Tonight I got an email from Jessica Cherry who is the editor of Wheels on Ice, the anthology that originally she and Frank Soos were working on together. Frank died in a bicycle accident in Maine as Cherry and Soos were working on this project.

Jessica has, in Frank’s absence, did an excellent job in getting the book to press. And now that it’s in print, she’s working on organizing readings and further promoting it. She’s orchestrated readings in Anchorage and Fairbanks. There will soon be a reading in Palmer.

Tonight she emailed me and said that a friend of hers read and enjoyed my essay and would like to read more of my work. Whaat?

I feel these days like a fraud and a hypocrite since I am not writing much. I did write a poem yesterday and keep banging out articles for the People’s Paper. I used to aspire for greater heights, but not now.

The book project is taking up the time that I’d normally spend writing. I rationalize this lack of productivity by telling myself that in time, others will take on more tasks, thus allowing me to have more time to write. Also, I am telling myself that I am doing as all writers should do, and promoting literacy in our community and as well, state-wide. In time, all of writers will have more readers.

I examine a lot of books on a given day, and I am amazed by the high quality of some, and the low quality of others.

Take pulp fiction. It’s literary fast food, leave out the word literary. It’s easy to read/swallow and has plenty of empty calories. Oddly enough, readers keep the good books and dump the pulp fiction on top of, and beside the bookcases. It’s like looking at fast food wrappers. Billions and billions sold.

I can’t denigrate the writers of these books because, by golly, they are writing and they are getting published. And me? I’m moving their books from place to place. For example, there is a downstairs library at the Palmer Senior Center. It was recently reduced in size from two rooms to one because the powers that be needed the other room for computer use. Go figure. The powers that be have since gotten grants and now have a very large computer space upstairs.

So, the volunteer librarian cleared off the shelves and sent a pallet of boxes to the recycling center. I went through these boxes and categorized them. I have since gotten them out on the shelves.

Now here’s the catch. There is a lot of room on the bookshelves. Additionally, the seniors don’t use this library. So I decided to use this to the BLBP advantage. I cleared off a bottom shelf and I put the Spanish books there. And I am going to continue to stock the shelves with other books that I think will be well received upstairs.

For instance, a woman asked me if I had any thrillers. I went downstairs, grabbed three off the shelf then went back upstairs and gave them to her. Made her day.

Sigh. All this thinking. No wonder I can’t get any writing done.

Next: 352. 12/23/22: How Reading Informs Thinking