Writers, I mean. One of the perks of living in a smaller, more isolated community is that we get to know about the lives of people we wouldn’t necessarily get to know about in a big city. It goes both ways, though, and people get to know about us, too.
Husband and I usually purchase wine at the liquor store attached to our biggest grocery store. The liquor establishments have to be separate entities in ND, and grocery stores can’t sell liquor in the grocery store proper. We have come to know one of the liqour store clerks fairly well, and he always tells us about his day and recent life events, and he asks us about ours. He is a military veteran in his late 40’s. He knows we are both psychologists.
Yesterday while he was checking us out he stopped and grabbed a notebook and hurriedly wrote something down. He told us it was a for a scene in a novel he was writing about PTSD in military veterans and if he didn’t write it down he would forget it. He then shyly asked us if we had ever worked with veterans, and I was able to relate some of my experiences working in a VA hospital with Vietnam and Gulf War veterans some 30 years ago. He made it clear he didn’t have combat related PTSD, but he felt a need to write about it for those who did. At that point another customer came into the store and we had to end our conversation.
I guess I shouldn’t have been so surprised that he is writing a book, and it was just delightful to hear about his ideas. It made me wonder how many other aspiring writers are lurking behind cash registers and counters in town.
What would you write about if you were to write a book? How many published authors do you know? Have any favorite store clerks?
Trail Baboon 
Approaching 2 years into what will be my seventh published novel, I am still in the process of discovering what the book is about. Life, certainly; but what else? The manuscript is at 85,000 words, the discarded material 70,000 words. The conclusion is envisioned but not written down. I’ve gone back to the opening chapters at least five times, seeking to clarify the concept, motivate the reader, apply craft, say something important, break new ground.
You might think it’s a chore at this point. It isn’t.
LikeLiked by 6 people
I hear you, John. I overwrite and then slash and burn to get down to the right size story. Revision is my favorite part of the process, even though it drives me crazy sometimes, trying to figure out what’s wrong and how to fix it.
Chris in O-town
LikeLiked by 5 people
well see, I kinda know you two!
LikeLiked by 3 people
As a writer (a status I should not attribute to myself), I can do little beyond a letter or something about the length of a sermon. I did write a short column for a weekly newspaper in Taiwan more than 20 years ago (that lasted about a year). I also published a few short stories there in a “content desperate” English magazine.
The fountain of inspiration for me seems to be “a young man between the ages of 18 and 24, adventuring away from home as a soldier or a teacher in a foreign land.”
My problems are that I love detail, so don’t do characters or plot well, at all. Now that it’s all done on a keyboard, I no longer waste so much paper and ink.
LikeLiked by 7 people
I do write books, and I guess my theme is “normal” characters put in abnormal, stressful, sometimes life-threatening situations. Why? Probably because of wondering how people who HAVE been in horrific, stressful, life-threatening situations handled that pressure and came out alive and healthy on the other end. How did they do it? What were they thinking and feeling in the middle of the crisis? What’s their life like now that they’ve survived? Better? Worse? The same?
I’ve met maybe a few hundred published authors and know about 50 well enough to call them colleagues. They’re (mostly) all amazingly normal people, and as a group, very supportive, interesting, and a pleasure to hang out with.
My favorite store clerks tend to be baristas since I patronize the same coffee shops repeatedly. But they tend to be young, and come and go regularly, so I don’t tend to get to know them well other than chatting for a minute while I order.
But there’s one waitress at a diner I go to once a month (best caramel pecan rolls I’ve ever had!) who is a ray of sunshine and positivity. We’ve chatted seriously only a few times, but it’s energizing to be in the same room with her because she’s so friendly, energetic, affable, and truly cares about her customers.
Chris in Owatonna
LikeLiked by 6 people
My Anye universe novels tend toward the fantastic wrapped in the mundane, magical realism if you will. Adventure intrigue family drama literary science fiction, for which there has never been a category but that’s what I do. Thematically, what grown ups do to create successful lives.
I used to worry about discarding good material on the editing room floor. Now I wonder if I should retrieve it as fodder for another book.
I doubt that I will have the time or energy do that. Three other novels in the nine book series are partially written.
I have come to understand that I am writing for my own enjoyment, and that commercial success for these books may never be accomplished. Still, I have an audience, however small, and a thousand people know who I am. It will have to do.
LikeLiked by 6 people
A similar situation for me, John. Being older and not desiring to earn a living as an author, I mostly write for the feeling of accomplishment now. Also, I guess I’m fairly good at it because I constantly have “fans” ask me when my next book is coming out. So I feel obligated to deliver another. Also, because I donate a part of all my book sales to Big Brothers Big Sisters, I feel like I’d let them down if I didn’t keep selling books.
My only monetary goal is to break even some day on my writing career. If I’d kept track of every dollar from day one when I started writing with the intent of publishing anything, I’d probably never get there. But by the measures I devised to account for income and expenses starting the year I first published, I can see the light at the end of that tunnel …. ever so faintly. 🙂
Chris
LikeLiked by 6 people
Well, thanks to the Trail, I know LOTS of authors. Not in any particular order – Clyde, Steve, John, David, Anna, Chris. I’ve read all of them, so if you need recomendations, I have them!
I just found out this morning that Kay Hong, who used to contribute to the Trail years ago (I forget her “handle”) passed away last November. She wrote quite a few books including the one I read (Life Freaks Me Out). Apparently it was a hit and run while she was on vacation in California. Awful.
I’m also friends with Peg, who retired after decades of writing for the Star Trib. I have all her books – including Bring Warm Clothes, which is a favorite of mine.
I’ve met a lot of authors thanks to my time at the B Dalton flagship in Southdale, but I don’t consider that I KNOW them.
If I missed anybody – so sorry!!!!
LikeLiked by 5 people
OMG, you’re right, VS! I forgot some from the Trail.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I wish I could capture what it was like to be alive in the early 70s San Francisco, but have never really had the desire to attempt writing it. I do wish I’d kept a journal, but nooo!
Besides Chris and John,
– a singer-songwriter some of you have seen in person) who wrote “Full Voice, the Art and Practice of Vocal Presence” (https://www.barbaramcafee.com/)
– a friend from a dance group, who’s taught writing classes at The Loft in Mpls. and written guides for memoir writing, including one on revision. https://www.elizabethjarrettandrew.com/
– I worked in Louise Erdrich’s bookstore in the early aughts…
– a surprising number of writers in the Winona area – poets and memoirists and novelists, oh my!
LikeLiked by 6 people
I have some favorite library check-out people, and then I’ll run into them at, say, the coffee shop and it’s fun…
I remember a postal clerk in Robbinsdale who had a sense of humor, and when showing me the options for stamps, would say things like “And of course, we have these lovely hats!” (remember the Uncle Sam hat?)
LikeLiked by 2 people
Rise and Shine,Baboons,
I know a few authors, and if you include a professional paper about a research project I did at Hazelden, then I am in there. I did a paper published about 1998 about using the Occupational Therapy techniques of sensory integration with young (teen) addicts with ADHD who were using drugs to reduce their sensitivity to the environment. That became a big deal because it was considered ground breaking at the time.
Then there is my sister, who some of you have met. She has published a number of books about medical issues and PTSD in children and her series of cozy mysteries set out west. Here is that page on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=jolene+stratton+philo&crid=3R9YOFTS3AV5J&sprefix=Jolene+philo%2Caps%2C127&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_3_12
(I am boycotting Amazon right now).
LikeLiked by 5 people
What about Leaving Taiwan? Doesn’t that count??
LikeLiked by 2 people
This was supposed to go under David’s last comment. Not sure how it managed to get quite so lost.
LikeLiked by 2 people
My WordPress blog was where I worked that out during the first year after I left. It was more about transition than about “those years there”. I soon noticed, though, that nobody was looking, so I came up with another project.
A publisher here in Holland, MI, was interested in me writing a memoir, but my spouse both wanted to be on every page, and didn’t want to draw any attention to herself, so, after two separate “short book length” attempts that didn’t make it past her as editor, I canned the entire thing. I am now who I am now, and where I am now. The past is an interesting place to visit, but I don’t want to live in that past to the depth that a memoir would require.
If you want to see the current blog project, check out and subscribe to Aboksu.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Jolene‘s books are not in the Hennepin County Library system, but they are in the Southeastern Libraries co-op system, I think that’s the name. I was able to borrow them through inter-Library loan.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I just looked at SELCO (SE Libraries Cooperating) and didn’t see it.
LikeLike
I’ve always thought of this blog as a “writers’ blog,” although it really isn’t. I love words, wordsmith-ery, and reading. I like to write poetry, although I’d be way too shy to even ask someone to read it. Like VS, I’m honored to be in the company of so many published authors. I’ve read Clyde’s work, Anna’s, Steve’s, and Chris’. I try to write well, but I don’t know if I always succeed.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I recall your Thanksgiving song, Krista, and I don’t think you should ever be too shy to ask anyone to read your poetry, if that song is representative of your writing. It’s lovely and moving.
LikeLike
https://open.substack.com/pub/johngdyer/p/blendered-4?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=f4ivk ___ see the side trip, an indulgence which may come to nothing.
LikeLiked by 3 people
My dad has always told me I should write a novel inspired by our family, which contains plenty of colorful characters. Too many, really—you couldn’t put all of them into a coherent plot. I have an outline in my head, that is all. Over the course of my career in advertising, I’ve known a few coworkers who were published authors. A close friend has illustrated several children’s books.
It’s hard to have favorite store clerks in the city, as people come and go so quickly. Husband has become friendly with a few of the employees he sees regularly at Costco, though. It seems people stay there longer, so it’s easier to get to know them.
LikeLiked by 4 people
LikeLiked by 3 people
Love this! Thanks, Linda!
LikeLiked by 1 person
How many published authors do I know? It depends on how you define “know.” If I limit it to the number of published authors who would be able to pick me out of a crowd and put a name to my face, the number is small. It’s even smaller if you exclude the ones who might be able to do that but who are now dead. Of the seven living, published writers that I can think of at the moment, only one has made a living as a writer, and he’s a retired journalist.
LikeLiked by 4 people