I am aware that I am hypocrite and if someone wants to make a button, I will pin it to my shirt and wear it proudly. Granted there are many things in my life that make me a hypocrite, I have chosen to share my thoughts on books and bookstores.

First, I would like to reveal the hypocritical aspect, just to get it out of the way. I own a Kindle, eBook reader, I love it. I have hundreds of books on it. It is like having my whole library with me everywhere I go. I love using it and honestly I don’t miss the crates of books in the basement that were on the verge of forming their own gravitational shadow.

Okay, I understand in this competing economy stores are being forced to become one-stop, everything to everyone shopping destinations. Somehow, though, I am offended by the local mega-chain bookstores (you figure out the two guys I am talking about) dedicating valuable shelf space to toys, boardgames, candy and dime-store junk. It started with the coffee shops, but hey that sort-of made sense, right? What goes better with the latest self-indulgent pulp fiction novel than a 5 dollar cup of coffee made with an important machine?

When I was a lad, one of my favorite memories was going to this public house on New Year’s Eve. In the area set aside for patrons waiting for a table were three ceiling high bookshelves lined with paperbacks. As a side note, I discovered Douglas Adams and the perfect bowl of black eyed peas that night. So my brain could allow for the combining of a “little restaurant” with a big bookstore.

Then came music. I see the business sense. Books and music tend to vie for the same consumer dollar. Having one store with both mediums makes sense, after all the “bookseller” doesn’t care which dollar pays his salary as long as he gets his check every other Friday. Sure, I can make that allowance; however, a bookseller, a true bookseller you know the type? The person that stands at home in rows of books and can help a customer find not only the book they had randomly heard about and forgot the title and author to, but can find 4 other titles that the customer will love. Customers walking into a bookstore deserve to be helped by that kind of person. As is the habit in those mega-stores booksellers are told to sell books for one hour, make over priced coffee the next and now they need to sell music. The way I see it one of two things will happen. The store will have a hard time hiring those miraculous souls that know books, coffee and music like the back of the hands or the store will hire anyone with a pulse and allow that aspect of the experience to suffer. I think we know which way things have gone.

I see the natural progression that leads to DVDs. Bookstores are now one stop entertainment hubs! I suppose I can even make exceptions for some of the toys, after all you need to keep the children happy right? Remember children can manipulate parents into buying all kinds of things, so there is all kinds of business sense there!

I walked into a bookstore last week. I wanted to find a new book to read. I felt the need to be in an actual bookstore. I didn’t recognize the place. I thought I had entered a convince store. More than half of the store was dedicated to things other than books. My favorite sections had been reduced by rows and rows, I stood confused and lost. It was like visiting a your hometown after a few decades. I recognized a few of the streets but it was too different to consider the place home.

I little piece of me died.

Like I said before, I know I am a hypocrite. I know that I caused this.

What happened? Glad you asked. Well, the recovery process took longer than expected. I am currently on the tail end of my physical therapy sessions and hopefully this Thursday, I will be given the green light to return to work and hobbies.

I have been able to write in small bursts. I have a story ready to be read for the podcast, I have been scared of spending the time in front of the computer for the editing, my neck gets pretty tired and I don’t want things to get worse.

So what to expect? Updates concerning the progress of small writing projects. Some time in August, I hope to have a new story podcasted.

The wife and I took our son out of public school, for the record half day kindergarten is an educational abomination. He is now in a private school and is learning more than the 1st graders in the public schools. The adjustment took some time and helping him catch up took a lot of time; but it has been worth it.

Add to that a pair of herniated discs with a touch of spinal stenous, which manifested in a nearly complete loss of feeling in my right hand, one could say “life has interrupted me”.

So where have I been? Dealing with life.

What does all of this mean? Well in April, I will be seeing a neurosurgeon and will be going under the knife. Following that 4-6 weeks of recovery where I will most likely not be sitting in front of my computer for hours on end attempting to catch up with my writing schedule… and podcasting is surely out as well.

For those that have been listen to the Kingdom Crisis podcast, I am really sorry about the delay in new stories and I can assure you that the podcast is NOT dead, simply hibernating while the podcaster is repaired.

I have a few blog topics that I am going to attempt to get out before I “go dark”.

Thanks for sticking around and I will try to keep the blog updated with statuses.

• I will lose 40 lbs. (Gym bag is packed for Monday morning)
• I will finish my novel.
• I will finish 4 short stories.
• I will submit 1 story to something.
• I will spend better time with my family.
• I will get back on track with the podcast

The plan is to knock out the first draft over the next week. I have been awful about my goals lately so who knows how this will work out.

What I find interesting is how people see snow. For example the Inuit language of the Eskimos is said to have many different words to describe snow, I would say that this hints at ones perception of thing influencing how a thing is defined.

I have recently seen differing and conflicting perceptions of snow illustrated within my own home. As context I am referring to this past weekend where through a combination of cold air and large amounts of water close to 2 feet of snow was dropped on my home. The dynamics of society reacted quickly when the local meteorologist declared that this weather event was on the verge of transpiring, people flocked to hardware stores to purchase shovels and sacks of ice melt, they also crowded the aisles of the local grocery stores stocking up on milk, bread and eggs. I have to admit that my family was also swept along in this pre-snow fall ritual.

Now we come to the interesting part. My son upon hearing about the snow became excited because he was going to go play in the pure and unspoiled aftermath, visions of snow balls, snowmen and snow angels dominated his mind. My wife on the other hand saw herself sitting on the couch looking out the window watching the snow falling from the dark sky into the eerie silence that seems to accompany night time snow storms. She was absorbed in the beauty and peacefulness. My daughter being only two just ran around the house saying “Snow, Snow, Snow” and looking out the windows.

I had a different view of the impending accumulation. A shiver ran down my spine as I felt the cold damp of socks that would grow wet as I stood in the knee high piles of snow, a steady ache in my lower back would grow more prominent seemingly aware that soon I would be hunched over armed with a shovel moving and clearing collections of the crystalline molecules of frozen water. To me snow means work. Two feet of snow equates to about 2 hours of physical labor.

Now something to keep in mind; I was born in Texas and spent my foundation years there only relocating to the North East when I was on the verge of adulthood. Even after 20 years snow is still foreign to me, I really don’t perceive the loveliness or the joy that my family does. I see work, thankless, unpleasant work.

It’s going to be a long winter.

Solider and His Queen (which still needs a new title) will be delayed. I got the final rounds of edits in at the beginning of this week and due to a range of personal issues I was unable to work on any of the edits, let alone rereads and producing of the podcast episode.

I would like to say I will be ready with an episode next week and then back on track, but as the personal issues are not yet resolved I am unable to commit to that.  So — I do commit to one more episode before the month is over.

Thank you for stopping by and I will keep the blog updated if anything changes.

Promo: Metamor City by Chris Lester

Thanks for checking out my podcast.

Music by Barry Phillips you can find more of his music at magnatune.com

Now I was in a rush and not paying too close attention, bad on me, but that night when I produced the movie from the bag I noticed that I was charged 23.99. I went back online and confirmed that the price was 19.99. At this point it was late Tuesday night and not worth the phone call, I would deal with it Wednesday.

Wednesday, I call the store and was told, after I explained that THEIR own website had the movie at $4 less, that they would not price match webstores. I pointed out that THEIR webstore allowed for instore pick up and was told that they did not match webstores.

So, at this point I really wanted to save that $4. I went onto the website, added the movie to the cart, confirmed the price of 19.99, selected pick up at store for the shipping option and completed the transaction. I get a wash of emails saying that my item was ready to be picked up and please bring the order number, etc, etc…

After work on Wednesday I stop again at the store and make my way over to Customer Service. I notice that the girl working the desk was very new and still in training, Holiday Help I assume. I waited in line and when finally called I stepped up and informed the girl that I had a return and a pickup. I handed over the reciept for the 23.99 movie and was given my money back… Now for the fun bit. I handed her the email order and off she went to the cage where the “pick-up” items were kept. She came back to me carrying the movie with a very confused look on her face.

She picked up the orginal movie and compared it to the web-bought one. After a moment of comparison she addressed me. “Sir, do you realize that these are the same movie.”

“Yep,” I replied.

“You just returned this one,” she said waving the 23.99 movie at me.

“Yep,” I replied.

“I don’t understand?” She turned to her trainer who was also becoming confused. With a smile on my face I explained.

“The difference is, the movie I returned was 23.99 and the movie I am picking up is 19.99.”

“But you bought the movie from us…” she started to saying something before she took up the receipts and showed them to her trainer.

The two custmer service employees looked at the receipts, verified that I was not up to any funny business and handed me my 19.99 and sent me on my way.

Let me tell you, that was way more complicated than it had to be. Aw well, I got my movie at 19.99.

– Brian