Chapter 71.45: BookCrossing

More than twenty years ago, Sting sang "Free, free, set them free. ... If you love somebody, if you love someone, set them free."

His grammatical error aside (someone ... them), the former teacher offered good advice for lovers everywhere. Now book lovers can follow his advice. Just before Christmas, the New York Times ran a pleasant little article about BookCrossing, which helps people adopt stray books. Perhaps that's overstating things a bit; it seems from the article that these books are neither neglected nor truly abandoned. Indeed, it is as Sting sang: if you love them, set them free.

I've not yet signed up, though it's possible I will. I find myself adopting books often, though I've not left any published works on their own. It goes against my grain to leave a book, but perhaps this site will help me send books that I won't read again to someone who will enjoy them.

Indeed, their hope is to turn the whole world into a library. I likethat. To me, the world is a story factory, but that doesn't preclude it from being a library too. I've had several inspirational moments smack me in the head at libraries (a few pretty girls too, but that's a different story).

But it also appears to be a wonderful, inexpensive way for new authors to share their books and perhaps create an audience. I don't know if that has worked yet, but it is something I'd be willing to try once I've gotten my novel (and its successors) published.

So I encourage you to check out BookCrossing.com No library card required.

Chapter 64.2: I'll Show You Mine...

Tonight a friend and I went to a coffee house and shared our novels in progress. This is the first time I've shared my book with anyone outside my immediate family, and it helped reaffirm that my greatly revised beginning is far better than how my novel had originally begun. In fact, in discussing our books further after we shared about 15 pages, I decided to expose my original opening, which I had on my computer. He plodded through the breakfast scene -- understanding a couple references that are otherwise simply images in what I have now (though images with a purpose, of course) -- and soon discovered that I had been long on detail and short on story or pace.

He and I will meet again to do this exercise, and we both expect to present improved versions of our stories (my friend has a tawdry, intimate relationship with adverbs), and it may even expand by two or three other writers. But I came away from this meeting with renewed faith in my story and myself. For other writers out there, I recommend sharing your work when you're ready. And be prepared for honest, sometimes sharp critiques. What doesn't kill you makes you a better writer.