Knowing that a certain Famous Author was sad that yesterday’s visit to an outlying bookstore found its shelves devoid of any of his titles, I decided to take a spin through the ‘hood to our Bookstop (a Barnes & Noble store) and Borders. I’d love to go to our independent booksellers, but they vanished one by one.
If you want to watch the stars come out with Famous Author Rob Byrnes, Bookstop’s the place to go. You can find FARB and the stars shelved in general fiction. Missing from general fiction?
Mmmhmmm. This is where you’d usually be able to go on signed adventures with Timothy James Beck’s Daniel, Blaine, Adam, Jeremy, Derek, et al. I’m going to keep saying the words SOLD OUT instead of PUBLISHER’S RETURNS. Let me have this fantasy, okay?
If you should stroll to the back of Bookstop to the gay and lesbian section, between running through lush pastures with Trebor Healey’s SWEET SON OF PAN (HIGHLY recommended if you like smart, sensual poetry) or sitting at a WeHo diner called THIRD AND HEAVEN with Ben Patrick Johnson’s friends, you can help Greg Herren’s Chanse MacLeod solve a MURDER IN THE RUE DAPHINE.
Then again, if murder’s not on your mind, look up a shelf and find out why Greg Herren calls himself FAMOUS PORN WRITER Greg Herren. There’s a reason fraternities are Greek…
Meanwhile, do you not mind your gay fiction written by a female? Look… Snuggled in with the “C”s–well, sort of–you can find THE DEAL, co-authored by Becky Cochrane. But just in case you’d prefer your gay fiction written by a man, let your eyes move to the right to where the “L”s are shelved:
Why, there’s THE DEAL by Timothy J. Lambert! And if this entire dual-author/one-with-a-uterus situation confounds you, just grab that book next to THE DEAL and find THREE FORTUNES IN ONE COOKIE with Phillip Powell, a young man for whom I feel a lot of affection.
As you get up from looking at that lower shelf, you might be intrigued by what happens when guys grow FROM BOYS TO MEN. I haven’t yet read this, but I do know the work of a few of the contributors so it’s definitely on my to-be-bought-and-read list.
Now standing at full height, look what you can see!
In LOVE, BOURBON STREET, editors Greg Herren and Paul Willis present a collection of essays from writers who know why New Orleans was, is, and ever will be a national treasure.
All in all, a nice visit to Bookstop. Let’s go over to Borders.
Sadly, you can’t hang out with FARB’s stars, but you can find out exactly what happened to some TRUST FUND BOYS that he knows. Surrounding shelves are empty because Borders is in the process of moving sections around.
But it’s still possible to find out why Scotty Bradley is listening to JACKSON SQUARE JAZZ before doing the MARDI GRAS MAMBO. Apparently, Chanse MacLeod has squeezed in there to get that answer as well.
Borders has been really good about keeping signed Timothy James Beck novels around, so once again, they must be SOLD OUT. Right? Right? There is however, one last chance to find out Alexander Casey’s secret in THE DEAL and what it’s like to live with a crazy mother in a mansion overlooking the Mississippi Gulf Coast in THREE FORTUNES IN ONE COOKIE.
Oh, one more thing. Here’s a shelf of romance at Bookstop:
and a shelf of romance at Borders:
See a book by “Cochrane” anywhere? Me, either. But that’s okay. When I got home, hovering in the sky over The Compound was a mode of transportation and advertisement that always makes me smile (for no apparent reason).
Chance of me ever going up in a blimp? Pretty much zero.
your book was right next to Cabot…
Did anyone wonder why you were taking pictures if shelves in the bookstore?
Oddly enough, no one cared. At Bookstop, they were understaffed. At Borders, they were too busy moving sections.
That blimp! I know what time you were running around, because I noticed the blimp while I was driving from work to the gym! I love blimps. Don’t know why.
I remember being in a stereo shop when I was teen, and whoever I was with pointed out the various brands. The short exchange went like this:
“Sanyo.”
“You’re welcome.”
I think it was sometime between four and five.
I love blimps, too! My office in the early to mid-nineties was very close to the old blimp port north of the city. I often saw the Goodyear blimp on my way to and from work. It was a sad day when they shut it down.
Having grown up here, I have very fond memories of the Goodyear Blimp, which would fly over the Houston skies periodically during the summer. It’s amazing how even sounds of our childhoods stick with us. When the Super Bowl was in Houston, so was the blimp. We went out one night, and I heard the familiar hummmmm it makes. I instantly knew what it was, and I started checking the night sky for the blimp! I was as excited about it that night as I was when I was a little kid.
I remember when I used to go to pro football games (What? Shut up everybody, I did!), how exciting it was whenever the Goodyear Blimp was over the stadium.
It’s crazy this affection we feel, and it can’t even be chalked up to its being a phallic symbol because you probably have negative one zillion percent interest in a phallus…
Awww… you did all this for me?
[DO NOT ruin my fantasy!]
–FARB
YES.
I read Sweet Son of Pan and was blown away by it. I recently bought Healy’s new (?) novel. Haven’t started it yet, but I hope it lives up to his poetry.
– Crash
Which novel? If it’s THROUGH IT CAME BRIGHT COLORS, I haven’t read it yet (though I own it!), and it received the Ferro-Grumley Award in 2004. I also have in my possession a soon-to-be-published short story of his which is WONDERFUL.
He’s a very gifted writer.
Through it Came Bright Colors. That’s the one. I’m looking forward to it.
-Crash