Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Bookstores, etc.

Today on Ebay--a Mr. Potato Head Darth Tater, an "I love Orlando Bloom like a fat kid loves cake" t-shirt, and a pair of Frida and Diego "wedding art dolls." None of which I bid on, but I did seriously contemplate reproduction pendants of the Pirates of the Caribbean Aztec coins. It would make a great accessory for my planned pirate costume at RT next year! :)

And now for something completely different. I was at Barnes and Noble last night, the one closest to my house, where I waste copious amounts of time drinking mocha lattes and reading British Vogue. They moved the Romance section!!! Where I used to happily browse Gaelen Foley, Liz Carlyle, and Madeline Hunter, and turn my own volumes to advantageous face-out positions, there was now the entire Dr. Phil opus. Romance was now in the ghetto at the back of the store, no less than nine shelves high. To reach the books I wanted at the top, I had to find a big footstool and drag it over, because there were no salespeople in sight. This is not a happy situation for those of us who are, shall we say, vertically challenged. I shudder to think what would happen if it was, say, my 87 year old grandmother scrambling to climb on that stool.

Luckily, my own book was right at eye level. Already turned face-out. There were 3 copies, down from 7 last time I was there. I hope someone besides my mother has been buying them. I hope LOTS of someones are buying them, because my publisher is "evaluating" whether it's worth their while to publish the sequel. Is this not the most frustrating business in the world???? Maybe I should invade their offices with a scabbard-sold-separately Sword of Ibelin and MAKE them buy the book.

Or maybe not. Maybe I'll just go over and see how much that Darth Tater is going for.

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