Mental Meanderings

A Writer's Plans Derailed

I got an email at the end of last week from Dymocks that invited me to an author event for Kevin J. Anderson at my favorite Dymocks Bookstore. I was excited and very much looking forward to checking it out. I was pleased it was on a day and time I could manage to be there. But alas, the best laid plans of mice and men...

The journey into town is not an easy one to make, especially with the crazy weather we've been having lately. Thankfully I was able to borrow my mothers car which cut the two-hour train trip into a half hour drive. Baby boy and I were there in plenty of time. Normally I could spend hours hanging out in a bookshop but my three year old does not have the patience for book browsing. Still, I hung around for thirty minutes, well into the time the acclaimed author should have arrived.

He was a no show. But strangely enough the store didn't look set up to recieve him either. There was no desk for him to sit at for signings, no big pile of books for them to sell. I can only assume they've given the wrong date. All the other WA Literary Events on their calendar are sheduled for November so perhaps it was simply a sheduling mistake. Of course, their listing also has Anderson set for a reading tonight at another venue (a time, day, and location I can't manage).

I should have been brave enough to ask. I'd printed out the invitation so I wouldn't forget any of the details and I could have shown it at the service counter and asked them outright what was going on. Of course, by 12:30 my toddler was ready for lunch and with three new books in hand and the little niggling voice on my shoulder telling me I really couldn't afford such a purchase I moved quickly, paid and headed off to the foodcourt.

We passed the bookstore an hour later (heading back for the car) and sheer power of will prevented me from reentering it with a recently fed three year old. I've often dreamed of owning a bookstore. A Dymocks franchise branch in my local suburb (something we've dearly lacked for about four years now). I could be very happy with so many books at my disposal. *chuckles* My bank balance isn't very happy with me any time I enter a book shop. I don't seem able to leave without buying at least one book.

So, my attempt to attend a writer's event flopped when the powers that be conspired against me. But I suppose it was an important step through my sociaphobia that I even went. In days not long past I wouldn't have made it out of my front door. Still, I'm on the look out for other writer events to attend. Alas, Western Australia is literature event schedule is particularly paltry. Everyone knows Australia's culture is in Sydney and Melbourne. Maybe I should just move to L.A. or New York.