Booksellers Who Became Book Writers

or

A Long, Shameless Plug for Terra Elan McVoy

What does Nobel laureate and Pulitzer Prize winning author William Faulkner have in common with rocker Neil Young?

Before being published, both had worked in bookstores.  Faulkner briefly worked at the Doubleday bookstore in Greenwich Village in 1921.  Neil Young, whose memoir, Waging Heavy Peace, will be published later this year, worked for Coles bookstore in Toronto for two weeks in about 1964 before being let go for “irregularity.”  (Rock fans: note the Gregg Allman event below!)

Perhaps working in bookstores is good training for authors.  Other booksellers who made the leap include prolific German writer Gustav Falke, prolific British writer Brian Aldiss, Jonathan Lethem, and John Kessel.  S.E. Hinton, author of The Outsiders and Rumble Fish, once worked in a bookstore, as did children/YA writers Nick Bruel, Cory Doctorow, Ingrid Law, Megan McDonald, and Mark Teague.

Which brings us to YA author (and Decatur Book Festival program director) Terra Elan McVoy, who clearly owes all her writing success to her former job as manager of Little Shop of Stories.  Terra’s FOURTH novel, Being Friends With Boys, was published yesterday!

Terra Elan McVoy Book Release Party — and these are ALWAYS great parties  — will be held at Little Shop of Stories, Saturday, May 5th, at 7 p.m.  Whooohoooo!

From a letter to the New York Times, published June 7, 1987: “In the early 1950’s, I worked in a bookstore in Harvard Square. At that time William Faulkner was a writer in residence at Harvard and, on occasion, he would come into the store.
“Whenever someone recognized him, the person would rush to get one of his books and ask him to autograph it. Mr. Faulker would oblige by taking out his pen, unscrewing the cap and placing it on the barrel. He would then turn the pen upside down and ”autograph” the book with the cap rather than the nib. His admirer always kept his eyes on Mr. Faulkner’s face, and thus would leave the store unaware of what the author had done.”

As noted by Cranky in the most recent FFAF, Decaturite Thomas Mullen was awarded the 2012 Townsend Prize for fiction last week for his novel, The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers.  Congratulations!!!

This Week

Imran Ahmad, author of The Perfect Gentleman: A Muslim Boy Meets the West, Wednesday, May 2nd at 7pm, Jimmy Carter Library, sponsored by Georgia Center for the Book, free.

Ridley Pearson, author of Kingdom Keepers V: Shell Game, Thursday, May 3rd at 7pm, Little Shop of Stories, free.

Jane O’Connor, author of Fancy Nancy books, including Nancy Clancy: Super Sleuth, Friday, May 4th, 7pm, Little Shop of Stories, free.

Book Release Party: James Dean and Eric Litwin, illustrator and author of Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons, Saturday, May 5th at 1pm, Little Shop of Stories, free.

Book Release Party: Terra Elan McVoy, author of Being Friends With Boys, Saturday, May 5th at 7pm, Little Shop of Stories, free.

YA author panel: Jackson Pearce (Purity), Elizabeth Eulberg (Take A Bow), and Jen Calonita (Belles), Sunday, May 6th at 4pm, Little Shop of Stories, free.

Gregg Allman, lead vocals, keyboards, and author of My Cross to Bear, Tuesday, May 8th, 7pm, Eagle Eye Bookshop, free.