Updates and Good News

 I had planned to post yesterday, but got a last minute email from my friend Mary Lynn telling me she had a chance to come to Medina for a day and was wondering if we could get together. Of course I said YES – it’s been so long since I’ve seen her I can’t even remember when I last did, but I’m guessing it was last summer. We ended up having a nice long lunch followed by both Christmas AND birthday celebrations. Then Eric came back from Maryland where he’s been for the entire last week, so I ended up hanging out with him for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

I worked really hard Saturday though and listed 35 books. I didn’t mention this in my last post, but I had my inventory offline all week because I finally realized that the reason I have had so much pain is because I cracked a rib from all those weeks of nonstop coughing through the ORDEAL. Carrying books around is not prescribed treatment for a cracked rib, so I promised Eric I would have a bookless week. I DID --  but then again I didn’t. The books weren’t online, but I sold two early in the week to phone customers and  listed 35 on Saturday, took photos of them on Sunday, and restored myself in cyberspace on Sunday night. Monday ABE rewarded me with four orders, but the rest of my sites apparently didn’t even notice I was gone, much less had come back.

Anyway, I’m functioning again, but what’s  a cracked rib when you’re jazzed with good news, right? Remember when I mentioned that my friend Dandi Mackall was nominated for an EDGAR for her YA novel The Silence of Murder? She was not supposed to win because the word on the street is you never win on your first nomination. But here ‘s the thing -- she DID. Dandi won the Edgar Thursday night in New York.  I still can’t get over it. Wow.

The second bit of good news turned up this morning. Remember when we went out in the countryside to buy books from the woman who lived in  the cute 1820’s farmhouse who then sent us to a friend of hers who was also selling books? We bought some from him, but what we really wanted was the dazzling array of Ohioana in the home office in the basement. That’s been at least a couple months ago and we never heard another word about it, so I was astounded when Eric called to say that the guy was ready to sell them. Family members had come over to have a look and chose “a few”, but the rest remain up for grabs. I know,  “a few” is like “a lot” – very relative. But still, I badly want those books and can’t wait until Monday to see if we can get them.

But before Monday – like tomorrow, actually – we have to go back and get the rest of the books from the lawyer who finally sold that collection to us three years after the initial contact. This time we have no help though, so it’s going to be an arduous undertaking. I’m not looking forward to it one iota and neither is my cracked rib. The really bad part is we can’t even start until 4:30 in the afternoon.

But I’m playing Scarlett O’Hara on that topic and thinking about it tomorrow.Right now I just want to get back to work. Socializing was fun, but  it’s time for me to hit the books again.