One Small Success and Overdue Library Books

Last summer while reading Neil Gaiman's book of short stories called Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders I was amazed by his methods as a writer - getting an inspiration for a story and immediately writing the entire thing, let's say during a flight to a particular city. In other words, he can write his stories in one sitting.

For those of us with toddlers, heaping mounds of laundry, and television programs to watch, writing a story in the span of a few hours is not very realistic. I my case, writing historical fiction short stories, I prefer to take it slowly - purging my brain in small inspirational bursts. Historical fiction is all about facts and I definitely do not want to be the nincompoop that gets her literary start by getting important details wrong. With that said, I have successfully completed the first half of a short story that I am becoming more and more proud of. One small step for man...

Now, as much as I would like to sit in a room surrounded by books that never have to be returned to libraries or friends and magically appear as I need them, I do have to think of little things such as due dates.

It is becoming more and more expensive to buy ink cartridges for the home printer, and even more to pay for copies at, let's say, Kinkos. So, I've figured out that between making copies of the many pages of a particular library book and then having to buy a new cartridge because I have used the ink up pretty much equals the price to buy the book from the bookstore. However, as awesome as it would be to have an unlimited bank account designated for the purchasing of books - either for pleasure or research, of course - this little resource does not exist, for me at least. So, now I am facing the issue of having to continue to recheck out the book over and over until I have the money to order a copy for myself (it is not one that can be found easily on the Barnes & Noble shelves) and NOT let myself mark or highlight in the library's copy. Therefore, I will keep the library book until I can get my own or else the Shreveport library system sends the book police after me.

I can see it now... A burly dog catcher-type man wielding a large net and a Taser gun waiting for me to leave my house so that he can shock me to the ground before scooping up my overdue library books in his net. Did I mention that he is wearing special goggles in case the reader tries to scratch his eyeballs out for taking his or her books? If it turns out that you never leave your house, said library police bursts through your door, pours out your coffee, takes books, and locks you up in a cell where no reading is allowed until you pay the fee and promise to buy your books from the store from now on.

Somebody should write a story about this...