Parisian Phoenix Publishing

Persnickety Books in Burlington, N.C., recently sent out a newsletter that mentioned a new book by a North Carolina author focusing on finding your third place.

I am fascinated by the idea of third place, and my dream is to build Parisian Phoenix into a physical location with a bookstore, snack shop and office/warehouse so that people can come ask us writing questions or hang out with us at any time.

If you’re staring at these words asking “What on earth is a third place?,” allow me to explain. The idea of a third place stems from the concept that our home serves as our primary location, and, for most of us, our place of employment is where we spend the next largest chunk of our time.

A third place refers to the location where you go to relax or visit friends. It could be a bookstore, or a coffee shop, or a favorite diner. In The Death of Big Butch by Larry Sceurman, the men in the story frequent the local bar.

In my real life, my third place is the Panera at the Southmont Shopping Center in Bethlehem Township, Pa. As much as I want to say it’s Book and Puppet Company in downtown Easton or Plants & Coffee in Easton’s West Ward or even Barnes and Noble in the same shopping center in Bethlehem as Panera, it’s Panera Bread. Why? Because I can work there, I can relax there, it’s easy to get do, and it’s inexpensive for me to be there (thanks ‘Sip Club’!)

I spent about 15 years in food service, and I loved most of my regulars. And I’ve always wanted to be a regular somewhere. I have been a regular at some mom-and-pop restaurants— and then they end up closing. And now, I find that I’m a regular at Panera. Because they know me, and they know my order, and they double check when I behave out of character.

I love trying to build third place. Maybe you’ll consider visiting Blue Flame Events Retail Store for our next Write to Read Workshop. We would like to build a community for readers and writers. It could be a book club, an open mic, a discussion about publishing… or one-on-one talk with me, a working publisher.