It's the only metropolis for a thousand kilometres either way, stuck in the middle of the vast exapanse of the country and gets it's trade because it is on the road from Adelaide north to Darwin, as well as being not far [in Australian terms] from Ayer's Rock, the great red monolith. I decline to call it Uluru.
There are a number of little surprises in this story.
Bev Ellis is apparently manager of
Next surprise is that Stephen King chose to be there and if on holiday, why, when Bev Ellis was:
"… in my office ... he came in and started signing books and one of our customers thought he was writing in them."
The article continues:
Mr King had left the store by the time she came out but when Ms Ellis was told about the man's strange behaviour she assumed it was the writer himself.
"Their books are like children to them and they look to see how they are going."
She adds:
"I saw him go to Woolworths and he was in the fruit and veg section. I was very polite and I asked him how long he had been in town
... He just smiled, I don't think he wanted people to know he was here but I told him that if I knew he was coming I would have baked him a cake."
The next thing which puzzles me is:
The six copies of the book signed by Mr King will be donated to various charities concerned with literature.
Surely they'd keep one for themselves.
And lastly, was there anything wrong with him just walking in and signing his own books? Is that defacing them - should he pay the costs? Is the man strange or just in permanent autho-drive?
It's hardly defacing them - an author's signature in a book increases it's value!
ReplyDeleteMy feeling too, TD.
ReplyDeleteI think it was an amazing act of generosity and kindness, especially in thie far off place where the poeple were never likely to ever get to a reaal signing. The woman sounds slike a numbskull- too quick to label and judge things she doesn't understand. I hate small minded people like that.
ReplyDeleteI live here in Alice Springs and didn't even hear about him being here til now. I am surprised that he even came out here. Though it's a small town, it doesn't mean that we can't enjoy having a book store out here :)
ReplyDeleteNot a question of a book store, SK - just that it was one the size of Dymocks. Great to hear from someone in that part of the world.
ReplyDeleteI stayed in Alice one summer - it was a bit hot and dry.
Uber - agreed.
Nice story. I think that was quite generous of SK. I loved the N Shute novel, btw, but SK's work scares me silly!
ReplyDeleteHeard about this last night over dinner... saw the article today.
ReplyDeleteIt's not like Dymock's in Alice is as physically huge as a Border's or a Barnes and Noble - the Dymock's here in Alice is the size of a good-sized Tat's or chemist's. And town has about 30k people resident, with 20k + coming through as tourists - more than enough to support a Dymock's, a Book City, and a couple used and specialty book stores. We also have 3 major grocery stores and a number of minor ones, a movie theater, two stage theaters, about a hundred restaurants and a casino.... Not exactly the wilderness, although the number of famous author signings is not particularly notable.
The store owner Bev is really nice. Almost any book store owner will tell you they regularly have to deal with people who rip pages from books, bend them in funny ways, read them in the store then leave without a purchase, write in them, leave grubby pawprints all over the new pages and do various other innappropriate things. So some strange man coming in and starting to scribble in books? Not going to be assumed right off, "hey! That must be a famous author in this sleepy little hamlet come to sign his books!" (Ok, so Alice is no sleepy little hamlet, but still...)
Heh.... it always makes me snicker when people come here in the Australian summer. Silly people. Come here in July, it's much nicer. No flies, fewer snakes, nice weather, good hiking. Summer is deadly, for real. At least sk had good timing.
Thanks, Ant - that gives the whole picture now. Yes, Alice in summer is crazy but that's why I wanted to do it. Just once I had to see Darwin/Katherine/the centre at the wrong time. Glad I did - never again at that time.
ReplyDelete