Due To Circumstances Beyond Our Control...

PSSSST...my dear author and industry friends...there have been a lot of things happening lately that nobody can do anything about. The general consensus is to ignore them but that can have some horrendous effects. Not to mention you can end up in places worse than nightmares, simply because you refused to look some monster in the face and tell it to buzz off. But who would do that?

Very few of us, my friend, and that is the truth.

Because the most common reaction is to run. I know this for a fact because I have spent many years in an Alaskan wilderness where the biggest bears in the world live. I have read all the scary stories (big mistake), memorized the rules: stand your ground, make yourself somehow look bigger than you are, wave your arms and try to look threatening (I'm 5'4"). Above all, do not show fear—they can actually smell fear and it gets them all kinds of excited and ready for a chase. If they hesitate (big if), begin to back away slow. This shows them you are not going to tear them to pieces this time and they better move on. I made all that my mantra, even included it in some survival stories. I still think they're probably the best things to do.

Except the first time I heard one coming up behind me in a huge stand of berry bushes, I took off like a shot and couldn’t stop myself. I was in a survival mode I didn’t even know I had. Something that might have kept me from being here today, if that bear hadn’t been full enough of berries, and my hero husband was brave enough to stand his ground and holler at me with his booming voice (that carries like thunder), “Stand still!” Which was enough for the bear to take off in another direction and me to keep going in mine.

Embarrassing but true. But about those bears...I’ll tell you right now why they grow so big in that part part of the world. It’s because of something I saw with my very own eyes, right out in the middle of a--

Sheesh, that’s another story and not what I came to talk about at all. I’m supposed to be saying, “Sorry for the delay in communications, dear friends, but the grand opening of Lilly’s Book Funnel Shop was unexpectedly blown up by technical difficulties and pushed back by two weeks. But the final fix rolled in yesterday, and—glory be!--TODAY I AM OPEN FOR BUSINESS! What’s more, I have prepared a special little presentation for you over there called “The Anatomy of a Book Funnel,” in which I am going to reveal something you never would have dreamed about those things. Not that I’m such a genius about the deep tech of book funnels. It’s just that with so much time on my hands while I was waiting for support, somebody left one of the lab doors open that led to a—

Good grief, I’m stopping right there. I can feel all the symptoms of being overly excited coming on. More information than anyone needs and all that. The truth is, I’m back from the wilderness after fourteen long years. And with so many things advancing to light speed around here, I’m literally awestruck at what’s been going on. Not to mention the new possibilities that are popping up everywhere. And boy do I have some ideas about what we independents can do with some of those. Worlds of opportunity! As long as you watch out for the sharks.

But no worries. Living on the water as long as I have, I know a lot about sharks...

See you at the shop!

Lilly

PS...I’ll tell you about that secrets of the bears thing in my next article. If I haven’t already told everyone who asks me at the festivities today. I don’t like to leave people hanging...