Vocation, Avocation, Frustration

Oct19
by rikscott on October 19, 2013 at 2:17 pm
Posted In: Challenge, Conflict

Uphill_StruggleThat odd cracking sound you may  be “hearing” is my fingers protesting about being back at a keyboard after lo, these many weeks.  Yes friends, I’m still alive, and breathing fairly well, but am foundering in my goal to write daily… and NaNoWriMo is just days away!

I’m writing this post while sitting at the counter of the Kingston Bookery, the first of a slowing growing dynasty of used book stores  Dynasty?  Really?  Well, perhaps not a dynasty, but certainly a PAIR of bookstores.

Seven months ago I would have chuckled at the idea of being a proprietor of two bookstores.  Laughable, really.  I’m retired, after all, and writing is what I want to be (and am, perhaps, even MEANT) to be doing.  Ah, well.

It is frustrating.  No, FRUSTRATING!! to be around so many books, nearly every one published in the old, tried and true method.  That is to say, through an agent and a publisher.  So many books.  Maybe daunting is a better word.  How can I ever get space on such a shelf in a store somewhere.  After all, all those authors found the time to write, rewrite, re-rewrite, edit, submit, cry, re-edit and resubmit.  Sheesh!

I’m off to California for a few days.  Going to reclaim my libraries and gear, rent a truck, and drive back up here to Washington.  Two such drives in about 6 months.  What fun.

I must sound like I’m complaining about circumstance (and to some degree, success), but more, I hope, I am outlining the current list of challenges, those bits of life-force that like to jump out in front of you as you drive the freeway of life.  Surprise!

Like many of you, I AM a writer.  Being kept from full-time scribing is only a temporary thing.  As soon as the stores start making money I’ll be hiring help, and getting back to work.  And, as said above, NaNoWriMo is just around the corner, and this will be my 12th year of competing.  No way I’ll miss that, even if it means giving up sleep and food.

A person is a writer when writing is in them, and demands to be let out.

-30-

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Books: Looking At vs. Looking Through

Sep02
by rikscott on September 2, 2013 at 5:56 pm
Posted In: Books, Rant

Old Used PaperbacksNow that my life is more about selling books than writing them… and that these books are, almost exclusively USED books (as a writer, is there a conflict of interest there?), I find myself seeing books in a whole new light.  Please note that I have no interest in leaving behind the world of writing… it’s just that there hasn’t been a lot of time−at least cohesive, consecutive minutes of it−to devote to my much-loved avocation.

It is, nonetheless, the looking AT books I want to talk about today.

Let me define a couple of terms, first.  When I speak of looking THROUGH a book, I’m talking about ignoring the physical attributes of the book and paying attention only to the content, and how said content affects the mind.  When I say looking AT a book, I’m talking about observing the cover, the condition, the binding, the pages themselves, and how they have been used (or abused).

As a reseller of books, and a part of a business which has the remarkable model wherein most of the inventory comes through the door at the hands of the customer, the condition of books becomes very important.  The surprise I evince when I hold a book these days is not unlike realizing, after months of staring into your loved one’s eyes, that you are just now noticing their color.

When we buy a new book at one of the ever fewer brick and mortar stores, we might peruse the volume for quite a while before deciding to buy.  Then, many of us, I think, will reach for an “un-perused” volume, one, in other words, that does not look used in any way.  Why take a book with an even slightly bent cover or barely sprung spine when there is a pristine copy right there  (even if we are the culprit who ever so slightly used it)?

A used book is a whole different matter, though.  We expect to find some defects in the books we take from the Used Bookstore shelf.  The volume might be bowed, the cover could show some wrinkling, smudging, or even a small tear.  What does that matter if we are getting the book at a “great” discount, or if the book is one we’ve been unable to find in any form?

Surprisingly, it does matter to some buyers, and therefore to the bookstore staff when books are brought in.

I am amazed at what comes into the Kingston Bookery.  We get 50 to 100 “new” books daily, on average.  Sometimes quite a few more than that.  Can we use them all?  Sadly, no.  For example, paperback books that have badly cracked spines (where the title and author can’t be read through the distortion), books with missing pages (no surprise), medium age hardbacks without dust jackets, or books with extensive page damage, are all unusable.  If the prospective buyer cannot be attracted, the book will just sit on the shelf gathering dust.

Those books go off to Goodwill or other places where the selling of books do not keep the lights on and the doors open.

What puzzles me is the expected life of a book, be it paperback or hardback.  The oldest books in the store are hardback, and that makes sense, but the question, to me at least, is how many reads can you expect to get out of a book before it gives up the ghost?  I guess it comes down to the reader.  If the person handling the book habitually bends the book and stresses the spine, or dog-ears pages, a paperback book isn’t likely to make it much past a single reading.

That said, some books here at the KB seen to come in and out of the store like they were on a revolving door.  Romances and Westerns (which, it surprised me to find out are LARGELY romances for men) are read over and over and seem to live just about forever.

Once more I leave you with more questions than answers.  Being (rather suddenly) in the used book business gives me a unique view of both the behavior of books, and, perhaps more interestingly, the behavior, and the reading taste, of the people who live in the little village of Kingston, but this is a time of “heavy” learning.  I’ll share more of what goes on here, as time permits.

Oh, and if you’ve gotten to this final sentence, PLEASE, until I can rebuild this blog, make any comments you might have on my Facebook page.

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Uphill Gremlins (2nd try)

Aug16
by Richard Scott on August 16, 2013 at 4:07 pm
Posted In: Writing

230806_gremlin_in_my_computer-lyvind_bergetHere I sit, behind the counter at the Kingston Bookery (between customers).  I’m thinking about writing a post (well, I actually AM writing one), but am concerned about the inability of readers of this blog to actually reply or comment.  I mean, what the hell?

I take a look under the hood to see if I’ve inadvertently pushed a button that says something like “You shall not write!” or the like, but no, I can’t find an evidence of turning off the ability to make a comment.

What then?  Gremlins?  Evil spirits?  No, that can’t be it.  I’m not a believer in such things, and as everyone knows, if you don’t believe it, it can’t exist.  I learned that in a philosophy book written by an Ostrich.

So, what’s going on?  My next step will be to contact the infamous help desk at Godaddy.com, and I shudder to think what they’ll tell me.  It will most likely be something like, “…erm, well, we didn’t actually write the WordPress software.  You should contact THEIR customer support.”  They will tell me this with a straight face knowing full well that WP has no Customer Support for their FREE products.  Once more into the Ping-Pong game of life, yes?

I fear that the actual fix will be, once more, replacing the theme, AKA the format you see when you drop by.  This is a rather complex operation that requires finding something compatible with the 3500 or so posts I’ve written, that supports the special features that have been added over the years, then  installed, tested, finagled, shaved, dressed, and threatened to behave.  In other words, a time-consuming process.

Time-consuming or not, it needs to be done.  So, can I say… “watch this space”?

We (Uphill Writing) want to be your full-service blog.  Time to roll up my sleeves.

 

 

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Consider “Generosity”

Aug15
by Richard Scott on August 15, 2013 at 1:37 pm
Posted In: Writing

GiftFrom time to time I like to “wax rhetorical”, especially in the areas of psychology and philosophy.  As a writer I find it both useful and entertaining to look at behavior, especially as it relates to the creation and maintenance of main and supporting characters.

I was struck, recently, with the thought that there are (at least) two reasons a person might behave generously, and the notion got me thinking about the motivation of characters.

While we are often given to understand that there are many altruistic people (and, therefore, actions) in our world, I am cynical about the existence of altruism, especially on a large scale.  In my arguably limited experience, many, if not most, gifts have strings of some sort attached.  We expect ebullient thanks, favors, behavioral changes, or even gifts in return.  In other words we want recompense either in emotional or physical terms.

I apologize if the above sounds like an indictment.  My purpose here is to examine behavior as it relates to characters, not to damn or praise the culture of which I am a part.

Making a distinction between “altruism” and whatever the opposite would be could be important when crafting the motivations of a strong character.  Even if these motivations are not delineated in text, understanding where the character is “coming from” could well inform his or her next actions.  I believe that in a successful story EVERY character, main, supporting, and walk-on, must want something, and that the author must know what that something is, even if it is not revealed directly to the reader.  To some degree, the more we know about our characters, the more real they will look and feel to our audience.  The “something” each character wants may be pursued in any number of ways, including what appears to be an act of generosity.

So, there it is.  Have I just kicked another hornet’s nest?  Are you convinced that we are all closet Mother Teresas, or do we, and by extension our characters, give with strings attached?  Are we altruistic, do we at least want to believe we are, or do we, for the most part, expect something in return for our “gifts”?

How should our characters behave?  When  creating a “larger than life” character, it is easy to make him or her pure, brave, or generous.  Who is to say this isn’t possible?  Fictional characters aren’t entirely run by the laws of psychology and society… or are they?

What do you think?  I’d love to know.

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Overwhelmed by Books

Aug09
by Richard Scott on August 9, 2013 at 2:22 pm
Posted In: Writing

overwhelmed-with-booksWouldn’t you think that working in a used book store would be an ideal “day job”?

When I was given the opportunity to participate in the reincarnation of Mr. B’s Bookery as The Kingston Bookery I was elated.  (Spoiler alert, I still am.)  What I didn’t expect were the “side effects”.

For example:

Notion: Working in a used bookstore means lots of time to read.

Reality: Working in a used bookstore actually means working.  We take in books daily.  We must go through each one of them, mark those we believe we can sell with a price, and assign “trade credit” to the customer’s account.  We must keep the shelves stocked, and neat.  We must keep the floors clean and the waste bins empty, and every other little task that percolates to the surface.

Notion: Being around the works of so many “successful” authors (in this case, successful equals published), would be inspiring.

Reality: Even for a “prolific” writer like me (blush), getting a close look at all of the men and women who have made the leap from wannabe to published is a daunting experience.  I am forced to wonder what it would take to get some actual shelf-space.  (Not that I really want used book shelf-space just yet.)  The competition for shelf-space, be it in one of the rapidly vanishing brick and mortar stores, or one of the on-line mega-stores is enormous.

This said, working in a non-profit business (it wasn’t planned to be non-profit, but hey, it’s still in a nascent state), is both rewarding and intimidating.  But then, isn’t that what life is all about?

 

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