Prose

I came of age in the Eisenhower/Kennedy era, when the future, even threatened by a nuclear shadow, was also bright with possibility and, with Kennedy's promise to take us to the Moon, alive with adventure.

Into the 60's and 70's, I remained convinced better days were ahead. Star Trek promised us a future without racism, a future that fused science and nature in harmonic symbiosis, a future in which not only different peoples of the earth but also aliens worked together for the good of all. Read more about The Danger of Dystopia

Fremont - self-styled Center of the Universe - somehow lost this gem:

Fremont Place Book Co. Read more about A Hole in the Center of the Universe

The Couth Buzzard

The Couth Buzzard seems to have come up with a device that ensures its survival - combine with a very cool coffee shop and bring in live music once in a while. My friend Jim Page is a strong supporter. Read more about The Couth Buzzard

Boardwalk Empire, Hell on Wheels, and Copper are three great excursions into times we never knew and sometimes think we might prefer. I watch them all. But for the real thing, I read old National Geographics. These writers weren't looking for period authenticity. They lived them. Read more about Finding the Rainbow

I was afraid this would happen. Today's bookstore is less of a field guide and more of a history.

Confounded Books

Inventory: Alternative and small press comics, self-published comics, books on the bizarre & novelties

Read more about Confound It!

An unprepossessing name for a prepossessing bookstore:

B. Brown & Associates
3534 Stone Way N.
Seattle, WA 98103

Inventory: Fine used and rare books, science fiction, horror, mystery

B. Brown and Associates sits in the middle of a shady row of three great bookstores on the south end of Stone Way, between SeaOcean Book Berth and The Seattle Book Center. Read more about B. Brown

As far as I can determine, Ballard Books is still where I said it was more than 10 years ago. This is how it looked to me then.

Ballard Books
2221 N.W. 56th
Seattle, WA 98107
206-782-0820
Inventory: Used and rare books
Hours: Mon-Sat: 10-8
Sun: 12-6 Read more about Ballard Books

A few years ago, when was only five chapters long and sitting in an old dusty file somewhere in the house, I was thinking about other, quicker ways to somehow get off the ground writing.

There's no link to A Field Guide to Bookstores. I didn't finish it. Life reared its ugly head once again. But before it did so, I had managed to visit at least three quarters of the bookstores that were in Seattle in the late '90's. I even wrote an introduction:

Introduction

I subscribe to three magazines: Parabola, Opera News, and The National Geographic Magazine. That's what it was called in 1911. I'm currently up to October of that year, scanning a piece on Brazilian coffee farms. Oh, I've got the latest issue on deck too - September 2012. But a few years ago, I saw an ad for the complete National Geographic. From 1888 to the present. Read more about The National Geographic Magazine

Ever since I self-published my first novel (click on book cover links to the right for further instructions), I have been encouraged by well-meaning writerly friends of mine to both write and read a writer blog.

Connect up with other writers, they said. Join the community. Get with the program.

So I did that, and here's what I found: writers write about themselves and, mostly, about their books. Writers want you to read their books. Here's a sample of the content on one other writer's site:

• Where to read about the book
• Where to buy the paperback