A public service announcement, froom the webservant, Terry Bain.

I just wanted to pop in here and tell everyone today is the first day of June, in case you had forgotten, and if nothing else that is reason to celebrate because it is Famous Fathers & Other Stories (FF&OS) release month.

Now I also wanted to make sure that you all run down (or phone down) to your local bookstore and make sure your local bookstore is carrying FF&OS because I checked with my local bookstore and they didn't even seem to know. That seemed odd. They looked in their computer-mabob, and it told them the book was being released in June, and I explained that some bookstores already had the book, and that Amazon.com has the book listed with a June 15 release date (which is annoying, because Amazon.com won't release a book from their warehouse until the actual release date, even if they have it in their warehouse, so they don't get burned on some kind of contractual thing with publishers). And they explained that there was one distributor that already had the book listed as available, but it wasn't a distributor they used. And I, of course, tried to make them feel slightly stupid for not using a distributor as apparently brilliant as to have FF&OS before anybody else.

Did they not know how wonderful and popular and heartbreaking this book was? Did they not know that if they didn't get that book in soon I was going to have to order it from one of those bookstores that was already carrying it? What, pray tell, could be holding up the line?

They had no answer. They are charming, these people, but sometimes they just don't have the answers we want them to have.

Perhaps I will have to buy two copies.

And that is the solution for all of you. Buy one at a bookstore already carrying it. (You might try Bookfinder. They are very good at this sort of thing... or The Country Bookshop, where I hear by proxy that they have 'em.) And then buy another one when it arrives in your local bookshop. And tell the bookshop owner that you would order more, if you were them. It's bound to be one of those surprisingly well-sold books. Something they can hand-sell... recommend to the folks who read a lot of books, or those who are just looking for something on the airplane, or those who would really just like a good book because they haven't read a good book in awhile and really don't know where to start.

Because this will be a good book. You will not be sorry. I personally guarantee it.

Thanks for listening. Now what are you waiting for. It's June 1, for crying out loud. Get busy.

Labels: terrysong