"grant an ugly woman is a blot on the fair face of creation; but as to the gentlemen, let them be solicitous to possess only strength and valour"

i had the most remarkable time brainstorming yesterday with various people about

B.O.O.K.L.I.N.G

yes, i have decided to drop the "s" for the store, mainly because it just sounds better singularly - but also because that one bookling can represent ME...

i spent the later part of a randomly spontaneous lunch with jess and kelly brainstorming about my business plan. then i talked with joel about it quite a bit later, and then at dinner with jenn and brian - we excited ourselves for an while on the prospects.

so here are some further developments:

• if i have to stick to my guns about one concept, the real initial concept is a bookstore bar. this will be a bookstore in the front (to attract street traffic) and a bar in the back (to encourage families to still enter).
• if required to separate the two - bookstore first! bar a VERY close second.
• silk screen every piece of stemware and bar glass with the catholicbeer symbol (promoting joel's master brewing skills, of course).
• brian will help the master bar tender (ben has requested this position, but he must be trained by either kelly or brad! :) ) and will also come in for daily readings for the children...in which he can promote his new book (man-eating vegetables).
• all i know will spend inordinate amounts of money at this place.
• we will host a major brainstorming session for the menu pairings and writing.
• would be ideal to buy a house and use the street entrance for bookstore, and live above it for a while...eventually renting it out (we still need boundaries from the business!)

So yeah, I am pretty jazzed. I am seriously loving how energetic everyone has been about this, and how much recourse I have at my fingertips through the people I love.

Happy Reading,
~~ Mme. Bookling.

[women] "should be woo'd and were not made to woo"

dear loving readers:
please do not forget your assignment. please read title of blog and make an educated guess based on your astute educations and elite cultural exposure as to the origin of said quote.
thank you.
mme. bookling.

well happy thursday, hopeful bookstore patrons. i find myself thinking less about the bookstore these days and more about my little sister's wedding. i suppose that is to be expected - that this dream will interweave with my life and like a good wine, grab up it's influences and aromas to enrich itself.

june 8th is the big day.

Mme. Bookling (c'est moi) will be looking fabulous in her new 20lbs lighter body.

it

feels

so

good.

this wedding will also bring me adam and erin from savannah, georgia. adam will sit with me after the wedding and we will discuss booklings with vehemence and dreams (all well-mixed with reality and temperance, bien sur).

so you see the connection - this wedding will have a great part in booklings.

i suppose i should get started on the business plan (see questions on first blog), but ordering parasols, making massage appointments, and meticulizing (i know) over the itinerary is just so much MORE FUN. (shhhh, booklings can't hear).

maybe today's lunch with friends will help me answer some questions.
(that is, if i can get them to NOT talk about the wedding, and since they are the caterer and the artistic designer, this will be a feat).

but all of this to say - life happens in the midst of dreams. dreams happen in the midst of life.

(what's in the clouds for you?)

love's not time's fool

i sometimes laugh at myself. i just feel like i change my mind so easily about so many things.

i mean it.

like two months ago, i was all psychology all the time. i still really love it, and wouldn't mind still pursuing it, but i have moved on to new interests.

and SNAP. i am all of a sudden interested in being an entrepreneur. this just makes me laugh at myself.

and laughing is necessary for us all.

i think for far too long i have discredited the fact that i waver. (and boy do i waver). when i start a new interest, i almost immediately steal the energy from behind it because i know i am going to eventually loose interest. then, i never pursue the thing in the first place.

so through this whole opening a bookstore thing, i am really focusing on not discrediting that i waver. now matter how hard i wish for powers to morf myself into a certain mathematical, even-keeled, immensely logical theologian who never seems to freak out about anything, i am realizing more and more that this existence doesn't give me a choice. i have to be candace.

e
m
o
t
i
o
n
and all.

i haven't left you booklings.

p.s what are you reading today? may your memorial day bring even 15 min with a very good book.

"imagine your pain as a white ball of healing light"**

it's official, i can't sleep. in my defense, i went to bed two hours earlier than usual, but i have been so exhausted lately that i figured it would be good for me. nope. instead, i tossed and turned until midnight - with visions of a new painting, a book, worries and anxieties about the bookstore, julie's wedding, weekend plans, my house, the bookstore, having babies, doubting the existence of god, hurting for friends, missing jackie, wondering about my sisters, the bookstore, joel's twitching, i am going to die and my life is a big waste...oh you know, just the minor stuff.

nor can i even focus enough to write, but i must trust this process - so here goes.

deflated, energized.
overwhelmed, on-top-of-the-world.
nauseated, driven.
oh-my-gawd-you-can't-fucking-do-this, holy-crap-you-know-you-can-do-this!

can i just thank god over and over again for joelio? he is able to take all of my crazy thoughts and encourage me to not loose it.

lemme splain.

i got this amazing email from my cousin, who is this amazing business guy. (who basically needs to be the CFO of booklings - but who can afford him?!!). nothing to his discredit at all, because everything he said is really jazzing me today, but last night, when i got this huge email about everything that needs to be done even now, even just in the INCEPTION phase of booklings, even when she is just an unfertilized egg in my uterus...and boom.

i am
sinking
back
to the
time
where my mother told me'
that i couldn't be an ice-capades dancer because i was too old
and should
have
started
soooonnnneeeerrrr..........

which is really freaking true, but kids - this little girl had ENOUGH of the truth as a child. she needed a little imagination.

correction. needs.

why did adam's email have this affect on me? as i sat on the couch, staring into space...i realized that somewhere tucked in the details of that email was this voice. you know the voice.

what-are-you-thinking?-you-can't-you-won't. what-will-everyone-think.

but then joel said something that broke through this mind-numbing doubt.

it went something like this. "candi, this can still just be something you do for the next ten years. this isn't your life endeavor...this isn't what defines you. if it fails, it's just a bookstore. so we get up, we try again. the point is to have a passion for your soul work, and if your soul is leading you to this - we must trust it." he didn't say those words exactly or even really at all - but it's what i heard.

so now, looking today at the list of things adam wants me to do, i feel better. i feel like a steady comination of this is going to be really hard and you are actually going to be your own boss.

but bear with me, friends. i will be lucky to get a five year plan launched in the next couple of months, and through that, i am sure my process with be soo entirely full of the "catch and release" (thanks kc for the apt phrase) just like candace always was.

when the cynicism kicks in, i am realizing that it's not always bad. it's just not okay for it to be in charge. after all, as my lovely counselor pointed out, my cynicism has served me well. it kept me from evangelical fundamentalism, it kept me from settling in my marriage, it keeps me thriving towards soul work. but when it starts out-shadowing the imagination and positive thoughts, when it's in the driver's seat 24/7, (which is how i have up to now lived my life), then the sinking sick loss of hope freezes me. so the cynicism towards booklings is okay, but not when it strips my soul and tells me that i can't when i know very well that i can.

if details bore you, you may want to stop reading here.

in a practical way,
i am realizing that i need to start really simply. to begin, it will have to be JUST books/alcohol/gifts/venue for art. after that, we will add the other endeavors.

wanna see the questions candace will be working on today?

• What type of customer am I trying to attract?
• Who is my competition?
• What will differentiate my business from my competition?
• What product line(s) will I carry?
• How will I market my business?
• How will I train my employees?
• How many employees will I need?
• How much will I pay my employees?
• Will I offer my employees benefits?
• If so, how much will this cost?
• Where will the business be located?
• What will my costs be? Rent? Electricity? Food costs? Insurance? Labor?
• What will my pricing strategy be?
• Approximately how much money will it take to start the business?
• What do I want the interior of my business to look like?
• What sort of atmosphere am I trying to create?
• What sort of signage will I have on my storefront?
• Where will I get my bread?
• Do I want to outsource my bread making to a known Seattle bakery or bake it fresh daily
• Do I want to make the dough myself or buy dough frozen?
• How do I get a liquor license?
• If I serve alcohol do I eliminate an important "under 21" demographic?
• Where can I get books at wholesale?

**a new game. each of the new bookling post titles will be an excerpt from a book. see if you can guess which book and author from which the quote is taken.

when booklings was just a twinkle in my eye

So I am actually really jazzed about this whole opening a bookstore thing

(which is probably an understatement. I mean, I am really pursuing it).

(I used to dream about this in college. Though, admitedly it inluded me in a slinky red cocktail dress, singing on a piano)


Would you like to see my initial business plans? Well, okay. In list form, of course.

• email Adam (my super business-savvy cousin) about start up business (check)
• get domain name (check – www.thebookling.com – if it doesn’t work now, give it 24 hours)
• start bookstore blog (check – www.thebooklings.blogspot.com)
• read books about starting up business (check – researched and added to my to read on goodreads )
• visit every independent bookseller in seattle proper to gather research
• perhaps volunteer at a bookstore for a couple of hours on the weekends – for one year
  

And that, my lovelings, is a great place to start, no?

happy reading!

love, madame bookling.