Remember walking into a library as a kid and running your hand along the spines upon the shelves? The brief touch of hundreds of lives, breezing through dozens of worlds… all in an instant. Nothing more exciting than that. Well, aside from creating them! But that feeling I managed to revisit this weekend and damn did it feel good.
Nope, didn’t visit the library.
Good guess though! Bonus points for thinking that, but no, not that. No, this weekend I attended a book fair for a local charity on two of their three days and wow, I just love it! A whole sports stadium filled with books, tables upon tables, rows upon rows, just books everywhere and in all kinds, shapes and sizes!
Day one, the Friday, everything is full price. But still, I walked away with quite a few gems and as the books are donated to their cause, everything is less than half of retail, LESS THAN HALF!!!
So after a quick walk around I snagged roughly 13 books for $50. Some gems. The World of Shannara, Part one of the Dark Tower series by Mr. King, a nice collector’s set of the Hobbit, my own copy of the Silmarillion (no idea why I never had my own anyway) and among a few other things a copy of Tolkien’s Children of Hurin which was on my hunting list and only $5!!! Needless to say, I skipped to my car, drove home and opened the bag to reveal the treasure trove of books at hand!
These sorts of events are awesome for a guy who loves writing, is looking for some cheap books (because I just built a new home and am sort of super poor until our old place sells) and for a writer who sometimes needs inspiration, finding books with just that element you didn’t even know you wanted or needed! FOR EXAMPLE *ahem* I found a Reader’s Digest copy of Natural Wonders of the World. For fantastic and otherworldly landscapes, this book is an absolute gold mine! Places I’d never seen nor knew existed all in this giant, sexy, hardcover tome… just waiting for me to flip open a page and go exploring!
Oh, but that wasn’t all.
So as the weekend draws to a close, their books get cheaper. Then, they get cheaper again. Nothing like half price books that are already a third or less of retail. I walked over to the education section, grabbed everything with the word WRITING in the title and chucked it into my bag. $10 for 7 books? Don’t mind if I do! I managed to get some gems too! Writing the Blockbuster Novel by Albert Zuckerman was not only in near perfect condition, but it also has some incredible tips for outlining as well as revising that I think I may use for my NaNoWriMo attempt this year! At $3, it was a steal!
In fact, this is my dilemma as a writer… I love these as I can buy more books, give them a good home and let’s face it, who doesn’t love a good deal, but as a future author, I feel anxiety just being there. I mean, I know this whole thing is for a good cause; these books were donated and every dollar goes to a great cause. But as a writer staring at multiple copies of Harry Potter and Twilight among thousands of other one-offs, I couldn’t help but feel guilty. What if my books end up here? How will I get paid? Not that Rowling and Meyer are living on the street, but I did see some self-published ones there…
For now, this is probably my favourite time of year (and it comes twice) as the excitement of discovery is too much to hold back! That being said, I also can’t wait to start NaNoWriMo this year. I’ve got a much better idea of outlining and story development and I plan on putting that into practice so that if it works, I will use this method to plan the rest of my novels in great detail!
Nothing like having 1 complete novel (with editing to go), 2 novels at 50% and just deciding to toss another one into the mix! I did decide to flesh out my world and write a story within it, so I’m not drifting too far from my novels, but a new story with new characters is as good as a holiday!
Anyway, how many of you other writers out there are doing NaNoWriMo this year? Are you prepping? Planning on pantsing it? Have you given up on The Dream?
Just remember, the path to being an author is paved with writing, editing, marketing, contracts and more, but the path to being a writer is to simply write!
Good luck folks!
“You only fail if you stop writing.” – Ray Bradbury