Dot Dead Diary

The Curse of the Internet

Valentine's Day is my target.  I want to be done with my first draft of Book 2 by February 14.  To meet that objective I need to write about 5,000 words a week.  Should be no problem-o, right?  In my last year of grad school, I wrote at an even faster pace to get my thesis in on time.  But here's the difference: there was no Internet then.  Right now I'm sitting in a cafe, connected via WiFi, rapping away on my blog, not writing fiction.  And even when I am writing, there are other blogs to check (First Offenders' list of blogs is entitled "Blogs We Read When We Should Be Writing"), sports scores to stay on top of, email to check, etc.  Of course, using the Net to do research is easy and fast compared to library work, but I keep finding myself going from link to link until I am learning lots about Ahmose I  and the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, but nothing that moves Book 2 along.  Shut down Wikipedia!

Anyone else have Internet-fostered ADD?

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

I spent Christmas Eve afternoon signing books at Kepler's in Menlo Park.  Clark Kepler set me up with a small table right by the mystery section.  Customers had to pass me both entering and leaving the store.  I caught up with #1's track coach, an old friend whom I'd lost touch with, the rabbi's daughter home from winter break, an old boss and his daughter, and more.  Spent some time schmoozing with the store's booksellers, too.  Started with about 50 books and with 20 minutes to go before the store closed, I was down to two.  I was going to sell out!  But then a zealous employee found two more copies of Dot Dead stashed away in some nook or another.  I did sell two more, but ended up leaving the just-found two on the table when I departed.  Still, there's nothing like hand-selling.  I inscribed a lot of the books to mothers and mothers-in-law and husbands as Christmas gifts and to mystery fans who were looking for an airplane book for imminent holiday travel. I'd counted on slipping out for liquid refreshment some time during my stint at the table , but Cafe Borrone next door, usually a teeming village of caffeine addicts, was closed.  That long quaff of water when I got home tasted like nectar after an afternoon chatting up book buyers.

One funny thing:  A customer at Kepler's was looking for the latest book by Richard Dawkins.  The clerk said the store was sold out.  I cracked up.  I guess The God Delusion is a popular Christmas/Hanukkah present.

What does a Jewish writer do on Christmas Day?  Write.  I'm setting a higher than normal word quota for today.

Sean Doolittle, a good guy and an equally good writer, whom I met last summer at the ConMisterio mystery conference in Austin got two terrific Christmas presents with a review in Sunday's New York Times and a plug in the Baltimore Sun.  Can't wait to read The Cleanup myself.

My nephew Colin is looking out for me.  He sent me the photos of the book table at the downtown Barnes & Noble in Rochester, Minnesota that you can see below.  (Dot Dead sits right next to To Kill a Mockingbird on the New [?] Fiction table.)

Ghosts of Bookstores Past

As we approach Christmas Day, ghosts of bookstores past have been haunting me.

I remember Peninsula Bookstore in Town and Country Village.  The Palo Alto Children's library did not have Willard Price's Volcano Adventure; I pedaled over to Town and Country and bought it.

With some credits from my Bar Mitzvah, I purchased a Roget's Thesaurus from a bookstore on Santa Cruz Avenue in Menlo Park.  Was it the Guild Bookshop?  The store may be gone but the thesaurus is right now resting about twelve inches from my typing fingers.

I'm reading The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee on the recommendation of Frank, the buyer at Kepler's.  Buzbee writes that Shirley Cobb Bookstore on University Avenue in Palo Alto catered to the "carriage trade."  I didn't think of myself as being so hi-falutin, but Shirley Cobb's had store accounts.  I'd just sign for the books I wanted and get a monthly bill.  That was bliss.  I also recall having a spirited discussion with a bookseller there over C.P. Snow's Strangers and Brothers series -- which I loved.  In what bookstore could I get in such an argument today?  (BTW, Shirley Cobb was Ty's daughter.)  Buzbee writes nostalgically about Printers Inc. on California Avenue in Palo Alto.  A typical pre-kids Saturday night with my wife would see us grabbing a bite down that way and spending an hour browsing afterwards.

Heintzelman's in downtown Los Altos was where I bought my mother her birthday, Hanukkah, and Mother's Day presents for years.  Mom liked her historical fiction and the booksellers there would almost always find me a few books that would get a thumbs up from Mom.  Downtown Palo Alto had a branch of Stacey's that also was a great place to stop after a meal or movie.

And what do Peninsula, Guild, Shirley Cobb, Printer's Inc., Heintzelman's, and the Palo Alto branch of Stacey's have in common?  They are alive only in my (and others') memories.  Ghosts of Bookstores Past.  Sigh.

Christmas Eve at Kepler's

What better way to spend the day before Xmas than inscribing books at Kepler's in Menlo Park, California?  Just arranged a last minute signing there this Sunday afternoon, December 24, from noon to 3 or 4.  What better present for spouse, parent, sibling, child, friend, neighbor, or business associate than a personalized Dot Dead?  (I mean besides a brand new Lexus, 42-inch plasma TV, beach house in Santa Barbara, or [insert your choice].)  If you are in the neighborhood, come on by.

Murder Ink Bites the Dust

The oldest independent mystery bookstore in the country will be shutting it doors on December 31.  Often when I travel to NYC, I stay with friends just down the block from Murder Ink at 92nd and Broadway.  Just this past October I stopped by the store and signed their stock of Dot Dead.  I was with Child #1 and between us we ran up a decent-sized Visa bill by the time we departed.  The store did not seem to have the vitality of Partners & Crime or Black Orchid, but it was a quiet, cozy, friendly place.  I hate to see independents staffed by bibliophiles biting the dust.  In an article in this morning's New York Times on the demise of Murder Ink, a spokesperson for the American Booksellers Association says the number of independent bookstores in the United States has plummeted from 4,700 to 2,500 since 1993.  Sob.  Please do remember to shop at your local independent bookstore so it does not follow the example of Murder Ink and those other 2,200 stores.  (You might also want to take a gander at Sarah Weinman's posting this morning on Murder Ink's closing.)

Book of Note

Just received the winter issue of Jewish Book World.  Guess what?  Dot Dead is listed as one of this quarter's "Books of Note."  Not a bad Hanukkah present!

P.S.  The only other novel listed is Jesse Kellerman's Sunstroke.

Hanukkah Celebrations and Bookstore Visits

Saturday night all six of us went to the Saxe Family's annual Hanukkah party.  Loren and I have been friends since fourth grade.  That makes us family.  Among the 30 people there, my kids are the only ones who are still kids.  The little Saxes I remember from Hanukkahs 20 years ago are all grown up.

Yesterday #4 and I went to downtown Palo Alto and watched the lighting of a menorah made of Legos.  He thought it was pretty "cool."

My 10-year old, #3, decided to have a Hanukkah party for her friends.  She made the calls, came up with an itinerary, and now a gaggle of kids are downstairs decorating cookies cut in the shape of dreydels and stars and such. 

I visited four bookstores today to make certain that there were plenty of Dot Deads around for Hanukkah (or Christmas) presents.  The Books Inc in Burlingame had six on hand; I signed the two that were unsigned.  I inveigled the bookseller to tell me how many they had sold.  She was worried lest I be upset at a low number or get a swelled head at a large one.  I explained I had thick skin in case of the former and four kids who would keep me humble in case of the latter.  "Thirty sold," she told me.  Not bad.  The B&N in San Mateo was out and after checking sales to date ordered more.  Bob & Bob had ten just in for me to sign as did the Books Inc in Mountain View.  Dot Dead was #5 on the paperback fiction list at Kepler's and they just ordered 30 more.

Life's Ups and Downs

Was on a conference call with Senator Evan Bayh this morning.  He's been marvelously successful as a two-term governor of Indiana and IMHO would be a terrific occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  And in fact, he's been exploring a run for president in 2008, but has decided not to run.  Heartbreak.

No sooner did I hang up on that call, than I received a call from the mother of my godson Couper.  He's engaged to be married to the wondrous Julia.  Joy!

San Jose Mercury Article on Jewish Bookstore Closing

I lamented the imminent closing of the Jewish bookstore Bob and Bob in a posting a week ago.  As Hanukkah is about to begin, other members of the community do the same in a bittersweet piece in this morning's San Jose Mercury.

A Joke for Writers

"How am I doing?"  The writer answered his friend.  "You have no idea how popular my writing has become.  Why since I last saw you, my readers have doubled!"

"Well, mazel tov!  I didn't know you got married."

  From The Joys of Yiddish by Leo Rosten.