Books, books, books.

It's a rotten view, but this is what my work room floor looked like for at least one day last week.

Getting ready for book fairs puts me in a frenzy of trying to find books that call to me (TAKE ME, TAKE ME!!! they cry. I'll SELL!)

Then, since I haven't got them in the database, I have to at least put the author & title in before I can spiff them up and box them neatly to go in the van.

I've got two weeks. (Possibly just over two weeks, but I'm fuzzy on the days right now. Four soccer practices a week plus four games each Saturday (there are two games per boy per Saturday), plus scouts, plus book fair AND the dreaded taxes which aren't yet finished are drowning out the details of days.

Luckily, I've been able to move things around so it's not quite this bad, but....

Break's over... back to work

So I THOUGHT I'd be able to do it all -- you know, get ready for the fair, attend the fair, post on the website every day, keep updating my database and online listings... get all the Christmas shopping, baking, housecleaning, etc. done -- all at the same time.

Guess what?

I couldn't.

Which is why I haven't posted since the 4th of December.

I've got pictures to add to the site -- from my book fair booth, from my almost clean living room, from the shower / linoleum disaster that is my upstairs bathroom, even from the box filled cave that is my work room, but not today.

As with all of last week, today is another catch-up day.

I do need to blog about the fair at some point -- but I need to clear my head first. And I need to get some urgently done things DONE first.

In the mean time, I'm posting pictures of some of the books that went down to Pasadena with me (and unfortunately, came right back up again) which have now been ENTERED into my database.

Today it's War Fiction / Vietnam Fiction:

Made into a FUNNY, poignant Movie

A Classic

 Vietnam Fiction at its best

Signed by the author

 More War Fiction... this time World War II

Pasadena - Day 1: Set-Up

I was hoping to continue my string of posting nearly every day,  but holidays (and book fairs) do tend to mess things up.

Last week, it was travel and family time. Not really good time to sit and blog.


 Yesterday, it was traveling again.

Today should be a bit less hectic-- all I HAVE to do is set up for the book fair.

It SHOULD only take a few hours....

should.

We'll see.

In the mean  time, I need to get my rear up this morning after a decent motel sleep and get myself ready for food and heavy lifting.

I'll try and have pictures later.

Wish me luck!

(PS: When I get back home I'll show you the pictures of  the bathroom floor that's been pulled up, the dishwasher that's NOT working, the Shower that has to be repaired ...by ME... and the hole in the downstairs ceiling that will have to be patched.... all of which happened between Monday last and now....sigh)

New Stock .... is this a good thing, or bad?

So this weekend, instead of polishing up the stock I HAD (which was already priced, in the computer, etc.) and ready to go to the book fair (which is coming up NEXT WEEK), I got a call from another book dealer who is having to move house.

First off, I've DONE the moving thing.  It's not pretty no matter which way you slice it. They have the luxury of getting movers to at least schlep the boxes from place to place, but the organization involved in taking out 10,000 or so books..... oh, my head....


As I say, I've done it myself and try not to think about having to do it again.

But, back to where I come in.  There was an offer made for a lot (as in a group of books) that weren't exactly the dealer's cup of tea but were perfectly fine books.

Yup. I know about this too.

I have BOXES (about 15 or so) of books that I picked up because they were good stuff -- interesting stuff -- at a good price  BUT they were not interesting enough to actually make it into the online listings yet.

Of course, some of that has to do with the time factor.

Another part of it, is, unfortunately, interest.

It takes a certain amount of -- hey, I like this book, I'll research it and list it; or: hey, I KNOW someone's looking for this, it will be an easy item to sell; or: I've had this book in stock before, it will take mere SECONDS to list again....
for me to want to put time into getting the book from the box to the shelf (with the database addition sandwiched in between there).

So If I have a stack of boxes of books that just don't really interest me enough to deal with them, then surely others do too.

Which is where the transfer of boxes of new books, and money came in.

The bad part is --- well, money.

Having enough to cover said purchase with enough to spare for say.....food on the table... and to pay for those new shoes that son number one REALLY needs.

Yup.


I am happy with the books though.  Now I've got two days (approximately) to cover them with new protectors, do basic research, and have them shiny, bright and ready to go for the Pasadena Book Fair.

Ah, the life of a book dealer.

Getting Ready for a book fair?

Our Friends from Frolix 8 by Philip K. Dick - 1st Hardcover Edition

So far, I've got ONE new book (that's interesting -- at least to me) for the book fair ....

which is closing in on me in four weeks time.

(huff, huff, hyperventilating here..)

BUT

As far as my list of things to do from yesterday ... I got the ink for the flyers today. Yippee!

I also finally got a new wrist rest that I've needed for about oh, eight months now. The previous wrist rest was torn apart by son number two who, when using my computer, can't seem to keep his hands on the keyboard, but has to TOUCH things -- my wrist rest, my stapler (found it without any staples about four times before I yelled), my tape dispenser, my pens, my sticky notes (expensive toys!).

Sharing my desk with my children is a real motherly sacrifice (and I'm trying to find ways around it -- they HAVE their own laptop to use, but for some reason, my machine seems to be necessary as well) and I don't do that sort of sacrifice well. Day long soccer jaunts in wind, rain and 50 degree weather - sure, no problem.  But mess with my desk.....

AHHHHHHH!

Besides, right now, my desk looks like a case of who did it and ran (who ever thought up these colloquialisms any way?).  Papers everywhere, piles of files, books higgledy-piggledy, envelopes, fliers to  be addressed and mailed, sticky notes (some of which make sense, some of which don't). books that need REFERENCES to find out which edition / state / etc. they are.  And don't forget the BOXES behind my desk.

Tonight, I also spent time googling for scouting information -- Webelos is great fun, but there's real WORK involved as the boys get older and move towards Boy Scouts and more self-sufficiency. Which, in turn, means more work for the den leader.  Luckily, I found some really nice worksheets that I can use to supplement my meetings.

Tomorrow is Veteran's Day. A day of rest and remembrance for the men and women who went to war for our freedoms. And it means another day off school...

Four more weeks.
Four more weeks.
Four more weeks....

sigh

Cough, Cough....

Yesterday's blog post was put off due to a case of coughing, a 102 temperature and me not really caring about anything but wishing I could just SIT and stare at a wall.

Not possible of course.  Yesterday was the Webelos regular den meeting (and since I'm the leader, I get to BE there.)

I too dragged myself off to the doctor -- making this the FOURTH visit in two weeks. But lo and behold, I just have a virus (so she says...personally, the gook coming with the cough makes ME think otherwise, but I'm not a doctor).  She even checked me for Swine Flu, but as I told her, I know the difference between flu and something other.   If I really did have the flu, I'd be laying on the sofa, staring at the wall, not dressed and sitting in the doctor's office waiting patiently.

 The temperature's mostly gone today, which is nice. The cough is still here (asthma has kicked in to replace the temp -- just because ) and my head is still apparently attached to my body.

I actually got a bit of work done today too.

Tomorrow, I need to take a bunch of pictures so I can keep winnowing down the boxes of books from September.

I'm down to FOUR boxes still stuck like a small pillar in the front room. After those boxes get re-pictured, all in the database (or checked to see if their updated in the database), then I'll actually feel like I've made some progress in getting things done.  Of course, the twenty boxes still sitting behind me in my work room have to be taken care of too, but that's asking a bit too much right at the moment.

And of course, since the four boxes left from the last book fair might get taken care of, I have ANOTHER book fair I want to do.

Which means, that in about a week, I should start piling NEW boxes of books in the front room to take to this fair. AND, the book cases I just finished putting back up and filling with books, will all have to be taken down and the books parked somewhere if not going with me). I have to decide by Friday if I'm going to take the plunge and go.  The fair is in Pasadena. Pasadena is a nice place in December -- it's warmer than Northern California.  It is a tad more expensive, but I'm finding good rates for hotels right now, so that's  a plus.  I worry that I don't have enough GOOD stock (my constant thought anyway) to take -- or more correctly, enough good stock that is DIFFERENT from the stock I took before, and the stock I took to Santa Monica, so that there's not too much cross-over (wouldn't want the customers to think I can't GET new stuff....)

BUT -- we'll be at my mother-in-law's house for Thanksgiving for four days about a week prior to this book fair.  That means two sets of long drives in a short span of time, nearly a week where I'll be gone and not able to add to my database right before the fair.  So, as you can tell, I'm still dithering.

I'll make up my mind by Friday.  (Yes, I will....maybe....please?)

Since I don't have much to SAY about the books I put in my database today, at least I can show a few pictures.

This is an early Little Golden Book WITH the dust jacket.

(the dust jacketed copies of Little Golden books are getting harder and harder to find)

And it happens to be another ABC book (see the post about abecedarians)

Paddington Bear.  What more can you say?

I LOVE Paddington.

This book is illustrated by Maud  and Miska Petersham. The illustrations are delicately done, but very colorful and they go along with the nursery rhymes beautifully.

Open wide and say Ahhhhh....

No work done today due to the third doctor visit in a week (yes, let me think about that.... last Friday, this Wednesday....and today. )yup, three in one week's time.

First, son number two came down with a sinus infection. Nothing new around this house (and surprisingly, the first of this new school year -- usually he gets one the first month of school).  Then son number one caught it and added on bronchitis.  Again, nothing new -- we have allergies and asthma. We get stuff. We deal with it.

BUT ...

Wednesday was the last day of meds for son number two and he was feverish, tired, cranky and not exactly a picture of wellness.

So, after waiting a day just to be sure .... he woke up this morning with a HUGE (according to him) headache, the coughing was non-stop and he was still tired.  So, doing the good mom thing, I took him in.

This time it's a virus.

On top of the bacterial infection of last week.

Nothing we can do but let it take its course.

So instead of working (in truth, I WAS working, as I did some reading for review while plunked in the waiting room of the doctor's office... and when I got back from the rounds of driving thither and yon, I did start MAY'S  taxes... which is GOOD)  I carted son number two around to doctor, pharmacy, here, there and everywhere.

In other news, I'm trying to decide if I want to attend / exhibit at the Pasadena Book Fair.  I've done it the last three years & it's been decent -- but -- the schedule changed this year from June to December.

There's booths available.  Hotel prices are better than expected (really!)  and I have a MONTH to get my mind around the idea (and pack, etc).

Anyone have an opinion?

I'm going to decide by the end of next week if I will or not.  Right now, I'm leaning towards going.

let me know what you think.

AND

keep your fingers crossed that I don't get the gunk running around the house.

Over and Over by Charlotte Zolotow

You know, back a few weeks ago I was lamenting the fact that the Sacramento Book Fair was rather a lackluster event and that I was quite disappointed in the sales garnered therein.

Well......

I gotta say, I was partly wrong.

First off, the book you see pictured above is one of the books I bought at the fair.  I had an inkling that it was more than it appeared (and more than the other dealer thought it was as well).  I was right.  Though there are still some research bits about this book that I'd like to find out (mostly twiddly stuff that interests me, not anything to change my mind on the edition of the book), I found the information that I needed to verify it's edition.  It is indeed a First edition (and not a later state either).

Not often seen in first edition and it's a generally very nice copy too, with a dust jacket in very good+ condition.

I'm quite happy with this book.

It's not the only book I picked up at the fair, and so far, just about everything I did buy (and honestly, I didn't buy much because I like to be able to PAY for what I buy, and since I didn't sell all that much.... well, let's just say that I am not in a position to gamble in a big way currently so cannot live by the book fair book seller's mantra: "buy your way out")

(some other time I'll take another pass at this phrase -- it seems the wildest crap shoot suggestion that I've ever come across, but I do know people who live by it.) 

And, on top of buying books that have  more to them then the other dealers thought, I have had more success than usual with selling books to customers AFTER the fair was over.  Some of them were books I had in stock but hadn't taken with me. Some were books I found for people with a firm interest. Some were shot in the dark quotes. 

For me, that's a really good thing.

I admit I'm terrible on follow-up. Terrible for a couple of reasons (foremost of which is shyness in that I don't want to BOTHER people or PUSH them.... not the best qualities to have if you are any kind of saleman, even a collectable book sales person), terrible because (and this happened to me again at this fair) I had recently seen copies of books that were requested in some of my normal book scouting spots -- but when I went back to pick up the books, they were GONE...

So, some customers were pleased or more than pleased with my service.  Others.... not so pleased (or actually, I don't really know what they think, as I haven't contacted them as I couldn't produce the books they were looking for).

The thing is, I guess I don't need to feel so down about a Book Fair that wasn't as immediately productive as I could have liked (you know, those bills, though, wait for no man, which is a real bummer) because in the end, it's been not so very bad at all.

As for this book -- I LOVE the illustrations by Garth Williams (best known for his work on Laura Ingalls Wilder's books.  the colors he used throughout this book are delicate, yet striking. The feel ... the look of the illustrations is very eye-catching and they pull you in for a longer look.  The also match the text nearly perfectly.

The girl who is the centerpiece of this book  (it's about a little girl aged approximately three years old) who doesn't really understand when and how holidays come around, but loves them anyway -- she asks lots of questions of her mom...and learns about the seasons and the different times of the year) ...

well, that girl is actually based on Charlotte Zolotow's daughter - Crescent Dragonwagon.  (who also turned to writing and illustrating when she grew up).  I don't know if the pictures of the little girl bear any resemblance to Crescent herself, but it's nice to think that they might.

More Christmas stuff - and slogging through the boxes from the book fairs

Some of the holiday books I pulled out of boxes are just too .... cute ...
for words.

The Santa book above is for tiny kids new to the season -- it's a touchy-feely book (with an added scratch-n-sniff patch too!) that a little kid sitting in the back of the car can play with to his (or her) heart's content.  I had to spend a bit of time playing with it myself to make sure everything was A-ok (yup it is - AND the scratch-n-sniff works wonderfully too)

This book is filled with stickers that can be torn out and added to the story (also a great back seat of the car activity book for somewhat older children who are on their way to a relative's house for Thanksgiving).  This is the sort of book that would have amused me for about five minutes when I was little, but these days, I find them quite endearing and wish that I HAD had them for myself when I was young.

Other than that, I actually slogged through two boxes of books which returned with me from the book fairs -- I checked to see which were listed with FULL details and which had pictures... then which were listed online or not (all one slick process for the most part). I have one medium sized pile of books that need pictures, but the descriptions should all be there and then they go back on the shelves for another year.

This is REAL progress!

Hopefully it will continue.

Now if I could just get enough time to do the tax stuff too....

Clothes make the man ...

Yesterday I mentioned that I was clothes-less.

Well, not exactly. I do HAVE clothes and wear them daily. However, when it comes to BOOK FAIR clothing, I come up way short.

The thing is, I spend most of my days lifting books, or boxes of books, or trawling around in places that HAVE books (thrift stores, someone's garage, other bookstores, etc.) and for the most part, it's dirty work. Wearing heels is NOT recommended. Besides, I tossed my heels years ago after my sons were born. They always hurt my feet anyway and it would have taken 6" + heels to make me tall enough to make a difference, so why bother at all.

And, when the boys were little, wearing good clothes was entirely wasteful and annoying. Cotton is king when it comes to spit up, poop, pee (remember, these are boys), sand, dirt, mud... you name it, I lived with smears of it on me on a daily, if not hourly basis. One gets inured to all sorts of smells and curious blotches on clothing and body parts.

I also gave up jewelry (except for the rings which are truly permanently attached (they shrank -- that's my line and I'm sticking to it -- the rings shrank. My fingers did NOT grow fatter around the knuckles!) because having one earring yanked forcefully and damagingly out of my ear (and having my favorite pair of Christmas earrings pulled apart by an eighteen month old) taught me right quick. Finally, about three years ago I started putting my earrings on again -- but I still forget somedays. And necklaces tend to weigh me down and drag uncomfortably at my neck so I wear them, but never easily.

Which all means, in as round-about fashion as you can get, that much of my clothing is easy wear stuff. NOT polyester, mind you. And I balk at sweatsuit outfits, even the really expensive combos that people use on their way to and from the gym if they have class.

Mostly I wear jeans and decent shirts. When I'm feeling well (as in not dead tired and dragging around) I try for clean, neat oxford style shirts with the jeans. If I'm doing scout stuff that could potentially be dirty I wear scout tee shirts. The same goes for soccer / baseball games or practice.

Besides, right now, by lunchtime most days, it's nearing 100 degrees (F) and wearing full battle gear is excessive unless you're expected to be somewhere inside with air conditioning.

All of which leaves me far short in the good clothing department for Book Fairs. Of course, there's a range of clothing necessities for different fairs. One wears different gear one in Grass Valley that is ALWAYS when it's 105 in the shade vs the cool, air conditioned, classy, high class environs of San Francisco. Santa Monica falls somewhere in between. Sacramento tends towards the Grass Valley casual.

Even so, I always feel as if what I'm wearing is just NOT RIGHT. Maybe it's because I look at the clothes others are wearing and compare them to my own. Maybe its because I know that people are actually looking at ME, not just the books. Maybe I'm PARANOID... or feeling extraordinarily self-conscious.

Who knows.

All I know is that this year, I really don't have time to spend hours dragging my sorry feet around the Malls looking for something, much less do I want to pay for something that I only use occasionally -- and EACH TIME I NEED SOMETHING DIFFERENT!

So this year, I ordered a couple of new oxford style shirts from Lands End, checked to see if I had a decent pair of jeans to wear (no holes, no sagging spots, etc) and that's what I'm going to wear.

AND I'm going to have on my sneakers. They are somewhat sparkly, but they sure need a cleaning after wearing them for the weeks of scout camp. The thing is, this year I have an excuse for the casual footwear -- my back would not TAKE wearing something complicated or without support.

So there.

As for the clothes. Well I've decided that this leopard (actually lion if you go by astrology) can't easily change it's spots -- so the real me will have to do.

I WILL, however, be wearing my earrings and they will be my best set.

The countdown continues...

Four work days left until I am supposed to wing my way airily down to Santa Monica.

First off -- My back is feeling better. Not completely, and strangely enough, it is worse at night, especially when I try to lay flat. But better is a good thing.

Second -- I've finally got some boxes of books packed for the fair. Eight boxes. Not what I NEED or what I'd like to have done by now, but better than the NONE I had three days ago.

Today was a non-starter for work. Sort of. Instead of doing data entry (which STILL needs to be done), I went and discussed a book for possible consignment. All I can say right now is that it went well.

It IS, however, the first time I've ever allowed myself to do a consignment type of arrangement and I'll have to see how things go. Normally I try to pay outright for stock as it makes life MUCH simpler. But...

Third -- I'm dreading taking the boxes (and right about now I'm estimating 25 or so boxes for this fair alone) from the house to the car. I'll do it, and I'll probably be sorry I did do it, but it has to be done. On the up side, when I get to the fair, there are wonderful helper guys who help unload for me.

And if you're wondering why my crew of menfolk here don't help -- My husband just recently RE-dislocated his shoulder and is forbidden from lifting heavy stuff (he lifted son number two, the feather weight and pulled it again), Son number one tried to lift a box -- picked it up -- and put it down two steps later. I'll have to start weight training on him (he can use partly filled boxes of books.... hey, there's an idea). As for son number two -- well, he weights about the same amount as some of the boxes and LESS than others.

For someone who's been noticing the bathroom scale inching up recently, having to hear him moan about the fact that he CAN'T even gain ONE pound (still stuck at 51 lbs and this is going on about a year now) makes me want to throw things (not at him).

So it's me and the boxes. And the dratted bookcases which weigh fifty pounds or so (wooden, four shelves), not to mention all the other sundry items that go along.

And then there's the drive down. Six+ hours sitting on my rump doesn't make my back feel much better. I do get out every two hours or so just to see if my legs will hold me up. That's fun to watch -- how many (mmph) year olds do you know who have to wildly grab for the door of the vehicle to hold themselves up when there legs decide NOT to work after a stint of driving?

Yeah, I'm going on a bit.

Yeah, I'll make it just fine.

But it's fun to complain about.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get more work done.

Maybe the boxes for the fair with magically fill themselves with priced, dust jacket covered, perfect books.

Maybe not -- FOUR MORE DAYS!


Tomorrow, the plight of the truly clothes-less person...

Countdown to the fair... and panic starts to set in.

So I knew (as in vaguely remembered and thought about it not at all) that the Labor Day weekend was coming up. I've got book fairs to worry about, we don't have plans for most weekends except soccer games (it's that season now, baseball is just winding down) and scout stuff (I got roped into doing a whole day of selling popcorn in front of a store on labor day weekend, but that's another drama that I DON'T want to think about at the moment.

I have been mentally planning exactly how much time I have to do things before I REALLY have to start the final countdown stuff (pulling the seats out of the van, starting to put the boxes of books in the van -- assuming the boxes are already filled...), getting the supplies ready, etc.

When son number one last night reminded me that he had TWO DAYS OFF coming up, I think my brain went into overload.

NO. That's not POSSIBLE.

You see, that means that FRIDAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY and MONDAY of the week I'm LEAVING for the fair (on Thursday) are nearly USELESS days for getting real work done and having the brain turned on and processing properly.

If I am counting correctly, that leaves me FIVE fairly quiet, though short, days between now and the day when I have to have everything in the van, my bag packed and every detail under the sun taken care of.

I have to make a schedule for my husband of what the boys are doing that weekend & where they need to be (of COURSE the first soccer game is Sept 12th)

I have to walk my mom through driving the boys to new schools so everything will be easy for them and her.

I have to have food bought and figured out - if not prepared ahead of time.

I have to have MY paperwork for the fair ready to go -- and you KNOW I'm going to be typing up descriptions until the last minute.

I have to have all packages / books sold ready for the post office by Wednesday night.

There's more, but this is enough to freak me out now.

Why can't Labor Day Weekend be some other time?

NO...... can you hear the wailing yet?

So today, I made the executive decision to start entering just the basic data for the piles of books around my desk and putting the books on hold. Something I was hoping I wouldn't have to do. There aren't full descriptions on them. Just author, date, price paid, condition designation, and price for the show. Hopefully, I won't end up with a batch of them next year that haven't been turned to available online like the ones I found this year.

As needs must, they say.

Wahhhhhhhh! (there's the wailing).

More Book Fair Stuff ... and the back

I went for the X-ray of my back. Doctor got the pic's and said, other than some scoliosis (which I THOUGHT I was luckily free of since I was checked almost every year since I was little -- does it suddenly appear?) which didn't mean much, I didn't have anything showing on the X-rays that would be bothering me.

Which means it's all soft tissue problems. So physical therapy is in order.

Not a bad answer, if you ask me. I'd rather have something that's fixable with work than something that is permanently disabling.

SO, since I was feeling marginally better yesterday, decided to go ahead and DO MY EXERCISES this morning.

Sure.

Remind me one of these days how DUMB that was.

Now It's going to take longer to get back to where I was because whatever I did (and by the way, the exercises this morning were mainly help for lower back problems) made me feel ever so much NOT better.

Great. Someone duct tape me to my chair so I don't do stupid things.

On other fronts -- I'm still working on getting my boxes of books ready for the two book fairs coming up.

Santa Monica is now just over two weeks away. Normally I'd have boxes already starting to form a wall in my front room (which makes the rest of the family and the cats rather growly at me as the boxes take up room to run...)

BUT - pain has slowed me down a bit.

AND I finally got my rear in gear and ordered dust jacket covers which didn't arrive until yesterday. So, knowing that they were coming, I PUT OFF boxing up books so I could cover them first.

Now I have to put in overtime getting the covers on and figuring out exactly which books might be of interest. AND which books to leave out for Sacramento (three weeks away) and not take to Santa Monica.

And remember I'm not supposed to be lifting boxes of books or even big stacks of them.

Right now, the pain is worst when I try to bend over and stay bent over to do something - like pick up books off the floor (where they NEVER are -- yeah right) or pet the cat, or pick up kid stuff...

And of course, baseball season hasn't exactly finished yet, but soccer season HAS started. Our weekly schedule now has something in the evening every day except Friday (and maybe will have something there too), with weekends being REALLY busy.

Plenty of time to get books covered and boxed up.

Yup.

As long as I don't really start to think about what's going on, I'm FINE.

FINE I SAY.

enjoy.

Santa Monica Book Fair... here's the link

It appears that tthe link is working again today. The show arrangers must have been working on it yesterday as it never seemed to do anything but spin and time out.

here's the link:

Santa Monica Book Fair


the lone link I could find for the Sacramento show is lame and mostly for dealers, so I'm not including that -- however, I will tell the organizer when I see him that he needs to add a webpage for the show. Gotta have one nowadays!

I've been entering data for the fair this week. In fact, the last couple of days made me feel like I might actually have some interesting stuff to take...

Can't tell you about it now, as I need to take it to the fair, but it's starting to feel good.

Last week I spent the week moaning to myself that I had NOTHING worth looking at.

NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING....

(this by the way, is every bookseller's lament when faced with a book fair looming. All of us seem to be easily cowed by the stock of others ... well, maybe not ALL, but many dealers). What can I say, unless you're constantly working with the public in an open shop (which many are NOT now), you end up by yourself facing a computer all day and don't feel like you do much but sit on your rear end. And some of us are less than hugely confident -- speaking of myself here.

I haven't gotten to the packing part yet -- that should be coming up this next week. And if it's not, I'm LATE!!!

Hopefully I'll be able to find something else to write about for the next week or so, but if not, bear with me.

Jellybeans for Breakfast

So I'm getting bored (well, not exactly bored, but restless) of constant data entry today so I thought I'd check out a few of the titles that I had bought, but not looked up and stacked in a slithering pile by my desk (you remember the desk... well, the box piles are somewhat smaller, but then other piles start to emerge like creatures from the Black Lagoon).


The book pictured above is one of those I just looked up. I knew of Miriam Young from her Miss Suzy series (terminally cute and fun-- and collectable) so I picked up this title, which I hadn't seen before, but had a vague recollection of anyway. Turns out, this particular title is one of the most sought after of her books. Prices online are STRANGE and basically overpriced, but then there are a couple of other books like this that have weird collectability. Gator Pie (by Louise Mathews) is one of them.

The book itself is cute. It's illustrations are generally nice, but, to my eye, nothing overly special and the story is about friendship and friends doing all sorts of crazy, fun stuff (without their parents or school to hinder them). But the PRICES.... man.... $100 is minimum and one strange soul has the book listed for $600.00. As if he's EVER going to get that for a picture book like this!

I'm taking a more moderate approach to my pricing, but I'm not going to cut off my nose to spite my face either. Right at the moment, I finished entering the data for it, but I'm not listing it on line until after this weekend, just in case someone at the Book Fair interested.

Now I'm not putting the book, the illustrations or the prices down -- in fact, if I can send this book to someone who fondly remembers it & wants to pass it on to a loved one, that's GREAT. That's one of my favorite ways to sell books -- to people who really CARE about the book, the story, the illustrator, etc.

Still, the PRICES.....

WOW!

In other news, I'm down to the day before launch to the Gold Rush Book fair. I've got 18 boxes packed (WAY down from the last time... when I took 33 boxes). I'm hoping that less crowded, more front facing books will help. Also, I'm doing this because I'm getting older and my knee is already protesting the work it's going to have to do. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there will be buyers out there and that I've got what they want. On the good news side, I heard from a former customer of mine today who is going to the fair & asked me to bring a couple of books for her... that's GOOD news!

On the bad news side, my allergies are not getting better & my head is fuzzy and achy most of the time and I'm feeling draggy and rather grouchy. Not a good combination when you have to be sparkly and on your toes (and can add & subtract without making mistakes) for the entire weekend.

I'll try to post tomorrow, but this might have to hold you through until Monday (or Tuesday....)

Field Trip Number Two in two days...

Well -- The thing in the middle of the picture is an Australian Skink (on the small side). The fuzzy stuff at the bottom of the picture is someone's hair and then there's the pair of knees at the top of the picture.

This is one of the very few photos that came out (I keep telling you, my skills with the camera are shaky at best) of the first part of a two part field trip last Friday. We visited a local natural history museum where there were mock-ups of different California habitats (with real stuffed animals staring nose to nose at you -- including a full sized Puma / Mountain Lion / Cougar..).

The second portion of the trip was a nature walk in a semi-local State park with a guide. It was GREAT! Unfortunately, many of the kids were either unimpressed or spent their entire time worring about dirt getting on them. Rather sad. Most of the parents enjoyed it, and number two son (who had come last year to the same park with the same guide for a walk for cub scouts) was having a great time getting more detail than he had absorbed last time. Too cool.

Yesterday I tried to get a picture of the large black carpenter Bee that was buzzing around the mock sweet pea (I think) bush in front of the house yesterday, but again.... my skills with a moving object...

here's the best shot:




The plant is the one with purple flowers. The bee.. well even as big as it is to my eye, you can hardly see it here... it's to the right of the plant and it's the black flapping thing on the underside of one of the flowers. Boy do I wish I had a real camera with a telephoto lens and some real skills. Nice plant though.

Yesterday was supposed to be a finishing day to get the books covered and boxed for the Book Fair this coming weekend. Well, I spent two hours covering, but not boxing and the bookcases which were supposed to come down & get stacked ready for the van haven't been. I'll try and get some more done after this. Right now I'm sending out my monthly newsletter with a note about the fair. Probably way too late, but that's the way it's going around here this month.

Hopefully, I'll spend more time tomorrow boxing and preparing than trying to enter new books into the database. At least, that's what I NEED to be doing.

Now it's off to baseball.