I worked as a bookseller in my twenties and thirties, and I was good at it. If someone came into the store looking for one book, I could usually get them to leave — quite happily — with two or three.
Booksellers, of course, aren’t paid on commission.
Author: Jinx
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Daily writing promptWhat is the most important thing to carry with you all the time?
I can remember years ago learning not to leave home without them. That was me crossing the bridge between middle and old age.
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Daily writing promptWhat change, big or small, would you like your blog to make in the world?
It’s not intended to change the world. I would love more people to read it of course. Does that count?
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- The sound of my husband snoring in bed beside me at night.
- Sipping good coffee while I look out my window in the morning,
- My cat hopping into my lap.
- Gulf coast thunderstorms
- Wine tastings at William Cross
- Listening to my youngest brothers’ stories
- Listening to my sister rant about politics.
- Listening to my other brother talk about his beloved dog.
- Rereading old, favorite books and finding new things to enjoy about them,
- Opening a new tarot deck.
- The sound of water trickling.
- Finishing a chapter in my novel
- The taste of my apple custard pie
- Caramel in any form.
- A game of Mexican train dominos
- Walking down Hyde in San Francisco
- Walking down Magnolia in North Hollywood
- My mother’s artwork
- Any recording of my father’s voice,
- Discovering old, forgotten snapshots.
- Petting a dog,
- Eating good sushi.
- Dinner at Amarena
- A new neighborhood to explore while travelng.
- Cluttered tschotske or book shops
- Someone liking my writing
- Marching for a cause
- Understanding spoken French.
- Gumbo
- A good ghost story.
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…of coffee in the morning.
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On top are etched
Old thoughts,
Emphasized through paper.
Over years and decades
Many hands
Pressed their point a bit too hard
And marked the wood.
Now a mist
Of unreadable cursive
Rises through brown pine.
I can hear the deep,
Burbling echoes
Of serious people in suits
Writing what they never said,
Or said later and more calmly
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…beautiful, big, rather expensive umbrella. Sturdy, excellent at keeping the rain off. The first night I used it, I was running through downtown late at night in a downpour. Rounded a corner, saw a homeless woman huddled up against a wall, weeping, holding her hands over her head. Without a word I handed her the umbrella and ran the rest of the way home.
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…opinionated woman.
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I’m the first in my line to forego it.