Conversation Parte the First

Ah, a blog. I suppose all of you knew that it would happen one day. Working in a bookstore, it seemed like I finally had such rich material that a blog would be fun to do. Not to mention that our store, Bookworm Central* (the names have been changed to protect the innocent, but really if you live anywhere in Bermyville, you can find us easily enough), is staffed with folks who really should be characters in books themselves. Hence, on here they shall be known by their alter egos, much like superhero identities, except that we don't have any special powers (but we're secretly funding scientific research so that one day we might acquire some).

Our cast includes:

FearlessLeader, owner of the store, and Lady of the Thousand Hair Colors (and a wardrobe to match any book she might be reading, including many marvelous hats).

Steffie, married to FearlessLeader, a computery scotsman, and fixer of broken things, who could be, like this whole crew, described in much greater detail.

Overlord, supreme commander of the webcam, who often calls and makes requests, much as other people might TiVo their favorite shows. It's good to be lord of all you survey.

Batboy, the Tallest (in homage to Invader Zim which we watch too much of, and also because he really is, in fact, the tallest person in the store, in addition to being eternally youthful and the only one willing to come in at 8:00 a.m. to open the store)

Retroguy, who comes in after school to assist, and continues to believe that Greenday is a new fangled band.

StitcherAngel, day to day store sargent-at-arms, doer of things that baffle the rest of us, lover of cats and cross stitch, and of course, reader of books.

Stands for Something (SfS) Husband of StitcherAngel, often roped into Bookworm Central schenanigans, lover of books, jokes, and Indian food among other things, and best left to be further described later.

And, me, of course; I have several nicknames, but the most pervasive is the Bookstore Fairy, whom Batboy has dubbed, "Whoozie" or SPF, the Sugar Plum Fairy, spreader of sweetness and light, because of my general personality, which emmanates from the consumption of too much sugar. (And here I truly hope that the vision tends more to Glinda rather than Munchkinland, but you decide).


There are of course, many more, but they will appear at will throughout the blog. Among these will be customers, and friends, and those folks involved in life outside the bookstore. There will be overlapping, and as you probably may have guessed already, bad grammar, spelling, and inappropriate uses of comas. If you're afraid, get out now before it's too late. Unlike StitcherAngel, I am not blessed with an inner grammatical radar that enables me to spot glaring mistakes in Advance Reader Copies. I am, however, blessed with a great sense of humor about the English language, and so confidently use words in ways they were never meant to be used, or so I'm told.

So, perhaps you're wondering what the point of this blog could be. Well, aside from a forum for the discussing of wonderful books, of which there are too many to list (there's a start of a list going on the main page, just for kicks), or a newsy chat about life in a bookstore, and general musings on the big questions (the meaning of life, why chocolate rocks, how CAN you find the perfect pair of jeans...) this is first and foremost a writing forum. I am, at the heart of it, a writer, and this, fair readers, is practice for putting into words all the stories that are currently inhabiting my skull. So maybe you'll find a few of them here, popping out for a spin. And of course, there'll also be the real story too, the one that I, Whoozie, bookstore fairy extrordinaire, am inhabiting myself. So, stay tuned...