Why We Should Support Our Independents

In Whatever form they take?

But Especially our Independent Bookstores.

Such as Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia.   They do shipping too!   Like they ship Art doodled, Signed Maggie Stiefvater Books!   Like Maggie’s new book in the Raven Boys series coming out Soon!!!

Just saying - the Maggie doodled, signed books are Pretty Nifty looking!!

In the current issue of Shelf Awareness, a great interview with Cynthia Voigt about writing this book.

Mister Max: The Book of Lost Things

by Cynthia Voigt , illust. by Iacopo Bruno

Which the Interview has some great insight -

Max's knowledge of theater overall and of Shakespeare in particular often leads to the solutions he seeks for the dilemmas he's hired to fix. As Max says, "You can't know a lot of plays well, some of them written by William Shakespeare, without getting a good understanding of how and why people do what they do." 

Sounds like a great book.

But also she has some Great information on how she wrote it, in which she has some great interesting tips on things that might help all writers with their writing.

Such as this:

The "Lost Things" apply to things large and small--Max's parents being the large thing--to something as small as the Baroness's spoon, and yet the spoon's significance is large. Did you have fun coming up with what would be lost and how Max would "find" it?

I went about it not directly, because, as I say, I'm not a good plotter. Originally, the first paragraph of the first chapter read, "When Max was 12, he lost his parents." Then I thought about, "What does it mean to be lost?" You lose your mind, you lose your way, your sense of direction, your watch; you lose track, you lose an idea. I thought about the kinds of things you can lose and the variety of ways in which you lose them. Things like the dog that wasn't lost but ran away.

Check out the great full interview here:

Sometimes you think you have the answers, but the answers change as you change.

You need to accept that, too, that the answers change as we go through life. There are so many things that any sentient adult wants to plant with kids, there's no room for them to think for themselves.

We also learn things about pirates.  Or being a pirate.   Or pirating… or, …..okay, your choice in how you write.  *Grin*

Thanks, Kelly, Fountain Bookstore!       @FountainBkstore     

Arghhhh!!!!