Library Love

This library study room is where I write most efficiently. No kids, no refrigerator, no chores, and--most importantly--no WiFi. The Internet is available here, but the staff knows that under no circumstances are they to give me the network password. It would be like giving crack to a junkie.



I already love my library, but tonight I love it extra because two nice things happened there. I wrote 4,000 words for Day 2 of NaNoWriMo and my librarian recognized me as an author of a book in the stacks. That last bit was special to me because I've never mentioned my book to the folks at my library. (I know what you're thinking, but it's hard to explain.)

First, NaNo. I'll try not to be too excited about this word count coup because soon I expect to crash and burn when the story totally stalls. But just for tonight, I'm privately celebrating those 4,000 words. Like a marathon, it's good to know I can do it, even if it's not something I expect to do routinely.

Now, the rest.

At nine o'clock the librarian knocked on the study room door to tell me they were about to close. We've talked about books before, and kids and grandchildren, and even the weather and local happenings in town, but I've never said I'm a writer. They see me go in and out of there with my laptop all the time but no one has ever asked what I'm working on and I've never volunteered.

But tonight when she opened the door and saw me on the other side, she said, "Hey! Your book is here! I just pulled it for someone who requested it!" After the appropriate amount of joyous shock, I thanked her for letting me know. She said, "I saw 'Rachel Brady' on the book and wondered if it was our Rachel Brady. We opened the back cover and saw your picture. Why didn't you tell us?"

Well, this is why. But the main thing tonight was the warm feeling I got both because my book made it into my local stacks and because somebody requested it. I told her about NaNoWriMo, and about what I'm working on now. She was tickled to hear that the next book is being generated right there in Study Room 4.

What's fun about all this is that when I started leisure reading for the first time in my life nine years ago, she's the one who got me started with the library card. From reading came the desire to write, and now my book is there. Library love.