@hbsmobile.bsky.social
The Haunted Book Shop, Mobile AL's downtown bookstore. Come in for the cat, stay for the spectral droning chants that aren't there.
Welp, I know what I'm ordering
10.10.2023 18:28 โ ๐ 2 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
A black-covered book titled The Mysteries, by Bill Watterson and John Kascht. The center of the cover is a black-and-white illustration of a frightened lumpy-faced peasant-ish looking mean in the woods with a thatched cottage behind him.
Holy crap, look what came in today. BILL WATTERSON DID SOMETHING NEW?!
10.10.2023 16:08 โ ๐ 2 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0even if you get in the right queue, sometimes the afterlife runs out of sheets and you get stuck with a duvet cover, a fitted sheet, or even a pillowcase
09.10.2023 18:30 โ ๐ 1294 ๐ 484 ๐ฌ 29 ๐ 12Yeah. Even in places you don't expect. Our city gets called 'mobull" by people who don't know, just like how people assume the proper adjective is "Alabaman", but the name's a French corruption of the name of a Native American town in the area, Mabila; it got turned into "Moh-BEEL".
09.10.2023 19:07 โ ๐ 3 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0Get to know your mutuals: List 10 things you are into:
Genre fiction, especially mixed genres
Weird books you've only heard of thanks to TV tropes
Our catte, Mr. Bingley
Other people's pets
Stickers
Banned books
Carrying banned books (STICK IT TO THE MAN)
Rainy days
Downtown Mobile
ice cream?
Author Tessa Bailey standing behind a street barricade adorned with a blue banned reading "Welcome Tessa Bailey & Fans!". Behind her is a multicolored building called LODA Biergarten and further down the street awnings and picnic tables can be seen.
We hosted Tessa Bailey for a booksigning last night, so we decided to throw her a block party. You know. As one does.
It was a blast and we hope to do similar for other author guests!
A street in Mobile, AL, with string lights criss-crossing it, hung with blue light-up balls. Tables are in the middle of the street. On the right hand side is an old-time light-up sign that says SAENGER. A pop-up awning is in the distance
We're hosting Tessa Bailey for a signing tonight and we're having a block party in the street!
06.10.2023 19:43 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
Kickstarter Publishing page: Featured project: Embroidered worlds: Ukrainian Fantastic Fiction
Ukrainian SFF is Kickstarter's Publishing Project of the Day!
Everyone needs to read these stories. Spec-fic from Ukraine, available in English for the first time, plus diaspora fiction from amazing authors like Elizabeth Bear.
Only 30-some hours left to get it :)
TOC: t.ly/ZGYuO
Slava Ukrayini!
But on the whole, if you write a book someone can be enthusiastic about, and you can give some memorable line/incident/cool bit that isn't super spoilery to relate? Yeah, that helps things along a lot.
30.09.2023 16:56 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0And pain of it is it doesn't work for every book. I have some titles I love but can't handsell worth a flip (like a lot of Discworld). I've got authors I love who I can try to handsell but haven't found the line that works consistently.
30.09.2023 16:48 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0Kinda thinking about the trick of handselling books.
Short version is, enthusiasm sells books. A pithy anecdote on the book sells books--I've sold Going Postal by telling folks about the hangman. I've sold The Twisted Ones by telling people there's THINGS in the woods around Grandma's house.
A gray cat sitting in the window sill, his head tilted down so he looks 'upwards' in a clear glower.
Mr. Bingley is a friendly cat but he has a remarkably effective glower when he chooses to use it.
30.09.2023 16:37 โ ๐ 5 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0+writes that down+
30.09.2023 16:30 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
The interior of the Haunted Book Shop, taking from just inside the entryway. The store stretches back in the distances. Most shelves are painted black. The floor is shiny sealed scarred concrete, the walls are brick. String lights erratically cross the ceiling. The shelves are packed with books. An infographic panel showing the development of the English genres is on the left, with example books mounted on it.
Despite the name, we're a general book store--It's a mix of new and used. Genre fiction, classics and general fiction, non-fiction, and children's books. The owner is a romance author and the staff in general has a deep love for genre fiction and we will get our geek on if you give us half a chance.
29.09.2023 04:18 โ ๐ 3 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
A foot-tall skeleton with wild black hair is wearing a white button-up shirt and real red velvet coat and holding a trans pride flag in one hang and a Progress pride flag--with the rainbow stripes and the chevrons for trans rights and POC rights. His name is Leopold and he's standing on top of a refrigerator visible when you come in the door.
The Gulf Coast is a more tolerant region of the South than people not from here would expect. It's not perfect, mind you, but it's not what people would expect, We aim to keep it that way by making sure to be LGBTQ+ supportive. This is Leopold the Pride Skeleton. He flies the flags for us.
29.09.2023 04:13 โ ๐ 3 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
A handsome grey cat is sitting on a closed chromebook on a desk in a bookstore, looking very cute and demanding he get pets before he allows work to happen.
A grey cart with prominent fangs is wearing a teeny little black and red vampire cape as he lays curled in the corner of a showcase window.
Mr. Bingley the gray cat is in his catio, a window box built for him to be able to look outside and have a place to get to. He has his food, and water dishes, his wall-mounted brush, and his pillow in the catio with him.
We have a cat, Mr. Bingley. Some of you may have seen pictures of him already. He is a handsome boy, a great store greeter, and our buddy. We moved recently and built him his own catio residence but he has the run of the store, mostly.
29.09.2023 04:06 โ ๐ 2 ๐ 1 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0Hey, we made it in! We're glad to be here on Blue Sky! We're a locally-owned indie store trying to do our part in keeping the books coming to those who need 'em. Banning a book in the local area is a good way to make us carry it.
29.09.2023 04:02 โ ๐ 5 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
