Remember when I found out from a librarian at that they have St. Nacho's in some branch of the Chicago Public Library? ZOMG, that was a great feeling. Libraries are sacred!
Well, I discovered this, this morning:
I know it doesn't look like much, but this is A Different Light Bookstore's current homepage, and it has me in the form of Crossing Borders snuggled right up there next to Armistead Maupin. SQUEE!
I dunno. Stuff like that just KNOCKS my socks off. First of all, A Different Light Bookstore! That's a fabulous bookstore. I couldn't get arrested in there when I went to San Francisco to check it out the first time. They wouldn't even order a book for me, going so far as to tell me that it was out of print. Which it wasn't. I went back to the hotel room and bought it online at Amazon that afternoon.
ADL employees weren't known, like Cecily from The Importance Of Being Ernest, for the sweetness of their disposition. Or maybe they just didn't want to deal with women? The clerk was distinctly chilly to me, maybe because I had my adolescent son in tow. I was in San Francisco that time to Chaperone my kid's GATE field trip. We stayed the weekend and decided to brave Castro because I'd read the ADL ad and wanted a copy of this book:
This is an awesome read, by the way.
At any rate, I came home to find it waiting on my doorstep, quickly fulfilled by the Amazon Wonder Elves. I fight the entity that is Amazon, (I picture I'm like one of those Apes at the beginning of 2001 and it's the monolith) but I can say that when I went to ADL, a brick-and -morter bookstore because they purported to carry this item on their shelves, they sent me away empty handed and feeling like I ought to stick to sunning myself under the blue flashing light at K-mart. I also came home feeling that as a woman and a barely published author I didn't have the right to walk into that store, and that I had probably never try to go back, even though at the time their best selling book was J.L. Langley's The Tin Star.
This isn't sour grapes by the way, because as proprietors of their store, they have a right to maintain any attitude they want. There are plenty of exclusive hair salons, for example, or clothing stores that would exclude me as a customer, (Pretty Woman, anyone?) because their cachet depends on keeping people like me out. That's sad, but it's true. It's also entirely possible I caught the sales clerk on the day his dog threw up on his master's thesis, his grandmother had a car accident, someone stole his motorcycle, or he was nursing a broken heart and his young lover's disapproving mother looked JUST LIKE ME. Seriously. Who knows why things happen?
I never imagined I'd sell there, although I know they now carry my books in print at the store as well, or at least someone I know bought ePistols At Dawn there. And I never imagined I'd see myself all curled up with a brilliant author like Armistead Maupin, who I'm sure woke up this morning to the same ad and said, What the F*&K? I'm next to some soccer mom with a word processor and nothing better to do than write romance novels??? It's all good, folks. Just a delight for me, as a writer, to see my work in that context.
And when you add to that the fact that my kid's a cappella jazz choir sang the National Anthem for the Chivas v. Galaxy Soccer match last night (Galaxy #23 is hella hot, by the way.)
It's a glorious day to be me!
You can check out the books at ADL, HERE
And, as always, it's a glorious day to KNOW you! (Says someone with a different four children, hair that needs to be re-dyed, and much larger stretch active wear jeans.)
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say
ReplyDelete(1) You're awesome and everyone should recognize!
(2) My Dear Boy sounds great and I finally found a copy that didn't cost an arm and a leg :)
Have a great week!
Apparently Crossing Borders is so popular at ADL that it's already sold out :)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations anyway, both to ZAM-the-mother and ZAM-the-author!
ConGRATS, girl!!! The 'tude you got when you visited ADL sucks, though a friend once told me that a lot of times rudeness is unintentional--it's cultural. XD
ReplyDeleteAmy! You're my sister of the spirit! <3<3<3
ReplyDeleteKerry, Yes, My Dear Boy is a great read. At times fun, at times heartbreaking. It's a wonderful collection. Glad you found it.
ReplyDeleteLia! Thanks, yes, I discovered I was sold out, but it was still a thrill. And of course the mom thing is always a thrill... Even when it's not, if you know what I mean. LOL
ReplyDeleteHi Anne! You know what I think? I think that there's an eruditer-than-thou attitude in some bookstores and that's okay by me. I don't walk around trying to give off some brainy vibe, and I get why someone in Castro might have that feeling when a mom comes in there with a thirteen-year-old boy.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand for all they knew, I was taking a thirteen year old who'd just come out to me out for books that would validate him. This was not the case, and I imagine that my Xandy, to whom the very mention of girls at the time, not just sex, was anathema might have shown a little embarrassment to have been there where so many of the covers sported artistic nudes.
Still. I dunno. Shop ----> buyer. It doesn't take a genius to realize there's no math to do if those two can't find common ground. LOL