Road Trip: Day 5 – Matt Rush
Matthew Rush at the Buckhead Diner
I dropped Karen and Max off at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History and went to meet Matthew Rush, the incredible blogger who writes on writing, specializes in the query letter, is working on his first novel, and is an overall good guy. Check out his blog and post at the The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment about our lunch. I’m still laughing about what he wrote. He’s also got an interesting post about the publishing industry that’s part of a blog chain that’s worth checking out – specifically about self-publishing.
In person I was lucky enough to hear him speak about his work-in-progress novel – which sounds terrific – and to talk shop about writing with someone who quickly felt like an old friend. I’ve been a fan of his website and his writing for a while so it was great to get a chance to meet him in person. There’s still nothing quite like a face-to-face.
Now with Atlanta behind us and sitting in our room in Valdosta, just within the border of Georgia and not quite in Florida, I’m about ready for Universal on the morrow.
Road Trip: Day 4 – Engine Light
Fountain Bookstore Richmond
Autozone said there were five different problems with the engine. We checked the oil, the transmission fluid, the gas cap, and the water. All four were good. Our mechanic in Queens, Steve, who takes phone calls from South Carolina, said get back on the road and don’t worry about it. Just keep driving. He’ll check it out when we get back but he’s not worried. Okay.
Doc and me at Fountain Books
Green iced tea from Starbucks.
Karen’s driving. We’re off to Atlanta. I’ve got plans for three stores to visit. Karen and Max are going to hit the pool. I’m going to try and meet Amy from Lady Reader and Matt from the QQQE – two bloggers I”ve corresponded with and whose blogs I follow. It’ll be cool putting faces to words. It’s all about the relationships.
***
But before I forget here’s my report from yesterday on the two bookstores I hit in North Carolina.
Fly Leaf Books
Fly Leaf Books
Fly Leaf Bookstore
Fly Leaf bookstore in Chapel Hill is the absolute most beautiful bookstore I’ve seen in a while. Some independent stores are quirky, some small, some big and overfilled, some sparse on the shelves and heavy on the muffins, but Fly Leaf, oh this is a beautifully laid out store. There’s a great kids space. The shelves have staff picks marked and easily read all over the place – very colorful and eye appealing. The color of the store just says come in, sit down, gaze at books, read, read, read, ahhhhhh. Seriously this is a good-looking store. The owner Jamie was very nice considering I had no appointment and she was on her own while the others were on break. Still I threw Kelly Justice’s name in the mix (thanks again Kelly) and yes, Jamie took a moment from the register to bring my book back to her store partner and kid’s buyer for review. Max bought two books there and I wanted to buy one also but I’m banned from hardcovers for a while as we’re out of space back home. Behemoth is calling to me though.
Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh was also a great looking bookstore, filled with books and music. They were busy but Sally, a very helpful and busy bookseller, did see if the kids buyer was in to speak to me. She was in the middle of an order. I asked Sally if she’d listen to my pitch. She looked at me and then at the register. I could see the “no” without it even being said.
“You’ve got a lot to do right now, don’t you?” I said.
She nodded.
“And you get a lot of people coming in pitching books and products?”
She nodded again and glanced a second time at the register where her colleague was busy.
“But I bet you don’t get many people coming all the way from New York City, do you?” I gave her my biggest shit-eating grin.
This made her smile and she nodded at me. “You have three minutes,” she said. After doing the pitch under three minutes a dozen times at ALA last month I could do this in my sleep.
“Get back to us in two weeks,” she said when I was done. “I’d like to read it myself.” Then she gave me the buyer’s name and email, her email, ideas for where to go in Atlanta, and another smile to take me out the front door.
Charlotte’s was harder to hit yesterday. Bookmark is downtown and parking is terrible. Karen dropped me off. I rolled out of the car and went to the back of the mall where they were situated, pitched one of the owners while a customer came in and ordered other books. I waited oh so patiently. Karen called me on the phone. “There’s no parking.”
The owner said, ‘You got to go?”
I nodded. “I’ll make this quick.”
He took the book and said he’d take a look. Kelly Justice’s name got some attention again. (Thanks’ Kelly.)
***
It’s 2pm on day four and the engine light went off. Steve, the mechanic, was right again. The stress level has eased out of the car in one big exhale.
Atlanta here we come.
Road Trip: Day 3 – Chapel Hill to Greenville
We did a bit too much today.
Two bookstores in Chapel Hill and Raleigh, two in Charlotte, horrible traffic on I-85 heading out of Charlotte, and a warning engine light in the wilds of Kings Mountain Park Road – in the dark – just outside of Blacksburg. Tensions were high. Tears were shed.
Atlanta, our target for the evening, was taken off the agenda and we’re in Greenville.
We’ll call our mechanic tomorrow morning – get some advice. One thing I know little about is cars. I just drive ’em. My wife will handle the call – she at least knows her way around an engine.
There may be some changes to the travel plans. We’ll have to see. More tomorrow morning.
Road Trip Day 2 – Baltimore to Richmond
The Red Canoe Bookstore in Baltimore
Two stops today. In the morning we hit the Red Canoe Bookstore and Café in Baltimore. It’s a beautiful store with a great YA selection and incredible muffins (really, I tried three different types, the apple/mango, the peach cobbler, and the mixed berry) and good coffee. It was a wonderful way to start the day. Max picked up a graphic novel and I we each got a t-shirt. The owner, Nicole, said these days they make more money from the café than the books and that she’d be specializing in YA and kids books to hone in on that market. It’s the kind of place you park yourself with a good book (purchased of course) or your computer, and read – only getting up every half hour or so to get another muffin or a refill on your coffee. Ahhhh.
I-95 was a mess. We lost an hour at least alternately sitting and creeping south to Richmond. We finally got to Richmond near 5pm and found Fountain Bookstore, where Kelly Justice and Doc filled me in on the doings of SIBA (Southern Independent Booksellers Association) and the city of Richmond’s authors. Kelly gave me some tips on which bookstores to go along the way south and told me she would carry Open Wounds – any author who stopped by in person was on her good side. Like I said. It’s all about relationships.
Made it to Raleigh/Durham about 9:30pm – exhausted. The La Quinta hotel near the Research Triangle in Chapel Hill is nice – the wood floor section especially good for yoga. Hey… after two days in the car I need some extra pigeon/eka pada raja ka potasana.
Tomorrow we’re off to Atlanta stopping at Quail Ridge Books and Fly Leaf in Raleigh/Durham, McIntyre’s in PIttsboro, and Bookmark in Charlotte.
Road Trip Day 1
We’re on our way to Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. It’s 17 plus hours by car.
We must be out of our minds.
Harry Potter here we come. My son is very, very excited. Karen and I are too. We’re stopping in Baltimore, Raleigh, and Atlanta on the way down with short stops in Richmond, Greensboro, and Charlotte for bookstores too.
We’re going to hit as many independent bookstores as we can.
It’s old fashion, door to door, at stores that probably don’t carry Open Wounds but which I’ll pitch the book too and try to build up some interest in through face to face contact – in other words building relationships. I think it’ll work. Even if it doesn’t I’ll meet some great booksellers and see some great stores in different parts of the country that I’ve never been to before and that will be cool.
Really.
It will be. Even if my butt is sore from the 4-7 hour days in the saddle, I mean car, and I’m hopped up on too much caffeine, way past my coffee limit (watch out for the Tazo Awake tea latte – it’s deadly too). That’s what vacation is for.
Adventure.
Today we left Jackson Heights four hours later than we thought we would. Basically we were right on schedule… for us.
We hit an hour’s traffic on the BQE in Brooklyn. It was sixty road workers, most carrying “slow” signs, a few with machines of some sort, maybe replacing the pavement, many standing around. It was like watching a battalion on parade in yellow and orange wearing hard hats. It was six lanes condensed down to one. It took an hour to go maybe a mile, maybe two. My hair was standing on end and I had a silent scream locked in my throat. My son’s face was pressed against the side window. My wife took mental pictures to use on twitter and Facebook later. No, really, we got through okay but it was an hour! We soared through to Baltimore from there.
In Maryland we saw one guy working on the road, a dust cloud surrounding him from some machinery he was using. One guy. In yellow and orange. No sign-holders. No traffic jam. Thank you.
I’m writing from a Day’s Inn with an Indian Restaurant attached to it. I love Indian food so I wish we’d known ahead of time and ate here rather than the diner we hit along the way.
Tomorrow morning I’m going to Red Canoe Bookstore Cafe, while Max and Karen take a swim in the pool before we head to Raleigh. We’ll hit Richmond along the way and go to the Fountain Bookstore.
It is so good to be on vacation.
Two and a half weeks.
Day 1.
Lunievicz 