In Other Words

Archive for the ‘books’ Category

This site is getting changed around a bit. Again. (Stop laughing, Friar!)

Although EditQuest has got more traffic on this blog than it did on its own, I’ve found it difficult and restricting to have it on my personal blog. Thus, I plan on getting EQ back on its own, with its own design, so I can be free to do what I like with this blog both with the design and content. I hope to do that very soon. I’ll still link to EQ from here, though.

Bear with me as I get all this stuff sorted, will you, please? I hope that once I do I’ll be content enough for a very long time to leave well enough alone.

A main reason for my constant changing here has been boredom and a lack of focus. But a lovely chat with the hubby over tea and coffee (he had coffee, I had Lady Grey) this morning in the living room, a rare and wondrous occurrence, has given me the impetus I need to begin grounding myself with some sort of resolve and deciding what I truly want to do with my life.

It was so exciting and validating to hear what C had to say. First he said he had had an idea about me going to see the parents of a friend for advice on what to do about Biblio. These people are millionaires because they once owned MacDonald’s, which they sold, and now own a chain of pizza places. They would certainly have experienced input as to how best to pursue my business idea. (Who knows, C pointed out, maybe they’ll even like your idea so much they’ll fund it.) I’ve already been to see the local business consultant people and it was that brief meeting that freaked me out and convinced me I could never do this, even though my proposal was good. I’m ready, though, to explore other options.

I wish I could have recorded what C said to me; it’s quite interesting and pleasing to hear yourself described in a positive way by your significant other, I’ll tell you. Knowing that person observes you in such a way and pays attention to what he or she sees is so cool!

All the time he’s known me, C said, he’s seen me irrevocably committed to and passionate about one thing—books. He recalled my time working at Chapters, how I had always prattled on about what books had come out and what was going to come out and how excited I was. He remembered how I gushed to the customers about the books I loved and how I made them fill their baskets with novels because of my enthusiasm, and how every moment of the day I had free I had my nose in some new book. I studied books for five years in uni, I’ve worked in a bookstore, libraries, for a publishing company. I constantly keep up on what’s being published and by whom. I collect books. I know books. I have a good background with which to start.

Most significantly, he said he felt sure, from observing me in my different jobs, that I should be buying and selling books, not signing them out for people, not repairing them (as cool as I think being an antiquarian book expert and restorer would be. I stole the idea from Geraldine Brooks’s People of the Book, an excellent novel). He didn’t think editing books was what I should do, either. For now it’s okay, but obviously, with the waffling back and forth I’ve done over the years, it’s not IT.

Books and me are intertwined, C observed rather poetically. That was one thing I could say was consistent all of my life, one thing I should know for sure. And it wasn’t true that I couldn’t commit to anything: I’ve had the idea for Biblio for three or more years now and he reminded me that I can’t stop thinking about it, fleshing it out in my head, imagining it so perfectly I want to cry in frustration that it doesn’t actually exist for us to go there. I have to admit, the thought of it, picturing me so clearly doing it, makes my heart pound.

And in the end, he said, who cares if you  change your mind? All you do then is sell the business. Or who cares if we want to move from Belleville? You sell the biz and move on and open another, or you have two. It’s okay to change your mind, he said. But you have to commit to something at least for the time being or you’ll float around feeling frustrated forever.

The conversation we had left me feeling pointed in a certain direction because I found myself constantly agreeing with what C said. First I need to convince myself that just because I can’t see all the options, establishing Biblio is not impossible. There are several options, and if I decide that I’ll never have the money to open my bookshop tearoom, I’m closing off those I don’t yet know about. Second, I need to prepare. My sister actually has her master’s in coffee and tea (she passed with distinction, I add!) and this is something I think I should look into. I also need to flesh out my business plan further, or rather finish it: I stopped at the financial part because I got freaked out.

Anyway, I won’t bore you. But I thought I’d put this on paper, so to speak, because that seems to make things more concrete. And now, since it’s after one in the morning, I’ll sleep on it, too.

I actually hold this to be very true!

I really, really want a tee-shirt that says it. If I was still working at the library, I’d seriously propose to the CEO that all staff wear the tee-shirt as their uniform.

I think it would be hilarious!

PS. I’m currently reading The Origin of Species, by Nino Ricci. It won a few awards, most notably the Governor General’s Award. It’s very well written, very non-linear, and the character development is excellent. And it’s very funny.

Next up is David Wroblewski’s The Story of Edgar Sawtelle…. What are you reading?