The Rebirth of Bookstore Managment

On Thursday, my Mum and I were out seeing the doctors in the city. But that's not all we were doing. After that rather expensive hour or so with the doctor and then paying for parking, we headed off to Garden City on the south side of Brisbane in the search for some lunch.

Yes, it was a very hot day, we wanted air conditioning in the worst possible way.

Well, we had a light lunch, then a coffee and then did some shoe shopping - for Mum - and headed to QBD in the centre on the top floor not to find any books. No, when I go into this store, normally, I'm just enjoy the looking around perusing of shelves and the joy of seeing what's out on the market right now.

Like any book-lover, I enjoy just seeing books on shelves in bookstores... I could live in a bookstore because it's something I have at home - my own home library - and it brings me great joy to be around it; it brings me peace before I go to bed a night. Yes, I spend time in my home library to settle my mind; I don't know how, but it does. 

Anyway, being in a bookstore in the middle of a busy day out with anyone just helps me meditate for a while. I love just staring at the spines of the books, looking through the different and new publications and finding out what people are into right now. 

Well, just before Mum and I left the store, I spotted 'Uncommon Type' by Tom Hanks. I knew I had to have it! It was a book I had heard he was writing this book about a year or so ago, but there was no release date. And to see it on the shelves made me jump! I grabbed it and was so happy to see it I took it straight to the counter and asked about it. The young man at the counter was very helpful as he put through my QBD member's card and told me that I had plenty of points on that card to use - yay! - and so I didn't have to pay full price!

The best things I found out about this young man was that he is also the manager of this store; and yet he was in his 20's, very friendly, approachable and helpful in every way. When we got talking to him, we found out he had a huge library of books at home as well... telling us that he can't live without books being around him when he's at home either. 

Now, I'm so happy there's still hope for the traditional printed books for the younger generation; seeing I've spotted so many of them with Kindles and Kobos in their hands claiming that the paper books are dying out. With people like this great manager of QBD Garden City showing up in their stores now, I think there's hope for the traditionally printed books yet!

Have you come across this type of hope lately? Or is just a fluke and Mum and I happened across it just this one day? And have you read Tom Hanks' nea book? What did you think of it? I've only begun reading it, and already, I like it.  Until my next post, happy reading!

In the Movies

During the huge deluge of rain over the last few days, I watched 'The Stand' miniseries - made from the book of the same name by Stephen King. And speaking of Sai King himself, I noticed that this brilliant author shows up in this miniseries as Teddy Weizak; an everyday guy who survived Captain Trips and was on his way to Colorado with a convoy of other folks who had been having the same dream as he was - of Mother Abigail. 

But this isn't the first time we've seen this author in a movie which was made from his books. Stephen King has made a cameo in so many of the movies that sometimes you really have to look for him to realise it's him. It's easy to pick him in the early movies like 'The Langoliers', 'Pet Semetary' and he got to play a creepy part in 'Sons of Anarchy' where he was a dude who a 'Caregiver' or a cleaner... creepy - I think that was in season 3 or 4. But he played that part well.

Another famous person we all know showed up in his own movies was Alfred Hitchcock. He was a brilliant director who had a thing for blonds and enjoyed making cameo appearances in his own movies. You have to really watch for him in a lot of the movies as he isn't in the credits. In 'Rear Window', he was in the musician's apartment winding the clock. In 'The Birds', he was seen in the beginning of the film leaving a petshop with two of his own pets as the main character enters. I found a Wikipedia site which lists a lot of them (I don't often go through Wiki, but this is a big list) and so here it is for you to look at.

Have you seen writer or directors show up in films you've been watching and looked for them in the credits? If so, which ones? Until my next post, happy reading. 

Chuck Wendig

Over the last few years, I've been haunting a blog called 'Terrible Minds' owned by Canadian author Chuck Wendig - and with such a great and unusual name as that, you'd think he be a strange person; and you'd be right.

I stumbled upon his work through Google. I was looking for book blogs to put up on here during the Summer Fun Events in 2013 and found his blog by pure chance. I didn't say anything for a while in case he was a bit of a flash in the pan - but was pleasantly surprised to find he was everything but that. 

Chuck is a blunt and honest writer who blogs exactly what is on his mind - and I mean exactly what's running around in his head. He runs a great blog - it may look very plain, but it's a great place to jump in and read, have fun, get a great laugh and realise that us writers all think exactly like him... well, okay not exactly, but we do swear and curse in our heads and would love to do the same on our blogs, but we're too damned polite to.

But Chuck isn't... he's just himself; and that's his appeal. Everyone loves it that he's a warts and all kind man and doesn't beat around the bush when it comes to writing. 

However, he does defend himself to the hilt when the critics have a go at him about his books. If somebody out there has an ax to grind with him about an aspect or a set of characters in his books, and he doesn't see the point of this ax-grinding, he'll Tweet about it, and then he'll do a post about it... and he won't hold back on it either. Like I said, he says exactly what's on his mind.

And then all us fans jump in and we love him for doing what he's doing. 

I own two of his books - 'Black Birds' and 'Blue Blazes' - and have just bought a third one I found at Dymocks by pure chance - 'Star Wars Aftermath' - and have yet to sit down in my big comfy chair to read them all. However, what I do love about Chuck is his Flash Fiction Fridays... now that's a place where he gives us all a prompt, a word limit, a deadline and lets us have a go at writing - and there's an open theme too! So, we can make our audience laugh, cry, shiver in delight or keep them awake - our choice - so long we reach the word count. 
I've been doing the Flash Fiction Fridays for over three years now, and love it! It's well worth a try - even if you think you're not a good writer, it'll help you with your writing. His link is on the sidebar if you want to have a look at his blog. Until my next post, happy reading!

The Queen of Crime

Ever wondered how some of authors wrote their books?  How did they get their ideas and wrote them so well, their characters so well, and made it all work that you've read their books over and over it still makes you think - even when the book was published in the 1940's?

Well, I found an article about Agatha Christie - better known as the Queen of Crime.  I'm not much of a fan of her work, but I do love watching the televisions shows of Miss Marple that are on the ABC every Sunday... it's more of a visual thing for me than a written thing that pulls me in with crime shows.

So, here's the link to the article. I hope you all enjoy it! Until my next post, happy reading.

A Kick-Ass Book for Writers

Amazon is a great place to shop - especially when you can't find the book you want in a regular bookstore.

And I found 'The Kick-Ass Writer: 1001 Ways to Write Great Fiction, Get Published and Earn Your Audience' by Chuck Wendig on Amazon for just $3.99... however it was the shipping that killed me at the checkout.  But I don't care.  I've wanted this book for a long time!

Yes, I've been eyeing off this book on the sidebar of his site for what seems like forever; and then I jumped on Amazon and found a copy of it on Cherrybooks in California for that lovely cheap amount; but the shipping was the rest!  And that was for a paperback and second-hand.

Oh well. 

When I received it, I was on my way to Mum's house and opened it when I arrived.  She had a look at it and I read the first few pages where we both started laughing at the brash and ordinary way he wrote... especially in the introduction.  Mum thought Chuck sounded like a great writer; and wanted to know about his other books (two of which I have on my shelves as we speak awaiting a good reading from me). 

So... there you have it... the book I'm hoping will get me back on track from my Writer's Block.  I've tried everything else I can think of. And he's got advice about Writer's Block in this book too... I only hope he can help me.  

It's been so lonely out here in the cold, dark desert... until my next post, happy reading.

Writing Groups and Genres

A new year has begun, and so I have joined another group to keep myself active.  This year, I thought to get my romance and erotic fiction looked at by other writers of that genre.  And seeing I write erotica, they found, at the first group, it was kind of.... strong.

However, I wasn't pushed away and they had a great laugh over it and asked a lot of questions about the who of the main character and a lot of why's... and who her lover was; that they wish to see him in the next chapter.

So, I'm in!  

This month, I'm meeting up with them again at the end of the month and hoping to see what they think of the first two huge chapters of my book... which are really short stories within themselves.  

So, what have you been doing to keep yourself busy in the writing world?  I've also picked up the Chuck Wendig Flash Fiction Friday again - such fun! - so that's very cool.  I'm also doing the Creative Markets and am still volunteering at the Logan Art Gallery... yep, lots of things to keep me busy.  And, I'm still getting my nose into a book when I can too.  Until my next post, happy reading.

'Nelson Mandela: The Authorised Book of Quotations' by Himself

I've had a lot of time to kick back and read here at my brother's house; and one of the books I brought with me to read is this one.  Now with books like this, I don't read them from front to back; as there's no real storyline or plot.  These books are just quotes of a famed person at different times in their lives.  However, normally, these books are done up by a second party - a biographer or family member - who's been there right from the beginning.  With this wonderful little book, Nelson Mandela has pulled together his quotes over his whole lifetime himself.  And what a book it is!

I have admired Nelson Mandela since I was in high school and the whole world was fighting Apartheid in South Africa; and this great man was in prison for something he said and did.  Once he was let out, and I found out exactly who he was I followed his life.  I have tracked down a couple of his books down at bookstores (and have yet to read them; but at least I have them on hand when I want to get into them).  But when I found this one, I knew I just had to have it as it was purely about him, by him; and that's something wonderful as it speaks volumes about how much he has influenced people and the globe and history as we know it when we see what a single, important person has said over their whole lifetime that has changed the way the world works.  Until my next post, happy reading. 

Terrible Minds Make for Great Reading

Being a writer is a great thing.  Sometimes.  Yeah, it can be frustrating to no end when you want to write everything down and yet you don't have enough time, enough fingers, a faster brain or know exactly how to say what you want to say in the precisely the right way.  And yet, there are times, when you get yourself in just the right spot, at the right time of the day or night, in the zone, gleaming the cube and in the right mind-set to have your books take you where you want to be.

This is when your creative mind and muse play along well.  They are like two kids in a schoolyard who sometimes get along well if the conditions are right; but not all the time.  One of them is good for you, while the other can be bad for you.  And figuring out which is which is part of the game.  I still don't know which is which and I'm almost 40 years old; and yet I still love playing the games of creativity with them.

But I found a blog today where the creator pulls no punches, tells it as it is and will give any writer - no matter who you are - a good kick in the butt about your writing.  He uses the blunt, down-to-earth kind of language all writers love to see but their family cringe at; and yes, I must warn you all now, there's some of what he calls 'naughty words' involved... but I'm tellin' ya, it's worth it.

Chuck Wendig is well worth a look at.  I've subscribed to his blog on Wordpress.  And if you're a writer who's claiming they have Writer's Block (but really you can't be bothered writing... you know who you are, stop hiding behind your cup of coffee there), this is the guy for you to read.  Until my next post, happy reading.