ozma914 | Entries tagged with libraries

"If the Beast gave me a library like he gave to Belle, I'd marry him too." -- Aya Ling

So, my wife's bosses were going through storage units, and had to sort through all the books their daughter collected over the years. Some were damaged, but they offered to give Emily and me most of the rest. Their daughter, they said, read a lot.

Not long after, they filled our Ford Escape with so many books I was afraid it would bottom out on every hill on the way home. A few days later, they did it again. Then again.

Mountains of books! Forests of books! More books than you'd ever read in a lifetime!

Ahem. If you'll pardon me for quoting Beauty and the Beast. I may have cried a little. I also may have cried a little while we were carrying them all up the steps into the house, but enough about my back.

It was Emily who had to clean up the books because, as it happens, I'm allergic to both dust and mold. Never thought I'd be glad about that. But I forgot, and later when I was cleaning our former bedroom/new reading room (our own library!) I gave myself an allergy attack. Too bad--eight hours of sleeping off the Benadryl, when I could have been reading.

Freaking scads of books!

We're still sorting them, by author and genre. Authors like me, who don't stick to a genre, will be a problem. But many of them were novel series (love a good series), which helped. We unfolded a table and Emily got started while I was cooking and doing the dishes, which is completely understandable when you realize how much more organized her mind is than mine.

Really, the only member of the family who wasn't thrilled was the dog. (This all happened before Beowulf passed away.) When we first put up the table he liked to lay down under it, but as we unpacked more books that space became filled, too. Sometimes he just walked up to the table and looks sadly at his former doghouse.

"I am NOT amused. I can't even read."

A large percentage of the books are what's called high fantasy, which I take it are better enjoyed when you're high. Wait, let me check ...

Oh. Well, it means epic in scope, with forces threatening a world that is not our own. Game Of Thrones stuff, and didn't it take us a whole year to read through those massive tomes. The novel I wrote (and am currently trying to sell) is low fantasy: mostly set in the real world, with the addition of magical elements. Now we're talking about Harry Potter and the Giant Dump Truck of Money.

Many others are space opera, again similar to another novel in my submission process. Think Dune, the Lensman books, and of course Star Wars. (My Junior English teacher in high school was the daughter of E.E. Smith, who authored the Hugo-nominated Lensman series. Fun old-timey SF, and possibly an inspiration for the Green Lantern.)

There are also history books, mostly involving World War II, which made me squeal a little. Okay, a lot. There are mysteries, and both nonfiction and fiction books about horses, and encyclopedia yearbooks covering all the earlier years of my life and some before. We have our own library of books--something I always dreamed of.

I took this photo to document that someone decided to leave their shampoo behind, and buy a book instead. If you never leave your couch, you don't need shampoo.

It all made me a little sad.

Let's face it: even if I gave up writing and put all my spare time into reading, there's no way I'll ever get to all these books, plus the ones I already have, plus the ones on my reading list. We've still got books in boxes in the garage. I've got friends writing books that I want to read. It makes me want to retire to a rustic cabin in the woods and just become one with a comfortable chair.

Still, just having all those books up on shelves around us will cheer me up substantially, and better too many than not enough. With books, I may never go anywhere again--but I'll go everywhere.

That's a pretty good way to spend your time.

Remember: Every time you don't read a book, the author has an allergy attack. Keep authors healthy.

We and our books--I mean, the ones we wrote--can be found everywhere:

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Dennis Smith passed away a couple of weeks ago, but I got sidetracked by weather stuff in writing about it.

As I've said before, the term "hero" gets thrown around way too much these days, and often at people who haven't earned the title. There are many people I admire who aren't heroes. Those who truly are heroes will insist they are not.

Dennis Smith was a hero.

He didn't look like a hero. Heroes rarely do.

He was an author of sixteen books and otherwise led a successful life, but what made him a hero is the eighteen years he spent as a firefighter for the City of New York. He took the oath in 1963, and a few years later transferred to Engine Company 82: The busiest single fire company in New York and, it's believed, the busiest one in the world at the time.

He didn't retire for another ten years after his first book, Report From Engine Co. 82, became a best seller. In 1976 he founded Firehouse Magazine, which became the most popular periodical for firefighters in the world, and he was a civic leader in many other areas. He was an advocate for firefighters, and even produced a series of training videos.

Then, on September 11, 2001--almost twenty years after he retired--Dennis Smith showed up at Ground Zero to assist his brothers and sisters. He spent 57 days helping with rescue and recovery efforts, later chronicled in Report From Ground Zero.

He didn't have to. But see, that's what a hero is: Someone who does something for others, despite risks to their own selves, when they don't have to.

I became interested in firefighting in my late teens, and there were few books on the subject at our local library. One was Report From Engine Co. 82. I read it over and over, of course, then I went searching for his other books.

He had a spare, matter of fact style of writing, and when he told stories about his work in the FDNY he didn't brag: He just told what happened, straight out. The risks they take, the injuries they received, are shocking to the reader, but just another day for Dennis and his coworkers.

Dennis Smith influenced me as both a writer and a firefighter, and I'm forever grateful to have that influence in my life. Rest In Peace, Firefighter Smith. If anyone earned it, you did.

From Wikipedia:

Dennis Smith has written sixteen books in his career, among them:

Report from Engine Co. 82
Final Fire
Glitter & Ash
Steely Blue
History of Firefighting in America
The Aran Islands – A Personal Journey
Firehouse (accompanying photographs by Jill Freedman)
Dennis Smith's Fire Safety Book
Firefighters – Their Lives in Their Own Words
A Song for Mary
Report from Ground Zero
San Francisco Is Burning – The Untold Story of the 1906 Earthquake and Fires
A Decade of Hope – Stories of Grief and Endurance from 9/11 Families and Friends
Of Love and Courage

For children:

The Little Fire Engine That Saved The City
Brassy the Fire Engine

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When I was a teen I didn't exactly have the happiest home life. As a result, and being an insatiable reader, I spent as much time as I could at the Noble County Library. It was only about a four block walk from our house, and from the library's front windows was a great view of the Noble County Courthouse. It was very much my home away from home for several years.

It's gone now.

Well, the building is gone. The library moved in 1995, to a place that's a lot easier to navigate for both patrons and employees. About 35 years ago a member of the Library Board took me to the basement of the oldest part of the old library, and showed me cracks spreading through the concrete. He told me the original library was designed to have shelves around the exterior walls, with a central circulation desk. Now, with shelves all across the rooms, it held more weight then it was designed for.

Not to mention it was too small, and laid out in three different levels. When the library moved, the Noble County Prosecutor's Office took up the space, but to me it will always be a library. Well, would. Now I have a brick.

I spent hours going through old books and microfilms there, researching our book Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights: A Century or So With the Albion Fire Department. Then I returned the favor, putting the library itself into Images of America: Albion and Noble County. Between them, I fed both my reading habit and my writing ambitions with volume after volume from the place.

In the photo above you can see the original structure in back, and the 1968 addition in front. The original, built in 1917, was thanks to a $10,000 Carnegie Foundation grant--Andrew Carnegie's money built a lot of early libraries.

In the photo below, which I got from the Old Jail Museum--on the same block--is the Carnegie Library before the addition went up.

In elementary school my favorite part of the week was when the bookmobile showed up and we would file through, picking out something to read. The bookmobile also came from the Noble County Public Library, which had a garage built on the back to house it.

Just for the heck of it here's one of the bookmobiles, in a photo given to me by Ellen McBride. This one, I assume, was before my time--I recall the one we went to being more like a large van.

Anyway, the Noble County Library is still operating with three branches, and going strong. The original is being replaced by a Noble County Government building. I can't deny the practicality of most government offices being centralized into two buildings, with the resulting savings in utilities, upkeep, and communications. I might even end up working there myself, if my writing career doesn't allow me to retire by then.

But I'm gonna miss what was there.

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

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albion,
books,
history,
images of america: albion and noble coun,
libraries,
noble county public library,
reading

Emily and I are going to be at the Kendallville Public Library's Art and Author Fair, which, perhaps not surprisingly, is going to be at the Kendallville Public Library in September.

It's this whole big thing, held in conjunction with the Kendallville Chamber of Commerce "Showcase Kendallville and Job Fair", and it's all going to be at the library Friday, September 15, from 2-7 p.m. We've already been to a group book signing with some of the other authors! It'll be like coming home again. Actually, it'll be like writing home again. The library's page for the event is here:

http://kendallvillelibrary.org/about-us/library-news/art-and-author-fair/

And you can let everyone know you're going on the facebook page, here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/261574904246629

Is that cool, or what? Yes. Yes, it is.

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One of the reasons why so many adults are miserable is because we so often give up what
we like to do, in favor of what we think we should do.

It’s why I don’t make fun of most hobbies, as long as they’re not damaging property or people. As the old saying goes, give a man a fish and he eats once; teach a man to fish and he’s out of your hair for hours. You want to paint your face and scream your lungs out at a football game? Go for it. You want to dress up as a wizard and play a board game? I don’t see how that’s any sillier than painting your face, and at least you’re indoors.

What I loved to do was go to the library. All those books! Rows and rows of shelves and shelves, each filled with dozens of new worlds to explore. No matter how I pictured my life in the future, I knew I’d someday have a library all my own—an entire room with nothing but books.

Well, I’m halfway there: I have enough books to stock a room, but unfortunately they’re spread out in stacks and boxes all over the house. Someday.

I guess that’s expected, of a writer. What I didn’t expect was getting so busy doing adult things that I stopped going to the library. On a related subject, nobody warned me that being a writer would eat into my reading. There are those days—days when I get still another rejection letter, or a list of edits, or a lonely book signing—when I think I could give up writing, in order to get more reading time.

Then I’d be back at the library, for sure.

When I was a teenager the Noble County Public Library’s main branch was on the courthouse square, just a few blocks from where I lived. The back part was a Carnegie Library, one of those buildings funded decades ago by a rich guy who saw a need and helped fill it. The front part was newer, but featured big picture windows where someone could sit and look out over the courthouse. That’s where the magazines and newspapers were, and I read a lot of those.

I had to, once I ran through every book.

A person can read at home, as I usually do these days. But there’s something about a library. The smell of books, the look of them, especially the old ones. The feeling that you’re with others who might also love books, or at least appreciate them. There were microfilms full of history, plus atlases, huge dictionaries, encyclopedias pre-internet. Oh, and records—those vinyl disk things, you remember.

When I moved out on my own, one of my few belongings was a record player the size of a console TV. (A console TV, it was … oh, never mind. It was huge.) I’d take home some classical music records (and a stack of books), and play them while writing stories on my old manual typewriter. (A manual typewriter? … get your grandmother to explain.)

I’d probably still be a reader if there were no libraries—my parents saw to that—but I’m not sure I would have ever become a writer.

It might seem a little strange that I’m having a book signing this Wednesday at that same library, in its new location. I mean, that’s where you go to get your books for free, right? And there I am, trying to sell some. But I figure, that’s where the book lovers go. Besides, I owe all libraries, especially this one, and maybe this is my chance to pay them back a little, with some publicity and even a few walk-ins who wouldn’t be there otherwise. Or, maybe the library is just helping me again.

But either way, I get to spend a few hours there. And with all our adult responsibilities these days, it’s nice to go somewhere we want to be.

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We had a great time at the Kendallville Library last night, although I suspect my speech rambled a bit (and I may have talked too fast once or twice). Many thanks to Mindy Patterson and the rest of the library staff, and I’m grateful to those who came to hear about history and our writing—and everyone who came bought at least one book!

Now, across Noble County to the Stone’s Trace Pioneer Festival, where we’ll spend all day Saturday. It’s safe to say we’ll run into some history buffs there.

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Don’t forget, our appearance at the Kendallville Public Library tomorrow night isn’t just a book signing: We’ll give a short talk starting at 6:30 p.m., followed by a Q&A, and then a pop quiz. (Kidding, no pop quiz.) Sure, we’ll sign and sell books too, but when a person appears in front of a fireplace in the adult department of a library, they should dish out some information!

A fireplace, how cool is that? I mean, not literally.

So, please pass the word on to all your friends. If you don’t have friends, pass the word on to all your enemies. If you don’t have enemies, you really should get out more. We’d like to have so many people there that we could whip a crowd into a frenzy, maybe by having prizes taped under their seats or something. I could stand there like Oprah: “You get a toaster! You get a toaster! You all get a toaster!

But I don’t think I could sign a toaster. At least, not without some kind of metal engraving tool, and Emily won’t let me use power equipment.

Of course, everyone knows the Kendallville Library is at 221 S Park Avenue … if you have any questions for them, they’re at 260-343-2011. You already know where to find the authors.

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The bad news is, the book signing didn’t go so great. The good news is, the only person at fault was Mother Nature—and we already knew Mother Nature hates me anyway.

I did sell nine books, and got to talk to some great people, and hey—how better to spend a miserable day than in the library? But we got slammed by the weather. Local schools were canceled, roads and sidewalks were slick and icky, and the high temperature was lower than the normal low temperature for mid-November. Nobody wants to go out in crap like that, especially with wind and occasional snow squalls blasting through.

The folks at the Noble County Public Library—who were great, by the way—kept remarking on how amazingly quiet it was. Maybe I should have rescheduled, but after so much time and effort promoting it, I felt duty bound to go on. The library also put in a lot of work, complete with a flier that they posted on Facebook and on their monitor screens. So again, no one can be faulted but the weather, and I still sold more books than I have at some past signings.

My next step: Get those people who would have shown up if it had been nicer to buy books, and promote for Christmas shopping season! Because even an early winter won’t get me down. Much.

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The library made a great flyer for the book signing Monday!

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I’m sure some writers approach public appearances with the confidence of TV’s Richard Castle, who swaggers into every room like he has the world by the keyboard. Then again, maybe not … Castle seems to have become a bestselling novelist without ever actually writing. In other words, he’s every writer’s dream.

I, on the other hand, have to actually pound away at the keyboard to produce a manuscript. Probably I’m more representative. If that’s true, then most writers approach book signings with no confidence at all. What’s worse? That no one will show up at all, or that they’ll show up to point and laugh at your temerity in thinking you actually deserve any sort of success?

Like most things, the anticipation is worse than the reality. (Not with dentists. Oh, not with dentists.) Still, as I approach the next book signing, I can’t help thinking: Is somebody going to finally call me out?

Dude, you suck. What makes you think people will actually want to read your books?

“Hey, I’m published!”

So was Hitler.

“That’s just mean.”

That’s my subconscious speaking. But my subconscious assures me every time that real people will show up and say the same thing.

It used to whisper to me, “You’re a horrible writer!” Finally, after a few decades, I came to accept that I was actually a pretty good writer. Then it started whispering, “There are millions of good writers! You’re a little minnow in a big sea. You’re so pathetic that even your subconscious can’t come up with a cliché that doesn’t involve little fish in the ocean.”

Other times it gets bored and switches: You’ll never write full time! You’ll die at a keyboard, working two full time jobs and never taking the time to vegetate on the couch with chips and dip.

“Oh, yeah? Well, my wife and doctor won’t let me eat chips and dip anymore, so there!”

Nice riposte, use that in your imaginary Pulitzer speech.

Is it any wonder, then, that I hate promoting myself? Okay, I have a book signing coming up Monday, at the Noble County Public Library in Albion. So why can’t I just yell it out, rather than writing some long article about it? “Hey, be there! Three to six p.m. on Main Street! I’ll have all my books!”

You’re pathetic. That’s your own home turf, what are you worried about? Try having a book signing in Chicago, see who shows up there.

“You’re my subconscious, you just called yourself pathetic.”

I know. It’s pathetic.

You can’t win when you take on your own subconscious.

By the time November 17^th rolls around I’ll be too worried about the details of the signing to let my inner voice bother me. I’ll sell some copies of my various works, go home happy that anyone bought any at all, and go back to work on my next book project.

Then the voice will start whispering again. But you know what? I’m a good writer, by gosh, so I’ll ignore it … at least, until it’s time to send in the next manuscript.

I signed a book for a Senator, so there.

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Books? I got ‘em. Ahead of my book signing on November 17^th, I took delivery of ten copies of Storm Chaser and twenty copies of The No-Campfire Girls, and I already had plenty of The Notorious Ian Grant and Smoky Days And Sleepless Nights on hand. Just in time for Christmas gift giving—to others, or yourself. I think I’ve even still got a few copies of My Funny Valentine around.

And don’t be surprised if you see some special prices when you show up that Monday.

Now all I need is people, so remember to stop by! 3-6 p.m. at the main branch of the Noble County Public Library, at 813 E Main Street in Albion. We’ll stay a little later if people are still wandering in. Look forward to seeing you!

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What does a real, official writer’s press release look like? Well … I don’t know. But here’s the press release I sent out to the local media, minus my e-mail address and author photograph. Obviously it’s different from my less formal post from last week, but otherwise all I can tell you is that it’s probably too long for modern media outfits.

Oh, if you have Facebook and want to let us know you’re coming, the event page is at https://www.facebook.com/events/359823550853994/. Or, you could just let us know you’re coming.

Local author Mark R Hunter is visiting the Noble County Public Library’s main branch in Albion for a book signing Monday, November 17^th.

Hunter’s diverse works include two romantic comedy novels, a young adult adventure, a collection of short stories, and a history of the Albion Fire Department, in addition to a humor piece in the anthology My Funny Valentine. Two of his works came out in 2014:

The Notorious Ian Grant, a romantic comedy set in northeast Indiana, came out in August and is a sequel to his first novel, Storm Chaser. Both were published, along with his e-book short story collection, Storm Chaser Shorts, by Whiskey Creek Press

The No-Campfire Girls, a humorous adventure set in an Indiana summer camp, was released in June. Some of the proceeds go toward operating costs for Camp Latonka, a Missouri Girl Scout camp that once provided a second home for Hunter’s wife, Emily.

Proceeds from Hunter’s other book, Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights: A Century or So With The Albion Fire Department, go toward the Albion Fire Department.

Copies of all the books will be available for sale at the book signing, which will run from 3-6 p.m. and include some reduced prices. You can find out more about Hunter and his books at www.markrhunter.com, or on his Amazon author’s page at http://www.amazon.com/Mark-R-Hunter/e/B0058CL6OO/

Current Mood: hopeful

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Slightly Off the Mark

Oodles of Books: the Gift That Keeps On Reading

RIP Dennis Smith: Hero

The old library's gone now

Art and authors, and us, at Kendallville Library

Bury me at the library (not literally, that would be weird)

Oh, and we renewed our library cards

Not just a book signing

I would feel bad, but …

book signing flyer

Why The Subconscious Hates Book Signings

Book 'Em, Dano

Get Kracken and Release the Presses

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