Beehive Bookstore farewell & thanks

Amidst the chaos of closing Beehive, I have had little time to reflect on the passing of Beehive Bookstore as a San Jose/South Bay LDS institution which has been around for more than 30 years. As things slow down, I wanted to take time to share some thoughts and express appreciation to many who have become part of our bookstore "family."  

When we took over the bookstore in the summer of 2007 from Randy and Kathy Winn, we felt like we were embarking on a grand adventure.  I was excited to learn about and work with the LDS books and products we carried in the store and meet the needs of our customers for uplifting, inspiring resources that would educate, motivate, entertain and bless their families.  Little did I know how much I would learn about the bookstore business and how rewarding my associations with so many wonderful people would become.  As much as I have enjoyed learning more about the products we carried, I have enjoyed much more meeting and interacting with our wonderful customers.  I have had lively discussions about fiction, doctrine, history, art, jewelry, videos, music and children's books and enjoyed every one.  I have been inspired as I have listened to challenges and triumphs.  I have been humbled by the honesty, generosity and good wishes that have been extended.  What a blessing it has been to work in a place with inspiring art, uplifting music and wonderful employees and customers.

As I look back on our bookstore experience would like to express my appreciation to many who have been part of our bookstore blessings:

To Randy and Kathy Winn for their generous sharing of their experience and mentoring until we figured out what we were doing and for their ongoing interest and encouragement.

To the wonderful and reliable employees with whom I have been privileged to work with over the years.  No words can properly express my appreciation for their diligence in helping our customers and with store operations not to mention the moral support amidst tears and laughter (with each other and with our customers). 

To the elders of the San Jose Mission in Feburary 2008 and members of the BYU Management Society's Silicon Valley Women who helped us when we moved to our Bascom Ave store.  The missionaries who visited our store from time to time always brought a very special spirit with them.

To the many helpful publisher and distributor representatives and officials with whom I have worked and whose friendly association I will greatly miss.

To the officers and board of the LDS Booksellers Association for all they do to help independent bookstores succeed with the annual convention and ongoing programs and networking.

To other store owners with whom I have associated with, learned from and been inspired by.

To local church leaders who, as appropriate, supported us as a resources to local members.

To our fabulous customers, both loyal and casual, who let us serve them.

And most of all, to my wonderful husband who kept the financial records and paid the bills and whose support and encouragement made it all possible.

We will miss so much about our bookstore experience.  We regret that we were not able to find someone to take over the bookstore and adapt to the changes brought about by the digital revolution, but it was not to be.  We are looking forward to a new phase in our life with new challenges and adventures. 

So, with mixed emotions we say farewell to the Beehive.  Thanks to all who have been part of the Beehive Bookstore community.

Susan Fredrickson

2012 Beehive Bookstore Christmas Jar Report

Below is the report from the winner of our 2012 Christmas-Jar-to-giveaway drawing.

The family that received the Christmas Jar for 2012 was extremely happy for the unexpected gift.  The father of the family had been out of work for many months.  The mother only worked a few hours.  They have four children.  The oldest son is on a mission.  Extended family and ward members pay for most of his mission costs.  The family knew that their Christmas would be very modest.  Two younger sons had part-time jobs in their neighborhood.  Between them they spent their earnings to make sure that each person had at least one present.  The Christmas Jar was a great gift, not only for the money, but for the love that many had made a sacrifice that came to their family.  

Thank you to all who donated.

I would like to echo the thanks to all of our great Beehive customers who donated towards our Christmas Jar in 2012.  The jar contained $84.22 this year.  I hope that even though Beehive Bookstore will not be here next Christmas to do another Christmas Jar each of you will find a way to include the Christmas Jar spirit in your Christmas celebrations each year, whether through doing your own Christmas Jar or another way.  Merry Christmas!

Fall Ladies Night--lots of fun!

Stephanie Black and her books

Madison, Lora, Dalene, Susan & Stephanie

Some of our great customers celebrating Ladies Night with us!

We had a great time at our Ladies Night festivities on October 6, 2012.  Whitney Award-winning LDS suspense author Stephanie Black was there to sign her new book Shadowed plus her other titles and to chat about her books and writing.  There were balloons to pop for extra discounts or free stuff plus door prizes.  JoAnn Fitzpatrick was the winner of the RSVP drawing for The Beginning of Better Days.  Then there was the food--yum!  Lora brought Tres Leches cupcakes from the recipe in the book from the same name by Josi Kilpack.  We enjoyed the fun and energy with many ladies of our Beehive Bookstore community.  Thanks for being our friends and supporters!

Fall Ladies Night welcomes Stephanie Black

   Fall Ladies Night at Beehive Bookstore

October 6, 2012, 4 to 7 pm

We have lots of fun planned for our Fall Ladies night.  We will have balloons with discounts and coupons for free stuff plus door prizes and a drawing for The Beginning of Better Days for those who RSVP to attend.  Click here to RSVP.  You do not need to RSVP to attend, but you do need to RSVP to be entered into the drawing

Whitney Award-winning author Stephanie Black will be signing her new book, Shadowed.  We asked her some questions about her writing, and her responses are below.  She also has a website with links go previous interviews that has some pretty interesting info, like how playing with Barbies helped her become a suspense writer.  Click here to check out her website and here to go to her blog.


Beehive:  How do you come up with ideas for books?

Stephanie:  My first book grew out of a short story that I wrote for a high school creative writing class (the novel was totally different from that short story, but that story is where the process began). My second book emerged from an idea that had been percolating for a long time, but my other books started with a blank computer screen and brainstorming. I like to sit down at the computer, start a brainstorming file, and type out ideas and questions like "Who is the main character?" "What does she want?" And so on, jotting things down until an idea for a story finally starts to emerge. This is NOT a fast process--it can take me a long time to form that story idea. Once I have enough of an idea in mind, I'll write a very rough outline, and that's enough to get me started on the book. Over the course of working on that first draft, I'll return to my brainstorming file many times to work out what happens next, or to work through problems. I won't know the details of how the novel unfolds until I actually write it. Needless to say, my first drafts are a mess, since I'm finding the story as I write the story. My goal is to get that first draft written, no matter how messy it is. Then I can go back and revise, revise, and revise some more. I actually love revising, working with a manuscript to make it better. 

Beehive:  How do you do such a good job of keeping us guessing whodunit?

Stephanie:  I think the key is to provide plausible red herring characters. The reader needs a choice of suspects to divert attention from the real villain--other characters who could have had a reason for committing the crime. 

It's also a balancing act to reveal enough about the villain so that when the villain is revealed at the end, it's believable to the reader, but to not reveal so much that the reader nails the villain on page twenty.

Beehive:  How do you manage writing around your family commitments?

Stephanie:  When my children were young, their nap time was my golden writing time. No way was I going to clean the house during nap time (unless it was an emergency, like guests were coming over!). When I got the chance, I loved to sprint for the computer and write. Now that my kids are older, my writing time is more flexible. The challenge is both in being disciplined to use my time well, instead of frittering it away, and in putting my writing aside when it's time to focus on something else. I still struggle with both of those things.

Beehive:  Do you think you will continue to focus on suspense or are you interested in exploring other genres?

Stephanie:  My first book was a dystopian science fiction novel (The Believer). I'd enjoy doing some more sci fi, and I have a sci fi novel that I started and would like to get back to, as well as a sequel to The Believer that I'd like to revise.

Beehive:  Are you working on another book yet?

Stephanie:  I'm currently working on a short novel, or novella. This is for a project I'm doing with two other authors, Traci Abramson and Gregg Luke. We're each writing a suspense novella with the common theme of Halloween--other than that common theme, we're each writing whatever story we want. If our publisher likes the project, they stories will be published together. It's fun writing something shorter and more straightforward than my full-length novels!  

Ladies Night Report

We enjoyed seeing so many of our regular customers plus new friendly faces at our Ladies Night at Beehive Bookstore event March 31, 2012, during the priesthood session of conference.  There was our usual yummy food and goodies plus samples of Utah Truffles, orange and raspberry sticks, Thrive freeze-dried food, Thrive Simply Peace punch and Hawaiian rolls baked by Lora from the recipe in the culinary mystery Banana Split.  Lots of balloon got popped for the additional prizes and/or discounts beyond the extra 10% off everything.  We had door prizes every half-hour, and Paula Pea was the lucky winner of the drawing from RSVP entries for the Road to Emmaus framed print from Liz Lemon Swindle.  Our one regret is that we were so busy enjoying the fun that we forgot to snap some pictures to share.  We express our appreciation to Sounds of Zion, Cedar Fort Incorporated & Foundation Arts for their help with prizes we gave away to happy customers.  Thanks to all who came and partied with us!

Review: Adventurers Wanted: Slathbogs Gold

I had been wanting to read this book for a couple of years as it looked intriguing.  In the meantime two sequels came out, so I finally decided to read it.  The story follows 15-year-old Alex Taylor on as he becomes an adventurer in a magical world after curiosity leads him to inquire about a recruiting sign for adventurers in a shop window on an unusually deserted street.  We meet his fellow adventurers (including the obligatory dwarves & elves) and learn about the adventure (ridding the kingdom of a dragon and claiming his hoard) they are to complete along with the rewards and code of adventuring.  Along the way, Alex discovers much about his companions, the magical world he is visiting and his own abilities and potential.

This book is written for a much younger audience than I had expected, more for elementary school ages.  Although it is definitely several steps up from a beginning chapter book and includes danger, peril and fighting, there is an absence of any intensely scariness on the order of Harry Potter or Fablehaven.  This makes it a perfect read-a-loud story for younger children introducing them to elements of classic magical quest stories, including trolls, codes of honor, oracles and visits to a dwarf kingdom and an elf forest along the way.  I felt the climatic battle with the dragon could have used a little more detail and complexity, but overall I enjoyed the story very much once I got used to the tone of cheerful positivity.  The story was a fast, run read, and I look forward to finally reading the sequels as well.

Click here to read more about Slathbog's Gold, here for Horn of Moran (book 2) and here for Albrek's Tomb (book 3).

Christmas Jar Report Christmas 2011

This account comes from the winner of the Beehive Bookstore Christmas Jar in December 2011.  Just after Christmas, she moved out of state so we are glad she finally found a few minutes to tell us about her experience giving away our store's Christmas Jar--the total of which was $133.85 thanks to all of our generous customers who contributed!

The Christmas Jar

A couple of years ago as it was getting close to Christmas I casually asked someone at church if they were all ready for Christmas ~ she replied “We aren’t having much of a Christmas this year”. I could see that her response had caught her off guard. She really didn’t want anyone to know that their family was struggling that year.

Her response haunted me for the next few days as the Spirit whispered to me that I needed to do something for them. Not many years before I had been where they were. The Lord had blessed me with a wonderful job and now I had the ability to help them.

I enlisted a very close friend to help me deliver the presents, gift cards and cash that I’d put together for her family. When I picked her up, her husband said to her ~ “Don’t forget to go by the bank and “make the deposit” on your way.” We dropped by the bank on the way and when she came back to the car she had a $250 dollar deposit to add to the “Christmas Jar.”

At Christmas time a year later my friend's father was critically ill & her son (Chris) came all the way from Maine to California to see his Grandfather, even though money was very tight for him and he was getting married in less than a month.

While Chris was in California I won the “Christmas Jar” at the Beehive Bookstore. I wondered who I should give it to ~ then the Spirit whispered to me “give the jar to Chris and his fiancé, along with a copy of the book “The Christmas Jar.” Tell him the story of our “Christmas Jar” gift the year before. Along with the Jar& book I included a little note, telling him the wonderful experience his mother and I had shared the year before and that I hoped he & his wife could carry on the wonderful tradition of “The Christmas Jar” in their new family.