← From the Front Porch
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- [00:02]
Annie B. Jones
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- [00:24]
Hunter McClendon
I really do.
- [00:27]
Annie B. Jones
Welcome to from the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. I have disappeared into books since I was a young girl, and I love disappearing into them today. I love leaving this world for a couple of hours and immersing myself in another one. But I also love turning a page and closing a cover. Because I know now I have the renewed energy to exit the contours of my chair and become once again, a wife, a daughter, a boss, a friend, a person Annie B. Jones Ordinary Time I'm Annie Jones, owner of the Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. Today, in preparation for the publication of my debut book, Ordinary Time, I'm talking about my audiobook recording experience and including a little excerpt from the audiobook itself, too. Ordinary Time launches into the world next Tuesday, April 22nd, Earth Day. And although I'm a little more, oh, you know, pregnant than I thought I'd be, I'm thrilled to announce I'll be in a few Southern bookstores to celebrate the book's release. Complete event details can be found@anniebjoneswrites.com there's also a link in the show notes, but here's a brief rundown. On Tuesday, April 22, that is launch day, I will be at the Bookshelf in Thomasville, Georgia. That event is sold out. I will be there with my friend and beloved podcaster Jamie B. Golden. I cannot believe she is graciously driving down to Thomasville to help me celebrate this milestone. She's a fantastic conversationalist, as you all know, and so I'm thrilled to be in conversation with her on April 22nd. Two days later, at Midtown Reader in Tallahassee, Florida, I will be in conversation with my friend and fellow bookstore owner Sally Bradshaw. That event is free and open to the public. And so come one, come all, I'm excited to see you. The April 22nd event is sold out, but the April 24th, when there should be room. So come see me at Midtown Reader in Tallahassee. On April 28th, I will be in Birmingham, Alabama at Little Professor Bookstore, again with a friend and small business expert Carrie Rollwagen. Carrie has been a mentor to me in small business ownership and so I cannot wait to get to see her and to talk with her and I can't wait for you to get to hear her expertise as well. That's on April 28th. That event is ticketed. On April 29th I will be at Garden District Bookshop in New Orleans in conversation with a fellow bookseller. One of the booksellers at Garden District has graciously agreed to be in conversation with me. All of these conversation partners I am so grateful for. And so that event is on April 29th in New Orleans. It's free and open to the public. Last but not least, on May 5th I will be at M. Judson in Greenville, South Carolina. This event is ticketed, so make sure you grab your tickets. All of these events ticket information, all that Jazz is on the Annie B. Jones Rights website. And if you're far away and you cannot join me in person at one of these events, Never fear. On May 8, Thursday, May 8 at 7pm Eastern, I'll be hosting a virtual event on Zoom with my dear Hunter McClendon. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased through the bookshelf. There's a link in the show notes. I wanted a way to honor all of the long distance friends and customers who won't be able to make it on this book tour this spring. It was always my goal to get to see as many of you as possible, and that goal has shifted with my pregnancy and so conversing with Hunter long distance via Zoom felt like a good way to get to interact with all the long distance customers and friends who made this book possible. This event will be recorded so you can watch later if you can't attend live again, that is May 8, 7pm Eastern. Virtual Zoom event tickets are $10 and they can be purchased through the bookshelf. There's a link in the show notes. All of the event details are available@anniebjoneswrites.com I cannot wait to see you and celebrate this milestone with you. Now back to the show. There is no guarantee an author will get to read her words in audiobook format. Certainly for a nonfiction memoir or essays, that might be the expectation. At least it's my expectation as a reader. But there are few, if any, guarantees in traditional publishing. So when I signed my book deal back In November of 2023, it was included in my contract that I be considered as the narrator or for the narrator. But there were no promises. It was just a possibility. This past February, I was able to drive to a little studio in Tallahassee and record the audiobook version of Ordinary Time. There is no doubt in my mind that this podcast made that hope, my hope, a reality. I really do believe that all of these episodes of from the Front Porch, and there are, at this point, so many episodes of from the Front Porch, it's my belief that they served as my metaphorical audition tapes, which means, you, listener, made the audiobook version of Ordinary Time possible. Thanks to you, I got to read my story and my words in my literal voice, and I am so grateful. Ordinary Time is a deeply personal book. It's one of the many reasons reading reviews is not necessarily a practice I personally want to engage with. And so to read it aloud in a booth in front of two strangers was equally personal, just as personal as writing it honestly, and felt somehow even more vulnerable. Reading the book aloud is something I did many times up to that point. Reading aloud is a huge part of my writing and editing process. I read this book aloud to Jordan, to my parents, Sam, certainly multiple times. He's probably sick of it by now. But it didn't really occur to me that I'd be recording the book in front of two strangers. Obviously, I know that audiobooks don't happen in a vacuum, that I would not be alone in a studio somewhere, but the reality of recording with two strangers was bizarre to me. So the audio producer, Corey, owns the studio in Tallahassee where I recorded, and Caitlin, the audiobook director, was in my ear every step of the way from New York. So she was virtual, and then Corey was in person. Reading for them was great practice for reading for you, and it was the beginning for me of letting go of this book.
- [07:32]
Hunter McClendon
Think.
- [07:33]
Annie B. Jones
Right before I recorded the audiobook, I stumbled across a series of Instagram stories from author Jeff Chu. He just released the book Good Soil, and I saw him talking about the process of a book leaving the author's hands and entering the readers. He had been recording his own audiobook, and he talked about how once the book is to the audiobook stage, it's really no longer his. And as I read the book aloud to Corey and Caitlin, but also to you, I began to feel the same way when you record the audiobook. And this was news to me. I wasn't 100% sure about this, but when you record the audiobook, there is no more editing or changing. I would read this out loud, and I'd wince occasionally in that little booth, realizing I wanted a different word choice there, or I wanted a word to be a contraction when I Hadn't made it one I wanted like I had done at my house. I wanted to edit as I read, but it was just too late. The book is done, which I knew. I mean, that's not a surprise. By the time you record the audiobook, of course the book is done. The book is in PDF format. It's been sent to the printer. But it was sobering to realize, oh, I'm reading this and there is nothing I can do. It is what it is. There's nothing I could do to make it better. There's no more editing. It really rubs against any perfectionist tendencies you might have. I say all the time that the bookshelf runs up against those perfectionist tendencies. I really don't think you can own a small business and be a perfectionist. I'm just convinced it kind of beats it out of you. And writing a book, I think, is the same thing. I, of course, do not believe that Ordinary Time is a perfect book. There are so many things I would love to change, and yet it's too late. And at the same time, as I read aloud, I also fell in love with parts of the book. I would read, sentences or paragraphs where I thought, well, hey, that's pretty good. So the downside was I can't change anything. I couldn't fix anything. The upside was occasionally I was reminded of, oh, that is a really good story, or that is a really great way to word that. And that was comforting. I also recorded the audiobook while I was recovering from a horrific cold. I honestly shudder to think about it now. It laid me out for much of February and I'd never considered that I might be pregnant while, you know, writing, recording, editing, publicizing, marketing, all of the above. And this means, you know, being pregnant of course, meant no cold medication, just like old fashioned home remedies that really, I'm so sorry to say, they're just not as effective as NyQuil would have been. Luckily, I have been listening to other authors talk about their various experiences for a long time. Perhaps you have too. And so I knew several writers and authors who also had colds either during or before their book recording, their audiobook recording. So I was comforted to know that this just happens. It's almost like your body knows, oh, I, I need to perform. Too bad. And so it was infuriating. But it did feel like a rite of passage. Like I was one of the authors I'd read about or heard about who had to, you know, use nasal spray before, before recording. So, so little of this entire Thing. This entire process has gone according to my plan, which I suppose is a great life lesson also for the parenting journey I'm about to embark upon. The audiobook was just one more thing that felt less than ideal. The day I was leaving to record, my first day of recording was an afternoon recording, so I was able to take it slow in the morning and gargle with salt and lemon water. I packed a thermos of hot water. I'm not a tea drinker, as most of you know, and so I just was trying to be creative about what could soothe my throat. And then I drove to Corey's studio on the outskirts of Tallahassee, located in a renovated barn on his property, which felt, honestly, perfectly ordinary time. So the good news is, all the batch recording I've been engaging in for the last year and a half has paid off, because sitting in a booth recording for hours on end did come relatively naturally. I took bathroom breaks, of course, and I stretched. But it was all so much more normal than I thought I felt capable, which was a relief, because so much of this, you know, essentially, I'm doing a new job. And the first, I always tell people when they start at the bookshelf, the first three months are the hardest. It's what Jordan and I think about any job we've started. And writing a book came naturally to me. I don't know if that will be the case always, but it was the case for this one. I loved the writing process, and Jordan has said that watching me write the book was like somebody turning on a faucet, and all the words just kept tumbling out. So writing the book felt natural. I wasn't sure if recording the audiobook would feel natural, but it turns out when you've been podcasting since, oh, gosh, 2013, that's a long. That's a long time. Over 500 episodes. And so to feel capable of something when so much of this process has made me feel incapable was a relief. Corey's studio was a large one, at least in my mind, designed for musicians, but he created a small booth inside the larger recording studio, where I sat on a stool in front of an iPad that had an electronic version of my book to read from. And for three days, that's where I would sit. I'd put on headphones and begin to read. Corey was in another room, producing. I could not see him. And Caitlin, I also could not see. She was in my ear, patiently directing. So it's Caitlin who would tell me if I was reading too slowly or if I needed to take a breath or rerecord due to mouth noise, she'd occasionally correct pronunciation. One of my favorite audiobook moments was when I mistakenly pronounced investigative. Investigative, which actually is harder to say, but investigative is how I always have said that in my head, but apparently that is the British pronunciation. And so Caitlin made me go back. I think we had finished the chapter, which was not often the case. I'll talk about that in a minute. But we had finished the chapter, and she said, I actually need us to go back. I think she had to look up to see if it was one of those words that can be pronounced both ways, but in America, the answer is no, it is investigative. And so I thought that was a funny moment. And then occasionally Caitlin would also coach me to add more feeling, which was good. You know, that is one thing about the podcast. The podcast is so conversational, and it's very lightly edited and produced. When I have done, they've been very few, but when I've done the occasional ad read, the podcast production team would be in my ear, functioning as a director, like Dylan from Studio D would be in my ear, and he would say, let's add a little more energy or something like that, which was so helpful to me because I'm just sitting in a chair, sitting in a chair in my. In my office, in my house. And so to have a little bit of coaching made all the difference. And so Caitlin would occasionally say, what did you feel when you. When you experienced that for the first time, or. Or et cetera? So I loved getting to read my words in the ways I had originally intended them to be read. It felt meaningful and sweet and, again, more comfortable than I thought it would. I also loved picturing you listening and reading. It was, in a way, exposure therapy. Actually, a lot of this is exposure therapy, reminding me of all the details I've chosen to share with the reading public. It's been a lesson in letting go. The book ceased being mine during the audiobook recording. So before I share with you an actual excerpt from the audiobook, I wanted to answer a few questions because as a reader and then during and post pandemic, when I became an audiobook reader and listener, I have frequently wondered about the audiobook process and how it works, the logistics of it. So I did receive some questions on Instagram, and I thought I would answer them here before you listen to the actual excerpt. So the first question is, was it fun? Was recording the audiobook fun? Well, as an audiobook listener, it was super fascinating to be on this side of things. I was so interested in the process. Maybe that's. That's my enneagram 5 personality. And then I was really surprised at how low key it was. And I don't know if that would be true for a longer book or perhaps I don't know if I lived in a bigger city and went to a bigger studio. But all of this felt pretty comfortable and normal and not a big deal. It was fun to me. I mean, I was a little stressed about the cold. I was a little stressed about the cold and how my voice was going to sound, but it was fun and surreal and also incredibly low key. And I do think, as I mentioned, that years of podcasting did a decent job of preparing me. Obviously, podcast recording is super different from audiobook recording, but I wasn't a total novice and I think that was helpful at a time when I'm feeling like a novice. Oh, oh. Every day. Okay, next question. Did you record the book in order? This is interesting to think about, right? Because movies and TV shows we now know, like, I didn't know this as a kid, but now I know they're recorded in all sorts of different orders. And so not every episode is recorded in linear order. The audiobook was definitely recorded in linear order. So I literally started the first day with the dedication and then the last day was the acknowledgments. I did think it was interesting that I was given the option to not record the acknowledgments. And I don't know if you are an audiobook listener, but I have noticed that, that occasionally I will listen to an audiobook where the acknowledgments aren't part of the audiobook, but they are a part of the physical book. And it was very important to me to read the acknowledgments in my voice. I really genuinely wanted to thank all of the people I mentioned in the acknowledgments. So, yes, read the book in order. Recorded it in order from start to finish, from dedication to acknowledgments. Someone jokingly said, did you do lots of accents? The answer is absolutely not. I have no idea. What must be different about recording a fiction audiobook. I imagine it is much harder. I actually think writing fiction is probably much harder, though I guess I can't be sure. Releasing a non fiction memoir into the world is fairly vulnerable and difficult. But I do wonder what the audiobook process is like for a fiction reader. But for me, there was really no temptation to do an accent of any kind. I do in the book reference a couple of our bookstore customers who have these wonderful Georgia accents where the R kind of disappears. And it was tempting, maybe, I don't know, to maybe sound like the customer I was writing about. But honestly, not like I would never want to butcher an accent or feel like I was performing because this book is not performative. This book is. This book is just me. It's just. It's just my stories. And so no accents in ordinary time. Okay. This question at first I struggled with, and then I realized, oh, right, a lot of you read and listen to audiobooks at a really high rate of speed. So. So this person asked, did you really record in one time speed or is one time speed your reading but slowed down? At first I was like, what? But I think for some audiobooks and for some audiobook listeners, one time speed feels excruciatingly slow. Now, I have been very transparent about this on this podcast. This is not my story. Meaning I listen to audiobooks mostly at one time speed. 1.1, 1.2. I have never, I don't think gone higher than 1.5, never. And so it was interesting to sit down in the audiobook booth and like perhaps a lot of people, I had this voice in my head of go slow, enunciate, because that's kind of what they tell you. They. That's what my high school speech teacher, you know, would tell. Would tell our class, like, slow down. You speak faster than you think you do. Try to pace yourself. And so when I sat down to record the audiobook that very first day, I started off probably more plodding than I realized because I was trying so hard to enunciate and to read slowly because I thought if I read fast, it would be too fast. And I was quickly told by Caitlin to speed up. So I can't tell you whether in production they slowed down my reading. What I can tell you is I recorded at my normal speed. When I sat down to read those initial few lines, I had slowed down my natural pace. But Caitlin encouraged me to read at a faster, more natural one. And so that is what I did. What you all hear, I think will just be my normal reading speed. And it will be up to you if you want to speed it up. And if you do, God bless you, because that will never cease to be wild to me. If you listened to the live episode we did with Jeff Zentner, gosh, I can't remember what speed he listens on, but he played an excerpt of, like, how he listens to audiobooks. And I know a lot of you do that it will never cease to amaze me. I'm truly astonished that this is how some of you are reading. No shade, just not for me. Okay, the next question is, what has been unexpectedly joyful about it? I think two things. One I immediately realized, and then one I think I've realized in the months since recording. So in the moment, what was unexpectedly joyful was that I got to read my words. No author, as I said, is guaranteed that opportunity. So I was really grateful to get to read it in the tone and inflection and in the way in which I wanted to read it. And reading it out loud, like I said, it certainly made me critical. But there were also parts where I genuinely wanted to laugh out loud. And I could feel myself smiling while reading it. And I'm not sure I would have had that experience where I'm not able to read the audiobook myself. So that was joyful. The other thing that, upon reflection, was joyful about it was where I recorded. So in the process of getting ready to record, the publisher was looking for a studio, and I just assumed I would be recording in Tallahassee. There was a brief moment where I thought maybe Atlanta, but mostly I assumed Tallahassee, maybe with wfsu, which is like the PBS affiliate, the NPR affiliate, or down on FSU's campus, or something like that. I assumed a place there would have a studio. And so the publisher, probably in December, was like, hey, we can't find a studio in Thomasville. Do you mind recording in Tallahassee? And I was like, of course not. I did not think you would be able to find a studio in Thomasville. I love Thomasville, but I didn't really think that was ever a possibility. So then I got an email that was like, okay, here's the studio, here's the address. And then the day of the recording, it was like, here's the address again. And then also here are some pictures of the property so you don't get lost. And I was like, what? What? And anyway, I drove to this studio that, as I mentioned, was a renovated barn on Corey's property on kind of on the. I say it's the outskirts of Tallahassee. I guess it's just really the north side of Tallahassee. And drove. I don't think I ever had to drive down a dirt road, but maybe I did anyway. I was just meandering in some beautiful south Georgia, north Florida countryside. Driving to go record for those three days was so peaceful. I listened to music I didn't vox, I didn't Marco Polo because I wanted to save my voice. So instead I listened to music, which I don't often do. And I just, I think I will have really sweet memories of that drive and how apropos it felt for recording an audiobook, writing a book about staying put. Because this is exactly the thing I'm talking about. This is exactly the thing I'm talking about. To get to an audiobook recording studio, I had to drive 40 minutes through fields of nothing. And it just felt so perfect. It felt so perfect. So that upon reflection was also really joy filled. What happens if you made a mistake? Okay, so as I mentioned, I had the local sound engineer and then, or the producer and then the long distance director in my headphones letting me know if there was ever mouth noise, a mispronounced word, a misspoken or incorrectly emphasized sentence, etc. And when that happened, Caitlin would be in my ear saying start from. And basically you rerecord from the last punctuation mark to reread. There were maybe two instances where we would finish the whole chapter and then I'd have to go back and re record a word. Investigative was one of them. Investigative. But mostly it was stopping in the moment, going back and re recording from the last punctuation mark. This is a no brainer, of course, this is totally common sense. But I did notice, and I'm sure Caitlin did too, that the longer I sat there recording, like the more mistakes that would be made or the lower energy I would be. And so that's why breaks were really important, not just for drinking, but just for stretching and moving around. That was kind of how mistakes were dealt with. I will say I also was scheduled to do audiobook pickups, which I think my understanding is once the audiobook has been listened to by the production team, they're able to go pinpoint, oh, you need to re record this chapter or you need to rerecord these couple of paragraphs. And I did not have to do that. So there was a day set aside for them. Then I was told I did not have to come back. And a part of me was like, oh, I'll never be in that studio again. And part of me, a bigger part of me was so relieved because life is so chaotic right now and it, that got me a free day and it was so wonderful to have a day of nothing. So I do think in some cases you're called back to re record parts if needed. And that could be, you know, that might even Be if like the sound goes out or the microphone didn't work properly or if there's static or something like that. Did you cry? This was actually a big concern for me because there were a few, there have been a few moments when reading the book aloud to Jordan or I remember reading it aloud to Jordan's parents. It's one thing to cry in front of your spouse. It's another to cry in front of your in laws. At least for me. I don't like crying in front of people in general. So I really did specifically pray and hope that I would not cry while reading it aloud because again, Corey and Caitlyn, who I'm like casually name dropping here as if they're my best friends, we did not know each other. We'd never met. I still have never seen Caitlyn. I don't know what she looks like. It felt so weird to potentially cry in front of strangers. And I knew there were a few chapters in the book that when I read them out loud to Jordan, to my parents, to my in laws, I did tear up, many of them having to do with my, my faith. And so, gosh, I did not want to do that. And so I am pleased to report that for the recording I kept it together with two exceptions, two small exceptions. My voice cracked during the chapter I wrote about my grandmother's and I did have to like re record a sentence there, I think. And then I got tearful when I read the acknowledgments to my parents and brother. I don't believe you're going to hear that anywhere in the audiobook because we paused and re recorded those moments. But those are the two places where I did get teary, which was fascinating. I did not get tearful in the chapters where I had gotten tearful previously. I did not cry. During the faith section. I did not cry. There's an essay on life without kids which I thought would be pretty poignant because here I sit now with a different perspective. But I did not. It was, it was my grandmother's, it was my family, my grandmother's and my parents and brother. Those were the parts I got a little tearful during. Are you given vocal instructions or lessons on how to narrate? Narrating and reading are definitely different. They are indeed different. But the answer is no. I was not given any vocal instructions or lessons with the exception of when I first sat down to record and Caitlyn gently prompting me to read a little more quickly. I again think this would be different if I was reading fiction but this was nonfiction memoir, personal essays. And I assume again that the audiobook production team had heard me on the podcast. They knew the rhythms of my voice. They knew how I spoke. And so I'm hopeful that what you listen to will feel professionally done. But I was given almost no instruction. I mean, I was told things like, don't wear loud jewelry. Like, you know, stuff like that. But I was not given a ton of vocal instruction, except occasionally when Caitlin would intervene and encourage me to, like, boost my energy or to read something with perhaps more feeling. I remember a couple of instances of that, but no, like, guide to reading aloud. How many minutes were each chapter on average? Okay, this will be interesting because I don't know actually how long the audiobook will be. I suspect it will be my personal sweet spot of six to eight hours, so you're welcome. Um, but when recording, I think I averaged, depending on the length of the chapter. I think I averaged two to two and a half chapters in 50 minutes. Yeah, I felt like each hour I was reading about two, maybe if they were short, three chapters. So I'm gonna say 25 minutes a chapter. 20 to 25 minutes a chapter. I don't know when. When the audiobook comes to you next week, you tell me how long each chapter is, and then maybe we can solve the mystery of did they speed it up or not? Do they slow it down or not? Okay, so a few just overall takeaways from the audiobook experience. First of all, I am so glad that I have been batch recording this podcast. I started doing that last year for, well, actually in order to write the book, ironically. And so every month, I'm recording four to five hours in a day. And that is base. That is basically how long I was in that audio book booth was about five to six hours a day. And so that did not feel super hard. I mean, I had to stretch and stuff, but it did not feel too much outside my norm because I'm already doing that once a month now. What was interesting was sitting in that cramped booth was harder on my body than it was on my voice. I kept worrying about my voice because of the cold, but, man, the sitting in one place and the stiffening of joints and. And maybe it had to do with me being pregnant, too. I don't. I don't know. But the. The back, I was more physically cramped than I thought I'd be. I could not believe how non glamorous and simple it all was. And it was just this great reminder that so much of the magic we experience as consumers is all in a day's work for other people. It reminded me, actually, a few years ago, the bookshelf was able to be the site of a movie filming, which is super funny and weird considering we live in this small town. But the movie Sam and Kate was filmed in Thomasville, and the bookshelf was one of the filming locations. And. And Jordan and I got to sit and watch. I mean, we. We got. I'm using air quotes. We got to sit and watch. We also needed to sit and watch because it's our. It's our property. We don't own it, but we rent it. And it was our responsibility to make sure everything was okay. And so we, like, sat in a little corner of the store observing. And I remember thinking, oh, my gosh, I cannot believe this is how movies get made. And that was like a small production, but just really interesting to watch and to think, oh, my gosh, like, this becomes a work of art. This process becomes a work of art. And recording the audiobook felt the same way. It felt so simple and not super glamorous. But hopefully the end result will be a really lovely audiobook experience and a good listening experience for the consumer. So it's just a good reminder that the work we do, whether it's audiobook recording or running a bookstore, for us, it's like all in a day's work. But hopefully to you, it's more. It's more than that. Okay, my last takeaway. And this should not have been shocking to me as a highly introverted person, but I was exhausted at the end of every day, and I really don't think that was because of the pregnancy at all. This was not necessarily a physical exhaustion, but this was an emotional exhaustion. So I mentioned, of course, the vulnerability of reading your words aloud. Of course, the occasional. The two. The two little spots where I was. Was perhaps a little bit tearful, but emotionally, this was tiring work. It was hard work. Even though maybe it didn't feel like it in the moment. I don't know if you are this way, but sometimes when I do work like that, it doesn't feel like I've had a work day. Like, I feel like, oh, should I have worked harder? I. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know why that is. If I haven't labored physically, maybe I don't think I've labored hard enough. But at the end of the day, I was certainly physically maybe tired from sitting in one place. But really it was the emotional exhaustion. Of reading my words aloud. And that process of letting go, I'm sure, was emotionally exhausting. Okay, so what does all of that work sound like? Well, I will let you decide. Here is an excerpt of Ordinary Time provided by my publisher, Harper One. If you like what you hear, I of course love Libro fm, which is an audiobook distributor that supports indie bookstores like ours. You can also listen through Libby or your favorite audiobook app. But as a little surprise, folks who pre ordered Ordinary Time through the bookshelf, which there were over a thousand of you, thank you so much. You will receive a free copy of the audiobook from Libro fm. You'll get a QR code with your copy of the hardcover that will allow you to access the audiobook version. So special thanks to Libro FM and to Harper One for making that possible. All of this feels like a dream. Thank you so much for being a part of it. And without further ado, an excerpt from Ordinary Time.
- [35:56]
Hunter McClendon
Throughout childhood I played basketball in little Saturday morning leagues, coached by my dad in summer camps at our local colleges, in the driveway with my brother and our neighborhood friends. I loved basketball. I was 10 years old when the Women's National Basketball association launched and I became obsessed with the New York Liberty and Rebecca Lobo with Sheryl Swoop's can you imagine a better name? And Lisa Leslie and Cynthia Cooper. I loved them all, their beauty and their grace evident in every pass and dribble and layup. I was a girl consumed. My favorite shoes were a child size version of Grant Hill's Filas. They looked ridiculous on my skinny knock kneed legs, but I loved them and proudly sported them with my pleated khaki shorts, a braided belt, a manatee necklace and a T shirt with an illustration of a WNBA basketball on the front proclaiming A woman's place is in the paint. I was 12 and my favorite store in the mall was the Lady Footlocker. The summer before my seventh grade year, I made the All Star team during our middle school summer camp. I was thrilled I wasn't growing as fast as my peers, but I figured what I lacked in height I might make up for in speed. I was an extremely confident kid and I wonder now if I was ever any good at basketball at all or if I just had a convincing imagination. I believed I was destined for basketball greatness. Thank God they finally had established a women's league. I'd have a career. After the high of becoming a summer All Star, I was sure I was guaranteed a spot on my junior high basketball team. I realized I was leaving elementary school behind, so there were no sure things. But I knew the coach and all my friends played. So I conditioned and applied myself at every after school tryout. I recall really believing I'd make it. I was confident, but I also wasn't cocky, wasn't stupid. I knew I wasn't the best player, but I also knew I wasn't the worst. I worked hard and I had a decent attitude. I figured if nothing else, I'd ride the bench and cheer my heart out for my friends on the court. The coach who'd put me on the all star team was the coach of the junior high team and I figured that was a good sign too. I don't know what school sports are like now. More competitive is what I hear. But it felt pretty competitive back then too, because the Monday after tryouts, the coach posted the new team roster in the gym and I went with my friends and I saw my name wasn't on the list. It's become Annie lore. What happened next? My friends faces were filled with pity and I think that's what I hated most. Though I'm probably projecting because that's definitely what I'd hate as the adult version of me. But back then I was 12 and all I distinctly remember is going to the coach's office and knocking on his door. I wanted him to tell me to my face why I hadn't made the team. He did. You're too short and too skinny, were his exact words to me, further evidence I lived through the 90s. Girls bodies were up for more debate back then. His words, even if true, stung in part because he was a rather short guy himself, and in part because it meant skill had nothing to do with it. I couldn't change my genetics. I am a short person, five'two though I definitely feel five'six from short parents. But I'd thought with practice my height wouldn't matter. Of course, in basketball, height does matter, though my brother and I could name for you every short basketball player we'd ever heard of, including Spud Webb, Five'sEven and Muggsy Bogues, Five'tThree and although it could be up for debate whether height matters in junior high sports, I'd asked for an answer and I'd been given it. I nodded my head, thanked him for his time, and tried out for track a month or so later before breaking my toe and ending my athletic career forever. I didn't want this to become my Oprah moment. I did not want to be defined by a coach's words to my seventh grade self. But it was a pivotal moment, and it changed, at least partly, how I thought about myself. I still liked sports, still shot baskets on the hoop in our driveway, but I no longer dreamed about the wnba. I turned my attention to academics, to writing, to wearing fake glasses and becoming the Barbara Walters of my generation. I really loved Barbara Walters still, though, in the deepest parts of myself resides a love of sports. Basketball in particular. The first summer of the Pandemic, I was desperate to increase profit for a bookstore that remained closed to the general public. Like so many others, I'd found myself discombobulated as the pandemic continued. Unable to focus on things I normally loved, my appreciation for literary fiction waned and I found myself revisiting my favorite childhood books instead. My attention span was splintered, but even at peak Pandemic, I could still lose myself. In the words of Louisa May Alcott or Sharon Creech, Enter the Babysitters Club. I don't know exactly why I wanted to revisit the Babysitters Club during the Pandemic. A new television adaptation was releasing on Netflix, and maybe I thought nostalgia would be comforting in a world falling apart. So Olivia, our shop manager, and Lucy, one of our staffers, joined me in reading the Babysitters Club. During the summer of 2020. We sold spots in a Babysitter's Back book club, mailed copies of the books all over the country, then zoomed together every couple of weeks to discuss Kristi Thomas and the Gang. My cousin designed 90s inspired merch, and Lucy, a former musicologist from FSU, wrote us a theme song to the tune of the Backstreet Boys. Backstreet's Back. I'm crying just thinking about it because the idea was so simple and silly, a desire for a distraction in the middle of a global crisis. And it saved us. In the years since, I've met women from all over the country who found the Bookshelf during the Pandemic, who read those Babysitters Club books with us, who found a sliver of joy in a season void of it. This is the power of our childhood obsessions.
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Annie B. Jones
This week I'm reading Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Lee from the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of the Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. You can follow the Bookshelf's daily happenings on Instagram, ookshelftville, and all the books from today's episode can be purchased online through Our store website, bookshelfthomasville.com A full transcript of today's podcast episode can be found at. From the frontporchpodcast.com Special thanks to Studio D Podcast Production for production of from the Front Porch and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations. Our executive producers of today's episode are Kami Tidwell, Chantal Carle, Kate O'Connell, Kristin May, Linda Lee Drost, Jean Queens, Amanda Wickham, Martha Stacy Lau, Chanta Combs, Stephanie Dean Ashley Farrell Nicole Marcy, Wendy Jenkins, Lori Johnson, Susan Mullings thank you all for your support of from the Front Porch. If you'd like to support from the Front Porch, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Your input helps us make the show even better and helps us reach new listeners. All you have to do is open up the podcast app on your phone, look for from the Front Porch, scroll down until you see right a review and tell us what you think. Or if you're so inclined, support us. Over on Patreon, where we have three levels of support, each level has an amazing number of benefits like bonus content, access to live events, discounts and giveaways. Just go to patreon.com the Front Porch we're so grateful for you and we look forward to meeting back here next week. SA.