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¸é¾±³¦³ó²¹°ù»å’s comments from the Ask Richard Sutton, if you need to... group.

Of course, it has to be optional to be fun! ;)

I think that the ones who have found ways to stay on despite the odds, will find ways to reinvent themselves so they can find new customers and retain the existing ones. Many won't. Small towns though, derive benefits from the social context of book browsing and meeting for discussion outside of libraries. I hope that small town book retailers can stay alive, and because I own a Nook, I hope B&N can stay alive, too. Almost all of my own book purchases have been online for the past four or five years now, but I remember that my local dealer put my books out before anyone else would take the chance with them.

I'm going to start offering local bookstores a free right-column ad on my blog site, with live links, etc. as a way to give back a bit. Do readers and other authors out there think this is a good way to show some support for our local booksellers. My local, Book Revue, has an events schedule that is unbelieveable for a family operated business: Here's their link:

Feel free to post the link to your own local bookstore.

I've always really enjoyed flash fiction. When you have to tell a complete story in only a few words, you tend to choose them more carefully. We can enjoy it together here, bu posting your own stories as comments... as long as they are less than 200 words...

Here's a recent one of mine, that also had to use the words glove and wet:

Wet
by Richard Sutton All Rights Reserved

His glove lay above in the dust, wedged in place in the crevice. He’d just managed to free his hand before his footing failed. Somewhere down below him lay his pack, a coil of double-braid and his headlamp. Not of much use now. He extended his right hand, feeling along the rock face behind him, then along the ledge itself in the blackness. It widened out from where he sat. Widen out to where? His father’s words came back again: never go into a cave alone. Never. He leaned over slightly towards the wider section of the ledge. As he did so, his broken left hand brushed something hard in his vest pocket. The pain set his teeth grinding, right hand reaching out to steady himself. He wriggled the stub of a candle from his vest with the mangled hand as something bumped against his right hand. Something wet.

I like to eat, and I like to drink. Sharing those things with friends and family is at the very core of our humanity and they remain really important occupations. I like all kinds, but peasant food and masalas, gumbos and stews are my absolute favorites. I wash 'em down with either decent red wine (my quest is the perfect $10 bottle) or Guinness or lager beer. A wee, or not-too-wee dram afterwards suits me.

How 'bout you?

Well, the day we decided, back at the beginning of agriculture, that we'd let (insert name here:________) make our decisions for us, we became political animals.

The natural order of humankind -- running around in mobs with big clubs -- has its drawbacks, but then so does every single attempt at fixing the problems we all face. Here's my own take on it. Governments are instituted by our leave, to take care of those things we are unable to take care of on our own or in our small communities. Who ever said "The business of government is business." was either a banker or businessman. I'm a pinko liberal unless you come onto my property with evil intent, then you'll find me very, very conservative. Don;t mess with my family or friends, either.

Let's see... religious discussion will usually get you thrown out of a cocktail party, so this is a perfect place. The big question always comes down to, do you believe?

So, do you?

Me, I absolutely believe; but as to whose documentation and precepts I assume as my own? I think the closest religious doctrine I could ascribe to seems to be the tiny surviving bits of Celtic Paganism, but even there, I would probably find things that would annoy me. It has taken me a lifetime to question everything and still come up with a single answer, that God (for want of an accurate name) exists. I have no idea what His plan is, but I can see it in action every single time I open my eyes. Creation has so many stories to tell, and there are so many different living things, I just can't choose. How 'bout you?

Lyrical, schmyrical. Just do, then fix, then drink... or engage in your particular favorite celebratory behavior.

Having read your work, you are the master of the paused... nuanced punch-line. I'm not always able to identify the single most compelling element in a writers work... but I know it when I read it. Isn't that helpful!

Vonnegut, Tolkien, Irving, Bradbury, Burke, Herbert, Leonard, Dickens, Martin (GRR), and on and on... probably everyone I've ever enjoyed reading.

In terms of the way I formulate stories, I'm pretty old-school, and would list Bradbury and Tolkien first. Recently, I've been most compelled by the work of Ruby Barnes' novel, The Baptist and Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle I read quite a bit, so my favorite writer is a daily flavor. What about you?