Happy 8th Anniversary Stand-Up Librarian!

Library before (2015) and after (2018). 

In this eighth year of Stand-Up Librarian, I am wrapping things up at the library and trying to decide how to move forward.  I admit to being slightly lost and confused as I have gotten away from performing and writing – things I always thought were pretty important to me – and instead, allowed my on-again/off-again job at the library and my on-again/off-again relationship with my boyfriend to both occupy most of my time. It’s understandable I guess, you think something is done and you start to shift gears and then they pull you back in for one reason or another.  However, now as I sit here for my once a year post, I am ready to put myself first again. I’m just not sure how to do it anymore. I guess I will get back to you next year with the results.

Completing the Gracegate Library this year was quite the accomplishment for so many reasons - most of which weren't included in the two articles written about us (but thanks again to the Tampa Bay Times and Tampa Bay Newspapers for their wonderful pieces.)  After all, the library was my work – every item catalogued, labeled, shelved and loved by me - so as a result, I had become pretty attached to the place over the past three years.  But despite my hopes to have a future here with the place full of people - ideas and plans I offered my boss numerous times as my background is in public relations, event planning and literary/library programs! - he reminded me over and over that he only hired me to catalogue and assemble the library, making it clear to me my work was done...or until he calls me to catalog more things he bought.  Not exactly a gig you can build your life around, right?  So as I put the signage on the walls and made sure all 10,873 items were perfectly in place on the shelves, I took a few photos and walked out the door.  What happened to the place wasn’t up to me anymore.  Like a lot of things in my life right now, I needed to put the experience in the archives and move on.

Thanks to having pretty consistent work for several years, I finally had enough money saved to take my dream vacation to London to celebrate my birthday last October…and I did it alone and it was literary awesome!  I had gotten my Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play ticket almost two years before and booked a tour to visit the film sets in person and both were as magical as this muggle anticipated.  The British Library launched their exhibit Harry Potter: A History of Magic the day before my birthday and as a aspiring writer, what a thrill it was to see J.K. Rowling’s manuscripts and handwritten plans in person.  Of course, I visited the Sherlock Holmes and Charles Dickens museums and had drinks, dinners, and walking tours at so many literary spots. Tea parties at Claridges, Browns and Mr. Foggs were must dos as was seeing my favorite British comedian Ricky Gervais.  It was all a reminder that being alone really isn't so bad after all.

 

Two other things that have brought me incredible joy over the past year are my cat Finnegan and scuba diving.  

Finn continues to be the best cat ever as he loves the outdoors walking on his leash, spending time with his dog friends and tolerates me putting him in costumes at the holidays.  He truly is a model cat and not just because he works as one showing off my pet harnesses and bow ties at my Etsy shop (my best seller being the Fantastic Beasts harness – thank you my fellow Harry Potter fans!)    

Getting certified in scuba back in March of 2017 was something I had wanted to do for years and now I wonder why I hesitated - I absolutely love it!  In the past year, I have done some twenty dives all around Florida and found beautiful seashells and swam with sharks, sea turtles, and even a Goliath grouper larger than me!  I hope I can continue to explore our oceans for many years to come.  Maybe someone is looking for a Scuba Diving Librarian?  Now that would be cool.

So for now, I will get back to applying for library jobs, sewing my literary (and scuba diving) fashions, and writing a new book (not to mention, editing the one that has been done for years...what a procrastinator, huh? haha)  

As always, thanks for joining me on this journey and as the great Charles Dickens' wrote "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

Meredith

Harry Potter & the Opening of Diagon Alley

My birthday is not until October but it obviously came early this year when I was invited to attend the Media Preview Week of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Diagon Alley and cover it for Creative Loafing Tampa.  

 

As a huge Harry Potter fan, I had a hard time taking it all in at times - the attention to detail was just so amazing on so many levels!  But as a journalist, I tried my best to cover it as a professional...at least until Neville HOTbottom came down the red carpet.  Have you seen that dude lately?  Wow.  Thanks also to Getty Images for including me in their red carpet photos - I felt like an honorary Weasley! Below are the links to my stories, photos, and videos.  The park opens July 8th so check it out, muggles!  

CREATIVE LOAFING TAMPA:

"One overjoyed muggle - look who's going to the Diagon Alley media preview!"

June 17, 2014

"Up her alley - The Wizarding World of Harry Potter's newest attraction"

July 3, 2014

DIAGON ALLEY VIDEOS (Click the title for link):

DIAGON ALLEY RED CARPET

DIAGON ALLEY TOUR

RIDING THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS

DIAGON ALLEY FOOD & BEVERAGE TOUR

PHOTOS:

***For photos, follow me on Facebook and Instagram.

Diagon Alley

Two words.

Diagon Alley.

Harry Potter.

Wizarding World.

Universal Orlando.

Media Preview.

Butterbeer.

I'M GOING!!!!!

The Harry Potter section of my home library.

Two fisting butterbeer & pumpkin juice in Hogsmeade
February 14, 2014.

Check out my piece in Creative Loafing Tampa about being invited to attend Universal Orlando Resort Diagon Alley Media Preview this week! 

Follow me on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram to join me...

Creative Loafing Tampa

Right when I think I am going to take a break, I am busier than ever!  So happy to share that my very first articles as a contributing writer for Creative Loafing Tampa appeared this week.  Thanks to my Editor In Chief David Warner and A&E Editor Julie Garisto for their support, and for giving me this wonderful opportunity to work as a writer!

I've been wearing this exact art on my belt buckle for three years!

First, was a literary food story I wrote for CL's Food Issue June 12 - 18 called Read, eat, ask for seconds where I discussed my love for butterbeer from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, cheese sandwiches & burgundy wine from James Joyce's Ulysses, high tea from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, apple pie from Jack Kerouac's On the Road, and yucatan shrimp from Randy Wayne White's Doc Ford novels and his restaurant down in Sanibel Island.  I also referenced Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol, Herman Melville's Moby Dick, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.

Here's all of the books used in the story.

The second and third pieces were in connection with my James Joyce Bloomsday event on June 16th at Wilson's Book World.  I had been reading Ulysses and tweeting about it with a variety of other James Joyce fans on Twitter, and it made sense for me to just write the stories.  The first was a simple 'Do This' promoting the event, and the second was on online piece basically consisting of a funny interview and discussion with Jeff Morris, owner of Wilson's Book World (and my co-host for the event) called Speaking of Bloomsday: an informal chat about James Joyce.

My Do This Bloomday listing where I incorporated
my two favorite lines from Ulysses.

Like most reporters, there were so many things that Jeff and I talked about that just didn't make it into the piece.  Below is the rest of the interview where we talk about the ethics of book buying, what booksellers look for, and why my 1st editions of Ulysses and Harry Potter books are worthless to him.  For more information about our Bloomsday event, click here.

Me with Wilson's owner Jeff Morris.

MM: I’m showing you my copy of Ulysses where someone has written in pencil on the inside cover $300, then crossed out and put $125.  Do you think this 3^rd edition, 1^st American edition is worth that much?

JM: No.  It’s the 3^rd edition of the 1^st printing is eh and your dust jacket is absolutely horrendous but at least it is present, but it is in horrendous condition.  If you want I can put that dust jacket…is it complete?  I can put that in a Mylar jacket, you could use it as a dust jacket. 

MM: As a librarian, I’ve seen lots of books being donated to the library and sometimes they smell like urine, so you don’t always want those.  So if someone brought this in to you, how much would you offer him or her for it?

JM: A couple of bucks.

MM: That’s it?

JM: Yeah, I would put it out with like twelve bucks on it.  You didn’t pay $125 for it, did you?

MM: No, it was a gift.  Apparently a crappy one.  But I’ve noticed people come in here and bringing you books and we are under this assumption that these are worth something, and they are but it is the words in the books that is worth the most, not the books themselves.  I was so excited to get this mostly because it was from a friend I care about that’s why t is priceless to me but in this condition as a book buyer…

JM: That would be good stock for the shelves.  In order to sell that, you would have to put the dust jacket together in a Mylar sleeve, and then you got to post it online with all of the other James Joyce stuff that is out there and hopefully it will sell.  Value is a very fleeting thing.

MM: What are you looking for?

JM: The better the condition, absolutely, and the dust jacket is like 70% of the value.

MM: Wait.  That’s important for people to know.  Explain that.

JM: It would be incomplete without it.  And it has to be the dust jacket from the edition.  For example, I had a copy of Ian Fleming’s Diamonds Are Forever, a first edition.  Without the dust jacket?  50 bucks?  With the dust jacket, even slightly beat up?  350.  There is a lot of difference in price.  You have to have the dust jacket.  Most of the time if something comes in, I won’t even look at it.  It’s just one of those things.

MM: What about the editions?  From First to Second to Third?

JM: First edition, first printing is what you want to strive for. 

MM: See, I’ve always looked for First Editions but now I know to look for First Editions, First Printings.

JM: Yeah and for something like Ulysses, you might as well go ahead and spend the $12,000 to get the really true First Edition. 

MM: What about signatures?

JM: Depends.  Is it signed or inscribed?  If it signed “Best Wishes, James Joyce.” Major bucks because he didn’t inscribe it to anybody.  “To Meredith, Thanks for being a great friend, James Joyce.”  Yeah it has his signature, but as a bookseller, unless I am selling it to someone named Meredith, or Meredith is a really famous person…

MM: She’s not.

JM: Because that adds profit.

MM: Well if James Joyce is writing it to me that means he is still alive so it is going to be worth a lot!

JM: Or it is a ghost.  As long as someone is living, don’t expect much.  But if you get a J.K. Rowling English First Edition of the Harry Potters and it is signed by her – she doesn’t do a whole lot.  Stephen King has backed off a whole lot.  The main thing you want to look for is dead guys.

MM: Great.  I have a First Edition Harry Potter but is an American Edition so now that’s not as cool.

JM: Nope.

MM: What if it is signed by the whole Harry Potter cast?

JM: Then it becomes more of a novelty item. 

MM: So if it is signed by Daniel Radcliffe…

JM: I’m not a movie guy so if you bring in a copy signed by Harry Radcliffe, I wouldn’t really care.

MM: It's Daniel Radcliffe who plays Harry Potter…well I guess we aren’t doing a Harry Potter event anytime soon!  So for anybody out there that wants to sell you books, what are you looking for?

JM: I have a list on my website of the topics we are searching for and I am usually here from 11 – 4 and I prefer for them to just pull up out front.  It’s a lot easier than having them carry boxes back and forth.  Another thing I just don’t understand that 80% of people all do, is when I open the box, they proceed to tell me what they have.  “I’ve got biographies over here, and this over here.”  It’s like opening up the hood to your car and telling your mechanic where the carburetor is.  When I go out to a car and open the box, I know within seconds what you have and pretty much what I wanted.

There are two types of people.  There are the ones that just want to get books out there so they can find a good home.  Then there are the people that think “everything I have is gold” and they don’t believe you.  I am a member of the Florida Antiquarian Book Seller Organization, we subscribe to a code of ethics, I’m not going to blow any smoke up your skirt and the worst thing people can do is tell me “you know I looked these books up on the internet.”  I don’t care if I want those books so bad that I will then have to wait, I’m probably going to pass just because I know that person has got an unreasonable expectation in their mind of what these things are worth and I’m not the guy that is going to talk them out of it.  I haven’t got the time.

MM: There you have it, folks.  Our books are pretty much worthless – unless we are READING them!!!!

Jeff repaired my edition of Ulysses
so I can use it at our Bloomsday event!