Did you know that we’re having a double author event today? Yesterday, I shared a portion of an interview with Ann Napolitano on her new book A Good Hard Look. You can read that post here.

John Milliken Thompson will also be here today. Based on an 1885 true crime story in Virginia, The Reservoir considers the tough questions surrounding an apparent suicide of a young pregnant girl. Questions abound about the young girl’s affair with her cousin and her relationship to his brother. How do we know what is really in the hearts of others?

While Ann’s tour has already kicked off in Alabama this week and ends up in New York in August, John Milliken Thompson’s tour has also taken its own path. From independent to independent bookstore, he reflects on his book tour experiences across the country.

(See you tonight at 5.00 for two great books!)

My debut novel, The Reservoir, a historical mystery, came out three weeks ago, and so far I’ve presented it in seven independent bookstores, with another eight lined up for the weeks ahead. All of these events have been very positive experiences, with friendly staffs and enthusiastic audiences. By offering readings in which new authors such as myself can bring out their work, the indies are helping keep the book industry alive and thriving. Can you imagine if there were no bars and cafes for new bands to debut their sound and gain local followings, if all music was expected to make a sudden leap to coliseums and concert halls? Imagine the lack of variety if artists had no local galleries to show their work.

As a patron of indie bookstores, I’m also grateful for the kind of hands-on attention that can’t be duplicated on a large scale. For just one example, I’ll mention Kelly Justice, proprietor of Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, where my novel was launched. She can recommend Virginia writer Belle Boggs, render an opinion on the latest translation of War and Peace, and share funny stories on a famous children’s writer—all in the course of a conversation.

Locally owned stores are each one by definition unique—walk into Malaprop’s and you’re in a young, funky, wood-and-coffee-smelling shop that could only be in Asheville, while if you wander through the plush, spacious rooms of McIntyre’s Fine Books you know you’re at Fearrington Village. In each case, there’s an attention to detail suitable for the local clientele.

Sure, I’ve bought merchandise in big box stores, but I’ve always felt vaguely depressed by their overwhelming stock and their bland familiarity, masking the hubris and greed of one entrepreneur or a small group of investors. I somehow feel cheapened knowing that every cheap item sold by every clock-punching wage earner exists solely to make one madly competitive, early-retirement-fixated person rich.

So let’s hear it for old-fashioned, honest commerce, in which a seller has a product he or she knows and cares about and is fully invested in. Let’s hear it for indies.

-John Milliken Thompson

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