Community

I’ve been coming to Book Passage for many years. Often I came for the author events; sometimes the author was my brother Dave Barry, which meant Event Director Karen West would ask my late wife Kathi Kamen Goldmark and me to do the introduction. We, in turn, felt compelled to come up with ever-more absurd things to say (or sing) about Dave as the years went by, until finally we reached the point where even he felt it was time to get serious (not really).

I’ve played in bands at Book Passage; I’ve participated in terrific writer’s classes and conferences; I’ve enjoyed lunch, coffee, and wine with friends in the café; I’ve been the author presenting a book; and (oh yeah) I’ve browsed the shelves, looking for a good read. The staff is terrific. They are knowledgeable and friendly; I guarantee you’ll find the book(s) for you.

Now I am Book Passage’s marketing director, which means I just called myself terrific in the last paragraph. (That’s marketing.) It also means I am here a lot, which is apparently what people expect of you when you have a job, and I am struck by what a remarkable place this really is. I know, I know—you’re thinking “He’s the marketing director—they pay him to be enthusiastic.” That’s true. But it’s also true that Book Passage is an oasis of culture and kindness in a world that is in dire need of those qualities.

My office is near the young adult and children’s book section of the store. (Do you think the owners, Elaine and Bill Petrocelli, and General Manager Calvin Crosby are trying to tell me something?) Every day I hear parents reading to children and children reading to parents from books selected by our renowned children’s book buyer Susan Kunhardt; I hear teens talking about what they’re reading. I hear animated discussions in language and art classes. This place is alive. It is civilized. It is a community center for readers, writers, artists, artisans, for families, for people young and old. It is a place that cultivates and celebrates the best in human nature.

If you haven’t been here lately, come on by. If you’re a parent, bring your kids to Story Time with Christopher Smith. There’s no charge for most author events, but maybe you’ll decide to buy a book. Maybe you’re an aspiring writer who needs to get in the mix or some constructive feedback. Maybe you'd like to join one of the many book clubs. Maybe you’ll start your own. Our Signed First Editions Book Club has a record of picking future award-winners: one was Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and another was Paul Taylor's Tinkers, each of which were awarded the Pulitzer Prize.  Members of the Signed First Editions Club are reading tomorrow's classics today and filling their bookshelves with potential collector's items.

Whatever your reason for coming to Book Passage, you will probably discover something unexpected. That’s the joy of this place. And while you’re here, say hello. Tell me what you’re reading, or writing. See you soon.

Sam Barry

Write It Well, Write It Now!

By Barbara Quick

Why is it that almost everyone longs, in the depths of their soul, to be a writer?

Writing is about the worst-paid, loneliest and most uncertain profession that anyone can choose. And yet there seems to be a nascent author, just waiting to unfurl, inside nearly every human being on this earth.

I can’t tell you how many strangers have come up to me at signings or parties and said with heart-breaking sincerity, “You should write my story!”

Of all the animals, we are the only ones capable of telling our stories. Each of us has our own treasure-chest full of memories and impressions, gleanings of wisdom, maps of roads we never took and unhealed wounds that together comprise the ingredients of literature.

I think I know why so many people dream of becoming a writer, despite the poor odds and rotten pay. It’s because launching those stories into the world, giving them shape and form—giving them meaning—eases our anguish about the idea of just passing through, leaving nothing behind that can really explain the essence of who we are.

To those people who say to me, “You should write my story,” I say, Unless I could put a spigot on you and turn it, like someone tapping a maple tree, I can’t. Writing your story is up to you.

Don’t know how to start? Here’s the secret: Buy a notebook, grab a pen. Get quiet. Imagine that you’re telling your story—the unique story that only you can tell—to someone you really love who doesn’t know a thing about you.

That person lives in a dark room with no frame of reference at all about what the world looks like, smells like, sounds like, feels like. You are bringing the whole world—your world—to that person sitting alone in the dark.

It’s a sacred trust. You have to find the words and images that will allow that person sitting alone in the dark to see what you see and feel what you feel.

Approaching your story in this way—and dedicating a certain amount of your time and energy to telling it—is good medicine, no matter what the outcome. You may not end up with a published book. Or you might end up with a book you publish yourself (it’s easy, these days!).

But, without doubt—no matter what happens to the words you write—you’ll have given yourself a gift. You will have honored who you are and what you’ve learned so far in this lifetime. You’ll tell your story as no one else could possibly tell it.

***

Barbara Quick will be teaching a class on "Writing Historical Fiction" at Book Passage in Corte Madera on April 30, 10:00-4:00 pm. For more information, or to sign up, please click this link.

Visit Barbara on the Web:
http://www.BarbaraQuick.com
http://www.harpercollins.com/author/microsite/?authorid=7931
http://www.agoldenweb.com
http://www.askthewriter.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/bqwriter