Bookstores

With the loss of Borders in 2011, one must ask the question: What is going to happen to the bookstore? I read Publisher's Weekly and have noticed an alarming trend where more people are purchasing e-books than ever before; those numbers just keep rising. It concerns me, not because I am afraid I will never again be able to lay my hands on a tangible book, but because I will miss the experience of the bookstore. If you are in love with the printed word and the experience, you will understand. If you are not concerned about losing the experience, then you have never had it.

Here is what I love most about being in a bookstore:

Walking through the door is like taking a step through a portal into another world. You become instantly warm from the luminescent lighting and the camaraderie you feel with every person browsing the shelves or losing themselves in a book while nestled in the large, leather chairs and couches. Your senses are bombarded with familiar, comforting scents like coffee and newsprint. You can, at times, hear the laughter of children as they traipse through their imaginary world of princesses, dragons, and fearless knights or play with Bad Kitty or the dear sweet Little Llama.

Then, the whispers start. Every book on every shelf is calling your name, whispering the promise of their story in your ear, and telling you to, "Pick me! I can take you places you've never been!" You walk along the shelves with your heart racing, possibly touching some of the spines as you move through the rows; listening, feeling, getting excited about what you can learn from the ink printed on the pages. You are delirious and everything becomes a bit hazy in your mind. You know you went there for a new adventure but can't decide between the love story or the one about government conspiracies; perhaps the one on this shelf about kings and queens long dead...

You lift a book from the shelf and weigh it in your hand; feeling the story move against your skin. You flip it open to the jacket flaps and read a synopsis to decide if it's the kind of story you want to read this week. You inhale with your nose close to the pages and allow the scent of ink on paper to take over your senses. You feel the crackling of the glue that binds the pages together. It is intoxicating to you because you love books. You may even be of the type to sleep with one under your pillow so it can whisper its tales to you while you dream.

You make your choice; not after one or two or even three books that you perform this ritual with, but after many. You bring your carefully chosen friend - because that's really what a book is to a reader - to the counter and pay, then head home with your new friend held close; excited about what the pages will bring. When you arrive home, you lovingly unwrap your book from the bag and sit down, perhaps with a cup of coffee or tea, and begin your journey.

I am at a loss when I think of a time when I cannot perform that ritual. I don't want to shop for books via a cold piece of metal that connects me to a www something or other. I want the heat of the book in my hand, its pages giving off a little bit of life that I can absorb just by holding it.

How about you? Do you prefer a tangible book or an e-reader? Have you ever experienced the phenomenon described above?

I am eager to know, drop me a line.

It is just past 9am so I am running a little late. I am forgiving myself today because I managed to pour out almost SIX thousand words yesterday. I had my story firmly in my grasp. Today feels the same... I hear the buzz of the characters in my ears...

Until next time, WRITE ON!!

Jo

Motivation

For all you writers out there, what is your motivation for writing a book? Is it fame? fortune? the need to tell your story? the need to tell someone else's story? I am curious what makes you all tick.

For me, it is the telling of a story that may have happened inside a story we all know. Everyone knows that Genghis Khan took over most of Eurasia and everyone knows he had a wife, a daughter, and four sons. Everyone knows that Jamuka was his best friend until something happened that made him leave Genghis and begin to conquer on his own in direct competition of his friend. My brain starts ticking when I hear stories like that. I want to know why they had a falling out of that magnitude. Don't you?

Over the span of my life, when I have heard stories other people tell, I have always filled in the gaps with tales of knights, dragons, love, and betrayal. I used to sit in the mall and write people a new story in my head. I have gone through many learning processes in my life to learn other skills because writing was never deemed useful; like reading. My father used to say, "Put down that book and do something with yourself. You are wasting your time on nonsense." Reading and writing were considered bad form and he had the idea that reading the encyclopedia was the only way to learn.

B.S.

Things I have learned from books:

1. How to be a better person
2. How to cook things I could never have done without the instruction
3. Historical facts
4. Human interaction
5. How other people tick
6. How to be comfortable in my own skin
7. Other people have it worse sometimes
8. How to be patient and understanding
9. How to forgive and overlook
10. How to use my imagination to feel, be, and see what the characters feel, are, and see

and so much more!

I would like to send a huge shout out to the following authors as a thank you for taking the time to sit down and tell me a story:

J.K. Rowling (violence is not always necessary)
Stephanie Meyer (true love is all encompassing and can survive anything)
C.S. Lewis (be good down inside)
J.R.R. Tolkien (your friends that are true will help you through anything)
Piers Anthony (being different is okay)
Anne Rice (be comfortable with yourself)
Alice Borchardt (history can be interesting)
Christoper Paolini (always believe the impossible)
Robin Cook (hospitals are crooked)
Fern Michaels (women are strong)
Suzanne Collins (fight like every day is your last because it could very well be)
Stephen King (reality in writing can make you feel)
The Brothers Grimm (fairytales give hope and a moral lesson)
Shakespeare (it is not the language but how you use it)
Every author that has ever spent their time writing a story (perseverance pays off)

Well, that's it for today folks, off to write some more!! I hope this post got you thinking!

Until next time, WRITE ON!!

Jo

Book Festivals are Amazing

Well, Savannah was beautiful but the best part about it was the person I was with. I don't think I would have enjoyed my time in that city nearly as much without him by my side. It is rare to find someone who enjoys the same things you do but, once in your life, you will meet someone with whom you can enjoy all of the things that you both love and even be introduced to some new things you never knew you loved via the association. IF you ever do, you should hold on with both hands like your life depends on it. If you find one and lose them and then find another, you should count yourself VERY lucky.

On to the events: We went to an amazing restaurant, took a walking tour of Savannah architecture (amazing), went to St. John's church (he is catholic so this is a HUGE deal for him), listened to Lulu Powers speak about her book From Food to Flowers (I am one of those people that loves cookbooks), and listened to some wonderful live music while holding hands and canoodling. I have never enjoyed myself more.

While I didn't get to meet Mr. Stephen King (the event was sold out), Ms. Lulu was interesting and I got a look into the success story of a chef who published a book. She was very forward about not being a writer and I began to wonder how many passions you could put into a book. I have discovered there are many:

1. Poetry
2. Photography
3. Cooking
4. Storytelling
5. Business
6. Art
7. Travel
8. Nonsense
9. Love
10. Despair
11. Poverty
12. Historical Events
13. Self

and so many more! Too many to list! I realized that, no matter what your passion is, there is a book in you somewhere. You just have to find your genre and make it happen.

I have had so many stories in me my whole life, I have always written. While art, photography, and cooking ARE passions, writing fiction is what I was born to do. I think good writers can be trained but I think GREAT writers are BORN and just have to take the time to master their craft.

I am off to continue the story that my heart wants to tell. I cannot help but model Temujin after my boyfriend and the love he has for Borte is the love I hope he has for me; it IS the love I have for him and it drives much of my tale.

I hope you are all blessed as I have been but I don't find it likely. What I have found is rare, beautiful, and made of the stuff you usually only read about...

Until next time, WRITE ON!!!

Jo

Weekend!!

I shipped my chapters off to my focus group this morning and am putting the first 6 chapters of edits into my manuscript before I reprint so I can share my story with someone near and dear to my heart this weekend. It makes me a bit nervous because, while I can read it and let my focus group read it and not take it personally, this is a lot more personal.

Questions to the writers out there: When you share your draft with a random person, do you take their feedback personally or do you just accept it for what it is? Is it different when you share it with someone you love?

Just stuff in my head right now.

I gotta go pack!! SO excited right now! I can think of NO better way to spend my weekend than spending time with my Babydoll in a city that is celebrating books.

Another quick question: Does ink printed on paper mean anything to anyone any more? Or are we so consumed by technology that everything now must be digital or no one will bother with it?

Thought: When that EMP destroys all of the electronics that we depend on so much, at least I'll still have my paper books...

Until next time, WRITE ON!!

Jo

1500? The Nightmare of the Little Dog

I only managed 1500 words yesterday. Why, you ask? Well, I'll tell you...

I am sitting at my computer, typing away, when all of a sudden my maltchi, Tucker, begins chasing his tail. Round and round he went until suddenly, he stopped and looked up at me with his furry little face then opened his mouth and roared like a lion. I have to say, I was taken a bit aback and was a bit frightened out of my wits. Okay, I was terrified and confused! When his roar came to an end, he charged me, snarling and gnashing his teeth like he was going to have me for a snack.

I jumped off of my chair so quickly it turned over and I ran for the bathroom so I could get behind a locked door. He is just a tiny dog and there's no way he can come through a door, right? Wrong. I got into the bathroom and shut and locked the door just before he was able to grab my ankle with his sharp little teeth. While sitting in the bathroom, my mind went haywire as I imagined all kinds of scenarios to explain the reason for my dog's behavior. I thought, maybe he was bitten by a werewolf, perhaps he ate some bad food, and I even wondered if maybe he had cat-scratch fever - because of the lion roar.

He started hurling his tiny body against the door at an attempt to break through to me. After just four hits, the door began to splinter and I began to shake. Tremors started at my feet and, after just a few moments, my entire body was vibrating so hard I almost threw up. I knew I was going to die. That knowledge sickened me and made me cry for the loss that so many people would suffer. What would my kids think? Who would care for them when I was gone? How would my parents handle it? All of these questions had no answers but caused me to straighten my back, force down my gorge, and control my tremors so I could think straight. I began to look for a way out.

After searching the bathroom for a minute, I noticed that there was an air duct in the ceiling. I quickly stepped to the top of the toilet and took out the loose screws. I hauled myself up into the shaft at the same moment that the bathroom door shattered and my little Tucker came bursting through with a wild look in his beady eyes. I narrowly escaped being eaten.

This is my little Tucker:

He looks terrifying, doesn't he? Perhaps he was just angry that I made him pose for photos.

Yes, the above is a bit of hyperbole. Okay, a LOT of hyperbole!! But it was entertaining, no? :)

Really and truly, the reason I only wrote 1500 words yesterday is because I was working on Valentines for my loved ones. Personally, I like the nightmare of the little dog a bit more.

I hope you were entertained today. I am off to write some more BOOK!! It is 9am, after all, and I am good and warmed up now.

Until next time, WRITE ON!!

Jo

Chapter 8 is Underway

Chapter 8 is now well underway. It's odd, but this story is now writing itself. My protagonist is having a time of it. His dreams keep giving him warnings of the future but he is having a hard time deciphering what they truly mean. Symbolism is running rampant.

Did you know that Temujin/Genghis believed he spoke to God? With everything he accomplished in his life, that might just be believable, eh?

I like twists and turns thrown in here and there where a good story is concerned and since I don't need ALL of the details (because this is mostly fiction from my own head) it's fun to write and let my imagination run rampant.

In my opinion, excellent fiction always has some link to reality. While some of the characters are real people, and most of the relationships are true, it's what your imagination can do with what's left out that makes all the difference.

Let's take JFK as an example. We all know he was shot. We all assume his assassin was captured. However, conspiracy theorist say LHO was a patsy. Now what IF it wasn't LHO at all? What if LHO was an alien and so was JFK? What if JFK was a rogue alien who was too much in the public eye and needed to be silenced?

Let's say that JFK was an alien enemy and LHO was his best friend and the only person other than JFK who knew the truth. LHO was then not trying to kill Kennedy, but was trying to kill the aliens plotting to kill JFK. LHO just missed his target because he was afraid to shoot innocent people an couldn't tell who the aliens were until it was too late. Now you have something to write about!!

Stories are all around us every day. You just have to be willing to take the leap and write about what you can IMAGINE the story to be from the missing or suspect information.

Well, I am off to allow my fingers to tell more about the greatest love story of all time.

Until next time, Write On!

Jo