One Final Pearl
Posted on December 16, 2005
Blogging off on holiday until the New Year with one final pearl to fortify you for the last days of the stressful Xmas season:
There is no oil without squeezing the olives,
No wine without pressing the grapes,
No fragrance without crushing the flower
So when you are feeling pressed,
It is life bringing out the best in you.(Origin/author unknown)
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On Equanimity
Posted on December 13, 2005
Equanimity is the state we need to achieve. Coming up to Christmas tempers are running hot (I know mine is). Added to the seasonal disorder is the underlying anxiety our whole city is suffering that race riots and violence will become part of all our lives. Today there was a punch-up in the street right outside the café in quiet little Avalon where we were having lunch. It set people mumbling about not wanting ‘these people’ (without having any idea who ‘they’ were) in our village – that’s how it starts as far as I can see.
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Fruit & Veg
Posted on December 11, 2005
Busy ol’ day! First thing we were flat out on three computers staking out the Ticketek site for U2 tickets and YES! We found what we were looking for - 9.02am it was all over bar the dancing! This will be our kids’ first rock concert experience and hopefully a great one.
My book signing at the fruit/veg has resulted in 20 books being sold and I spent a couple of hours this afternoon wrapping up books in cellophane and ribbon with bottle of ‘Nolan Road’ organic olive oil - known as bundling. Maggie, who runs the store, said a customer came in, saw the book on the shelf and said: ‘Oh my God! I’ve been looking for that book everywhere – gimme four!’ It’s great when you’re not competing with other books – just fruit.
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Out on the Street
Posted on December 9, 2005
Out the front of the fruit shop was an interesting place to watch the passing parade of humanity but I felt quite exposed sitting there with a pile of books and a pen. When I was putting up my promotional banner, the stand bit a hunk out of my finger, so I had blood oozing down my hand which I was mopping up with paper napkins – being terribly brave. So, I started to feel it was all something of a mistake when a man and his wife came along and the man looked at the offending banner and said ‘I’ve read that book – it was lovely!’ So then he came over and told me how much he enjoyed it and bought one for his sister - so it suddenly all seemed better. Sold ten books in a couple of hours, met some interesting people and have agreed with the store owner to package up some book/olive oil gift packs for Xmas. Went home totally exhausted!
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Danger Zone
Posted on December 8, 2005
Lucky for me sales are still rolling along well because I’m in the danger period now when bookshops start to cull the weak performers and return them to the publishers where they are apparently mostly pulped because of the admin involved in sorting and reselling. In a recent article in the Australian Society of Authors’ magazine a bookseller was quoted as saying that he sees 20 sales reps a month offering around 2000 titles and ,of the ones he ends up stocking, only a handful will survive six months – now if that’s not motivating, I don’t know what is!
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