Thrift Store Blues

Writers. Just to warn you, this is a depressing post. Yet hopeful toward the end. Yesterday I went to the Salvation Army. It was in the book section. I found author copies on the shelves. Whoever dumped them left an invoice inside one and the copyright matched. From what I can see she wrote under two names and had at least 5 books published. Under the “romance” name she wrote those historical romance sagas that follow a female character, but the heroine sleeps with other men. Like Rosemary Roger’s books. The longest is 1018 pages long! Wow. When I found them, I was fascinated. Yet, at the same time my thoughts revolved around the idea the books are now junk. At what point do we dump our “babies” off at the Salvation Army thrift store? At what point does it stop being important that our dreams were realized and we give away good, unread copies of irreplaceable books? Maybe it wasn’t her. Maybe it was family or friends or landlord after she passed away. No matter the reason, I was saddened at finding those books because they do represent so much work. But then I thought, if I am ever as famous as Nora Roberts in 20 years and have millions of books available, I will probably be bringing my books to charity by the cartload. That was the hopeful part.