When Buried Treasure Comes to You

Worse Things Waiting by Manly Wade Wellman.

Hold that thought. Because I'm starting this post with a prologue.

PROLOGUE

I'm a reader, and I read A LOT.

I read print books, eBooks, online articles, and of course, I read for work.

I love to do research (thrill of the hunt, perhaps?) for Herald-News stories, my fiction, and for the fun of learning something new.

 As a child, I read the back of cereal boxes when I ate breakfast.

I write the books I want to read because no one else wrote them. And I'd rather make readers than sales, just so I can discuss the book with you (I envision retirement as one long book club).

One post a day on my BryonySeries Facebook page extols the love of reading.

And one post on my BryonySeries Twitter page always asks the same question: What are you reading tonight?

Although many people associate me with writing, I like reading even more, and, fiction-wise, I especially like books with a supernatural tone.

But that's a pretty wide theme. And I obviously don't like every book with that theme. In fact, I have a hard time finding books in that genre that really grab me.

So when I do, it's like finding buried treasure.

Unfortunately, treasures aren't always easily obtained. And sometimes, the treasure comes to me.

That's the point of this blog post.

MAIN STORY

One night, night a Twitter follower recommended a book for me: Worse Things Waiting by Manly Wade Wellman. I found an except online and loved it. I had to read more.

I decided to purchase the book the "e" format, because I am cheap.

But no "e" format was available. And the print was out of my very narrow budget.

I checked Abe Books and Thrift Books and other secondhand bookstores like them. Nope.

So I checked with libraries. Nope.

I checked with Janet Staley at The Book Market in Crest Hill, because I have found some great rare books there. Nope.

Yesterday, the book came to me.

My WriteOn Joliet co-leader Tom Hernandez emailed me yesterday morning asking if I was still working from home because he had a surprise for me.

Like me, Tom is an avid reader. He started a blog for WriteOn Joliet this year called "Writers Are Readers," and he stresses at nearly every twice monthly meeting of our adult critique group that to be a writer, one must be a reader.

He has a reading list for each season of the year. He has bookcases full of books. And so forth.

Quite honestly, when Tom messaged me, I thought he was bringing me a cup of coffee from Book and Bean Cafe, since he passes it to and from work-related meetings and I live in the general direction, and we aren't stopping at the cafe before WriteOn Joliet meetings because those have been online, thank you, COVID-19.

Of course, you have already guessed where this blog was going.

But I didn't.

I was REALLY surprised when Tom gave me the book. And because I was on deadline, I set the book out of sight, so I wouldn't be tempted to take even a bitty peek.

OK, I did take a peek. I'm off work today, so I'll be taking more than a peek. I. Cannot. Wait.

Now, isn't the first time Tom has surprised me with a book.

I have a character in my BryonySeries that fictionalizes a fictionalized version of himself. He's the world's first Irish vampire, because Ireland doesn't have a vampire mythology.

But then I DID find a book online, a collection of Irish vampire stories called Bloody Irish. I put it on my wish list.

And right around the holidays one year, Tom surprised me with the book. I had a couple days off, and I savored it.

It had some great "mood phrasings," for lack of better words, that I want to revisit and incorporate into my own fiction scribblings.

Another time, he picked me up a copy of Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Finn Garner forgetting I had bought an autographed version (with a bonus story, which my version from years ago did not have) from the author himself when he visited WriteOn Joliet last fall, back when the world was normal.

A few months ago, Tom surprised me with a copy of The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke, which I haven't quite finished yet - only because it's a large volume, and I do most of my reading at bedtime - and I won't read scary stuff right before bed.

EPILOGUE

Yesterday, as Tom and I stood six-feet apart and masked, with me happily clutching my new book, I wondered aloud if maybe I have my wish list all wrong.

Instead of books, maybe I should be wishing for something more practical - like a Mercedes.

But a Mercedes won't take me where I really want to go.

And that's deep inside the imagination of the writer and his written word, where great stories are waiting.

Illustration by Kathleen Rose Van Pelt for "Bryony."