Kalamazoo: a place to buy and sell books
May. 13th, 2014 09:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjThe book-acquisition posts are yet to come. I brought about half my purchases home in the suitcase and the rest will dribble in over the next weeks as they're shipped. I'm again going to commit to posting at least a minimal review (what this book is about, why I bought it, and how I'm likely to use it) before the new books get shelved.
But the other fun book-related activity was doing research for The Mystic Marriage and promoting Daughter of Mystery at the conference, which isn't exactly a no-brainer given that they certainly don't have medieval settings. I took four copies of Daughter of Mystery (along with dozens of my promotional business cards) in the expectation that I could probably sell that many to people who know me and were susceptible to instant gratification. Well, I could have sold more (in fact, I did sell one more than I brought and will be shipping it off in the next couple of days), and I know of several definite on-line sales that came out of handing out the cards (including to a chance breakfast companion, picked up because the wait line for tables in the hotel restaurant was long enough that it seemed a kindness to combine small parties). I also did something very daring for me. Before the start of one of the sessions I found myself sitting right in front of a favorite medieval historical mystery author and after a bit of fan-girl squeeing at her and falling into a discussion of related topics, I asked if I could be so presumptuous as to give her a copy of DoM. Seeing the look of trapped horror on her face, I hurriedly reassured her that there were absolutely no strings attached and I considered her free to drop it in the trash or leave it on the chair or give it to a random stranger, but that in the interests of casting my bread on the waters, I thought it worth asking. So she agreed to accept it and (after further friendly conversation) I think there may be a 50-50 chance that she didn't drop it in the trash afterward. (I'm not mentioning the author's name because I consider that implicit in the "no strings, no pressure" deal.) I'm proud of this interaction not because I have any hopes of any publicity coming out of it, but because I have such a hard time getting up the nerve to promote my writing to Big Name People and I think I pulled it off with some grace.
On the looking-forward side, it was as if the Societas Magica paper sessions had been entirely designed as research for The Mystic Marriage. It would have been even better if this set of sessions had happened last year when I was searching all over for sources on alchemy and the magical properties of gemstones, but you get what you can. And I can always hope that this year's paper themes indicate that my book will be riding a minor wave of interest in the themes. The content of the papers was covered in my session blogs earlier. In large part, the research served to confirm certain directions and flavors in how I was handling the topics, rather than to drive major changes (which is a Good Thing since the story is already complete in draft). But I have decided to layer in the topic of the use of ciphers and codes in alchemical writings, since that was a major theme that I haven't already included.
The other forward-looking research tidbit I picked up was an inspiration for the occupation practiced by the sister of 15th c. philosopher/thaumaturgist Tanfrit of Rotenek (who will feature both as a historic figure in Book 3 and will get her own story as well). This connection also gave me some ideas for some economic history details (which a reader had asked about, making me realize that I don't know enough about either the 19th c. or earlier economy of Alpennia in adequate detail). So, all in all, quite a profitable Kalamazoo for Alpennia current and future!
But the other fun book-related activity was doing research for The Mystic Marriage and promoting Daughter of Mystery at the conference, which isn't exactly a no-brainer given that they certainly don't have medieval settings. I took four copies of Daughter of Mystery (along with dozens of my promotional business cards) in the expectation that I could probably sell that many to people who know me and were susceptible to instant gratification. Well, I could have sold more (in fact, I did sell one more than I brought and will be shipping it off in the next couple of days), and I know of several definite on-line sales that came out of handing out the cards (including to a chance breakfast companion, picked up because the wait line for tables in the hotel restaurant was long enough that it seemed a kindness to combine small parties). I also did something very daring for me. Before the start of one of the sessions I found myself sitting right in front of a favorite medieval historical mystery author and after a bit of fan-girl squeeing at her and falling into a discussion of related topics, I asked if I could be so presumptuous as to give her a copy of DoM. Seeing the look of trapped horror on her face, I hurriedly reassured her that there were absolutely no strings attached and I considered her free to drop it in the trash or leave it on the chair or give it to a random stranger, but that in the interests of casting my bread on the waters, I thought it worth asking. So she agreed to accept it and (after further friendly conversation) I think there may be a 50-50 chance that she didn't drop it in the trash afterward. (I'm not mentioning the author's name because I consider that implicit in the "no strings, no pressure" deal.) I'm proud of this interaction not because I have any hopes of any publicity coming out of it, but because I have such a hard time getting up the nerve to promote my writing to Big Name People and I think I pulled it off with some grace.
On the looking-forward side, it was as if the Societas Magica paper sessions had been entirely designed as research for The Mystic Marriage. It would have been even better if this set of sessions had happened last year when I was searching all over for sources on alchemy and the magical properties of gemstones, but you get what you can. And I can always hope that this year's paper themes indicate that my book will be riding a minor wave of interest in the themes. The content of the papers was covered in my session blogs earlier. In large part, the research served to confirm certain directions and flavors in how I was handling the topics, rather than to drive major changes (which is a Good Thing since the story is already complete in draft). But I have decided to layer in the topic of the use of ciphers and codes in alchemical writings, since that was a major theme that I haven't already included.
The other forward-looking research tidbit I picked up was an inspiration for the occupation practiced by the sister of 15th c. philosopher/thaumaturgist Tanfrit of Rotenek (who will feature both as a historic figure in Book 3 and will get her own story as well). This connection also gave me some ideas for some economic history details (which a reader had asked about, making me realize that I don't know enough about either the 19th c. or earlier economy of Alpennia in adequate detail). So, all in all, quite a profitable Kalamazoo for Alpennia current and future!
