Had a fun sidetrack this afternoon as I tried to decide how to spend my newly-acquired $100 store credit from powells.com.
After much poking around and fussing, I wound up with
No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days — Chris Baty (founding father of NaNoWriMo) $14.95
[I read about the book on UV’s blog. She’d picked up a copy because she’s planning to NaNoWriMo starting Monday. I decided that the book would probably be a good swift kick even for those who aren’t NaNoWriMo-ing.]
Had a Good Time: Stories from American Postcards — Robert Olen Butler 15.95
[Butler had a kick-ass American Postcards short story in the Sept 2001 issue of Hemispheres. I’d decided I didn’t want to drag the issue through Nepal and Bhutan and Tibet but would, instead, pick up my copy on our way home. We headed home after September 11th and the airline had pulled all copies because there’d been a photo layout of the New York skyline pre-9/11 in it.
They’d “let” me buy a copy for $7.50. $7.50 for a free magazine?!??. I don’t think so. I dropped Butler a note in July 2003 — after I found over a year later I was still wishing I had a copy — and asked if he had a copy around somewhere on the Web or elsewhere that I could bum off him. He didn’t, but he told me about this book which came out this past summer.]
Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook: Hands-On Help for Making Your Novel Stand Out and Succeed — Donald Maass $19.99
[Another kick in the ass.]
Powells.com Mousepad $0.00 (Rubber,NEW)
[As my thank-you from Powell's for entering their essay contest.]
Book Total : $50.89 (3 items)
Shipping total: $0.00 (Economy Mail)
Credit : -$100.00
Total : $0.00
No shipping charge because the total was >$50 and I still have $49.11 to spend!