There’s a special place in the heart of Virginians for John Grisham, and for good reasons.
Go to New Dominion Books on the Mall in Charlottesville … or Griffin Bookshop in classic downtown Fredericksburg. There, preserved for all visitors, are whole shelves devoted to favorite son Grisham. His roots may be in Mississippi, but his heart is in the Piedmont (downtown Charlottesville office, 204-acre farm south of town). His fame, reached fully with potboiler legal classics like A Time to Kill and The Firm, is well established.
But he loves telling stories of selling A Time to Kill from the first press run of 5,000 copies in the early ’90s out of his trunk, going door to door for introductions, trying to find his audience. But the second book caught fire, Tom Cruise played Mitch McDeere, and two score volumes later, the rest is publishing history.
Not a bad tradition to be replicating, huh?
My summer’s endeavors to introduce Mother Fracker and Morningside Press to northern Virginia’s independent bookstores have resulted in nearly two dozen fine establishments taking a chance on this first-time novelist. Along the way, I’ve met some courageous people maintaining the tradition of brick-and-mortar book sales against the tsunami tide of Amazon’s engulf-and-devour tactics.
And so, introducing the Mother Fracker Network, stretching across five states:
Florida
Books and Books, Coral Gables, Fla.
Mitchell Kaplan
Steve Moss
Washington, D.C.
Politics and Prose, Washington, D.C.
Bradley Graham
Virginia
R.H. Ballard, Washington, Va.
Robert and Joanie Ballard
The Corner Store, Sperryville, Va.
Ken Thompson
Gadino Cellars, Washington, Va.
Stephanie Gadino Pross; Bill & Aleta Gadino
River District Arts, Sperryville, Va.
Jim Allmon
The Book Gallery, Winchester, Va.
Christine Patrick
Royal Oak Books, Front Royal, Va.
Kevin Sherbrook
Second Chapter Books, Middleburg, Va.
KathyJo Shea
Bookworks, Staunton, Va.
Ron Ramsey
Books and Other Found Things, Leesburg, Va.
Allen Robinson and Nancy King Robinson
BJ’s Books, Warrenton, Va.
Beth and staff
Stone Soup, Waynesboro, Va.
Mary Katharine Froehlich
Over the Moon Books, Crozet, Va.
Anne and Scott
New Dominion Books, Charlottesville, Va.
Carol Troxel and Mitzi Ware
Books & Co., Lexington, Va.
Anna Lisa Fitzgerald
Around the Block Books, Purcellville, Va.
Laura Chernow
Griffin Bookshop, Fredericksburg, Va.
Eileen and staff
North Carolina
Park Road Books, Charlotte, N.C.
Books to be Red, Ocracoke, N.C.
West Virginia
The Book Loft, Lewisburg, W.Va.
Missouri
Mark Twain Brewing and Moses Bates Public House, Hannibal, Mo.
Bill and Terry Martin
My thanks to each and every one of ya!