If we were asked what our biggest surprise has been in the used book business, it would have to be the number of published local writers there are. Poetry, prose, fiction, non-fiction. The arrival of self-publishing has made much possible.
The great short-story writer, Mavis Gallant, said, "I still do not know what impels anyone sound of mind to leave dry land and spend a lifetime describing people who do not exist. If it is child's play, an extension of make believe -- something one is frequently assured by people who write about writing -- how to account for the overriding wish to do that, just that, only that, and consider it as rational an occupation as riding a bicycle over the Alps?"*
Gallant was once asked, "Yes, but what do you really do?" ~ A question which she concludes expresses an adult opinion. She then surmises, "Perhaps a writer is, in fact, a child in disguise, with a child's lucid view of grown-ups, accurate as to atmosphere, improvising when it tries to make sense of adult behavior."
Whatever the aspiration to be an author, we encourage and love our local writers.
*Mavis Gallant, Preface, Selected Stories, McClelland & Stewart, 1996
The great short-story writer, Mavis Gallant, said, "I still do not know what impels anyone sound of mind to leave dry land and spend a lifetime describing people who do not exist. If it is child's play, an extension of make believe -- something one is frequently assured by people who write about writing -- how to account for the overriding wish to do that, just that, only that, and consider it as rational an occupation as riding a bicycle over the Alps?"*
Gallant was once asked, "Yes, but what do you really do?" ~ A question which she concludes expresses an adult opinion. She then surmises, "Perhaps a writer is, in fact, a child in disguise, with a child's lucid view of grown-ups, accurate as to atmosphere, improvising when it tries to make sense of adult behavior."
Whatever the aspiration to be an author, we encourage and love our local writers.
*Mavis Gallant, Preface, Selected Stories, McClelland & Stewart, 1996
Photos: by Lorna
