Parisian Phoenix Publishing

I’m thinking about how the world keeps changing.

Now I’m not putting a judgment on that reality, but as I approach my 50th birthday in May I have reached that age where the experiences I cherish the most are very different from what happens in my everyday life now.

Small Town Pennsylvania

When I was a small child, we lived outside the tiny town of about 400 people— Portland, Pa.— and I went to a high school where each class was about 150 people. The town had one stoplight, and that hasn’t changed, but the businesses certainly have.

We had a small lumber yard next to the volunteer fire house (I had never heard of professional firefighters) and the main two block center of town consisted of a sewing mill, an old diner in a metal shell, a garage, a bank, the post office, the liquor store, a small grocer, a barber shop, a men’s clothing store, a bar (which burned down when I was in elementary school), a five-and-dime owned by Mr. Horn whose children rode the bus with me, a gas station (where we had unleaded and leaded gas( and a famous furniture maker, Duckloe Brothers.

I did not live in Portland, but in Upper Mount Bethel Township, but my mother had a post office box in Portland as she did not trust the rural delivery mail carrier. (And if you want more Portland flavor, my first book, Manipulations, uses the town as the main setting— a famous French fashion designer and his favorite supermodel buy a weekend house that I based on my childhood home, a farmhouse facing the Delaware River. Write What You Know.)

I know you might be staring at your phone or your email or your laptop as you read this asking yourself, “What is she talking about?”

Well, it’s certainly not the opening to a memoir.

My grandfather did his grocery shopping at the tiny market. I would often accompany him. My mother, on the other hand, drove either to Wind Gap (about 30 minutes) to a local store named Laneco. I loved when we went to Laneco because Laneco had a grocery store and a department store all in the same place. This was before Wal-Mart came anywhere near Pennsylvania and before Target sold groceries (not that I had ever seen one of those). Sometimes she would head to Stroudsburg, at the bottom of the Poconos (about the same distance) to go to ShopRite probably making that decision based on the sale cycles.

What the Consumer Values

Even in those days, I could see the difference in consumer preferences. My mother valued cheap over her time or the distance. I think my grandfather valued convenience, as he didn’t want to do the shopping but there was no one else to do it. Or maybe he was ahead of his time and wanted to support small business.

But I really don’t think that was it.

My favorite small independent bookstore, BOOK AND PUPPET COMPANY, moved last fall into a location two blocks away from the former one that gives it the capacity to do more types of events and host exhibits. Hopefully, I will have a chance to attend more of them soon.

Check out Book and Puppet’s full calendar of events.

I’ve been trying to get to their Tuesday night Shut Up and Write event, where you show up, sit down, shut up and write. It’s a newer movement that has emerged since NaNoWriMo has made some missteps first with concerns about the safety of minors on their chat boards and recently announcing the closure of the official NaNoWriMo nonprofit.

National Independent Bookstore Day

The last Saturday in April is Independent Bookstore Day. I didn’t plan any special events or write much about it because it was a Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group monthly meeting day. We had the story telling event Thursday (Earth Woven) and another on Friday (Poet Palooza 3) so with the meeting on Saturday I was tapped out.

But I had noticed that Amazon announced a Spring Amazon Prime Day to correspond with Independent Bookstore Day.

And that is pretty uncouth.

The CEO of Bookshop.org called it “shameless.” And one of Bookshop’s counter-moves was to offer free copies of the ebook How to Resist Amazon and Why by Danny Caine, published by my heroes, Microcosm Publishing.

(Bookshop only recently started selling ebooks, so this is a great way to showcase that new service/product, and Microcosm is the perfect poster-child for anti-Amazon practices. They are a mid-list publisher that does not list their books on Amazon. I have started the book and plan to include it in my book reviews for paid subscribers. More about my book list here.)

But let’s not forget— Amazon (and Wal-Mart and Google and other companies like them) grow to have the power and the influence they do because of choices we make as individuals. I rarely buy anything on Amazon, unless it’s my favorite electrolyte powder, or if its a self-published author who only has their book available via KDP. I do, however, post reviews of the books I read and review products that Amazon sends me.

I can’t fault people for making the choices that work for them. Amazon has been a blessing and a curse. I think of the disabled and the homebound and what a difference Amazon has made to those populations. I see the creativity other businesses have used to try and compete. But I also our lives becoming less social and more sedentary.

When my daughter was 4, we got dressed up and went to a local independent old theater, the ornate kind, to view the movie WallE. It was the first feature film my daughter saw in the theater.

And I thought it was prophetic then. I recently spent three months in a medical fitness program. My favorite trainer was a young man earning his doctorate in physical therapy, and I encouraged him to rewatch that movie with his professional eye.

I will be the first to admit: I do not spend enough time at my favorite small independent bookstore. But, as a book publisher in her fourth year of business, I have declared a moratorium on buying books for now. When I did my taxes, I realized I spent $5,000 in 2024 on books by authors outside of my publishing company. And because I attend so many special events, most of those I purchased direct from author, on Kickstarter, or if online, on Bookshop.org.