Florida Bookstore Day – Rebekah Lyn Books

Yesterday I went to our small downtown, here in Titusville, to the Book Rack for Florida Bookstore Day. I packed twenty-seven Florida Springs Trilogy books in an Office Depot cart. I should have ordered the extra three earlier because they didn’t come in time for the book signing.

I arrived after the other four writers did, partly because I had to go back in and change my clothes for warmer weather. It was good that I arrived when I did – my station was down at the end and the only one that had a lovely shade tree growing overhead. As the day wore on several beautiful leaves fell onto my table.

I unloaded the car, using Rebekah Lyn’s cart to wheel my card-table and two chairs to the site. It must have been a funny sight for the people across the street, but I didn’t look to see if anyone was watching. The cart was out of control as it wove down the sidewalk, the table slid off, and the two pillows under my arm slid too.

While I was getting set up, my good friend, from China, came to see me. I’d put on Facebook that I would be there. She lives a busy life working up to three part time jobs and has a husband and daughter that she tends to very well, so we don’t get to see each other often. We chatted while I set out the books, then she went to get her seven-year-old- daughter who was at the community theater a block over taking acting lessons. She brought her over and I was so glad to see her.

There weren’t many people downtown, but there was a lot of action as our town was having a food truck wars that evening, with fifty food trucks. Have you heard about them? It’s almost like a carnival with the huge semi-trucks and trailers roaring by to find their places.

Two radio stations set up their music stages so close to each other you knew they were going to blast everyone to deafness. I hoped we’d be gone before they started up.

At noon, Bill came down and had an egg salad sandwich I’d packed for him. He talked to the man next to us who said his Indie book, about hiking the Appalachian Trail, had been picked up by a publishing company, but he was so busy marketing it, he didn’t have time to write any more.

One man stood at each table and read everything except the books slowly and carefully. He looked different. He had wavy, grizzled hair, glasses, and pants that puckered at the waist where his belt was. I couldn’t place him until his friend came by decidedly dirty and homeless. The friend spoke in a loud voice about the Titusville ghost, whom I have never met, nor even heard about before. I definitely did not want to hear about him now. Lacking an audience, the second man rambled away.

I got up and gave the first man one of my cards because he looked so desperate for something to read and I knew that feeling. He then started on a soliloquy about the bookstore business. His parents had been in that field. I was interested the first three times I heard his story, and I wanted to be nice to him, but then I wanted to escape and Bill helped me out in his own courteous and kindly way by drawing my attention away.

Pam bought huge cups of iced tea for each of us which went down a treat, and we chatted as we slipped across the street into the back of a restaurant where their restroom was. I am a customer, just not that day. I also got some time in with Pam’s daughter, Jen, but I was too busy to talk much with the other writers who were all men, except for Rebekah Lyn.

Then it was time to pack up and go home. Bill helped me lug all the paraphernalia across the street to the car. I took home all twenty-seven books, but I wasn’t the least bit down or disappointed. I’d had a fine day with “family” and meeting a few new people, the weather was beautiful and I was satisfied with my life. I’ll sell some books someday another way. I’m sure of it.

Psalm 118:24

New Living Translation
This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.

I enjoyed all the comments that came from the blog. ”Writing – What is Easy, What is Hard.”

Mary Harwell Sayler, doyenne of Christian Poets and Writers asked writers to tell her what they find easy about writing and what they find difficult.

My bottom line answer was that I found blogs easy, but isolated spots in my novels are as hard to write as good pie crust is to make.

I mentioned that I could hardly wait to get my new iPhone so that I’d always have a camera with me. It seems I often come home from somewhere and want to write a blog about it, but because I don’t make an effort to take my digital camera, I have to scrounge to get something together.

SCOTT’S COMMENT:

Great idea! I have a good smart phone, and occasionally use it as a camera.

JESS SAID

That new phone needs to come home today. Since your birthday was recent, I think a gift of that phone for you and your stories for us would be a great way to celebrate.

Our guru and his wife (our daughter) brought pizza and our new phones last week. We had a big phone party and enjoyed ourselves very much. I learned a lot, and know I have a whole lot more to know. I can take pictures with it, but still have a few difficulties to overcome such as getting the pictures anywhere except my phone so I can put them in my blogs.

I understand you can email them, but I turned on the email and the inbox got flooded with old messages I already had on my computer and it turned me off. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy emails, but since I spend most of my time at home, I don’t need a mailbox full of letters I’ve already answered, stored, deleted, or junked.

There’s something about a full box of emails that disturbs me like dirty dishes in the sink or a meowing cat that needs to be fed. I try to keep the emails washed, ironed, folded and put away so I don’t have laundry lying around. I won’t say dirty laundry, because it’s not that. I could work through it all in a doctor’s waiting room, but in order to keep up, I’d have to go to the doctor a lot more often.

That’s about all I have to say about the new phone, except this, I haven’t learned to take my fingers off the buttons so I got a whole filmstrip of the shadows on the trail – all alike as far as I could tell. It’s pretty cute if I do say so, but I don’t know how to show it to you – yet! My new phone has a stabilizer so the days of tremulous vibrations are over. Thank the Lord for that!

I loved the rest of what Scott said: I also find myself inspired by things I see when biking or walking, or even on the bus: people, nature, situations. If I could find a quiet spot and few minutes, I could quickly use my electronics to publish a fast blog post.

I got clear pictures and the flavor of his activities. I could imagine him on a rock next to a lake, or at a coffee shop writing away on a blog and having the pictures and everything he needed to send it all off right then. I’ve never thought of it like that before. He’s going to be one of my role models, and one of these days maybe I’ll be able to do something like that too. Until then, I may have to ask Rebekah Lyn to help with the pictures for this blog. Next weekend, we’re going to be sitting outside an Independent bookstore signing our novels as people purchase them. We might get a minute between signing books to work on getting the pictures from the cell phone onto this blog, at that time. Meanwhile, here’s one about the festival we’re attending.

A few minutes after I wrote that, Rebekah Lyn called and asked if she could come over. She helped with the email, but she got tired of deleting them too, so I’ll have to do it a bit at a time. It’s worth it to be able to use the pictures. So I didn’t have to wait until Saturday to get my selfie uploaded for you. Ain’t I cute? Ha. But seriously I am very impressed with the lack of blurring from shakiness! We paid extra for it on the 5s, but it comes with the 6 and Rebekah Lyn is pretty sure her IPad has it too. That’s one of the greatest advances in photography, but they’re all great, aren’t they?

I just added the word selfies to my dictionary.

Tag: Florida Bookstore Day

Florida Bookstore Day at The Book Rack

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