Archive for the ‘Tales of a Bookseller’ Category

The Loss of an Old Friend

Friday, Annie and I took Molly, my alltime favorite cat (I’ve loved them all but, yes, she was my favorite) to the vet for her last visit.  In recent days, it had become more and more difficult for her to walk and, finally, her back legs failed her.  I’m pretty sure she was also in [...]

June 20, 2010   Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller  2 Comments

A Scary Bookbuying Twist

We visited a nice little bookstore in St. Augustine called Anastasia Books, located right in the heart of the historic district.  Their forte is used books, many of which are rare, but they also have some new.  What was of particular interest to us was their large selection of fantasy and science fiction, one of [...]

June 13, 2010   Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller  No Comments

A Potpourri of Thoughts

Contest: Drawing for Beyond Blood by Carol Pepper Congratulations go to the winner… Shirley Nienkark! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Back to ConCarolinas…as expected, we lost money but we learned a few things to put us in a better position next year.  Most notably, there’s not much point in selling books for the majority of the attending authors because [...]

June 9, 2010   Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller  No Comments

ConCarolinas Day Two

No, there wasn’t a Day One report, mainly because there wasn’t a whole lot to say.  Can you guess how discouraging it is for a bookseller or any other vendor to man the tables for 6 hours and end up with hardly any sales?  Seriously, folks, we didn’t even cover our Thursday night dinner bill [...]

June 6, 2010   Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller  No Comments

Growing Into Mysteries

Psst…look over there on the right.  See?  It’s a new poll! The last poll I ran, to choose your favorite genre, had some interesting results.  At one time, about six weeks ago, I pointed out that hardly anyone had chosen any of the young adult/middle grade categories, which I found very surprising, but then quite [...]

June 5, 2010   Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller  No Comments

ConCarolinas or Bust!!

Well, we’ll be leaving for ConCarolinas in Charlotte this morning, our first trip to this gathering of speculative fiction afficionados.  The Guest of Honor is Jerry Pournelle, author of a bunch of science fiction books, many in collaboration with Larry Niven, and one of them is a favorite of mine.  Lucifer’s Hammer is on my [...]

June 3, 2010   Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller  One Comment

Our Animal Pals

Nothing more needs to be said… ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So, this has to be one of the funniest pictures around—a baby Eastern Screech Owl.  Would you just look at the feet on this critter?  He looks like he could stomp his prey flat in no time, doesn’t he?  And those beady eyes could bore a hole right [...]

May 30, 2010   Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller  2 Comments

Love Lost Twixt Authors and Bookstores

There is a lot of discussion going on these days about the effect ebooks are having on the print book industry and nobody really has any good ideas yet for melding the two all the way down the distribution chain.  The whole ebook thing is still so new and evolving that the print side on [...]

May 28, 2010   Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller  2 Comments

A Freebie for Three

Apparently, the winners of these older ARCs didn’t want them after all so, if you have an interest, leave a comment with the name of the one you want by May 26th.  I’ll send them to the first commenter for each title. The Unscratchables by Cornelius Kane, July 2009 Crusher McNash is the police force’s [...]

May 24, 2010   Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller  7 Comments

I Am Greying Woman, See Me Read

The other day, the National Post published an essay written by Canadian author Katherine Govier.  I’ve never read any of Ms. Govier’s work—they don’t “fit” my personal preferences—but, in checking her out, it’s clear she is a very highly respected writer. Anyway, the gist of her piece is that older women are readers with a [...]

May 22, 2010   Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller  No Comments