Now and Then

We're having a heat wave here in Montana. It's been 85 degrees for the past few days.

Hey, don't laugh! For Montanans that IS a heat wave, especially in May. And oddly enough, early and lengthy heat is causing flooding concern--all our lovely snow pack is melting too fast, and pushing the river levels up. Good for trees and flowers and all, not so good for our water levels either now or in late summer...

Anyway, in my continuing series on blogs (heck, 3 days counts as a continuing series, right?), I want to touch on another purpose of blog reading: they connect me to my past, and also allow me a glimpse into the future.

First, the past. I love to read Bookseller Chick. She's smart and funny, and has interesting thoughts on the bookselling and publishing industry. But more, I've been there.

Before I was an editor, I was a bookseller. See, I graduated in 1992 with my newly minted English degree, all ready to take the world by storm...and discovered that in 1992, there weren't many jobs for engineering graduates, much less English majors. I couldn't find a blasted job to save my life. Grrr. So when a bookseller friend in San Diego said she could get me a clerk job...well, I went. At least I'd be around books, I had a roommate...it would work for a while.

And it did. Except I wasn't a clerk for long; after a few months I went to manager trainee, then manager. Eventually I switched bookstore chains, but all told I worked in the bookstore industry at varying levels for 3 years, and managed several stores. (And I met my husband there, so yay for those years!)

So when Bookseller Chick talks about shelving issues, or author visits, or Christmas craze, or searching for the mysterious blue book, I get it. I remember all that. One of her posts actually made me nostalgic for opening boxes; I used to love to hide in the back and open boxes every once in a while. Her blog makes me think of things, feel things, that have been put away for a long time. It's another type of connection.

Then, the future. Well, the hoped-for future. I love to read the blogs of those who are newly published, or newly agented. Their stories are fascinating to me, in a can't-tear-my-eyes-away kind of way. I need to know this stuff, so I can be one of those too! I was daydreaming about agents in the shower this morning, I kid you not. (Should I send to this one? No, that one? But what if they BOTH asked for the full at one time? Yeah, get to work on the revisions, woman, THEN we'll see...)

Medieval Word of the Day: feminie: Womankind; a ‘set’ of women, esp. the Amazons; also the country of the Amazons. (reminder: all my words and definitions come from the online OED).