Meeting Rachael Herron

Yesterday was one of the most fun days I have had in a very long time. I met up with Rachael Herron in Hudson for part of her book signing.  We started at Hudson's restaurant in Hudson. We met up with a few of her other local friends and had a cuppa while she finished her breakfast. She then headed down to The Learned Owl Bookshop, a fabulous little bookstore in the First and Main shopping district of Hudson, Ohio.  (By the way this is a very dangerous bookstore as it is quite quaint and cozy and very welcoming to book purchasing and it is but a few doors down from Main Street Cupcakes and Cosmic Dave's in the opposite direction. The only thing that would make this even more dangerous would be a yarn shop within those boundaries.) After finishing our cuppas we wondered down to her signing.  To call it a book signing is actually somewhat of a misnomer. It was more of a spontaneous knitting group where she happened to sign a few books. We talked about writing, knitting, her books, knitting, other people's books, knitting, spinning, knitting, the "Knitting Olympics", and, of course, knitting. If this were my regular knitting group I would drive through a blizzard to meet up with them. Not that I don't love my current knitting group (I do). This lovely collection of people were was so fresh and funny that it made the time pass so quickly. (And I think they would meld in well with my current knitting group.)  I will definitely have to meet up with Jeremy again and I'm now stalking him on Ravelry. (You have been warned, Jeremy.)

Unfortunately, due to time constraints and publishing deadlines, Rachael was only able to spend a few hours with us. It was delightful just the same. If you get a chance to meet up with Rachael, do so. She is lovely, witty, and so knowledgeable. Mary Elayne (That would be Boo in previously posts) also enjoyed meeting Rachael and is renewed in her interest to keep writing. I, of course, love my daughter's stories, but it was nice to hear other people encourage her to continue with her stories.

OK, I promise that this is the last post about Rachael Herron and Pack up the Moon for a while. I have a few more topics I want to write on, so stay tuned this week. 

Happy Book Release Day, Rachael Herron!

Today's the day! Rachael Herron's new book, Pack up the Moon, is released! I got an e-mail at midnight that (one of) my copy/(ies) is available to pick up at work. If I weren't more restrained I would have gotten in the car at 7:45 and driven to the bookstore and picked up the copy. But, seeing as I do have to go to work today anyway, I decided it would be less economical and less ecological to do that. However, I am planning on going into work early to pick it up and start reading it.

Is it good? I can only guess at this point, but I love all of Rachael's other books and not just because she is my friend, but because she writes well and her stories touch my heart. She weaves a good story that catches your attention and makes you care about the characters. You want them to succeed and be happy. You want the happily ever after for them. You can't wait to get to the end to make sure she wrote it correctly and then you want to cry because it is all over. You want to meet her characters and be friends with them and be invited over for a cup of tea and (if you do so) some knitting.

What's the genre? "Regular fiction with a bit of romance." (My store's classification is Fiction while her other books are classified as Romance.) But if I know Rachael, there's just enough spice to make it good and not enough that you would be embarrassed to read it in public.

What's the plot? From the overview from Barnes & Noble:

A poignant novel about loss, lies, and the unbreakable bonds of family.

Three years after a horrible tragedy took her son and tore her family apart, artist Kate Monroe is beginning to pick up the pieces of her life and move on. At a gala showcasing her triumphant return to the art world, Kate’s world is rocked again when the daughter she gave up for adoption twenty-two years ago introduces herself.

Pree is the child Kate never knew and never forgot. But Pree has questions that Kate isn’t sure she’s ready to answer. For one thing, she never told Pree’s father, her high school sweetheart and ex-husband, Nolan, that they had a daughter. For another, Kate hasn’t spoken to Nolan for three years, not since the accident which took their nine-year-old son from them. But to keep Pree from leaving forever, Kate will have to confront the secrets that have haunted her since her son died and discover if the love of her family is strong enough to survive even the most heartbreaking of betrayals….

I think I'm going to cry already! So run to your local bookstore and pick on up. If they don't have it, then order it (I believe in supporting local bookstores and if you have to wait a few days in order to get a copy then so be it, but support your local bookstore, please). If you don't have a local bookstore, then order it online or download it to a Nook or Nook-enabled device (same link as the physical book, but more immediate). 

And check out Rachael's blog to find out when she is going to be in a town near you and go see her. She's a fabulous person to know. 

Congratulations, Rachael! I hope it sells millions. You deserve it.

Book Review: Cora's Heart by Rachael Herron

As I said yesterday, my friend, Rachael Herron, has a new book coming out on Tuesday. The title is Pack up the Moon and I can't wait for it to come out. But, since it isn't out yet and I haven't gotten to read it yet, I wanted to still give her a hearty plug because she is my friend and I love her books. And not because she is my friend. But because she writes about real people and sultry dark handsome men (many of them cowboys of a sort).

I recently re-read Cora's Heart so it is fairly fresh in my brain. The short review: I loved it! No truly, it was a lovely book and I both couldn't wait to get to the end and was sad when it was over. (I love books that do that!)

Cora's Heart is a sweet story of mis-crossed lovers. She loved him. He loved her. She ended up married to someone else (his cousin in fact - no not a spoiler) then her husband dies and what a mess that leaves. Cora is strong, yet she needs help and doesn't even know it. She's a planner, a prepper, a meet it before it happens kind of gal. She takes no bull from anyone, but in reality she is tender and fragile. She would break easily if she only knew she was as tender as the teacups she loves to drink from. This is the fourth book in the Cypress Hollow Yarn series (there are also two novellas which are also well worth reading). Yet once again the late Eliza Carpenter, who is so wise and dispenses wonderful wisdom disguised as knitting advice, manages to bring together two of Cypress Hollow's residents in an odd turn of misery to love. I love Cora and her story is delicately told by a darling storyteller. If you love yarn, love romance, and love well-rounded characters then you need to grab a copy of this book.

Unfortunately, this book is not available at Barnes and Noble, but it is available as a Nook download. I'm not sure why this one book isn't available in a paper format, but it isn't. If you do want a paper copy rather than a digital copy, you can purchase them through Amazon. (Note: I am not a fan of Amazon. I truly believe that Amazon is trying to strategically destroy brick and mortar bookstores whether they are independent or a "big box" like Barnes and Noble. I truly love going into a bookstore and holding books and thumbing through them to see if they are the right book. I do own a Nook and do purchase digital books from time to time, but my first love is the printed word and being able to go into a bookstore and browse for hours to find the perfect book. So off my soapbox now.)

My favorite character in all of Rachael's books is one that we rarely see. Her name is Eliza Carpenter. She's deceased in all the books, but her spirit lives on. She is a very Elizabeth Zimmerman like character. She is a famed knitter (and spinner) who had much to say about knitting and life. She knew exactly how to reach out to someone in need and she knew how people would respond to different stimuli in the future. Sometimes she would make plans for people ten or more years down the road because she knew the very fiber of their being. Her gentle, but no-nonsense, demeanor makes any fiber person yearn for someone like her in their lives. I forget sometimes that Eliza Carpenter wasn't a real person. I know logically that Eliza Carpenter is a creation of Rachael's brain and heart. Eliza is real in that she is Rachael. I wish I had an Eliza in my life. someone who knows better what I want than I do. Who assures me that knitting and spinning and my love of fibery goodness isn't silly or only a hobby. That it is something that speaks to my heart.

So go out and buy a Rachael book. Or at least borrow one from the library. You will appreciate yourself for it. And perhaps you will find a new author to fall in love with. Oh and Rachael is such a doll.

Just a little book world vent

No this isn't about agents.  Or publishers.  Or editors.  Or even bookstores.  This little vent is brought to you today by people.  Yep. People.  Specifically people who don't get it.  Perhaps you need a little background.  This past summer I acquired a job as a bookseller at Barnes and Noble (or as they like to say we are nooksellers).  I love my job. I love the people I work with.  I love the company I work for.  I love exciting people about books and seeing them smile when I hand them a book they've been looking for.  I even love helping people figure out how to operate their Nooks or helping them with a problem with their Nooks.  I leave work smiling.  I haven't had a job like this in ages.

I don't work because I have to.  I have this job so we have extra spending, play and vacation money.  It's our fun account.  So I don't need the job, but I enjoy the joy and I am enjoying the fact that because I've been working our family is getting to go to Disney World in 31 days (yes I have an app for that on my phone).  The store has been very slow since school started back.  We are down to bare bones.  People's shifts are being slashed left and right in order to try to make payroll.  There are others at the store who do rely on this job to make ends meet.  My hours have been cut in half.  I went from having a lovely 24 hour work week to a 12 hour work week. 

I'm sure you are thinking to yourself, "But you said this wasn't about bookstores."  It isn't.  It's still about people. You see, people come in and they need a book today for school or work or church or whatever.  We don't have it in stock.  It's either a more rare book that we don't normally carry in our stores or it is a popular book that we have run out of.  I explain that we don't have it, but we can order it.  Almost 75% of the time the answer I get is, "That's OK.  I'll order it on Amazon.  It's cheaper."  Except it isn't.  People forget about the shipping and handling charges that can make it as expensive if not more than ordering it from us.  And every book they buy online is one less book they are purchasing from a brick and mortar store which brings us one step closer to closing our doors and going the way of Borders. 

What is it worth to you to have a brick and mortar store?  Do you like going there and having the ability to sit in the cafe and read a book or browse a magazine?  Do you like the immediacy of going home with a book?  Do you like the atmosphere and the friendly helpful employees?  Do you like the music and DVD collection that has music and movies that you can't get anywhere else in town?  If the answer to that is yes, then is it worth it to pay a few more dollars to keep that resource open to you? 

Every time someone says they are going to purchase a book from Amazon (which I really find quite bold as I would never say to a store worker's face that I was going to go to another place to purchase something - I might go somewhere else, but I would never just say that one store is cheaper than another unless I knew they did price matching) that's one less hour that our store can afford to pay an employee.  That's one more employee who is going to have their hours cut again. 

See, it's more than just a book.  It's about people.  People are behind those books.  Not just the people who write and edit and publish them, but the people who also sell them. They rely on individuals supporting local bookstores to keep them in business.  While a company may be doing well at the corporate level, if a single store is floundering and not doing well, it's draining the company and will be closed.  And I would hate to lose my local Barnes and Noble.  There is nowhere else around for me to go.  I would lose my community and that's important to me.  I don't just go to the bookstore to work, I go there also to meet friends, browse books, find music and soak up words to put on paper. 

So the next time you go into your bookstore to purchase a book, buy it there.  Commit to your local bookstore.  Keep the books in your community and keep your booksellers (and nooksellers) employed.  You will be met with a smile and a thanks.