book festival time. Well, after we eat.
Not chicken and waffles. Duck and a Texas-shaped waffle. Perfect breakfast when you're up at the quack of dawn. 😏
Alright, now it's time to sell some books.
Mentioned this in last month's newsletter, but want to give Annie Leue another shoutout for the awesome design on our back-of-the-booth banner. Great addition! Tied everything together.
Alright, one quick story. The O'Briens, we are HUGE Kansas Jayhawks fans. My dad, my brother, all three of my dad's siblings, both of his parents, and his uncle went to KU. My mom and I didn't go, but we rival anyone in the family in our Jayhawks basketball fandom/obsession. Ashley, on the other hand, is finishing up her MBA at the University of Michigan, so time will tell whether Caleb's allegiances lie with U of M or KU. I think there's a fair compromise; Michigan for football, Kansas for basketball. (Although after the way Michigan dominated teams this week in basketball, I'm not so sure.) And talk about a cool sports fan life, Caleb has The Big House, Allen Fieldhouse, and Wrigley Field. Doesn't get much better than that!
Anyways, sorry, got a little sidetracked there. I share all of that because on my way to our table, I saw these familiar names from the ol' Big 12 conference. Texted my parents: I've got a tough conference schedule here...
Just like the Printers Row Book Festival in Chicago, the most exciting parts for me are:
How much Caleb enjoys setting up the book display and handing out bookmarks and stickers. So much fun to share all of this with my son
Reflecting on how many books are on the table now vs. 2-3 years ago
Displaying the new releases
Especially cool was displaying "These Are the Good Old Days" by local Austin author Russell Daniel.
Russell also had a table set up at the festival, and he did a great job with his display. He had fans, as in readers, and literal fans, as in Austin-is-still-80-degrees-not-like-November-in-Chicago fans to cool things down. He had softcover and hardcover versions of his book. And hats! Really cool hats. It was awesome, as his publisher, to see his table and then see people carrying his book and wearing the green hats around the festival.
365 days. That's all that separated the 2024 festival, when Russell was a writer with a manuscript, and 2025, when Russell is now a published author, selling copies of his book (and hats), connecting with readers, and charting an exciting, new author journey.
Congratulations and way to go, Russell Daniel!
Day 1 in the books. Went to our favorite dinner spot, Moonshine, and then later that night: second dinner.
My cousins, Becca and Brian, and my Aunt Nancy visited us and brought a healthy portion of Terry Black's BBQ. We feasted in the lobby, not the rooftop.
Side note: Becca and Brian both went to Texas A&M. My Mom's sisters (Aunt Nancy and Tracy) both went to Missouri, which is the Jayhawks' biggest rival. And Texas A&M beat Missouri in football earlier that day. Not sure why I needed to share these details, or how they tie into the book festival, but here we are. Did I mention Long Overdue offers Editing help? 😂
Anyway, it was great catching up with family. Great eating Texas BBQ. And great to receive Aunt Nancy's famous Scotcheroos. Ate 1 or 2 (or 4) before bed.
There's an NBA star named Luka Doncic who was traded from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers. Over the offseason, he got in better shape, lost like 20-30 pounds. Well, I think I found the weight Luka lost. There's just so much good food AND Texas-sized portions. I don't know how people stay in shape or pace themselves or not order Terry Black's every other night. Probably a good thing the Texas Book Festival only happens once a year!
Day 2, got up early, took Caleb on a morning stroll to the Capitol. Then some more food.
More great conversations at the table. Talked with a few writers who, hopefully, this time next year, I'm sharing photos of their Long Overdue books. Spoke to a couple of graphic designers. Illustrators. Voice actors. A radio show host who interviewed Russell a week or two later. Chatted with a few publishers. Bookstore owners. Admired the comic book shop across the aisle and their team for bringing the energy eight hours straight, back-to-back days.
Just like last year, I was blown away by how many people attended the festival. All the tote bags packed with books. The literary puns and references on shirts and hats. The Reading Rainbow throwback shirts. A lot of Peanuts/Charlie Brown/Snoopy love, too. The whole weekend is a magical environment, and you leave feeling fired up, knowing that books are alive and well. Long live physical books!
Day 2 in the books. And we were off to the airport. See you next year, Austin!
Well, then our flight was cancelled... which was fine by us! Nothing wrong with a bonus day.
Time for some more food, and time for me to ride in a driverless Waymo 😳
And then time for distractions while Mom and Dad take day job work calls from the hotel room.
Plus: Caleb's first college visit.
Maybe I was wrong; it's not whether he'll be a Michigan Wolverine or a Kansas Jayhawk. He might be a Texas Longhorn.
(P.S. This is what it looks like when I do graphic design. That's why I trust our experts Annie and Heather on the book covers and Kimberly with the monthly cartoon!)
Alright, wrapping this up for real now. Thank you to everyone who stopped by the Long Overdue books table. It was great to connect, and to everyone who bought a book, I hope you enjoy reading stories from our Long Overdue authors — more books to come next year.
See you next November!
"Next year, I'm coming with. And let's drive down, so we can pack more books. I'll take a plate of that BBQ, too."
-Crash, Team Dog
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Fun, fun, fun!!!