The Pitcher and Divergent...David and Goliath

Maybe you have heard of the girl from Barrington IL who penned Divergent. Twenty something who wrote a Hunger Games Esq dystopian novel that has sold millions of copies. And now the movie is out. And maybe you have heard of The Pitcher story of a Mexican American kid with nothing but his dream. What you haven't heard is that there is voting going on a for a District Wide Summer Read and Divergent is 29 percent while The Pitcher is 25. Truly it is David and Goliath,

And whenever you go up against a megaseller then you know the odds are against you. There are only a few Divergents that blow the roof off and when a book hits that  level then the quality of the book is secondary. The noise of the book is what matters then. I am not trashing Divergent I am merely pointing out that as a writer you always have these Lottery Books that are literally worth millions to the author.

And The Pitcher is David and Divergent is Goliath. And I would like to say that people should vote for The Pitcher because the book really does matter but I don't know if that translates in the age of mega-sellers. Lets face it most books are never heard of again and the few Divergents suck up most the oxygen. Then again...there is that underdog thing...much like Ricky who has literally nothing but his dream to sustain him.

So in the end The Pitcher has to be David. It is only fitting.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher...sometimes a dream is all you have


 

When Fiction Meets Reality

The high school is old. It smells of those old trade schools that put students into jobs. Why shouldn't it? The school was built in 1901 on the edge of Chicago. A monster taking up a full city block with all those immigrant voices still echoing in the halls. And you go in there into the other world that is very far from the white suburban life. There are real lives here that are really just hanging on and you have come to sign their books.

And the school  bought them with Federal Funds. They would not have the books otherwise. The librarian tells you before you speak that they come from unspeakable problems. They deal with things that you have no idea of. Some of the kids are homeless. And your book is about that. A Mexican American kid with nothing. A sick mom. An abusive dad. A one in a million dream and a broken down pitcher who cant stop drinking. And it is fiction and you created it in your very safe world but now you cant turn off your laptop.

Because here it is. They don't have anything. They do have abusive fathers. They are raised by single mothers. They do have one in a million dreams. So you give your speech and you sign their books and you tell them to never give up on their dreams. And you hope you made a difference. You hope your book  helped them along. 

But you know when you get in your car that you are leaving and they have to stay. And you go back to your white suburb. Its only fiction after all.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Piticher...sometimes a dream is all you have

Bookstores Floated by us

The latest is independents are now being saved by donations. Who would have thought people would do this but they chip in by the thousands. The question is where does it lead. The rapaciousness of ecommerce and conglomeration  will only continue. The niche of selling books will be harder and harder to sustain as economics dictate buying patterns. Ebooks seem to have waned a bit but no one knows if this is hardware driven or a real lull in the ipodification of books.

When you think about it authors have been sustained by grants and universities for hundreds of years. Literary writers would surely perish if not for other sources of income and I suppose the bookstore could be attached to that vein of intellectual bookselling. A person who knows and talks books versus a salesman who could just as easily be selling televisions.

But of course not all bookstores can be saved this way. They will have to find their unique corner to stay viable against the last remaining giants of Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I have no problem donating to save my favorite bookstore. It's just they keep closing so fast I have to find a new one every few months.

The Pitcher...sometimes a dream is all you have