HUNTINGTON -- Merle Haggard sang, "If We Make it Through December."

But forget whole months of making it, Cabell County Public Library Director Judy Rule will be tickled if she can motor through the next week.

Rule and her library crew have Saturday night's Friends of the Library fundraiser in their rear-view mirror, but now are facing another welcome -- but mammoth task -- putting on the Tri-State's largest book festival.

Held every two years since 2004, The Ohio River Festival of Books is set for 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday when more than 70 authors, two dozen book vendors and a couple hundred volunteers turn the Big Sandy Superstore Arena Conference Center into the region's largest one-day book store.

Free and open to the public, the fest is stacked and packed with best-selling authors, children's events, author readings, book signings, informative programs and lots of great deals from the region's book publishers.

First put on in November 2002 to celebrate the Cabell County Public Library's 100th anniversary, the Ohio River Festival of Books brought together the integral book producers, authors and libraries from all three states, gathering together for a book party under one roof.

"The purpose of the book festival is to showcase the Appalachian literature of West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio and to let people in the outside world know we are not a bunch of people that are illiterate or not normal," Rule said, commenting about this past week's controversial casting call for a horror movie that asked for abnormal West Virginians. "We are trying to show the other side of Appalachia, the one we know, that is filled with a lot of talented people."

Booking the best sellers

One of the main draws is some of the top-selling and most-respected authors in the country.

Opening up the book festival at a free Friday night reception will be Lisa Scottoline, who has written a dozen bestsellers and has been honored with an Edgar Award, the most prestigious prize any mystery writer can win.

Scottoline kicks off the fest at 6 p.m. Friday by speaking and signing copies of her newest book "Lady Killer."

The reception also features music by the '37 Flood. Admission is free. However, tickets are required. They may be obtained by visiting or calling the Cabell County Library at (304) 528-5700.

Saturday is also filled with top authors including a return visit by Sharyn McCrumb, who's been riding a wave of NASCAR-based popularity with her latest novels "Once Around the Track," that follows her best seller "St. Dale," a modern-day reworking of Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales."

McCrumb speaks at 10 a.m.

"She's been to Huntington several times over the years, and she just wowed the audience the last time," Rule said. "Everybody was really taken with her and when she agreed to come back we put her on as the first thing on Saturday morning. I think people will be enthralled with her and hearing her comments on writing her new book."

Also slated to speak is Pulitzer Prize-nominated historian and author Jean Edward Smith, the John Marshall Professor of Political Science at Marshall University and author of a dozen books.

Nominated for a Pulitzer for his biography of Ulysses S. Grant, Smith has also written biographies of Chief Justice John Marshall and Gen. Lucius D. Clay. At 2:45 p.m., Smith will discuss his latest book "FDR," a biography of Franklin Roosevelt.

If you were wondering, Rule said they did try to get West Virginia native author Homer Hickam but his appearance/speaker fee would have eaten up half of the book festival's $50,000 budget. She said they unfortunately couldn't afford to do that.

Growing with the garden

Like it has in years past, the Festival of Books is working with the arena, which is also hosting another show in the main arena that weekend.

In conjunction with the WSAZ Home and Garden Show that runs Friday through Sunday in the adjacent arena, the festival has scheduled two nationally-known gardening experts who are giving free talks.

A native of Rockcastle County, Ky., Jon Carloftis is one of the nation's premier gardening experts. He will speak at 2:45 p.m.

Since moving to New York in the 1980s, Carloftis has designed more than 50 rooftop gardens and is a contributing editor for "Garden Design" magazine, and the author of "First a Garden," a book of photos and essays chronicling his career as a garden and landscape designer.

Another noted national expert, Denise Wiles Adams will speak at 1:30 p.m. on "Restoring American Gardens: Ornamental Plans and Landscapes, 1770-1920."

Last but not least, Mary Alice Mairose, a garden expert from Ohio, will talk about her new book, "The Ohio Governor's Residence and Heritage Garden," at 11:30 a.m.

Rule said they expect a nice cross-pollination between the two shows.

"We knew that people would be interested in these topics so they can just step over from the Home and Garden Show to hear these people speak," Rule said. "We cross-promoted with the Dogwood Festival the last time and had some bleed over from that. We think that since the Home and Garden Show is so much bigger we may have even more people coming over."

Get your programs

In addition to being entertained, Rule said one of the currents running through the Ohio River Festival of Books, is the variety of programs that teach festival-goers valuable info.

The adult programs were booked by David Owens and the children's programs by Niza Uslan, both employees at the Cabell County Public Library.

Some of the programs include: at 10 a.m. Joe Geiger and Jack Dickinson's "Researching the Civil War in Your Backyard;" at 1:30 p.m. New York agent Michele Rubin's "Inside Major Publishing;" and at 2:45 p.m. Gordon Simmons, Chris Hatten and David Owens' program on identifying salable and valuable books.

For children, there's also a full plate of programs that include the Madcap Puppets at 10 a.m., as well as nationally-known children's book authors, Shutta Crum (a Paintsville, Ky., native) whose book "Spitting Image" is on the New York Public Library's list of Top 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing at 11:30 a.m. and 2:45 p.m.

Debbi Dadey, who has written more than 140 children's books, speaks at 1:30 p.m.

Rule said a big thanks for the fest goes out to all the partners that include the Cabell County Public Library, Marshall University Libraries, Briggs Lawrence County Public Library, Wayne County Public Library and Ohio University Southern Campus Library.

Border's Books, Music & Café at the Huntington Mall is the festival's prime vendor and a sponsor and a host of other sponsors for the festival that is a fund of the Foundation for the Tri-State Community.

"We can only do this every other year because it is so much," Rule said. "I would say it takes at least a couple hundred volunteers the day of the festival because we have costumed characters, people to introduce speakers, room monitors and other volunteers. The library staff is just putting in hours and hours. We just hope everybody comes out and has a wonderful time."