This is the 350th post (for now)*

I went to post a question yesterday—something asking about the validity of the statement that to have an interesting hero you must have an interesting villain and how anti-heroes factor into this—when I realized that it would have been my 350th post. Now why 350 seemed to be this awe-inspiring landmark, I don’t know, but it filled me with a sense of purpose, a need to make pronouncements about the future…

And a horrible case of writer’s block.

How dare I post something trivial for this bench mark, this sign I’ve been going strong since May July 2005. What could I possibly be thinking? I needed to whip out my best bleached smile and political suit and make promises about the future, not post pictures of a pair of ripped jeans with the novel, An Abundance of Katherines, peeping through the tear so that I could make a visual “in your pants” joke.

No, dammit! This blog stood for truth and research and sobriety and the American way…

Huh, no wonder the initials for this blog are B and S. Yeah, I don’t know where the heck I was coming from either. It became obvious that I really had been under the mental weather lately if I was trotting out those tired excuses because the truth is (and was) that I’m rarely sober (humor-wise, I try to make it a habit not to drink before 5 pm), and that many of these blog entries had been written while I reclined in a half-asleep, thought jumble on my couch. Half the time I don’t understand me, so I’m really surprised when y’all seem to get the point I’m trying to get across (which is a sign of your obvious intelligence and powerful deductive skills. Literary Sherlocks, the lot of you).

This doesn’t mean that I don’t research items. I do, but as it is not with the same library-haunting skill that I used in undergrad I tend to discount my abilities. Something I’ve been told to knock off. In fact, I’ve been informed I need to lose the whole self-doubt, (cue whine) but I don’t knooooow what I’m doing (/whine) act because I’m too damn old to bear the nicknames Mona Whiner and Sarah Heartburn anymore.

(As an aside: thank you mom and dad for “gifting” my little four-year-old self with these lovely monikers in the first place. My shrink will be billing you as soon as I find someone who understands my special needs.)

Not that I’ve been complaining, (Yes, I have.) but being stuck in anonymity limbo a lot longer than I thought along with a strong dose of bad television viewing has eroded my drive, and this inability to perform had led to a lack of self-confidence. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Or maybe it’s just a bad sexual pun. Whatever. What I’m trying to say is that I’ve got a lot planned for this blog and I just need to get off my ever-expanding heinie (how else do you think I ripped those aforementioned jeans) and do it!

I am a Bookseller (at large), hear me shelve!

Hear me flip pages?

Dear lord, how can I motivate myself if I don’t even have a good battle cry? I’m doomed. Doomed, I say!

Okay, now even I’m tired of me, which is usually the state I must hit so that I can bounce back and get things done. And those things are as follows:

--I’ve contacted several publishers about getting on their publicity mailing lists so I can start keeping track of what’s new and interesting. Ideally I want to showcase and highlight books that could really benefit from word of mouth/internet chatter and talk about either what the authors are doing publicity-wise and what makes their book unique. For example, the Boss Lady has been telling about this fab book Rain Village that she thinks needs a lot more love. It certainly has a gorgeous cover, which we all know I'm a sucker for.

--I want to celebrate your books and follow their progress: the ones you’ve just sold and the ones coming out. I don’t mean just send me your press release and call it a day because that makes me feel like one of a thousand other targeted blogs and my eyes start to glaze over as I read it. Just write me an email and tell me what’s up. It doesn’t even have to be a long one. And I promise I’ll get back to you. I’m getting better at this email thing (apparently my mental powers are not yet strong enough to deliver my answers directly to your mind. Obviously I’m not a relative of Professor Xavier.)

--I want to host other booksellers’ stories. Admit it, you miss ‘em. Hell, I miss ‘em. I want to hear about their crazy customers, find out if there exists some universal book truths, and also hear about what does and does not work when it comes to publicity and signings. Also I just want to talk to some crazy, cool booksellers who deserve some rewards for toiling in the stacks. All opinions provided can be downed with a little tequila and cut with some salt and lime if necessary.

--I want to continue trying to keep us all up on what’s new and interesting in the publishing world. It’s been the year of hijinks, no reason it should stop anytime soon. (Someone did just by the rights to Regan’s job-ending creative biography, 7, by Peter Golenbock, you know. It will be interesting to see how well it sells and how Murdock and Co. respond to the numbers.)

What does this mean for you? More content, hopefully more fun, and more stuff for us to discuss.

What does this mean for me? A reason to get my butt off the couch, my office organized and my head back on straight. I want y’all to have fun coming here and I want to have fun writing stuff we both enjoy.

Of course, I still want to torture y’all a little, which means the obligatory “in your pants? No, in my pants!” post with An Abundance of Katherines sticking out of my ripped jeans is mere posts away.

I said I needed to fire up, not grow up. I know my limits.

Happy 350th post!



*I plan on weeding filler posts out of the archives which will probably reduce this post down to 345 or even 340, greatly diminishing its current significance. But hey, that’s the future, this is the now!

Writer as Blogger, Blogger as Writer

A quick heads up: I’ve been experiencing computer difficulties lately, and while this cannot be blamed for the fact that I’ve been short on content on long on the silences these past few weeks (no, for that you can turn to lingering anonymity problems and the inertia of joblessness), I may continue the trend this week as I try to get the problems fixed. Emo Guy has promised to wipe my hard drive, reload my programs and take a look at my cooling fan, but when this all goes down remains to be seen. Cross your fingers that this will be a quick and painless experience because I really can’t afford to buy a new laptop right now.

And now that the excuses are out of the way, let’s get to the main topic of this piece: what kind of content do you expect from your writers who blog? How about from the bloggers who aren’t (and never will be) “professional” writers? With the proliferation of writer blogs, group writer blogs, reader blogs and the personal blogs that blend all these things into one, I’ve really begun to question what I need from each source as well as how each affects my thoughts on the blogger. How much is too much? How much is not enough?

Now we may have talked about this subject before, but latest mental wrangling was triggered by something the Written Nerd said to me when she was in town: she didn’t start blogging because she wanted to be a writer, but blogging has improved her writing and her perception of her writing considerably. And it got me thinking about why we blog and what we get from it as readers and writers.

Often in my own writing I think that I share too much of my personal life with y’all. I wobble back and forth on what constitutes too much sharing or content too frivolous, which I’m sure has to do with the original intent of this blog warring with what it has involved into. This blog started as a personal thing to entertain a few friends and then grew into something else entirely. While I did start it so that I would get in the habit of writing something everyday (I’m a horrible journaler—is that even a word?—when it comes to setting pen to paper), it was never with the intent that the content of this blog should be used for anything other than amusement. I’m not going to lie, in the back of my mind there was always some vague little dream where this blog would rocket me into stardom or some nonsense, but I never thought anything would actually happen with it. To find a group of people greater than ten asking me questions and treating me as an authority is very odd. It leaves me feeling both powerful (in the “wow, look what I made” sense) and insecure (in the “wow, did absolutely nothing to earn this and this could all disappear tomorrow” kind of way) as well as a driving need to understand how this happened.

What makes a successful blog, and do we expect different things from different people? Voice, of course, has a lot to do with it, relevance, and content as well, but there is no magic equation that can be applied to all blogs to explain why some command a readership as others fade into Technorati obscurity. I know that I don’t expect the same things from every blog I visit. I know that there are some blogs I’ll check multiple times a day to see if the writer has updated while I’ll only surf past another once a week. The reasons for my fickleness aren’t static, but changing as the blogs—and bloggers—themselves. Some people can talk about face wash and make it sound like the most interesting thing in the world while others need to be hitting the topics that are hot in the writing sphere at any given time (in writing see: self-promotion, ARCs, readers reviews vs. professional reviews, etc).

It’s the difference of content that is driven by the blogger from content being driven by the readership. My blog is mostly driven by what I think (or know) that you want, which is why I’ll often post questions that will hopefully lead to more questions and possible a discussion. It’s how I think of this blog, actually: as a discussion between reader, writer and booksellers. I’m hoping to take the questions asked in the “Ask a Bookseller” post and turn them into a bit of a questionnaire to ask other booksellers and provide a wide variety of opinions and thoughts because while I know what I like, I also know that I’m not the only type of person out there. We’ve all got our own take on the industry and what matters.

When it comes to writer blogs, often I visit to see what they have to say about the process of writing and the industry, but mostly it is to see what’s up with the newest title or upcoming release. Is it going to be out on time? What’s it about? Did the author experience any problems while writing it? I’m not asking for treatise on the subject matter, just an update (even if it is slightly nonsensical: “ran into writer’s block. Am considering killing off all the characters and starting fresh. Wish I hadn’t been so stupid to make character X invincible. Will X win out against the paper shedder and the delete key? Will editor kill me if project is delayed a month? Let’s ask Mr. Owl.”). I’m perfectly cool with a six line entry on a blog if it will allow an author to update something more frequently than many do their websites (a personal pet peeve of mine). I’m not necessarily interested in forming a relationship with the author so much as gaining information to continue the relationship I have with their books.

With reader blogs—unlike with author blogs—personality and uniqueness drive my readership. I have to like and be drawn to the reader blog content because this is the only writing of theirs I will ever read. Sure, I might go there once to read a review on this book or that, but I’ll return if I like their style and content. Do they review the newest and best books? Are they good for discovering new authors and promoting titles that will blossom from word of mouth? Do they have a grading system and how does it work? All these questions are subconsciously something I ask when visiting a reader blog and determining whether I’ll return or add it to my bloglines and sidebar. It’s a relationship based both on content and personality as well as our mutual love for one genre or another.

Personal blogs are more voyeuristic pleasure for me. I return time and again simply because I enjoy the personality, musings, and life stories these blogs relate, while knowing that they’ll do nothing to further my interests in the publishing industry. As a person who hates reality TV, I find my fascination with certain personal blogs (those of people I’ve never met and probably never will) odd, even knowing that they can be as filtered as reality TV. The writer of the personal blog chooses what they share, what they don’t, and what spin they put on it. They can always be the victim or the hero, but never the villain, and I’ll never know if they’re telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I’ll never hear other sides of the story (for the most part) and I’ll never know if they’ll follow up with the consequences that their actions wrought. And while this can be applied to reader and writer blogs as well, there remains an indefinable (for me, at least) difference.

My incomplete—but long, soooo long—rambles aside, I’m interested in hearing what you get out of blogging as a reader or a writer of one and specifically what you get (if anything) out of reader vs. writer vs. personal blogs. What gets you to a blog? What brings you back? And, if you have one, what do you expect from your own blogging?

Ask a Bookseller...

Questions about bookselling? Bookseller behavior? Bookseller interactions in the wild?

Or even questions about that wild--the bookstore--itself?

Put 'em in the comments and I'll find someone to answer them for you (or maybe answer them myself).

Link-o-lation: The Split Pants Edition

Guess what, guys? I’m a B-list blogging celebrity! At least according to this website that I got from Fuse #8. Does this mean I can be in some campy zombie movie?

Kristin Nelson talks about reinventing yourself from mid-list dom up and the problems there in up at Romancing the Blog. A very thoughtful piece directed at writers from all genres.

Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast has a great interview up with Little Willow who occasionally leaves lovely comments around here. Go check out what she has to say about books, blogging and life in general.

Gelf Magazine takes a whole new look at the Higher Power of Lucky “Scrotum” debate by examining the use of that word in literature. Did I ever tell y’all about the little girl who took one look at the Billy the Big Mouth Bass we were selling our store one year (don’t ask me why) and announced, “Mommy, he doesn’t have a penis!” in the sweetest little voice you’ve ever heard? Pure comedy gold. (Thanks Bookninja.)

Okay, the idea of the “reader as window dressing” fascinates me. Do they pay in books?

Speaking of books, in an article provided by book/daddy they’re reprinting Eric & Us (in England at least), a biography of George Orwell by his childhood friend Jacintha Buddicom with additional information her family has gleaned from recently discovered letters. The new afterward adds a whole new dimension to Jacintha and Orwell’s relationship.

The Washington Post takes a look at Clark Ashton Smith, one of the “great writers of fantasy, horror and science fiction” according to the Reading Copy.

POD-dy Mouth describes the price of getting people to pick up your book—and something new. Probably not the best idea if you’re a poor author, but I would have loved to be a bookseller at the store that day.

What we talk about when we talk about books…*

This will have to be short because I have to leave soon to go watch a rugby game, but the language we use to describe we did or did not like about books has always fascinated me. Hand-selling requires a bookseller to ask a customer leading questions, and depending on those questions (and the person you are asking) you’ll either get very concise or very vague responses. Often “What do you like to read?” would earn a categorical response like “Fiction” or “Mystery” or “Political titles” without any additional information, which allows you to take the customer to the right section but not much more. When faced with a question designed to seek more answers “What kind of fiction/mystery/whatever?” people often are unable to explain.

“I read everything,” they’ll say.

Or, “Anything but those cat books. I hate those cat books.”

Doesn’t exactly narrow down the field to make hand selling a little easier. Sure, I can pick up a few of my favorites and start the song and dance, but upon reading the back or hearing my schpeel (spelling?) the customer would respond, “Oh, that’s not me.” Or “I don’t read those books.”

Customers, to me at least, seemed to have a very clear definition of what they didn’t like, but were often unable to express what they did because the concept itself was so broad. It really isn’t a fair question. What they liked in one book they may not find interesting in another. Or they may not use the vocabulary to describe their needs enough to feel comfortable discussing their thoughts.

For the longest time before the rise of book clubs and reader blogs (which have seemed to help a little), it seemed like people got out of high school English and completely lost the skills necessary to express why one book worked and one didn’t. Setting, description, narration, dialogue, tone, their mood while reading it: all things that affect the reader’s relationship with the words on the page and yet I have generations of readers who can’t pinpoint what made them feel they way they did about a title or genre.

And again, genre is a very broad term. When it came to helping people find something new, I would often ask them what they last read and liked. Once I had an answer I could then slowly draw information out of them that I would need to steer them towards another title, “A lot of readers really love the way that history is threaded throughout that storyline, would you like something like that?”

We all have our triggers, things that do and do not work for us, but figuring out what those are and being able to express why is hard. Maybe it’s because we don’t want to be judged or because we’re not reading that closely to pinpoint or it really depends on the book, but whatever it is, it makes the process of hand selling a book that much harder. Because I’ve had many a customer caught up in my excitement over a title, only to have them turned off by a description or word.

The language of books—of how we discuss them—is a fascinating thing, and I’m interested in how it changes and grows with each book we read. I’ve been following Educating Alice’s experiment in teaching her class to discuss their reading through blogs. It is so fascinating to see what these kids pick out in their books as good description or bad, and how they talk about their likes and dislikes. If you’ve got a few hours to kill, I would check these out and if you’re familiar with the books being discussed then leave a message (the kids would love to hear what you have to say). If you’ve only got a few minutes, just drop a note here.

Because I would love to know what you talk about when you talk about books.

*Yeah, I know. Raymond Carver called and he wants his title back.

I’ve Been Tagged

…by one, Robin Brande, to reveal five little known facts about myself. I feel like I’ve done this before, but I’m too lazy to check, so I apologize if this is a repeat (I’m just a really boring person so this won’t be anything new to my friends). Tell me if you’ve heard any of these before (at this site) and I’ll replace it with a new fact.

1. For the first four days of my life I was known as Girl (family name here) because my parents couldn’t decide what to name me (both Sydney and Bronwyn were considered and discarded). Finally the hospital told my parents that if they didn’t name me they couldn’t take me home, so they managed to cobble together something they liked. Only when my father went to tell the nurse their choice and make it official he misspelled my first name by spelling phonetically. It’s been a distraction for people ever since.

2. I was in the Vagina Monologues for two years in college. The first time I played several different roles including the moaning monologue, and the second time I just performed the monologue “Hair.” Everyone involved in each production got their own video of the show. Years later a good friend used her copy to “educate” her boyfriend—specifically the “Hair” monologue—which was fine when I thought I was never going to meet the guy. Silly, naïve fool. When we came face-to-face mere months later I could barely look him in the eye as my friend introduced me as, “This is _______. You know, from the video…” Killlllllll Meeeeeeeee.

3. I can fold my tongue in half—not rolling, but fold it so the tip points towards the back of my throat. Since it’s a pretty useless talent it’s not something I advertise.

4. I really dislike being asked what my ethnicity is, and it’s a question I’ve been asked a lot lately. My dislike stems from the fact that most people tend to phrase their “Hey, what are you?” question with absolutely no tact, and ask me out of the middle of no where. Mostly I just tell people that I’m a Heinz 57 variety style baby and leave it at that, but I once made the mistake of actually admitting that I don’t know (at least not about the chunk responsible for my skin tone and hair color), only to be asked if it was because I was adopted (I’m not, see fact #1). The whole conversation was pretty awful and probably one of the few times I actually came close to yelling “none of your business” at a customer.

5. I have a secret past as a fanfiction writer…

Hmm, that’s all I can think of tonight. Told you I wasn’t interesting.

Tag to all y’all, just let me know if you do the meme by leaving a link in the comments.

Happy V-type Day!

Whether you’re celebrating Valentine’s Day, Single’s Awareness Day, V Day (so called for the Vagina Monologues—which I was a proud participant in for two years, and boy could I tell you stories—and stopping the violence against women), or just treating it as any other day, have a great one! I’ve already gotten to great “gifts” today when Ptolomy’s Gate won the Cybils (Go Bartimaeus!) and y’all pushed my hit counter over 100,000.

Craaaaazy.

I was going to be all V-type things aware today and talk about shelving and selling sexual memoirs, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. Instead I have to go get my house ready for cocktails, pizza, pedicures and bad movies as we celebrate HT Chick’s first Valentine’s Day as a singleton (which is amusing as she could have had a date tonight if she’d wanted).

I’m such a slacker, I know. I don’t know why you put up with me. (It's all this racy talk, I'm sure.)

Have a mentioned lately how cool you are and how much I love to hear the different opinions you bring to the discussion? No? How remiss of me, y'all rock my little blogger heart, so keep on agreeing or disagreeing with me.

Now go forth and put a dent in this world’s chocolate supply!

Para Porn, Chick Lit, and the whole world going to hell in a handbasket...

I’m one of those people who hates unsubstantiated book snobbishness.* You want to hate something and tell everyone around you that it is part of the ever growing corruption of Literature or the female mind or the male mind or a child’s mind. Great. But the biology major in me says prove it. Back it up with facts, figures or something beyond your subjective thoughts and conclusions drawn from a complete lack of scientific evidence. If you can’t do that, then stick with what you can back up: why you did or did not like it. Which means, of course, you would have to actually read something that represents what you claim is corrupting.

It’s like writing a high school book report:

“I did not care for the use of Melville’s Billy Budd in this A.P. English curriculum because the heavy reliance on the reader to grasp Melville’s Christ allusions, which requires the reader to be of, or have a passing familiarity with, the Christian faith. In a country that houses a multitude of different religions and many non-practicing people, I feel that this is a novel’s narrow focus…yadda…yadda…yadda…spend the next two pages supporting argument.”

Notice the paper starts with an “I,” singular, and proceeds to outline the thesis (which, if it’s a good essay, will also address counter arguments), and does not attack the whole of English Literature. The essay is not calling for the removal of Budd, simply supplying the thoughts of the reader on its suitability for high school classroom use after having read the whole damn thing. And I’m cool with that, just as I’m cool with reader reviewers. I like hearing readers’ thoughts and opinions on novels. I’m interested in reading what different people liked and disliked, what allusions are obvious to some and not to others, etc. That’s interesting. We’re all going to take something different away from a reading experience—some of it universal and some of it not—and not all of it is going to be everyone’s cuppa, which is why an informed reader may seek out many different reviews on the same subject to form their own opinion about whether or not to give this book or that one a try.

Denigrating an entire genre, sub-genre, or type of book when you’ve barely read any of the titles housed there-in? Not interesting, just sloppy. Very, very sloppy.

So when I first read the Independent’s article on Horror that I outlined in my last column, I was more than a little taken back on the bit (and yes, I mean that with all British connotations) tacked on to the bottom addressing the popularity of “Para Porn.” This would be Urban Fantasy or Paranormal Romance for those who might be wondering. Two different sub-genres (actually three as they throw Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight into the mix) all smashed together in a derogatory way because, according to the experts, this does not deserve to be mentioned within the same breath as Horror.

How derogatory? Well let’s see:

“Horror expert Steve Jones says that "Para Porn" represents a new genre, though he regards it disdainfully as women's fiction rather than horror. "It's aimed at a different audience to traditional horror," he says, with the hint of a sneer.”

Wow, it’s not Horror because it’s Women’s fiction, not because it doesn’t contain traditional Horror elements, but because it is aimed at women or has female protagonists who have sex. Gotcha. I see the light! You have converted me to your higher purpose! And, gee, thanks for clearing that up for me. If I still worked at a bookstore I would put up a sign warning all my male customers away from buying the Kim Harrison or Kelley Armstrong novels (because men did indeed buy them), and instead direct them to the more Manly novels of King and others. Because women surely do not read Horror! Gads, no, nor do they make up a large percentage of the book buying population. Obviously these books need to be placed all together and quarantined away from serious Horror.

Sarcasm aside, I’m slightly amused by the fact that even as it’s considered porn, the publishers admit that “they are starting to sell really well over here.” And that even as they denigrate the influence that Buffy that Vampire Slayer may have had on this growing trend of kick-ass heroines, they praise it for resurrecting the Horror genre (see the first part of the article). I think this is truly the definition of a back-handed compliment, or maybe they’ve been reading The Game and this is really a come on. Hiding a compliment in an insult will really capture a girl’s attention, you know.

But I’m willing to give the British publishers a bit of a pass in that they recognize what people are reading and that it is a boon to what had previously been a dead genre. Maureen Dowd does not get the same kind of treatment. She had to go and resurrect the old “Is Chick Lit sucking the brains out of the female population? Why yes it is” argument and then proceed to make mistakes all over the place, which are addressed here, here and here. I wouldn’t even mention Dowd (and why she chose to discuss a four year old argument now since other writers have done a much better job of covering the fiasco) except for the fact that her argument echoes that of the British pubs in the whole “it’s focused towards women and therefore has no redeeming value” opinion, which saddens me.

It’s 2007, folks. I realize that I’ll never be able to wrestle the classics from the cold, dead hands of a bunch of old white guys, but can’t we open our eyes a little? Can’t we begin to realize that everyone brings something to the table? The people read for a myriad of reasons and therefore will be attracted to a myriad of different genres and reading levels? That we cannot command the reading public to like one thing and dislike another just because we feel that it is not up to our superior standards?

And why, WHY!, does the fall back insult/argument still have to be about women? Oh, you know, only women read that. It’s Women’s fiction, and not worth my time. This will only appeal to women.

Well, guess what, buckos. Readers change. The reading environment has changed. And while it is still hard to get men to pick up a book written by a woman, I wonder how much of that is a negative feedback loop we, as a society, have created by telling them they won’t be interested because it’s “Women’s fiction.” If I, as a woman, can identify with a male spy/playboy is it really that hard for a man to read a story told from the point of view of a female lawyer or cop?

I’m not asking them to walk a mile in a Chick Lit heroine’s Manolos (if that heroine even owned Manolos, a shoe stereotype that owes more to Sex and the City than any Chick Lit novel I’ve ever read), nor do I think it’s necessary for me to shove my size eights into one of Don Pendleton’s character’s army boots to understand what some men see in his novels. Some books will play out better to a more masculine audience and some to a more feminine, which is something I accept.

That doesn’t mean, however, that one book is better than the other or that you can even compare apples and oranges. Had Maureen Dowd sat down with those thirty-odd Chick Lit novels and discussed why she, and solely she, couldn’t get into them, then maybe I would have understood where she was coming from. Maybe. But she seems to be missing the point that the Horror publisher’s at least got that any fiction genre and its popularity hinges on the public’s need for escapism of some sort (whether it is escapism with a side of trying to understand the world around them or simply to fully escape the world around them). Chick Lit at its best fulfills that same need by taking the pressures many women suffer under (trying to do well at a high-pressure job, find someone to spend their life with, and achieve some type of economic stability even if it can only be measured in shoes) and discussing it a fun, one-on-one manner.

Telling someone that their time would be better spent reading The Red Badge of Courage misses the point. My time, and what I do with it, is my time and until it affects the great and judgmental you in some detrimental way you don’t have a right to infringe upon it. Maybe my time would be better spent writing my own memoirs, or cooking up enough dinners to freeze for the next few weeks, or helping the homeless, or (in my personal case) finding a job. And maybe most of my time, or your time is spent doing this, and worrying about that, and dealing with that other thing.

But maybe we need to channel that tension of all the things we should be doing or having to do into some sort of release, find something to open that pressure valve and let it all out so that we can continue to function as proper members of society. And maybe we find that in books that let us relax, escape our world for another or teach us in some funny, distant way to handle it. If it educates us at the same time, great, but what stands for education is subjective as well.

If it expands my vocabulary, does it count?

If it educates me in pop culture, something that our world trades upon as heavily these days as solid facts, have I wasted brain space or increased my knowledge in other areas more accessible to those around me?

If it gives me a breather, takes me away from this world for 400 pages, and allows me the distance I need to later revisit what is going on around me and perhaps deal with it critically, is it not performing the greatest public service of all?

There is a reason fiction—of all kinds—exists, and it is up to the reader whether they choose to read to learn, to think, to escape or all three. And beyond introducing new titles and authors to try, there is nothing you or I can do about it. So stop trying to tell someone what they shouldn’t read, and pick up a new book.

You might be pleasantly surprised when something that constitutes Para Porn or Chick Lit appeals to you. And if they don’t, well then, you have something slightly more empirical to back up your arguments when someone asks you why not.






*I’ve been doing pretty well with my own snobbishness when it comes to role-playing books and game, thanks to some wonderful customers I had that were very open but their thoughts and opinions on the subject.

Horror is the new Black

Apparently Horror is back with a vengeance so don’t go saying bloody Mary in a dark bathroom mirror anytime soon. Or so implies the UK’s Independent Online in their article “Why horror writing will be big in 2007,” in interesting piece that looks at the resurgence of Horror as a viable market.

The article discusses the Horror genre from its fall due to glut in the ‘80s to its rising popularity in today’s market. Here in the States, books like David Wellington’s Monster Island and Monster Nation have done exceedingly well as have Max Brooks’ more comedic horror pieces The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z. And one has only to look at the top five movie releases to see Horror is once again making the big bucks, a trend that is being reflected in a receptive publishing world. It is no surprise then that 2007 will see the release of some well-hyped horror novels from Joe Hill’s Heart-shaped Box (the author was recently outed as Stephen King’s son) to Steven Hall’s The Raw Shark Texts (already being eagerly fought over by Hollywood).*

Despite this new upsurge in Horror love, many of these books are being released under the heading of General Fiction in the UK in an attempt to gather a wider audience. As I mentioned in my interview with writer Joe Nassise (author of the novel, Heretic, Book One in the Templar Chronicles), I (as well as many others out there) tend to equate Horror novels with Horror movies—more specifically the Horror movies that lend themselves to Torture Porn (see: Hostel, Touristas, Saw, etc). While I’m all for a good scare and something to get the heart racing, I don’t want to read a novel where the gratuitous violence becomes desensitizing. When I mentioned this to Joe he kindly pointed out that this was a rather skewed view:

“To me, horror is anything that evokes a feeling of dread or fear. This means that many books that are not marketed as horror certainly have some horrific elements to them. Conversely, it also means that horror novels have a tremendous amount of room to live and breathe in and equating them with the dull and many times plotless slasher films of the last two decades doesn't give them the credit they deserve.

Certainly horror has its share of gore and guts, but it also has the lyrical symphony that is the writings of people like Peter Straub and Caitlin Kiernan, the evocative descriptions of Glen Hirschberg and Thomas Liggotti, the action and adventure of Tim Lebbon and Chris Golden. And I could go on in this vein for hours. A few years ago Alice Seibold won the Bram Stoker Award, one of horror fictions two highest literary honors, for her novel THE LOVELY BONES, in which a dead girl narrates the disintegration of her family following her rape and murder. Aside from the fact that the book is narrated by a ghost, there isn't a single element of the supernatural in the entire work, yet it was clearly seen as horror for the feelings it evokes.”

The sentiment is echoed by Will Elliot, author of The Pilo Family Circus (currently unavailable in the US), when he says, “I find more is possible in a story when the rules of reality can be disregarded. Writing in, I guess you could call it magic realism, makes it possible to hold up a warped mirror to our world and laugh at the strange shapes reflected in it. That way fiction can be a complete escape from our world or, if you want, you can analyse the reflections and try to apply them, extracting some kind of relevant meaning.”

This “meaning,” according to the Independent, may stem from our fear of terrorism in the world at large or our apathy to it. Are we looking for an escape from the realism of today’s world or just something to give us the jolt of adrenaline to keep on going? While the answer may be different for different people I think the presence of escapism plays an integral part.

We have become a society that embraces the escape whether through reading, gaming or watching TV. Harry Potter made it socially acceptable for adults to enjoy a child’s world filled with wizards and witches and the cult success of Buffy (as well as the rise of Geek Chic) played into the need within us all to indulge our imaginations. It is fine for a “grown up” to discuss whether or not Snape is evil or proudly admit that they followed a certain Vampire Slayer before she was “popular” and Whedon became a name synonymous with kick-ass girl power. We can embrace what drove our inner child to create fantasy worlds and outrageous tales while still holding down a nine-to-five job and fighting for the American Dream.

And what is Horror but an indulgence in our primal fears (the anti-American Dream if you will) that there is someone lurking around the corner or under the bed, while allowing us to control the outcome whether by flipping to the last few pages, setting the book down or fast-forwarding the movie? With the ability to somewhat control the outcome and know that the story comes with an endpoint, we can embrace the fear, even revel in it. We can be chased by serial killers, see ghostly figures in the mirror and run from demon possession—live beyond our physical capabilities—for a few hours a time between checking email and making dinner for the kids.

Will Horror continue to be embraced? I don’t see anything stopping it. The presence of Paranormal Romance and the strength of titles falling under the Urban Fantasy setting show that Horror in its varied forms has been around for awhile and it just needs more strong stories and inventive writers to keep it strong.

Your thoughts?


Tomorrow: Watch me rip Steve Jones a new one for sneeringly lumping all Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy under what he derogatorily labels “Para Porn,” and discuss how tagging that bit (British slang connotations totally applicable) on at the end weakened the discussion of the blossoming Horror genre as a whole. I would love to incorporate your thoughts as well.


*Also mentioned in the article is Charlie Houston’s Already Dead, a novel previously released in the US in 2005 (after receiving a starred review from PW). Its follow-up, No Dominion, became available here in December 2006.

A Book Plea for Soldiers

Hey y’all, I got the following email from a friend and I’d thought I would share it with you all. If you’re interested in sending some sort of care package please email me and I’ll send the address along. All those old books and unwanted ARCs could be put to excellent use:

I’d like to bring to the attention of my literary-minded friends a special need that has arisen among the servicemen on the front lines in Afghanistan.

The 3rd Brigade Combat Team has been in Afghanistan for a year and was scheduled to return home at the beginning of February. However a few days before they were to leave, they received word that their deployment had been extended until June. Although the soldiers and their families are very committed to their mission, this has obviously been a deep disappointment and the cause of much grief.

A very practical concern has also arisen as a result of this last minute notification. The soldiers had shipped much of their personal belongings home, keeping only a few supplies to keep with them while traveling home. This means that in addition to the usual toiletry items (see list below), the soldiers had also mailed home their books, leaving them bored out of their skulls during off-duty hours.

A request has gone out to send as many books as we can gather for the soldiers. These are shared among the men (no women, in this case, as they are in a high-risk combat zone) and will be passed along afterwards to the soldiers who will relieve them in June. Books of all genres are greatly appreciated: non-fiction, fiction, military, Christian, sci-fi, fantasy, historical novels – whatever!

If you are able to also slip in any of the items on the list below, that would be greatly appreciated, too. The Post Office has pre-paid boxes that run $8-$12 (with customs forms required) for all military addresses

He will see to it that the books and supplies are distributed among the soldiers. Thank you very much!

Other ideas for packages:

Books and magazines;
DVDs of Movies and TV shows
Oatmeal: The kind in the bowls that can be microwaved;
Store-bought (and sealed) Cookies; (Girl Scout cookies are a big hit!)
Pop tarts;
Cheese or peanut butter crackers;
Jerky;
Little Debbie Snacks;
Tootsie Rolls, Starburst, Jolly Ranchers and other candies that will mail well;
Cross word puzzles
Toilet Paper (the soldiers use the really soft TP as currency!)
Dark Green or Black Socks – the thicker the better!
Underwear
Toothpaste
Toothbrushes
Other Health & Hygiene items
Phone Cards
Beanie Babies (they give them to local kids)
Instant coffee. There are many flavored coffees that are very good.
Powdered Gatorade.
Powdered hot chocolate
Kool-Aid (presweetened of course)
Tea bags
Slim Jim'sCrackers and Easy Cheese.
Triscuits and Ritz crackers are great.
Single servings of bagged chips. (The small bags stay fresh longer.)
Candy, of course. (M & M's are great, hard candy-anything that won't melt.)
Bubble gum
Rice Krispie Treats
Dry cereal. (The small, individual serving boxes stay very fresh.)
Kraft Easy Mac
Microwave popcorn
Granola bars
Power bars
Dried fruit
Chex mix
Canned soup
Tuna Spices (Onion powder, garlic powder, spice all, ect )
Summer sausage
Oatmeal
Salsa
Lollipops
Marshmallows
Gum
Ragu Express
Canned chicken
Salad dressing
Instant soup
Fast food condiments (Hot sauce, ketchup, mustard, salt and pepperpackets, relish, Mayo)

Edited to Add: Want to get rid of some of your romances too? The less purple ones can be sent to the men (I had a lot of male cross-over readers for romantic suspense novels--Lisa Jackson had a huge following), but for where to send to the general troop population (which has a lot of ladies these days) you can check out: http://booksforsoldiers.com/. Thanks to Darlene for pointing that out over at Smart Bitches and Marta Acosta for pointing out to the ladies that there are a lot of other places to donate to. Women's shelters sometimes have restriction on what they will and will not take, however, so check them out before you send.

Confessions of a (so not recovering) Book Junkie

I’m going through book withdraw, have been going through it for the last month, but it has become very clear since I haven’t had any books to touch at all. In the last days of the store closing, whether or not we had something became a guessing game—a treasure hunt—and it almost masked the symptoms of bookus withdrawus.

Almost.

The little echo of book want would still come out in our voices when we tried not to snap at a customer, “No, of course we don’t have that book. We haven’t gotten a new shipment since Christmas,” or, “That’s not out yet, and we’re not going to get it before we close.” You could feel it in the way our fingers would begin to itch when we’d talk about a title not yet released. The desire to reshelve the items strewn about by the foraging customers was hard to muster because it wasn’t a matter of moving old titles to make room for new ones.

These were all old. Stale. Not new and shiny and written up everywhere.

Over and over again, this is how it went: “Sorry, much loved classic or golden oldy. It’s not you. It’s me. I just need a little variety in my life. A little something new, different. Some fresh, young thing to show me a good time. You understand, don’t you? I’ll always come back to you. But this book—this book gives me the more I need now.”

I was a frickin’ book junkie! Always looking for the next fix, the next new thing. Sure, nine out of ten times it might not even be something I wanted to read, but I needed the knowledge of the title. I needed to hold it in my hands and feel the paper and the deckled edges. Trace my hands along the embossing and play with the jacket flaps.

No wonder my TBR piles reached the ceiling and yet I kept buying, kept making lists. “Remember to check out this one,” I’d tell myself, “and don’t forget to skim through that one at lunch.”

And ARCs! Don’t even get me started on ARCs. They were a shot of book heroin, spiked with the added ingredients of having access to a title way before my customer base would.

Now that I’m out I’m going through withdraw. I have a box of books that I purchased before the store closed. You’d think a box of books would be able to keep me distracted and happy for a least a few days, wouldn’t you? But no, it’s not enough. It’s never enough. Suddenly there all these books in the stores that I don’t know about, have never processed or seen the cover. Suddenly I can’t scan my eyes over a section and pick out all the new titles because there are so many of them! I become disorientated, dizzy. I need to sit down.

I need to stay away from the shopping baskets and my credit card for Twain’s sake because I’m not making any money now!

Looking back (with all the hindsight of a week, sheesh), it’s amazing to me how much book knowledge I absorbed by just handling the receiving. Just the act of pulling a book out of a box and scanning the cover was enough to trigger something in my mind: remember this, the title’s going to be a hard one for customers; oh, this one is going to be one of the mysterious blue ones customers are looking for; this one, this one is front table fodder. Some of these titles I held for no longer than four or five seconds—just enough time to pull them from the box and toss them into the correctly labeled bin—but it gave me what I needed to do my job.

(Reason #326 why you should have your inventory person passing on their knowledge to the people working the floor.)

I haven’t been into a bookstore lately. I’m afraid. Being in Powells with the Written Nerd was easy enough because there are so many books (I just let the book blindness take over and tuned most of it out), but I don’t want it to be like that. I want to be able to go into bookstores and talk to the people working the floor about what they like and don’t like about displays. I want to browse outside and talk about what works and what doesn’t in window set-ups. I want to be able to talk to y’all as one who is now on the outside without maxing out my credit cards because I don’t have the willpower to be in a bookstore for five seconds without buying something.

I want to actually read that box of books I bought instead of just adding them to the TBR pile.

I want my will power back…if I ever had any to begin with.

But most of all…(I’m so ashamed)…Most of all I want that book knowledge again. I want to know what’s coming out and how it’s doing. I want that invisible little book antennae to start gathering up book knowledge again.

I want what I can’t have unless I go back to work for a bookstore which I will not do because I don’t want to be Retail’s bitch anymore. I did it for seven years.

I want to have some control. What ever the hell that is. You’re opinions on the subject are always welcome.

~*~

And on a completely unrelated topic from before: so far I’ve got a couple of votes for bloglines being a good blog aggregator and one vote for Google reader. I remember hearing that one of these was slow to update, but I can’t remember which one, so if anyone else wants to share their thought I would love to hear about other options. And/or the definitive pluses and minuses for each program.

Because why ever would I want to actually research this on my own when I have the collective brain power of all you readers?

Also, new blogger hates me. Haaaaaates me. The feeling is mutual however.

Not Yet Tired of These Four Walls: The Links, Links & More Links Edition

After a slack-tastic last couple of days I thought that I would get back online and see what’s been going on without me.

Short Answer: A whole of a lot.

Shelf Awareness has been running a great series of articles on what went on at the ABA’s Winter Institute. I was jealous before (thanks to the Written Nerd’s recap over a Rogue beer), but now? Now there are no words. I wish they would make these things open to the public. Sign up now because it’s great reading, be you a reader, bookseller, or author.

(Speaking of the Written Nerd, we both have a question for you, dear reader. Do you use any feed programs to keep up on your favorite blogs, and if so, which ones? Neither W.N. nor I are very knowledgeable in this area and we’d both like to streamline our reading process. Your thoughts on bloglines vs. newsgator vs. whatever would be very helpful.)

Meanwhile Booksquare got a whole new look! Go and enjoy the lovely illustrations and the brand new content.

Thanks to Dear Author, I learned about, submitted my blog to, and was summarily rejected by Blogburst. Since this has about as much significance in my life as my failed modeling career (in other words, not much), I’m not hurt by the rejection. I knew that my content probably wasn’t what they were looking for. But for those of you that tend to write book reviews and more journalistic articles, you should apply. If you’re picked up you could greatly increase you readership and traffic to your blog.

And more blog traffic means more income, at least according to this Christian Science Monitor article. Personally, I’m more intrigued by the Brainiads Smart Marketing than AdSense.

This is old news for those of you who visit Cynsations on a regular basis, but Cynthia recently got bookseller Elizabeth Bluemle to outline what she thinks makes a successful bookmark. Sure, she’s doing it for kid’s books, but this applies to anyone making a bookmark for their book.

The new February Book Slut is up! As always interviews, reviews and opinions abound. Go read.

The Needle nominees, they’ll be up tomorrow (or so says POD-dy Mouth).

Agent Kristin has continued her Agent 101series with a discussion of contracts. Good reading if you’re interested in even coming close to getting published, or just interested in what all that law jargon means.

And how did I miss the fact that the NY Times Book Review has a blog? I’m such a loser.

For any and all “Big-haired” gals, Jennifer Lynn Barnes (the author of the YA novels Golden and Tattoo) has a video blog on the subject. This has inspired me to come up with my own vblog idea (though it has nothing to do with big hair), which will hopefully debut sometime after I get my severance check.

Elizabeth Burns of A Chair, A Fireplace and A Tea Cozy has linked to her article in the School Library Journal about children’s book blogs. While most of you know all about surfing blogs to find out what people are saying, as a bookseller I found certain ones were great to turn parents onto and wish that I’d come up with some kind of list. If I’ve learned anything in the bookselling world, it’s that most book browsers/buyers like to feel self-sufficient and take care of the book searches on their own. A list of great children’s review sites would have helped them along in their research.

Looking for a news round-up of the flashier book news? Check out what the Bookblogger has for you today.

And finally to give you some idea where everyone’s head was at during the closing, I give you my Boss’s recap on “We’re Closing Because…” du Jour, because you can only be asked the same question eight million times before your brain goes a little wonky. Fortunately Saturday’s beerfest and inadvertent Irish dancing floorshow proved that we’re all coming out of this just fine. Some people are already bored, others have already gotten jobs (or just continued on working the jobs they had), and we all are waiting to see what surprises Payroll has in store for us (in my case, still not getting my address right). I wonder where we’ll all be in a year.

Not going anywhere

Jeeze, a girl just loses her job and y’all think she’s just going to up and leave you?

I’m made of sterner stuff than that. I’m not giving up the Bookseller Chick name and I’m sure as heck not going anywhere.

I may adopt the title of “Bookseller at Large” as well, however, just because I can.*

I’ve just been a busy girl, what with filling out my unemployment, teaching a coworker how to set up a blog to run her manga referral business through, and meeting the great and wonderful Written Nerd.

Dude, it was like getting to go backstage and meet the band. Only it was meeting a blogger and talking about ABA Winter Institute (jealous, so jealous), books, bookstore and the future of bookselling.

(So basically both cooler and nerdier than actually meeting the band, and I owe W.N. a drink if I ever make it to NY.)

We talked until we were both hoarse and now I’ve got eight million different ideas running through my head for blog topics and discussions and research. And I would love to talk about them all now, but I really need a nap so I will have the energy for the wrap party tonight.

Because there is nothing like getting drunk with your ex-coworkers and playing the “in your pants” game**. I know this because we actually did this for two hours last Sunday. A bigger group of booksellers only means more titles. And more alcohol only means we’ll think we’re funnier.

Oh, and that we’ll get the titles wrong more often than not. Maybe I should bring a cheat sheet?

Something to think about.

I’ll try to actually write about books tomorrow.

*Thank you, sweet pea. May your bookstore forever be ruled over by benevolent cats.

**and because credit should be given where credit is due, Maureen Johnson is the official creator of the “In Your Pants” game as far as I know.

Harry Potter, Moonshine, and the First Day of the Rest of My Life

The Boss Lady emailed me this morning about how it was only appropriate that the Harry Potter released date should be announced after we’d finished closing the store. Hell to the Yeah.

(For those of you who have not yet heard the date is July 21st, 2007 and if I’m not doing the Denver publishing school thing y’all are welcome to join me in a local bar to do shots. If you’re not at home reading the book, that is.)

In honor of that alcoholism-inducing occasion it seems only right that I finished my last day of work yesterday by trying some real, honest-to-god, they’ve-been-making-it-since-the-prohibition moonshine.

Flavored moonshine to be exact. In mason jars. Provided by one Jr. Johnson.

Well, Jr.’s grandpappy to be exact. It being a family tradition and all.

Two things I learned about moonshine that I hadn’t previously realized:

1.) real artists create it in oak barrels.

2.) and if done right, it is smoother than the highest grade tequila.

After much sampling it was decided that while the plum moonshine had the best flavor, the crabapple moonshine was not as sweet and therefore had a more interesting taste to the pallet.

Maybe I’ll go down South and learn the moonshining tradition from Jr.’s grandpappy. If only so I can discover where gets all the mismatched mason jars.

The last day of work was rather anticlimactic; just the Boss and I cleaning up the last of the trash, carting the various things we’d left at the store over the years out to our car, and giving the store one last cleaning. I wiped down the bathroom and she swept under the shelves. We collected the bits and pieces of things that people had left behind: D’s shoes, M’s CDs, A’s soup. Piled them all into a basket to take to the “wrap” party we’re having at a local pub on Saturday.

The shelves were empty—stripped of books and stickers—and when it was all said and done we sent seven pallets of books back to the warehouse and stripped 3,300ish paperbacks. Not that many books really. People were very frenzied in their buying in the end, bringing piles of books to the counter, easily dropping over $100 with each purchase and then coming back for more.

Irony is that because of this frenzied final sale, we made the year and then some. Closing all these stores might actually give corporate the little boost at the end of the fiscal year that it needs.

I have lots of stories to tell: the ones that made me roll my eyes at people’s stupidity, the funny incidents, the goodbyes that made me cry. And I’m sure I’ll tell them eventually (whether you want me to or not), but just not today.

Today is the first day of my unemployment. The first day of not being a bookseller in every sense of the word. The (clichéd) first day of the rest of my life.

And it started with a very nice cup of coffee, absolutely no remnants of a moonshine hangover, and you guys.

I think it started pretty well.