Writing is the only thing ...

Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else.

I like this quotation from Gloria Steinem because it fits me perfectly. (I bet it fits a lot of writers perfectly.) I write in the morning, after walking the dog, of course, and don't feel guilty because I haven't emptied the grounds from the coffee pot. I write in the afternoons, after walking the dog, and don't feel guilty about not dusting or running the vacuum, or taking out the garbage. I write in the evening, sometimes eating dinner by the keyboard. And I write at night. When others might be worried about getting to sleep or not being able to sleep, I'm  hoping I don't get too sleepy to write.

You'd think I do little else, but that's not the case. Of course I'm not writing every day, morning, noon and night. But I do manage to find time to write without effort, mainly because I know I might be neglecting something, but that something isn't all that important. 

It's not even important if no one reads what I write. What's important is that I accomplish it because it's what I want to do, what I like to do, and what I do.

Just wanted to say that before I walk the dog (and take out the garbage).

 

The Writer's Block: Newest Addition to Downtown Vegas

Most tourists don’t come to Las Vegas to shop at a bookstore. Of all my friends and family who have visited me over that last several decades, not a single one, not even the ardent readers, have asked for directions to the nearest bookstore.

Aside from the fact that everyone wants to cruise down The Strip at night, visit the restaurants run by the top chefs from the Food Channel, and try their hand at the tables or slots, they might not even realize the city has bookstores. And, except for the widely spaced Barnes and Nobles (and some very excellent used bookstores), that’s about the truth.

Or at least it was.

Today, my friend Ann and I journeyed to downtown Las Vegas specifically to find a place called The Writer’s Block. I’d read about it months ago and again recently and knew I’d have to check it out. A quick google search told me the place was located at 509 South Fremont, just across the street from the famed Fremont Street Experience.

But it wasn’t.

That address was a storefront with windows obliterated by brown craft paper. Next door was a café, and peeking into the windows, I noticed some magazines draped across racks, but no books.

According to the article in the Las Vegas Sun, the store was renovating an old motel called the Alicia, further down Fremont Street. Plans were to take this well-seasoned old building and turn it into a super bookstore with new and used books and the state-of-the-art equipment that turns an ebook into a print book. So, it was in the car and out on the street, looking for Alicia.

But before I found the Alicia, I found The Writer’s Block, a little store next to some kind of battery service shop (or something), where we parked.

I don’t know what I was expecting, maybe some mediocre little joint to match the rundown neighborhood (disclaimer: there’s a lot of redevelopment going on and a lot more planned), but I was totally surprised, thrilled, in fact, to find a shop that was both quaint and modern, filled with new titles and nooks and crannies jammed with the most interesting décor. To the left of the entrance was an old 1800s printing press, partially reassembled and next to it a young man who very willingly (almost lovingly) talked about restoring it with hopes of having it totally operational by the grand opening of the planned mega store.

And, despite the location, customers streamed in and out during our short visit.

It was after lunch and we hadn’t eaten, which is the only reason we didn’t stick around longer; but, we’re planning to go back very soon, very often, in fact. And we most definitely will head back to the café on the corner of Fremont and Las Vegas Boulevard to have a couple of my eBooks magically turned into pBooks. (Not going to wait for the Alicia project to finish.)

We both walked out with a good feeling about the store and its future and I’m thinking those tourists, family and friends are going to start making a visit to this bookstore part of their stay in Las Vegas--or at least they should. In the meantime, they can keep track of the place via the list here.

Who wrote the Bible again?

Since I sell used books via Amazon, I am often looking for stock numbers, condition notes, and other comments about books I plan to list. It's a bit time consuming but at least once a week, I find something that breaks the monotony and either makes me smile (or laugh out loud), or gives me a reason to shake my head (in chagrin).

I recently acquired two Giant Print editions of the Bible and in order to list one of them, I had to find the same item on Amazon in order to use their required stock number (since the Bible doesn't have an ISBN)

It took some scrolling through numerous listings to find what I was looking for but the task had it's moments because it appears other sellers just couldn't get a handle on how to handle the required "author" section of their Amazon listings.

Here are some of their creative approaches.

Holy Bible King James Version Giant Print Center-Column Reference Edition (893NB) by Many

Holy Bible, Keystone Giant Print Presentation Edition: King James Version by Bible

Holy Bible(Containing The Old and New Testaments): NKJV, New King James Version, Giant Print Center-Column (Reference... by Unknown

LARGE PRINT EDITION Authorized King James Version Holy Bible: Old Testament & New Testament (ILLUSTRATED) by God and Christian Miracle Foundation Press

LARGE PRINT EDITION The Catholic Bible | The Catholic Holy Bible - Church Authorized Douay-Rheims / Rheims-Douai... by God, Bible Kindle, The Catholic Bible and Christian Miracle Foundation Press

The Living Bible/Giant Print by Holy Spirit

Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments ; King James Version Giant Print Edition by A Regency Bible

Holy Bible - Giant Print - Toffee Leathersoft - Red Letter Edition (Read-Along References and Faith-Building Gift... by through the inspired writers God

So there you have it. Presenting The Bible by Many, Unknown, the Holy Sprit, and of course, BY GOD!

Happy New Year

Merry Christmas

Rest in Peace, P.D. James

It's interesting to observe how the death of someone you've never met can profoundly affect your emotions.

When I learned about the death of P.D. James, I felt a little bit of my own breath slip out into the ether. No, I never met James, but her work as a mystery writer steered me to read a genre I had yet to start. While titles featuring her most notable investigator, the poetry-writing Adam Dalgliesh all eventually found a home on my bookshelves, it was Cordelia Gray who caught my eye one day at the Flamingo branch of the Clark County Library. My arms were burdened down with science fiction when I spotted An Unsuitable Job for a Woman on the table where I'd unloaded my week's finds.

"Cool title," I said to myself, thinking about the unsuitable job I had to report to on a daily basis. Without even looking at the cover blurbs, I plopped the book on my pile, completing my two-week reading list to a total of seven books.

I decided to read the James book first and within a few chapters, I was caught, mesmerized by the character development, the meticulous plotting, the subtle but necessary backstory and the vivid descriptions of a country I'd never visited.

Off to the library the next day, I returned all the science fiction and picked up four more James titles, took them home and devoured them.

What really caught my attention in these books was the way James wove little incidences into the fabric of her plot. Nothing happened without reason. There were no coincidences. There were no minor characters showing up and going away, never to be heard from again. Her style was tight; her sentence structure impecable, her major characters human, slightly flawed, dedicated.

While I'm sure I don't measure up to James' expertise, I realize how much her process seeped into my own writing. My own former detective, Andrew Atkins, doesn't believe in coincidences, he takes the lint and string and torn pieces of fabric of life and tries to weave it back into whole cloth. He doesn't write poetry but he does have a deep appreciation for music, particularly classical and opera. Like Adam Dagliesh, Atkins knows the cloth will never be as it was before the crime, and while it won't be perfect, like life, it will go on to be useful again.

Since that first P.D. James novel, I've read all her books, watched all the movies on PBS, and waited for the next release. Of course, unless she hid some unpolished or finished manuscripts in some drawer in her writing room, there will be no more.

P.D. James died on  27 November 2014 at the age of 94. As I stated in the beginning, I never met her but I am ever so grateful for having met her work.


*** Read theTerry Gross PBS Interview with P.D. James online.

We did our best!

I picked up a book today titled Stories of Service, which consists of a bunch of articles about and from people who serve others, be they crisis counselors, volunteers, advocates, etc. I bought it because I admire people who can reach out to help those who can't help themselves.

The book, subtitled Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Northwest National Service Symposium, was published at Portland State University.

There are 2,100 copies of the first edition in print, according to the title page.

When I opened the book, I noticed just above the date of May 2003 were the words,

This book was proofread. We did our best.

This made me smile because I know how difficult it can be to proofread. When I worked at a publishing company in LA many years ago, the company had four full-time proofreaders. One would read the edited manuscript word for word while another followed along with the proofing copy. When finished, they sent it back to editorial where any errors were corrected. Then, the corrected copy went back to the second set of proofreaders who mimicked the first crew. When they finished, and any changes were made, the editor gave it one last look.

The completed work went to the printer who sent back a blue line. This went to the editor who, despite approving the work of four proofers, almost always found something wrong -- a typo or a misspelled name, or an incorrect date, or a missing end quote.

Everyone who worked on the publication did his and her best but it seems as if some little error seemed to slip through. (And sometimes, we'd still find something wrong in the finished, printed copy.)

So even though we know how important it is to proofread, proofread, proofread, unless we are perfect, our manuscripts won't be, but if we do it diligently, we can always know that in our hearts  ...

We did our best!