Saturday night's all right...
Nov. 15th, 2003 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hildy89Today started out reasonably well. I went over to the library and dug through some of their books on opera and New York and trains before Jennifer called to say she was ready to disappear to write. The Arlington library system has access to a bunch of ebooks, including a charming set on the Met radio broadcasts, which is proving quite helpful for descriptions. I didn't quite get a chance to research some other stuff, but maybe those will be "Second Draft" additions. Being the sort that uses cellphones only when required, I was quite embarrassed when mine started going off in the middle of the stacks. Fortunately no one was nearby.
So after picking up dry cleaning, I went down to Springfield to meet up with the would-be writers. I thought "Hey, I have to be on until the end of the line, I can write." Have you ever tried to write in a white Word document with the noon sun glaring in your eyes because most of the Blue Line is above ground?
I did get some writing done at the bookstore. And then I made my grand mistake. I needed to go to the bathroom which was conveniently enough through science fiction/fantasy and the graphic novels/manga section. I had already bought my fill on Friday, so I really wasn't intending to buy anything, just scout the stock for comparisons. Jennifer and Melissa mentioned there was a bookseller waiting for anyone vaguely interested in manga and would talk their ear off. I went over and no one was there. So I did my usual perusal. Suddenly I heard "Oh do you like manga?" And we were off conversing in the manga equivalent of Comics Geek. Not quite High Geek, but probably undecipherable to the average person. He was determined to tell me all his favorites and hear all of mine.
The one plus was I was able to ask about the B&N shelving issue about splitting off the teen series. Apparently it was not a space consideration, but rather a marketing decision to classify certain series. They wanted to target their markets quite precisely, a little too much so for my tastes. I realized that one of my recent favorites "X-Day" was classified as teen, which made me dread some parent discovering, since it was written as a response to Columbine. I mentioned that I'd prefer a little sign or something mentioning the existence of the other section, if only for the poor parents/friends who want to give Christmas/birthday presents of the latest title but can't find it because it's over in another section! (I was amused to realize for manga I can't use the example of X title, because there actually IS a title called X.)
He didn't like the decision but he also failed to grapse the basic shelving problem. If I don't know it's there, I'm more likely to walk out than check elsewhere. As he interestingly pointed out, most of the so-called teen titles are skewed towards the girls, so the boys are more likely to come over to the main section anyway. Which prompted a grumpy reply from Jennifer about the fact that that encouraged the *boys* to look at science fiction, but not necessarily the girls.
The girls had dinner at Rocko's, an otherwise nice Italian place whose pizza clearly did not agree with my digestive system. We griped and grumped about our job situation and our personal lives. In some of our cases, a singular case of lack thereof. It was good to get away from "the boys".
Two other pieces of erratum: If you're on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nanonano's friends list, there is an excerpt from the dreaded Nano novel with the tunnel scene. Also I have a story in When the Clock Strikes challenge about the Chosen Some called Little Earthquakes. It's my first foray into Buffy fic since about third season.
So after picking up dry cleaning, I went down to Springfield to meet up with the would-be writers. I thought "Hey, I have to be on until the end of the line, I can write." Have you ever tried to write in a white Word document with the noon sun glaring in your eyes because most of the Blue Line is above ground?
I did get some writing done at the bookstore. And then I made my grand mistake. I needed to go to the bathroom which was conveniently enough through science fiction/fantasy and the graphic novels/manga section. I had already bought my fill on Friday, so I really wasn't intending to buy anything, just scout the stock for comparisons. Jennifer and Melissa mentioned there was a bookseller waiting for anyone vaguely interested in manga and would talk their ear off. I went over and no one was there. So I did my usual perusal. Suddenly I heard "Oh do you like manga?" And we were off conversing in the manga equivalent of Comics Geek. Not quite High Geek, but probably undecipherable to the average person. He was determined to tell me all his favorites and hear all of mine.
The one plus was I was able to ask about the B&N shelving issue about splitting off the teen series. Apparently it was not a space consideration, but rather a marketing decision to classify certain series. They wanted to target their markets quite precisely, a little too much so for my tastes. I realized that one of my recent favorites "X-Day" was classified as teen, which made me dread some parent discovering, since it was written as a response to Columbine. I mentioned that I'd prefer a little sign or something mentioning the existence of the other section, if only for the poor parents/friends who want to give Christmas/birthday presents of the latest title but can't find it because it's over in another section! (I was amused to realize for manga I can't use the example of X title, because there actually IS a title called X.)
He didn't like the decision but he also failed to grapse the basic shelving problem. If I don't know it's there, I'm more likely to walk out than check elsewhere. As he interestingly pointed out, most of the so-called teen titles are skewed towards the girls, so the boys are more likely to come over to the main section anyway. Which prompted a grumpy reply from Jennifer about the fact that that encouraged the *boys* to look at science fiction, but not necessarily the girls.
The girls had dinner at Rocko's, an otherwise nice Italian place whose pizza clearly did not agree with my digestive system. We griped and grumped about our job situation and our personal lives. In some of our cases, a singular case of lack thereof. It was good to get away from "the boys".
Two other pieces of erratum: If you're on
nanonano's friends list, there is an excerpt from the dreaded Nano novel with the tunnel scene. Also I have a story in When the Clock Strikes challenge about the Chosen Some called Little Earthquakes. It's my first foray into Buffy fic since about third season.
