Author/Illustrator Interview: Lane Smith

Interviewed by Heather F.

HF: Congratulations on your new (and timely!) children’s book, Madam President! Can you tell us a little of what it is about?

LS: Thanks. It’s about a girl who imagines she’s president of the United States. A few books back I did a “presidential” book for the boys: John, Paul, George & Ben, so in the democratic tradition of Equal Time I made one for the girls.

HF: I just have to say, once upon a time, that I was Katy. I might even still be one. She is such a fantastic character; do you know some Katy’s? Is she based on anyone you know?

LS: Probably there’s a bit of myself in there. And there’s a neighbor girl down the road named Katie who influenced my Katy as well.

HF: I just love your gorgeous illustrations. Is there any one medium you prefer to work in or do you dabble in a little bit of everything?

LS: I like a little bit of everything. Mixed media is the best description. Sometimes I paint in oils and I collage bits of paper into the work. Sometimes I do charcoal or pencil drawings. In the case of Madam President I drew the pictures in pen and ink and painted them digitally in Photoshop. Some of the textures were created with oil paints and scanned in later.

HF: You collaborate with a lot of authors; Jon Scieszka, Bob Shea, Eve Merriman and many others. Do you find it easier to work with other authors or to write and illustrate your own material? Is your process different?

LS: I like both. I love to conceive an idea then write and illustrate it myself but I also love interpreting the work of others. My biggest compliment is when an author says, “When I wrote this I never imagined you’d illustrate it this way.” (At least I think that’s a compliment!)

HF: Just what is your process anyway? Once you conceive an idea, how do you go about creating a book?

LS: Lots of sketches. Lots of rewrites.

HF: Which part do you find more difficult? The writing or the illustrating? Do they both come naturally to you?

LS: Definitely the writing. I’m a visual person so I’m always thinking in terms of mood, color, shadow and shapes. When I write I tend to overwrite so I rely on friends and editors to cut my stuff down.

HF: What is your work space like?

LS: I work in an old turn-of-the-century one-room schoolhouse.

HF: What are your influences? Any particular books? Illustrators? Authors?

LS: It’s a mix of high brow and low brow influences: Edward hopper, Charles Schulz, Alexander Calder, Edward Gorey, Buster Keaton, Tex Avery, Jean Dubuffet, Alice and Martin Provensen, Paul Klee, Munro Leaf…. I don’t know where to stop.

HF: What do you think of graphic novels? Is it something you have ever considered trying?

LS: I love graphic novels. I was a huge comic book collector in junior high and high school. I used to go to the San Diego Comic Con in the 1970s before it became the behemoth that it is today. But I have to admit, I’m not great at sequential panel art. I’ve tried it, Flying Jake, Baloney (Henry P.), but with limited success.

HF: What are your favorite books for children?

LS: Many favorite books:

The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss & Crockett Johnson
The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone & Michael Smollin
The Treehorn Trilogy by Florence Parry Heide & Edward Gorey
Robert Francis Weatherbee by Munro Leaf
The “…Can Be Fun” series by Munro Leaf
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffman
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
The “This is…” series by M. Sasek
Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? By Dr. Seuss
McElligot’s Pool by Dr. Seuss
Happy Birthday to You! By Dr. Seuss
Tales for the Perfect Child by Florence Parry Heide & Victoria Chess
Fables You Shouldn’t Pay Any Attention To by Florence Parry Heide, Sylvia Worth Van Clief & Victoria Chess
Uncle Shelby’s ABZ Book by Shel Silverstein
The Happy Day by Ruth Krauss & Marc Simont
Wizard of Oz by Baum
Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
Arm in Arm by Remy Charlip
How Little Lori Visited Times Square by Vogel and Sendak
Thirteen by Remy Charlip & Jerry Joyner
Donald and the… by Peter Neumeyer & Edward Gorey
Donald Has a Difficulty by Peter Neumeyer & Edward Gorey

I’m know I’m leaving out William Steig and Barbara Cooney and Dahl and Raymond Briggs and the Provensens, Kipling, Lewis Carroll, Eleanor Cameron and so many greats not to mention all my contemporary peers but I could be typing all day.

HF: Do you have any favorite books for adults?

LS: Again, many:

Marcovaldo and The Baron in the Trees by Calvino
To Kill a Mockingbird by Lee
Anything by Flannery O’Connor
Anything by Poe
Most of Capote
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders
David Sedaris…
I read a lot of biographies and nonfiction as well.

HF: What is up next on your horizon?

LS: The Big Elephant in the Room (spring ’09) is about a misunderstanding between friends.

Princess Hyacinth (The Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated) is about a princess with a curious affliction – unless she is weighted down by a heavy crown and heavy stones and weights, she floats up into the sky. It was written by Florence Parry Heide who you may guess from my above ‘list of Favorite Books’ is one of my heroes. (Fall ’09.)

Thanks so much to Lane Smith! Visit his website here.

Interview: Blackbird Books

By Jodie

Non readers like to preach that books are boring. Music can be energetic, film can be edgy but books are static objects bought only by ladies who delight in porcelain dog figurines. There is an urgent necessity to exhibit the revolutionary genesis that can inhabit a book. The Blackbird Books project, opening in October and situated in Mitrovica/ë Kosovo plans to show the cutting edge of literature that can decapitate the arguments of the uninitiated.

Blackbird Books will be a cultural centre that enhances the experience of reading. It will give the people in Mitrovica/ë a ‘safe haven’ in which to read openly. I’m sure anyone who reads in public will agree that it takes an awful lot of willpower to continue once the funny looks begin and this is before the iPods with speakers kick in, but imagine how the stares might increase if reading literature publicly was practically unheard of. Major bibliophile turn off. The project will also provide access to works of literature, which may be hard for readers to find in Kosovo, such as classics, graphic novels, contemporary literature and novels by local writers.

Then there are the extra projects that will make Blackbird Books a life changing organization. There are the criticism boards to encourage literary discussion, the on premise books complete with personal bookmarks so that multiple people can return to their book later, the zine, literary film showings as well as visits by artists. The project will encourage creative growth in the region by giving money from their book sales to other arts projects. Everything at Blackbird Books will attempt to involve organizations from the town so that it will benefit the whole community.

With all this to organize, it’s wonderful that Anthony Barilla, the founding director of the project, had time to answer my nosy questions. It seems he’s got the multi-tasking down after his time as an artistic director for Houston-based theatre company, Infernal Bridegroom Productions. With composer, director, musician and stage manager as just some of his previous jobs Barilla is able to match tight organizational skills and practical knowledge with creative energy and commitment in order to create a successful and exciting cultural space.

JB: Why did you decide to start the Blackbird Books project?

AB: A couple of reasons:

1) The nearest bookstore is an hour drive away from our town, and while their selection is respectable, it lacks the eclecticism you might be accustomed to in other parts of the world.

2) I really love our town, and it needed a bookstore.

3) Selfishly, I needed a place where I felt comfortable reading and writing in public. Café culture is strong in Kosovo, but seeing someone sitting alone reading in a café is unusual. I needed a place where this seemed acceptable, so we decided to make one.

JB: What has the response been to the project?

AB: Overwhelmingly positive.

JB: Have the government been interested or supportive of the enterprise?

AB: Absolutely. But the idea of a cultural non-profit existing outside of a sanctioned cultural center is foreign here, and raising funds has not been easy. We are currently existing on the donations of private individuals and hoping to receive public funding soon to get us through our start-up phase (read the preceding as a shameless plea for financial support!) The ultimate goal is to be self-sustaining: we want our café sales to support our literary endeavors.

JB: What were the biggest challenges of the project?

AB: We live in Kosovo: everything is a challenge. I'll give you two examples that are preoccupying me today.

Power outages in Mitrovica/ë are a part of daily life. On average we currently experience three-hour cycles of electricity: three hours on, three hours off. (We also have water rationing every other night.) To operate as a business, you must own a gas generator, which is wired into your building in order to maintain essential functions. For us, essential functions include a coffee machine, stereo and a lamp or two. So we purchased a generator. We put two euros worth of gas into the generator and promptly destroyed the machine, not knowing that the gas had been diluted with water. And so we had to turn around and spend still more money to repair the generator only days after using it for the first time. This is exemplary of not only the kind of petty corruption that is rampant here, but also of the shoddy state of goods.

Secondly, there's the coffee. There are two major coffee monopolies in the region that supply the (very expensive) coffee machines, sugar, cups, saucers and everything else you need—all of it emblazoned with their logos—for free in exchange for exclusive coffee supplier Because our facility is small and unusual—"A library/bookstore/café?" What's that?—we were flatly refused contracts with them. I was ready to pay, and yet they were unsatisfied with our ability to advertise their brand: this despite the fact that you can't walk two feet in Kosovo without seeing their logos on something. Two days before opening we realized that we were a coffee shop with no coffee. The kindness of a neighboring café owner with an extra machine and the hard work of a staff that spent days and nights rewiring electrical parts, grinding beans and learning this trade from scratch is pulling us through right now, but the entire incident points out the strangeness of this environment. Many business owners are short-sighted here because the economy is so terrible.

Beyond these two examples, it's worth mentioning that everything takes three times as long to accomplish in Kosovo as it might elsewhere. Doing business doesn't just involve the exchange of currency for goods and services. It involves haggling, bluffing, long trips to other towns, conversations over tea or coffee with people who might help, and the inevitable contact with "a friend of a friend." This process can be charming. It can also be infuriating.

JB: How did the opening go?

AB: Great party. The batteries in my camera went out, or I would send you photos. Champagne, books and attendees from Kosovo, Ireland, Nepal, France, Kenya and Texas – what more could you ask for?

JB: Roughly how many books had you received by the time you opened?

AB: We were hoping for one thousand: we received over 1600. In fact, the books started coming in so fast that we are way behind on cataloging them, and I don't have an exact number right now. There were three categories of donors that I would be remiss in not mentioning here:

1. individual folks who took it upon themselves to initiate book drives around the world (especially Dave and Jane)


2. the wonderful people at bookmooch.com


3. the American KFOR (the U.S. NATO presence here.) I wonder how many bookstore managers have seen their shelves stocked by soldiers in fatigues?

JB: Projects such as the African bookmobile have asked authors to donate the novels they've written. Have you fostered any such relationships?

AB: We actually are planning an initiative along those lines. Check back with me in six months.

JB: What has been your strategy for getting books?

AB: The kindness of strangers. It worked.

JB: Which books that you received do you think have the most potential to change someone’s life?

AB: I don't really have an answer for that. I'm using my personal taste to stock our "permanent library" (ie. books that cannot be traded or sold.) It remains to be seen whether or not my taste will transfer to our new surroundings, but my taste includes comic books, classic Russian novels and a lot of things in between, and I don't see why any of them wouldn't have the potential to change lives.

JB: Who is your favourite author? Is there a book that changed your life?

AB: Can I give you a top ten instead? I don't have a favorite one of anything except wives. My top ten writers and playwrights might be Gunter Grass, Susan Choi, Goethe, Samuel Beckett, Donald Barthelme, Charlie Scott, Tolstoy, Borges, Dostoyevsky and Wallace Shawn. I'm a sucker for German and Russian classics, but this list leaves out 20 or 30 favorites that have had a huge impact on me. Brecht's Baal definitely changed my life, and I think that maybe Grass' The Flounder did too. So did a lot of Green Lantern storylines.

JB: What is your favourite place to read?

AB: Ha! The top floor of Blackbird Books, south of the bridge in Mitrovicë/a, Kosovo.

JB: Do you plan on opening a second site in the future?

AB: Not really. I'm not opposed to that thought, but I also like the idea that this place might be unique within Kosovo. A one-of-a-kind spot that people know they have to visit when they come to town. Something that the local citizens are proud of. As I type this response to your email, there are two teen-agers sitting downstairs reading books in our café. I would be willing to bet that this is an unusual experience for them: that they are reading books that they don't have access to elsewhere, and that they normally don't get to chat and drink coffee while doing so. That's the first thing that I wanted, and it's already happening.

The second thing that I wanted is for local folks to get invested enough that this project will eventually sustain itself. There is every reason to think that this will happen too. If a major expansion happens, that would be great. But it would be even greater if the expansion was the well-conceived effort of a citizen of Kosovo who took it upon himself or herself to do something more far-reaching than I ever imagined.

To donate to Blackbird Books you can send books or checks (made payable to Blackbird Books) to:

Anthony Barilla
Blackbird Books
Fah 157
40010 Mitrovica/ë
Kosovo

Or if you have a BookMooch account you can donate points by searching for Blackbird Books.

For more details on what kind of literature they want to receive visit http://blackbirdbookskosovo.blogspot.com/

Anthony Barilla writes about Kosovo at kosovotravelogue.blogspot.com

Read-a-thon Challenge Interview

By Jodie

Reading, uninterrupted for 24 hours; I think most of us would agree that sounds like a fantastic plan. But do we ever put this grand design into practice? Find an activity guaranteed to occupy the kids, partner or pet for the day and your mental task list will simply bump some sort of drudgery to the top spot. You begin Madame Bovary but remember that the washing needs hanging or there’s a presentation due at work and the mental priority light just keeps blinking, perhaps the blinking is even accompanied by bleeps. Bovary is doomed.

One woman has come to save us from ourselves. Dewey (http://deweymonster.com/) has just hosted the 24 hour Read-a-thon, where everyone was encouraged to abandon those annoying responsibilities temporarily to be able to concentrate on reading. Dewey woke up just in time to answer my questions:

JB: What prompted the challenge?


D: My husband and son participate in the 24 Hour Comics Day (24hourcomics.com) and one day I jokingly said that next time they did that, I would just read for 24 hours. My husband suggested that I get some blog-friends to join me, and that led to the idea of setting it up as a challenge anyone could join. Our Read-a-thon was the same day as 24 Hour Comics Day, so I included a comic-creating mini-challenge.

JB: What makes your project stand out from the many outstanding challenges that have been organized this year?

D: Most reading challenges in the blogosphere involve reading a certain number of books, in a certain amount of time, about a certain topic. The 24 Hour Read-a-thon was about marathon reading as well as blogging and visiting other participants. I love reading challenges, but this had a very different feel. It started to seem like a sleepover, and I think the participants made new friends and got to know old friends better.

JB: Have you taken part in other people's book challenges this year?


D: Oh yes! Right now I'm participating in The Newbery Challenge, the New York Times Notable Books Challenge, the Something About Me Challenge, the R.I.P. II challenge, the Book Awards Reading Challenge, the Unread Authors Challenge, and the Pulitzer and Newbery projects, which are unlike most challenges in that they have no end date. I'm also already committed to participating in three or four challenges in 2008.

JB: Roughly how many people participated in the challenge?


D: About 50. Some were Readers, some were Cheerleaders, some were both, and some donated prizes.

JB: What did you read on the day?

D: I was actually surprised at how little time I had to read. I only ended up reading about half of Neil Gaiman's Stardust. The organizing and communicating with participants took nearly all my time the whole 24 hours.

JB: Why did you include mini-challenges throughout the day? What was the most popular mini-challenge?

D: I included mini-challenges (and cheerleaders as well) because I didn't want the readers to feel isolated. I'm really interested in building community, and that's what the Read-a-thon was all about. I knew that Readers would need breaks, so I took advantage of that to get them interacting with each other. They were all either creative activities or community-building activities, and different participants preferred different mini-challenges. I was impressed by what great sports the Readers were; some of them did nearly all the mini-challenges, even when they were exhausted way at the end.

JB: What book related day would you like to see made a world wide holiday?

D: Buy A Friend A Book Week! http://www.buyafriendabook.com/

JB: What would your ultimate type of book be (fact/fiction, long/short, genre, author gender etc.)?

D: I have really eclectic tastes and read nearly all genres, but I read a lot more fiction than nonfiction, and my main interest is in what's known as literary fiction. My ultimate type of book would be one I could reread every year and still keep finding something new to love.

JB: What are currently your favourite books?

D: Some recent books I've loved are March by Geraldine Brooks, The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Adichie, and The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood. (You might want to double check my spelling on some of those names.)

JB: Will you be running the challenge again next year?

D: I hope so!

Some participants decided they’d love to share their experiences of living the decadent, bibliophile lifestyle prescribed by Dewey.

Heather: (http://www.errantdreams.com/thoughts/) “I decided to participate in Dewey’s Read-a-thon because I’m way behind on my review book reading and it just sounded like a ton of fun. Usually I’m too busy to participate in all the blog-based reading challenges, but I thought that one day was something I could commit to.”

Eva: (http://astripedarmchair.blogspot.com/) “…I highly recommend that everyone who can clear their schedules next year participate! Although I loved the reading, and the prizes, my favourite part was the community building that went on.”

Callista: (http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com/) “I finished the last little bit of Mosaic by Amy Grant, read 3/4 of Black Creek Crossing by John Saul, almost finished First Times Compiled by Marthe Jocelyn and read completely The Giver by Lois Lowry, fake id by Hazel Edwards and The Great Number Rumble by Cora Lee and Gillian O'Reilly.”

Stephanie: (http://somanybooksblog.com/) “I read three different books and journal articles for school. I completed one book and all the journal articles.”

Iliana: (http://www.bookgirl.net/) “I had such a great time participating even though my hours read is actually a very small number - 5! …What I didn’t expect was to do as much blog hopping throughout the day but it was addicting to see how the readers were doing.”


Read-a-thon Blogged

Hour One

Eva: “Whew-Tithe was definitely a good choice to start off with; I'm racing through it. An interesting plot, plus big type and small pages make me feel like I'm really achieving something! At first, I was turned off by the writing style (not as polished as I would've liked), but once I relaxed I found myself enjoying the story enough to overlook it.”

Callista: “I'm really going to try for all 24 hours but I had the worst nights sleep ever last night so I might crash sitting up with the book in my hands. I'll read walking if I have too and I have some pop.”

Heather: “I have my coffee in-hand (very important prerequisite). I don’t have a set agenda for what I’ll read, but here’s what I’m thinking so far… I may focus on some of the shorter books in an effort to feel a sense of accomplishment by shortening that list, but I will probably also alternate that with reading sections of The Gift of Rain, which is a beautiful book but a bit of a slow read for me.”

Hour Two

Stephanie: “From the comments I see the cheerleaders are already out in force! I read Lord of the Flies for about 45 minutes before I had to stop. My Bookman, who is semi-joining me in the reading day, and I had to go to the grocery store. The cupboards were bare and we needed real food and a little treat to sustain us through the afternoon.”

Hour Three

Eva: “This hour, I finished up Tithe; I'm uncertain as to whether to award it three or four stars. Parts of it were very good, other parts not so much. Overall, I'd recommend it for people who enjoy urban fantasy, and don't mind a somewhat clunky writing style and teens who engage in sketchy behaviour (lol-like sixteen-year-olds smoking and hooking up). After I was done with that, I decided I wanted a complete change of pace, so I went with The Kitchen Boy, a historical novel by Robert Alexander set in Russia when it was becoming the USSR. It recounts the last days of the Russian royal family's lives.”

Hour Five

Callista: “Cool challenge! Read a book in another language. I'm reading: La Escalera Misteriosa by Edith Checa”

Iliana: “An Infamous Army is on hold while I read a short story from Leyendas Mexicanas. A book of creepy little tales in Spanish.”

Heather: “I just spent an entire chapter inside the head of a sort-of British gangster who wants to think he has class, as he interior monologued in most outrageous and hysterical fashion about everything from Pre-Raphaelite paintings to the morality of a morning shag in the living room with the curtains open. I couldn’t stop laughing the whole way through.”

Hour Six

Stephanie: “My shoulders are killing me. Next year’s Read-a-Thon should include massages. I’ll have to be nice to my Bookman, I’m sure he’ll oblige me.”

Hour Eight

Stephanie: “Charged up with coffee and a yummy snack I read nonstop for close to two hours. My shoulders feel better, but now my legs are starting to ache from sitting so much so it’s time for a little break. A nice walk with my Bookman and the dog. Oh, and Lord of the Flies is fantastic! The tension is really getting to me and I think I held my breath over the last two pages I read!”

Hour Ten:

Dewey: “I am getting really restless. This next hour, I am definitely going to take my own advice and go outside for a walk… I’ve been mostly reading this hour, and I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve read Stardust. It’s older than I thought, published in 1999.”

Stephanie: “The walk was nice… More reading after the walk…I’m a slow reader, so only find myself about 3/4 of the way through Lord of the Flies. It just got creepier and the tension level went up another notch! Oy, it’s nerve wracking. I had begun the book earlier in the week during lunch but didn’t get far. I am sort of glad because this reading in one intensive swoop is fun. Even with short breaks the tension that builds doesn’t wane because I haven’t forgotten where I was when I pick the book back up. Plus Golding is such an amazing writer I get sucked back to the island as soon I start to read.”

Iliana: “Had a good time at Half Price Books even though I didn’t buy any books. Shocking isn’t it? I also read another short story, The Romance of Certain Old Clothes by Henry James. This is my first intro to Henry James and now I’d love to read more of by him.”

Hour Twelve

Callista: “The Giver is a re-read for me. It is one of my favourite books if not THE favourite. My headache is gone and I'm not as tired as I was.”

Hour Thirteen

Dewey: “My Hour 13 did not go very well. I did no reading at all, but I did visit a few Readers. Here’s what happened.

Husband: (puts pizza into oven) …(time passes)
Me: (sniffs) Could you check the pizza? It smells done.
Husband: No, because the instructions say 15 to 21 minutes, and it’s only been 9.
My phone: Ring! Ring ring! Me: (talking to co-worker 3 min 7 sec)
Entire House: (FILLS WITH SMOKE!)
Me: (to coworker) I HAVE TO GO! BYE!
Me: THE PIZZA IS BURNING! LOOK AT THE SMOKE!
Husband: Oops.
Smoke alarm: SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!!!!!!!
Pizza: (Sits around being all black.)”

Hour Fourteen

Dewey: “This hour, I really started to notice the participants bonding with each other. People who just met through the read-a-thon are really getting to know each other. And I know that I feel like I’m getting to know people better, too, even those I already did know.”
Eva: “I'm absolutely loving the mini-challenges! Wow-these cheerleaders are super-inventive. :) This hour, I'm supposed to decide what I would serve at a book group meeting to discuss one of the books I've been reading. I just finished Gods in Alabama (and it was a great read!), but I also really want to talk about Russian food, so I'm going to do two version! First, let's say we're meeting for Gods in Alabama, a book about the South. Since we're talking about finger food, I'd probably serve fried chicken and cornbread with sweet sun tea and some kind of pie for dessert. :) Glorious! For The Kitchen Boy, I'd serve black tea with guest's choice of sugar, lemon, and raspberry preserves, along with blinchiki.”

Hour Fifteen

Iliana: “I’ve started two books since I last checked in. An Infamous Army is quite good but I thought if I added a couple of other books it’d help to keep things a bit more exciting during the read-a-thon. One book is Season of the Witch by Natasha Mostert, which is my fourth R.I.P. II Challenge book, and the other is The Sewing Circles of Herat by Christina Lamb which I’m reading for a book group.”

Dewey: “I started to get giddy this hour, having animated conversations with the cat (who did not appreciate it), marching around the living room singing La Marseillaise at the top of my lungs to wake myself up, and just in general annoying my husband…Having animated conversations with the cat is not really very unusual for me, but I rarely sing bloodthirsty anthems, and I never march.”

Hour Seventeen

Iliana: “I slacked off a bit between 10 and 12 but have started reading again. I think I can still stay up for another hour or so but am not making any promises.”

Eva: “Wow! I'm completely and utterly sucked in by the world of Marked. There are definitely some things I would change about it stylistically, but I award it an A+ for keeping me awake.”
Hour Twenty One

Stephanie: “Well, I’m awake… I thought I’d attempt to begin these last few read-a-thon hours with an in progress book, A Life of One’s Own: A Guide To Better Living Through the Work and Wisdome of Virginia Woolf. I’m not sure Virginia would recommend being up this early. And I’m not sure non-fiction is the way to start the day, but I’ll give it a go. If it doesn’t work I have poetry by Rumi as well as The Odyssey and if all else fails I will start reading some fiction.

Hour Twenty Four

Stephanie: “The dog is still snoring. The Odyessey made good reading this last hour. Odysseus met the Cyclops, and you probably know the story. Pretty gruesome descriptions in the poem. They had a couple other adventures and now are down to one ship. They have just reached Circe’s island. It is clear that the reserved strategist from The Iliad has turned into a real jerk. Maybe he was always like that, or maybe ten years of war have addled his brain.”

Eva: “Mugs of Hot Tea: 4
Mugs of Hot Chocolate: 2
Glasses of Iced Tea: 3
Cans of Diet Pepsi: 1
Reading over 2,000 pages in 24 hours: Priceless!”

You can read all about Dewey’s challenge by visiting her blog and reading the fun surveys she made for the participants, which each posted at their website.

An Infamous Army

An Infamous Army
By Georgette Heyer
Sourcebooks
Reviewed by Iliana

In the past several years on various online reading communities when the topic of comfort reads comes up, it never fails that someone will always recommend Georgette Heyer. The “Queen” of regency romance wrote more than 50 novels but as much as I wanted to read something by Heyer, my efforts at finding some of her books were for naught. None of my local bookstores (new & used) carried her books but now thanks to Sourcebooks, Heyer's classic novels are being published once again.

An Infamous Army, first published in 1937, is set during the summer of 1815 in Brussels. The Duke of Wellington is preparing for battle against Napoleon's forces but amidst all the strategic planning and political maneuvers, the ballrooms and salons of the upper classes are brimming with gossip, affairs and matchmaking strategies and in this social scene no one makes quite an impact like the unconventional Lady Barbara Childe.

“It was the decision of all who knew her, and of many who did not. No one
could deny her beauty, or her charm, but both were acknowledged to be deadly.
Her conquests were innumerable; men fell so desperately in love with her that
they became wan with desire, and very often did extremely foolish things when
they discovered that she did not care the snap of her fingers for them.”

One such gentleman who will immediately fall for Lady Babs, as her friends call her, is the handsome and gallant Colonel Charles Audley. Why even at their first dance he proposes to her. Babs for the first time in her life may have found love but that doesn't mean that she is quite willing to give up her flirtatious ways.

Friends and family warn Col. Audley that Babs is not the woman for him and even his sister-in-law hopes that her protege, Miss Lucy Devenish will capture Charles' heart but Charles insists that Babs is the one for him. However matters of the heart for everyone in Brussels must be put aside as war is declared and men are called to the battlefields.

I wouldn't normally like a character such as Barbara Childe's. She is vain and can be quite mean at times, but for all that I actually couldn't help but smile at her improper behavior; such as, painting her toenails and going out riding by herself. And, I quite enjoyed the secondary characters as well although my favorite character must be Col. Audley, who is really the perfect hero.

The writing is engaging and I imagine Heyer did much research to infuse the novel with a lot of period detail. Perhaps the only parts that were not as compelling for me were the actual battle scenes, but that's just me. I much preferred when the battles were those of wit and words between the characters.

This was a very entertaining read and I can see why Heyer has such a fan base. I am glad to finally have read a Georgette Heyer book, and am already looking forward to the next one.

Interview: On the Inside with an Independent Bookseller

Interviewed by Melissa

I recently sat down with Sarah Bagby, Managing Partner of Watermark Books and Cafe in Wichita, Kansas to talk about the challenges of running an independent bookstore in Kansas, connecting to the community, and books in general.

MF: What's it like operating an independent bookstore in Wichita?

SB: Watermark's celebrating our 30th anniversary this year. The business has changed a lot since we opened. Presently, it's a business that includes a cafe, so we're actually running two businesses, which keeps everybody on their toes constantly. We're always trying to integrate the food side with the book side. But they fit together so well, because both provide a sense of community and connection.

You ask what it's like running a bookstore. I'm active in the
industry, and because of our geography, and because most of the
publishing and decision making is in New York City, it requires
travel to make the connections necessary so that we can be included
in some of the national decisions that are made for author tours and
that sort of thing.

MF: People don't necessarily think of Wichita, Kansas when they're
planning a book tour?

SB: Well, the east coast is far away. Not a lot of people have been
to Kansas. Technically, the midwest starts in Ohio, so when you say
you're from the midwest, they think it's close by. And really, we're
not. We're clear across the country. So, you have to at once be very
involved in both the publishing community and the local community.
Getting those two to come together in a way that works for both is
both a challenge and at the same time very exciting.

MF: Why?

SB: Because you get to find out what's new. Because it's a business
that's relevant to people's lives. And while there's a tendency in
publishing and bookselling to go after the "next hot thing", there's
also a level of commitment to culture that is relevant. And I think
people are looking for relevance right now. When you look at how many
book clubs there are, and how people gather around writing, and
writers, and ideas, we fit into that really well.

MF: How did you end up at Watermark?

SB: I was in college studying art history and I got a part time job
at Watermark. In my house growing up, books were more important than
furniture, so this was a comfortable place to be at a time in my life
when there weren't many comfort zones. And sort of by default I ended
up in the position of running it, and then I became a partner. Now
I'm sort of entrenched and I like it. The business and the challenges
have changed so much in the time that I've been here. I'm not running
the same business that I was running 20 years ago.

MF: What's the best part of working here?

SB: The feeling of creative possibilities. Connecting a book to a
reader. The possibilities are endless of what you can do there. The
staff that I work with is amazing and dedicated. And the product is,
well, first class. And even if you don't like one, you can still sell
it and sell one you love later.

MF: And the down side is?

SB: You can never do everything you want to do. Because every season
there's the next new book to read, and you probably didn't get
through the stack from last year. It's the nature of the business.
We're just getting caught up with the spring list, and the fall one's
just coming out. At this point in the year, publishers are sending us
stuff that they want to know if it's any good that won't be out for
another year. The lag time that is kind of hard. We have a reading
journal (http://www.watermarkbooks.com/reviews.html) on our web site where our staff can write about what we're reading, as we finish, which helps so much.

MF: How do you deal with the challenges of being an independent
bookstore in the age of box stores and Amazon.com?

SB: Well, we get to choose our product. You can find the
blockbusters, and certain other types of books, at the box stores and
wholesale clubs at a price that we have to buy them for. So, we
intentionally look for the books that are not going to be in those
stores that are just as good, and that we can convince people to
read. That gives us the ability to create relationships with our
customers and develop a reputation that they rely on: that if they
only have so much time to read, they know that if it's from us, it's
really good. We also keep in close touch with local opportunities
that may not be available to the national chains because their
decision making process isn't here in town.

Additionally, the cafe and the bookstore working together is unique.
They cross over and that contributes to the profit margin. It's a
good mix. It just wouldn't have the same effect if we didn't have both.

MF: Can you give me an example of local opportunities?

SB: We take local author's books without question. In those, are
always opportunities to resonate with the community, either just
because of the person's friends, or, for example, because it's a
history of the local area. There's always a connection there. We also
carry books for instructors for local colleges.

MF: You do a lot of community outreach -- book groups, story times, author events -- it can't just be good for business. Why do you feel it's important?

SB: I think it helps the culture of the community. Because of our
connection to the national and local scenes, we can bring them
together in ways that no one else is doing. There are no real lecture
series in town that bring in big names. If we weren't doing it, I
don't know who would be. We're bringing in Anna Quindlen, and Kahled
Hosseini this year, both who are nationally-recognized writers. What
we do provides relevance, again. Books are things that people are
passionate about, and we give the citizens of Wichita a way to
participate.

MF: Are your book groups well attended?

SB: Yeah. We had one that just started --Shakespeare Out Loud -- and
we had eight people. That was a good amount, because everyone's
reading out loud, everyone's participating. And for a first time idea
that's different, we felt it was successful. The groups range in
attendance, some have more than others. On average, there are at
least ten people for book clubs. We also have a monthly literary
feast that sells out. That's thirty people who, once they've bought
tickets and the book, have invested $50 in the event. I think the
book groups are well-attended because everyone can participate.
They're not so big that it becomes a lecture, and it gives us a way
to highlight books that we think are good to read. We sell many more
copies than people who come, so it's obviously reaching a broader
base than we could otherwise.

MF: Do you feel like your other efforts are well received?

SB: Absolutely. We have good attendance for our events. We hear a lot
from speakers who come to Wichita that their best event was ours.
When I get quotes I got from authors, I sometimes think, "Are they
really talking about us?" They feel a connection to readers, they
feel like they came and talked to people who were interested and who
knew their work. The people who are coming to our events are readers,
and they love meeting the author and express that to them. If that is
all we've done, it's great.

I was recently interviewed for an article in Publishers Weekly -- they're doing a series on independent bookstores across the country (http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6433828.html )-- and my
quote was something like: you can predict what we like to read in Kansas but don't try to pigeon hole the market because you'll be surprised.

MF: Do you get that a lot? People trying to pigeon hole Kansas?

SB: Before I started to develop personal relationships with the
publishing world in the past few years, I was just "Wichita". Now I'm
"Sarah", so they'll call me for advice and information. Now that I
understand what they're doing, they are more willing to understand
ours. I had to be concerned about their world so I could insert my
own in there. If I were to wait for them to come to me, it would have
never happened because of the distance. I don't begrudge anybody
that. But having the personal relationships have really helped the
quality of my business.

MF: Have you ever done something that was just a complete flop?

SB: Oh, yeah. But we haven't had one in a long, long time, because
it's too painful for them and for us. And the publishers aren't
interested. So, we figured out how to make them work. We'll sometimes
have just a handful of people come, but it's not empty. We have
several people who are good friends that will come and help us if
they know, because they understand how hard it is.

MF: What's your favorite book?

SB: I don't know that I have a favorite book.

MF: What's the best book you've read lately?

SB: The best book I've read lately, probably was... Oh, I've been
reading so many good books. I love to read, and that's why I'm here.
The new Kahled Hosseini was powerful, a very good book. I'm reading a book right now called The Secret of Lost Things that is set in a bookstore in New York City. It's a great book for someone who works in a bookstore, and for those who love books. I read a first novel by AnitaAmirrezvani, an Iranian-American, called
The Blood of Flowers. It will be a great summer read. It's one of those books that I couldn't put down.

MF: What do you think the future holds for Watermark, and for
independent bookstores?

SB: I think independent bookstores are tough. They are opening all
the time, though they're not opening big stores, say 10,000 square
feet. The Internet is a huge competitor. Probably bigger than other
stores, I think. So, we'll just continue to seek out a product that
will be relevant, and provide that to our customers and present it in
a way that's unique and personal and lasting. It's not like we're
getting rich here; it's a struggle, there are really low margins of
profit. But it's a business, and experience helps.

Melissa and Estella's Revenge wish Sarah Bagby and Watermark all the best.