Local Authors
Staring at this list of half written stories and trying to decide which one to dive into and ultimately finish is my problem today. I have the worst attention span and I am working on it…just not today.
Instead, I wanted to write about Local Authors and also why reading novels (or whatever you chose to read) is a really cool thing to do. It is popular to “shop small business” and most of us can get behind that pretty easily. The idea of buying something from a local artisan who hand crafted some practical item we use on a regular basis or put in our home and when we look at it we love makes sense. Buying produce from your local farmer is also a win and bonus win if that you get to live close enough to have a local farmer, yay!
But buying books from local authors was kind of off my radar. Until I met this lovely woman at a local book store one Saturday. Oregon books in Grants Pass hosts local authors on the weekends. I spoke with her a bit as she told me about her series, Saddle Tramps. It was about horses, Southern Oregon with mystery thrown in and lots of friendship. At least that’s my opinion. So I bought it and she offered to sign it. More than likely this is a “duh” moment for most people but I am truly a dork and asked “what do you mean?”
Then a few seconds later, she probably was completely confused…who wouldn’t be…when I realized…oh yeah people do that, I just never had. So she signed my book and I went home with my first signed by the author book. I ended up reading it and then sharing it with my mom and buying the two other books in the series.
The next time we visited the book store, they had two authors. One wrote a book of poems and the other a series of short stories. I enjoyed both! I’ll have to check if they signed them. (I think I didn’t ask and they didn’t offer.) 🤔
I posted something on Instagram and mentioned how I liked the book. I tagged one of the authors and he responded, which was cool. He said it was unexpected to see his name and book mentioned like that but it was a welcome surprise. It made me think, I should do this more often!
My third experience was with someone that lives on a route that I deliver mail too…lots of part time jobs here. We speak once in awhile and she is a super nice lady. Anyway, we were talking about Shutterfly and I told her I wrote a book for one of my grandchildren and made it on their site. It was just a goofy little book that I enjoyed writing and even drew the pictures for but that sparked a conversation about her books. She wrote three in a series and then another novel based on her experiences working in Search and Rescue with her beloved Golden. I really enjoyed them. She writes really well and it was so fun to read about her ficticious adventures when I actually knew the roads she described and stores she visited. She decribed driving down the highway to Medford and Grants Pass which I drive all the time. It was pleasure sharing with her how much I loved the books.
So, if you can read books from a local author, I would highly recommend it. It is fun to see the places they talk about and it’s something special when you enjoy the book and can share that with them with some feedback.
Thank you for reading my thoughts today! I really appreciate it and hope that whatever you read next is fun or joyful or informational or whatever you want it to be.
These are the lovely books I read:
Saddle Tramps (Carole Beers)
The Wilber Stories and more (Barry Vitcov)
Where the Road Forks, Saving Sierra, Breaking Sam and Casey’s Choice (Denise Sager)
The poetry book was great too but I left it behind while we are on the road and can’t remember the exact name so I’ll have to add that one later.
