Sunday, January 12, 2020

RGN visits the Southern Pen Book Shop at Monroe Mercantile Co.




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.

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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.

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