A Missed Opportunity

For the past few years, we have had an interesting way of taking down the last of the winter decorations.  Instead of getting rid of the snowman and 'snow-covered' base all at once, we would allow the snow to 'melt' a little at a time.  We would remove some of the stuffing from the snowman every few days, until there was nothing left inside.  We would do something similar with the fluff inside the fence.  A few wads would be removed every other day or so.  We would start just after Valentine's Day and made sure we were finished in time for the first day of spring.  Some years, we would have to hurry the process along incase we had a major event in March or Easter was early.  Last year marked the first time we posted a picture of the end result online.  Soon after the process was going to start this year, the mudslide happened.  It disrupted our 'melt' schedule profoundly.  For a few days, we weren't able to do anything with the window.  Add into that a few days of opening late or just being closed, we weren't able to post a series of picture online of the process.  Only the people who were able to make it out to the store have been able to see it happen.  The process will new over soon, possibly the last time we will ever get to do it, and we didn't show the snowman melt online.  We might show the end result again, once we transition to spring, although we aren't sure how much we will do this year.  Anyway, see you in two weeks for our next installment.

Special Report: Caught Beneath the Mudslide

In case you have missed our social media posts, a mudslide fell onto part of the shopping center where Booknotes is located.  The major impact occurred sometime around 1:00 am Thursday, February 21.  It crashed into the back of the section where CosmoProf is located.  Mud seeped into and through the store, oozing out of their doors.  The impact knocked down part of the access way to the upstairs apartments, making access to them almost impossible.  The electricity was cut off to make sure there were now secondary problems.  The mud blocked the drainage ditch behind the center, forcing the need for pumps and hoses to be brought in to help drain the ditch.  Unfortunately, the C + R Office Supply storeroom was the best location for these hoses.  Their doors have had to be kept open as the hoses sucked the excess water from behind the center, splashing it into the parking lot.  The electricity was allowed to be turned back on around 1:30 pm that Thursday.  We are open, but with some distractions.  In case something else happens, we have rearranged some of our products to offer some protection.  Some of the books and furniture have also be moved to aid in this.  The parking lot is going to covered with muddy water from both CosmoProf and the storeroom for the time being as cleaning up continues.  There is still parking, but it will be tougher to get to it.  We also suggest you call first, as weather changes could force us to not be open.  We would like to thank all of our customers and friends for your support in this troubled time.  Thank you.

When Will It Come Out?

One of the services Booknotes offers is notifying customers on when new books by their favorite authors come out.  However, few take us up on it.  Part of the reason is that they might already know about them.  Another reason might be because the information can change at a moment's notice.  We get our information from many sources.  Primarily, we use the catalogs from our distributors.  These monthly catalogs have a very long lead time and don't always cover an exact four week span.    Some books might arrive a week or two late or early, based on the actual month of title.  The long lead also means that a book's on-sale date will have changed since the issue is made.  That's one reason why we also use the online version of one of the catalogs.  Not only does it cover almost all of the title that are arriving for a particular month, but the information is updated to reflect a new ship to date, even if the title remains locked into its catalog month.  Unfortunately, there are thousands of titles in each online catalog.  We usually only look at about forty categories per month.  This can range from only one or two books to a few hundred, and we still can't seem to catch everything.  The final source is an actual listing of street dates that is updated every week.  However, we usually only double check it every month or so, as not many titles change dramatically.  Also, each list covers about three months worth of titles.  Again, this is in the thousands. Pouring over such a list is time consuming.  The first pass can take an hour per month.  Even then, titles slip through.  We usually can go online and check directly is a particular author has anything in the pipeline, regardless of format.  While things can still change, such listing can go up to a year or more ahead.  Pretty good odds, until something changes.  See you in two weeks.

Details Do Matter

We make minor change to the website every few weeks, usually based on the season/holiday.  After Christmas, we took down all the pictures of reindeer and presents.  We also flipped the color scheme from bright red and green to the general range of blues that match our store.  The way that the website creator is set up, when the color scheme changes, everything based on that scheme changes too.  One would expect that would mean that every little detail would end up still being workable.  Not true.  It was only this week that it was noticed that some details had become unreadable.  Specifically, the viewer counter and business card features had become problematic.  The previous color scheme ended up being transposed into basically all black with the latest update.  Since those apps are at the bottom of the pages, they had escaped notice until now.  This features have been corrected; others are still being looked over.  In another week or so, the color scheme will change again, this time reflecting Valentine's Day.  So instead of blues, you will be seeing pinks.  Also, there will be heavy accents of red and white.  Hopefully, one of the presets schemes will have that exact combination.  Otherwise, who knows what this site will look like.  See you next time.

The Time of the Dragon

Many, many years ago, when we first started doing the special "Books of the Month" discount, a painting was brought in to showcase the January theme.  The theme that year, as it has been every January since, was "Fantasy, Science-Fiction, and Horror."  The painting, which should hopefully be reproduced somewhere on this page if the Blogger/WIx interactions are working, is of a knight looking over a dragon he presumably slayed.  However, menacing eyes are looking out from the cave behind him.  (Confession, I was the one who painted the picture.   It was an early attempt in a college painting class I took.  Not sure why I chose the subject.  The anatomy shows some promise, even if details are missing.  The knight is mostly a blob.  The trees aren't lifelike.  The cave could use some detailing.  The eyes are the best feature.  I got better as the class went along, although the subject matter remained mostly real-to-life.)  The painting was only supposed to stay that one month.  However, we have now made it an almost year-round feature.  It is place somewhat prominently over the main children's bookcase.  The only time we take it down is for the Christmas season.  Dragons and Santa don't really go that well together, especially dead dragons.  Disclaimer:  Booknotes is decidedly pro-dragon nowadays.  Any portrayal of dragons in anything less than a neutral or somewhat positive light is out of times.  This picture is included only as an historical artifact of previous times.  If the picture doesn't pop here, it will also be on the website's home page for the rest of the month.  See you back in two weeks.

The End of the Year and the Line

This is going to be another very personal post, so hang with me.  While Booknotes hasn't had the exactly best of years, it has come to the point where we cannot stay in business in its current form.  Therefore, sometime in 2019, Booknotes will change or possibly close for good.  Among the reasons for this is my desire to go back to school.  I have been taking some online graduate school classes, and I am hoping to transfer to a program with actual physical classes.  When this happens, I will be leaving the area, so I would do longer have a direct association with the store.  I am looking into various means of keeping the store open as long as possible, though.  One possibility is merging with another local business, or even outright selling it to someone else to keep it going.  There is the chance that the store will go online only, but that might not be a viable option without help.  Until then, Booknotes will try to continue as it has.  Weekly updates to the new releases will be posted, as will the blog on every other week.  New material will appear on our Facebook page.  (We are all but ending posting anything new on Google + as the platform will be ending soon itself.)  I, and Booknotes, would like to thank all of our friends and longtime customers for your help over the years, and we would like to continue this as long as possible.  Here's to a new year, and see you in two weeks.

The Most Confusing Time of the Year

In case you missed it, we had to change some of the upcoming book notices.  Apparently, a title got pushed back a few weeks, but we didn't know about it until after we published.  Part of the reason is that we don't update our own lists as frequently as we should.  The dates we used to create our own list was from early October.  We hadn't updated it since.  Therefore, we didn't know that the on sale date had changed until we had already put it up.  this sort of thing actually happens a lot, but we don't always realize it.  Unfortunately, we couldn't change anything any sooner.  You may also notice that we only put up one new book for the next week.  While there are dozens of new hardcovers coming out, this was the only one that we felt had any merit to post.  We might be wrong, but we usually are.  Things have been hectic this week.  We had to close early one day and open late on another due to deliveries and appointments.  One delivery was a special treat from Adrianna Trigianni for those who ordered her latest book from us.  Also, Monday, December 17 will  be the last day to place an order with us to guarantee delivery for Christmas.  We might be able to do something after that, but we can't be sure it will be available and/or be delivered on time.  So, place those orders now!  See you again in two weeks.