Library books... help, thanks, wow
Last summer there was a giant book sale at my local library. I went thrice. Each time, I was given a sturdy file box with a lid and instructed to fill it as much or as little as I wanted. Same price for every box.This is one of those funny side effects of a pandemic. I'm sure the library volunteers noticed the lack of foot traffic. Usually, this sale is held at the big festivals and the boxes of books travel from festival to festival. They are sold off, the donations are put toward the library, room is made on the shelves for the new titles to come, and everyone is happy. However, since there were no big festivals, the books weren't exactly flying off the tables. And near the end the volunteers were fretting over having so many books left to pack away and put... somewhere.Fear not, help has arrived. Every person who showed up at my door last summer was escorted to the book sale around the corner. We were in between lockdowns at the time. When my guests discovered the fill-up-the-box system, they participated in earnest. And the boxes came with lids, so no one was going to see just how many or what titles we had chosen.It was glorious. Months later, in a fresh lockdown, I have this STASH of BOOKS to read on my shelf. What a treasure trove! Some were rescues... hardcover copies of some of my favourite books, some were intriguing, some of them were duds, but that's okay. It was all for a good cause... she says with shifty eyes. Right now I'm reading Help, Thanks, Wow by Anne Lamott and to her I want to say "It helped. Thanks! Wow." A mere hundred pages, which suits this short attention span just fine.Speaking of short attention spans, my new book Dear Paris has 1 and 2 page chapters. That's it. A whole load of short attention span theatre. They say to be the change you want to see in the world. What I wanted was books with short chapters so I wrote one. Order it if you please. Forbes said nice things about it:
Hey Forbes, "Thanks. Wow!" I realize Forbes is a big deal. But to me, just as big a deal is being featured on Instagram in this cute way:
Paris Matchbox is an Instagram artist who started making matchbox Christmas ornaments and just kept going and going. I've been following her as a fan so I was surprised when a wee Paris Letters book showed up in her latest art. To her, another "Thanks. Wow!" I do so love when people take on an art project.My art project for this year is my year long writing course. Each week I write up something poetic for the lessons and it is keeping my writing skills sharp. Join when you would like. I would like you to join now. 
Writing. You know how it goes.At first you start writing in a journal and it's all just CRAP and TIRESOME and BORING and DUMB and AWFUL. Then you kind of get in the hang of it and it isn't so bad. You even start to miss it if you take a few days off. Later you run the risk of only having journals filled with "Gosh I'd like to write something great one day" instead of writing the great things.A WRITING YEAR online course is a delightful way to edit our runaway journal thoughts into something nicely edited and lovely to read. To the journal, I wanted to say, "Help. Thanks. Wow!" (I did a video on the writing course page... despite many versions, I still look thirsty, but it's going to have to be good enough.) Technology during the pandemic. "Help. Thanks. Wow!"Speaking of, I'm off to do some YouTube yoga. Technology again... "Help. Thanks. Wow!"PS ... links to the latest...BOOKS
- Dear Paris: Forbes named it one of the Top 10 Valentine's Books.
- A Paris Year: USA Today named it one of the Top 10 Most Beautiful Books.
- Paris Letters: New York Times named it a best seller. High five!
COURSES
- A Writing Year: An inspiring writing lesson each week for a year.
- Book Writing: Learn how to write that book that is burning in your soul.
- Organizing Content: Learn how to organize your journal entries and create a finished product.
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