Musings on books, ants and bird flu

Monday I worked adding footnotes to my book on the history of firefighting in Jacksonville. I hope to have that book ready for publication in about three weeks.

As I worked on it, I mused about possible futures for my books.

Pipe dreams really.

For instance I imagined that Stephen King stayed awake all last night worried that this is the book that will bump him off the best seller list and that I’ll usurp his place as the best writer alive today.

My book traces the history of my hometown from the viewpoint of how many times the place has burned down. And while my book touches on politics within the Fire Department, it focuses on the bravery and heroic deeds of firefighters who save lives and property daily.

I can envision massive crowds of readers huddled in sleeping bags on the pavement and fighting for places in line as they wait for bookstores to open so they can buy my book.

Little kids will dress in fireman costumes. Books store owners will stack copies of J.K. Rowling’s books on the floor to make steps so little kids can stand on them to reach the countertop to get my book.

Adoring teens will chant my name and throw themselves on the hood of the limo as I pull in for the book signing.

Luscious young women will mob me ripping their own bodices open, screaming for my autograph as tears stream down their faces..

Bankers will secure first editions in vaults gloating over the increased value as my book goes into printing after printing.

Computers sit idle, screensavers flickering, as nerds abandon the net to pour over my book..

On the other hand…

I also envision that library book sale Sunday where thousands of books—whose authors worked just as hard as I do— languish on tables picked over by indifferent crowds who think a dollar is too much to spend on a writer’s life work.

Every book on those tables represents as much work and as many dreams as my own books do. Sobering thought.

“Of the making of many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh,” said wise King Solomon.

That didn’t stop him from writing his books though, did it?

Hey, he even wrote poetry and we all know what a booming market there is for that stuff.

Of course, King Solomon lucked out and got his books included in the pages of the Bible—which didn’t become a best seller till long after he was dead.

Even kings are frustrated writers at heart.

And other parts of the Bible show that Solomon’s own children paid no attention to the wisdom he wrote down.

“All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes,” Solomon wrote, “But the Lord weigheth the spirits. Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.”

Another thing he wrote says, “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. (The ant) provideth her meat in the summer and gathereth her food in the harvest.”

Wise words indeed.

I thought of his advice as I read this morning’s Associated Press report on bird flu. The disease spread to 17 new countries last month alone. It has crossed from birds to some mammals (cats, of course).

Considering what the Black Death did in medieval times, what Spanish Lady did in World War I, how Yellow Jack decimated Jacksonville in 1888 (a tidbit from my history book) and how Typhoid Fever killed more soldiers right here in Jacksonville than died in all the fighting of the Spanish American War—

Well, it might not hurt to prepare our souls and pantries for bad times ahead.

Be sure to stock your bunkers with a few cans of beans and copies of my different books to read during the possible bad times ahead.

I hope bird flue fizzles out. I really do.

But, if not, my history of firefighting in Jacksonville—or my book on prayer—might help surviving readers get through tough times.