Mid Year 2021: Ebay & Subterranean Press book binging, SPSFC, author appreciation, and the search for some sort of purpose…again.

Hello, My fellow deep diving explorers of those unexplainable and eclectic creations, we call books.

Thrillers, crime novels, etc., any type of reading is great of course, and in the form of a novel, or novellas, maybe even a trilogy, we set upon our stories, characters, worlds, and horrors, sometimes in just a few minutes but potentially stretching this experience out for months of our lives..

Always we thirst. We seek to understand this existence, but just as likely,, its existence we seek to escape by searching the unkown past, or maybe you crave to see the untold future of us odd humans. Science Fiction, Fantasy, Speculative, Genre, and all the drop-down extensions of, serve as an invisible vehicle we travel upon. We,, the readers, are let loose upon the sea of imagination by those minds touched by inspiration, and brave enough to make it an experience that can be enjoyed by the masses, and forever be passed on.

Stand with me for a moment and honor the “Underappreciated Author” whose creations are beyond any scientific explanation and open the curtain on a talent I am in awe of.

Where was I going with this? No idea, but I think a lot about books, stories, and the importance of engaging my own imagination as well as wondering about life and its purpose. I have been in an in between place where writing book reviews has become mechanical, and that just disappoints the heck out of me. I love this process of providing my thoughts on a book in the hopes of connecting with another reader. Being able to recognize a good books attributes, but also make it entertaining and fun is a great activity that challenges my routine and upsets my balance, in a most essential kind of way. My decisions in life are typically not the best, I have done better than when I was younger, but I still screw things up, all the time. So getting perspective is always a much needed ingredient in my life. Having my blog, and the minor responsibilities that go along with that, have helped me to stay in touch, to come back and say hi, instead of pretending that part of my life didn’t exist, is a milestone in my adulting life.

So what the heck is going on? I have spent too much money bidding for  some really cool books that I don’t need and look back on with not regret, but like, I could’ve bought some recording stuff to help bring my half realized dream of setting down some quality tracks. I’ve got years of half written songs and cool guitar stuff I would live to record in the hopes I might find some similar styled musicians to jam with or even  to collaborate, locally or long distance, using these fancy, quarantine fueled, musician apps. But, I now own some rare editions and signed copies of some amazing books I will enjoy seeing on my shelves, until I get around to reading them.

Recently I bought an 1899 H.G. Wells, The Silent Sleeper for 15, or 20 bucks after placing the opening bid on impulse and then forgetting about it, assuming there would be at least a few people interested in getting it. Nope, I was the only one and suddenly I’m buying 122 year old scifi books that I get to write about in this post you are currently reading. I’d love to see more of my friends and fellow readers most unique, or favorite books and any interesting stories they might have about how they got it. So, if you feel inclined, write about it, and make sure I get tagged so I don’t miss it. We can start a new trend, or whatever fancy word everyone who stays current, calls those Monday Mysteries, or Tuesdays Terrors…you know what I mean.

On the really exciting front, I will be part of Team Book Invasion for the first annual SPSFC, just underway and a big thank you to Scott@BookInvasion for bringing me on. Will probably be reaching out to some of you who have done the SPFBO to get some much needed advice at some point, but so excited to see what filters down and gets the final nod, and one of the coolest trophies ever.

My blog will be undergoing some changes, and some sort of re-branding which could be disastrous, but is much needed. There is so much more I’d like to do, and hope a fresh look helps get me organized to pull some of them off. I hope you have meandered through the unsane and unpredictable landscape that this year seems to be made of, without losing your own excitement for all the amazing possibilities life truly has within all of our reach. We just have to reach, and maybe even jump, or get a friend to lift us up a…little…bit….more.

Thanks for reading this love letter to books, and for being here. If you made it this far, you’ve been awarded a bagful of future good karma coins. Spend them wisely.

Ollie@OllieSpot (and soon to be The Stone Cloud)

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