I don’t know how other writers spend the week before publication, but I took last Saturday to launch a massive housecleaning/tidying project, attending to various tasks that had been ignored for weeks, even months. A painting whose wire had snapped was re-hung. Papers were filed. I even cleaned out the junk drawer in the kitchen, removing things that didn’t belong — photographs, a couple of movies on VHS, please don’t ask me to reveal the titles — and sorting through the various tools, screws, nails, etc., so they were orderly. In doing that, I found a tiny screwdriver, perfect for tightening the small screws in eyeglasses. I was delighted. Then I glanced at the handle, which bore the name “Barbara Serenella.”
Barbara was a crime writer who died this year, while waiting for a liver transplant. It would have been her third. We did not know each other particularly well, but we had overlapped at the same publishing house for a while, shared meals at a convention or two. She gave me the screwdriver at Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Crystal City, Va., in November 2001. It was a promotional item, linked to her series about a tough mechanic, Munch Mancini.
In the mystery world, there is an endless debate about such items — bookmarks, magnets, T-shirts, etc., give-aways emblazoned with the author’s name or character’s name. Do such efforts actually sell books? Should new writers invest their advances in these items, or use their money to tour? I’ve never had any, largely because I am a lazy, disorganized person with a complicated relationship to stuff. (I like it, I want it. I hate it, I want to get rid of as much as possible — so I can get some more.)
But in all the debate about these items, I don’t think that anyone has given thought to the fact that someone might find a bookmark/magnet/screwdriver and lose several minutes, sitting on the kitchen floor and thinking about a dinner several years ago. And tearing up, just a little, at the loss of a generous, talented person.
If you’re interested in becoming an organ donor, visit this site:
http://www.organdonor.gov/donor/index.htm
In Michigan, you can indicate on the back of your driver’s license what organs are to be donated. There is a block to check if the answer is all. Only trouble is it’s easy to smudge it off over the life of the license.
In Illinois, we too have an easy organ donor sign-up option with our driver’s licenses. Our state’s info says this now goes directly to the IL o/d progam registry. Hope so, because we have the smudge issue with ours as well. We only receive a new sticker for the back of the old one, upon renewal. The law recently changed here though, and now does not require additional consent from a family member or witnesses. Also, for our cars, there’s a vanity plate choice for “Be an Organ Donor”, with Walter Payton’s #34 and the Bear’s logo.
I love some of the book-related promo items… practical or memorable’s the best kind. I’ve way too much of it stashed here in several boxes. But I always use the bookmarks, especially if I was lucky enough to get it signed or if it brings back memories. But much is simply junk I need to clear out one day. Meet your fellow packrat.
Remember the onions that Barbara gave away at Chicago 2005 Bcon? Had tag that read: You take the onion, I’ll keep the liver. As you say, we will miss her.
One of the few bright spots in getting burglarized is that I got to opt for organ donation on my new driver’s license.
I miss Barbara, too, with or without the eyeglass screwdriver.
I don’t really believe that promotional items like those are at the top of my “things to spend money on during launch.”
But I must admit I love my Jack Racher travel toothbrush.
You have to admit, a screwdriver small enough to use on eyeglasses really gets the mystery-reading demographic.
And I think there’s probably something to be said about that Jack Reacher toothbrush, but I’ll keep it fair, to quote “Caddyshack.”
I am signed up to be an organ donor. I was in Chicago this weekend and saw one of the exhibits of bodies that have been plastinated(plasticized?). My daughter wanted to see it- and I thought it was only the skeletons that were real. Once I read about the process in the exhibit- I felt ill(I think it reminded me of some Vincent Price movie I saw once). I strongly support the use of bodies for organ donation or medical science. I guess I understand that the public has a right to be educated by seeing these bodies -but it felt more like a violation- even though the people who donated their bodies for this knew exactly what would be done. However, I started to feel like it was too much for me and could not look at the fetuses in the last room. I guess this is off topic .
By the way, besides on my license, my advance health directive says I am to be an organ donor.
Laura, thanks for organ and tissue donation plug. In Virginia, folks can go to http://www.save7lives.org/ and be on the list for Virginia.
I am so sad for you and your friend. People die every day waiting for organs to become available due to the shortage of donors.
Enough, off my soapbox,
Barbara
(A kidney transplantee)
wow. what a cool story. and a great thought about these types of things and the memories they bring back. I think it’s easy to get caught up in the “is that really necessary?” questions about writer’s marketing themselves in this way, but you bring up a great point – we’re all people, with relationships to each other, and one little token like that may become a treasure later on, as this screwdriver was. very cool.
My husband is under strict instructions to donate whatever parts of me as can be reused and cremate the rest. Isn’t it strange that donating the rest of me, to say, The Body Farm in Tennessee or to a school, still has the power to make me squirm?
We’re moving again and so I’m going through drawers/closets/etc and finding all kinds of stuff. Too much stuff! And I want more, too.
Bookmarks are nice. Promotional items related to the book could be fun. I re-organized my junk drawer a few months ago and now it’s no longer a treasure hunt with hidden surprises.
It is important for all to involve your families in your decision to be a donor. No matter what you have said, if your family decides they do not want your organs and tissues to be “harvasted,” the medical staff will not do so without their consent.
Barbara
What’s VHS?
I miss her, too, Laura. I miss her cheering ME up in Chicago, when I was moping around because I was in Chicago without my hubby, who died the year before. We had planned for Bcon to be our actual real honeymoon, 4 years into the marriage. Well, he never made it that far.
And Barbara found me sitting on a step in a far corner of the bottom floor (remember?) and trying not to cry…thinking of Bob. She put her hand on my shoulder, I looked up at her and she said, (not quite a quote), “Think of this trip as learning about the man you loved…and smile.”
I’ll never forget her for that, or a lot of other things. She was an original.
and by the by, I’ve been an organ donor since I first got my driver’s license a Looooong time ago.