Trick or Treat Friday!

I love Halloween. I don't do much to celebrate, but I'm an active observer (oxymoron anyone?). I love going to the stores where the clerks dress up, and I love the Halloween themed shows that play on television, and I love opening my door to all the kiddies dressed up in their adorable costumes. We don't get a lot of trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood, though we live in suburb central, but I do enjoy the few that come by. It's so festive! If I'd had the money, I would have totally decked out the front porch with ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties. Maybe next year?

What do you think of Teddy's costume? His picture is up there at the top of this post. He wasn't too happy with me for putting that hat on him, but when I saw all those cute little pet costumes at the store, I couldn't resist getting him one. The devil is perfect. They're made for little dogs, but Teddy is a huge cat and his head is just the right size.

Hey, tomorrow is the first day of NaNoWriMo! And this is my first year doing it. I think the website will be problematic as it appears to go down a lot, but we've got plenty of NaNo action going on at Absolute Write to make up for it. It's the community aspect of the contest that has me pumped. In fact, I've even discovered writers here in Bend who are participating this year! That's amazing. It's pretty hard to dig up a novelist in this city, yet you can find a poet on every street corner. Go figure. Anyway, I'll join the three other Bendite NaNoers I met online at Townsend's Tea Room downtown tomorrow at 2:00. I can't wait to meet them.

Don't get me wrong, there are writers here in Bend, all kinds of writers. It's a very artistic community, which kind of goes with the state of Oregon as a whole. It's just that most of the writers in Bend are writers of nonfiction, memoirists, poets, and literary writers. We have only a few writers of genre fiction like moi. With the exception of Timothy Zahn, who supposedly lives here but keeps an embarrassingly low profile, I have to go to Seattle to find the folks who write what I do. I may be doing just that in April for the annual sf/f convention there. It's a very, very long drive so I'm still on the fence about it.

As for conventions and conferences in Bend, there's something here called The Nature Of Words and it's happening next weekend. It might be interesting, but it's the most expensive conference I've ever run across. One workshop, and I do mean just one 2-hour workshop, costs $45 to attend. I can attend a 3-day conference for about $325 and get the benefit of a couple dozen workshops that includes meals and a fancy banquet dinner on Saturday night. Which do you think is the better value? Plus I don't know anything about the instructors at this event. I don't think The Nature of Words is worth my time. I'd rather be home writing.

I read an interesting article in this morning's Publisher's Lunch about some book stores applying for a liquor license. Interesting. Boozing and browsing. Seriously though, you figure many book stores these days feature a coffee shop, some include a cafe, so why not alcohol?

I think the main goal is to boost evening and weekend store traffic. Not a bad idea. Plus with all the big chain stores bogarting the majority of book business, the indies have to do something different to set themselves apart. Would you rather go to Barnes and Noble to browse and sip lattés? Or to the corner bookshop where you can sip a brewski as you browse. Hmmm...

There are already retail stores that may not have a book section, but they'll feature books to go with other products, like cook books in cookware, and fashion books in the clothing section (especially if the book jackets color coordinate with what the maniken is wearing), and sports books in sporting goods. So why can't book stores be a cut above the mundane? Books would always be the focus, but there'd be add-on pleasures to your book buying experience.

I remember when there used to be story time at the local book store for the kiddies on the weekends. Do stores still do that? I'm glad the library does. My kids used to love that.

There's live music in some book store cafés. In fact, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, the writers organization in Colorado that I belong to, just started an "open mic night" at different independant bookstores throughout the city. Members sign up to perform and read from their unpublished or published work. Sounds like great fun. I remember when I lived there we'd sometimes have open mic readings at local coffee shops, and that was a lot of fun, too. But I think bringing the entertainment to the book store is even better.

There's a great need to be creative in retail during these tough economic times. Book stores offer inexpensive entertainment through reading, and family night might have mom, dad and the kids spending a couple of hours at the local book store sharing a meal in the cafe, listening to live music or a reading, buying some books, then spending the rest of the evening at home curled up by the fire, reading to each other. I see the cocooning trend coming back, and it's about time, too.

What would be your fantasy book store? What would you like to see offered at your local book store that would make it special and more inviting?

Yep, still frozen...

Must be, because I'm baaaaack. I had a productive day yesterday and today, but unfortunately it had nothing to with my writing. It was the day job. Finishing up the last of the ads for Affluent Seattle, sending an ad for another client to Target magazine, and emailing yet another client a bunch of images for a website. Busy, busy, busy...

Of course I hung out a lot at the Absolute Writer Watercooler because I'm totally addicted to that place. I'm trying to taper back my visits, but it's not working. I have my pals on the Purgatory thread who I like to hang with—they're so funny—and lots of exciting things have been happening over there lately. Someone's getting a book deal for their urban fantasy and the project went to auction. Wheee! We love to hear stories like this and vicariously live through them. Too fun.

The "Tension: Are You Hooked" critiques are now going on at Miss Snark's First Victim, and there's some great stuff posted. If you get a chance, pop on over and offer a few critiques. The writers will appreciate the feedback.

In today's Publisher's Lunch there was a short blurb about some book stores getting their liquor license. Cool! Which means now you'll be able to get a shot of brandy in that nice latté. Browsing and boozing, what could be better?