Brave
New World:
Fellow
indie authors’ advocate, The Southern Pen Bookshop,
reaches towards the future
YOU’VE GOT A BRAIN. That’s the foregone, natural assumption at
work each time I sit down in preparation of composing one of these blog
posts. In reality, you could possibly be
just a web robot, trolling countless such posts and web pages in an endless phishing
expedition for phone numbers or other personal data left blowing loosely
through our world’s digital weather system.
And if you were, the thing is you’d probably never know it. You will have just perused your own life
story with nary a spark of awareness or recognition. So if you do recognize this is not you,
chances are you are one of our readers of the sentient and intelligent variety;
ergo my intro: you have a brain. And
inside there, you’ve got things happening: Thoughts, feelings; reactions to The
News; responses to imagined questions; deceased conversations still zombying
along, slowly winning validation for the never spoken point of view. This is all and any of us, at some point; and
the reason we were always advised growing up, over and over, to use our
words. Words, language: The
interstate connectors between the inner-cities of our souls and the suburbs of
our social lives. It’s the life blood of
our goals and intentions; no one is an island, after all.
For some of us, however, this
takes on a dramatic gravity, an urge, a compulsion, a need. For a writer, a world waits in the wings,
biding its term of carriage. Its labor
is concentration, focus and the risk of ridicule. Its delivery is realization and with that,
the infinite vulnerability and exposure of sharing. Inspiration approaches in so many variegated
forms, the words we have read, the words we hear, the things we see.
A hunger exists to allow the creative muses
within us to chop, shave, slice these things; to mix them, blend them; fry
them, broil them, toss them in a pot and boil them ruthlessly, until the
alchemy of creation changes them into a new thing, aromatic, flavorful,
satisfying. But at every step, every
single one, we face the question of greatest importance: Will anyone even partake? Is there an audience? Will anyone even care at all? Creation only ever happens because at some
point in the process, probably even at every point, the creator
remembers the feeling of something of which they had partaken: read, seen,
listened to and says, “I did. I cared;
it meant something to me.” And then, “If
this was in my hands, I’d read it; I’d listen; I’d watch.” And step by step, the process happens: heart,
soul, focus, concentration, the fear of ridicule and the vulnerability of
sharing. That’s life as a writer, or the
first half of life, anyway. The second
act brings the struggle to get heard, to be seen, to hitchhike that interstate
from the churning inner-city of creation to the readers out there in the wide
world.
In today’s world, if ever, it’s
not an easy task to be that seen, heard and read artist. Every little bit of help is important. If you’ve visited us here before, you know
that is the mission of the Georgia Nutts is to become better writers and open a
pathway to the world for writers and artists with their thumbs out along the
side of the highway. That being the
case, it is always a pleasure to meet friends out here with the same drive and
purpose. Individuals and business owners
in love with, or in awe of, the creative, like we are, and with the desire to
push these expressed forms out into the view of the world.
It was under a fading evening
sun that I left home Thursday, December 12, on my one hour-plus drive to
Monroe, Georgia to visit the Southern Pen Bookshop. This was, in fact, my second attempt at a
visit. The first had been a fail, due
mostly to the fact that I had no idea the bookshop is located inside the
Monroe Mercantile Co.
Armed with this
new insight, I was ready to make good on this second promise to appear in
person; my reputation was on the line, for goodness’ sake. My drive ended up being more like two hours,
thanks to the onset of non-stop rain and some good ol’ country road, rainy day
traffic. At one point, I sat in a row of
cars almost forty minutes behind an accident.
At this point, I was now missing the book signing event for Georgia
author Christy Breedlove’s When Bees Buzz, A Dixie Days Cozy Mystery,
I
knew. The silver of my reputation was
again gaining some tarnish. As it turned
out, I made it there almost too late to see anyone. Wipers still shedding the misty rain from my
wind shield, I parked in a place I probably shouldn’t have, but risked it
anyway and got to the shop just as proprietor Vickie Bley and author Christy Breedlove
were packing up to leave. Breedlove’snovel, When Bees Buzz, is part of her Dixie Days Cozy Mystery series, a
direction in storytelling she decided to explore in the quest for tales aimed
at young adult readers but without the needless forays into make-out sessions,
raging hormones and diatribes filled with edgy language. Her characters solve mysteries in
coming-of-age stories set in small-town Georgia locations, discovering clues
and friendships along the way.
Vickie Bley herself, founder
and owner of the Southern Pen Bookshop, offered me her hand warmly. Not unlike an unopened bottle of club soda,
she seemed bubbly, yet contained; an eager energy fizzing just beneath the
surface. In a brief oral history of the
bookshop, she revealed how, inspired by an acquaintance from Florida, she
started Southern Pen with a single bookshelf tucked into the back corner of the
Monroe Mercantile Co.
She now occupies
the entire rear quadrant of the emporium, alongside business ally Cheely’s
Deli. Vickie’s mission for the Southern
Pen is simple: provide a retail space exclusively for Indie authors to make
their books available to the reading public, as well as attract readers through
publicity generated in live events and through the shop’s online presence.
The Southern Pen is designed not only to be a
retail space, but also a resource and advocate for the independent author. For a fee, authors can shelve their books in
the shop. Along with this, the books
will be marketed on the Southern Pen Bookshop website, where book sales turn
over 80% earnings for the authors. If
you’ve ever tried setting up sales opportunities at other book stores as an
independent author, you know this rate of return is basically unprecedented. It is an extremely high-value deal for the
author.
The Southern Pen conducts an
outreach program to engage the community and attract writers and readers
alike. On March 21, 2020, the SecondAnnual Writer’s Conference will be held with discussion panels, guest speakers
and other relevant offerings focusing on the craft, as well as the business
side, of writing. There will even be a
mini photo shoot op for author rear-cover/leaf photos. This past May, they presented the GeorgiaIndependent Author of the Year Award. Applications for the award for 2020 are now being accepted.
If I haven’t stressed it enough
already in this post, let me just reiterate that independent authorship and
publication can be a hard grind. The
world feels increasingly filled with lights, noises and animated GIF’s and
decreasingly populated by people who want to spend time reading. Competition for attention can become a
piranha pool or, by contrast, a lonely desert rolling endlessly with empty
dunes. As Georgia Nutts, we are doing
our best to be part of the small crowd helping to bridge that divide between
the artist and the patron. It is
reaffirming and encouraging to meet allies and friends in the Mission, like
Vickie. So by all means, keep reading
these blogs; tell your friends. And
visit the Southern Pen Bookshop and pick up something to read. You know, do something good for that brain of
yours.
***************
About al-Falaq (a.k.a. Phil Bates):
al-Falaq is a writer and illustrator living in Atlanta,
Georgia. He loves cats and shares his home with an ornery fur ball with nine
tales, at least! His collection of
poetry and short stories, Threadbare is available on Amazon. al-Falaq is also
our resident blogger for our RGN on Location Blog.
