I hate garage sales. I know many people enjoy them. The mystery of whether that found item is trash or treasure. The adventure of the hunt for great bargains found only at garage sales. The thrill of getting something useful for a steal.
I hate holding garage sales even more than shopping them. But for some mysterious reason, I seem to forget that hatred every decade or so and agree to have one.
This past weekend was one of those lapses.
Every year, this part of the county holds the Great Oregon Coast Garage Sale. (That’s grandiose marketing for a sale that only includes about 10 miles of said coastline, but that’s marketing for you.)
This year, they decided to hold it on Easter weekend (for reasons I can’t quite fathom—it’s usually the weekend after Earth Day, which makes much more sense). And in order to inspire my daughter to par down the copious amounts of stuff that fill our house, I agreed to participate.
WMG Associate Publisher Gwyneth Gibby and I held one together. In addition to working together, we also live right next door to each other (and have been friends for almost 20 years now), so our worlds collide a lot.
Garage sales are definitely better with friends, but I’ve once again vowed to never do it again. It rained on us twice (ah, the Oregon Coast) and by the end of the day my body hurt in ways that I haven’t experienced since I underwent brain surgery.
All for $87 in profit. And I still have a bunch of stuff to get rid of somehow.
But my daughter is happy with her newfound cash (I let her keep it all), and we do have less stuff.
Still, if I ever talk about holding another garage sale, someone please stop me by any means necessary. It won’t be a crime, it’ll be a mercy.
I’m not sure whether Kristine Kathryn Rusch or Dean Wesley Smith has written a story about garage sales at some point, but I do know that they’ve written plenty of crime stories.
And if you missed our Kickstarter back in January, good news: Crimes Collide, Vol. 1-5 officially publish tomorrow. Here’s a bit about the five-book series:
For more than four decades, New York Times and USA Today bestselling writers Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith have been writing professional mystery short stories that have won awards and sold millions of copies, plus they have been acclaimed and enjoyed by fans over the entire world.
Now, for the first time, they collect 100 of their mystery short stories into a five-volume series called Crimes Collide. Fifty stories total from each author, with ten stories from Rusch and ten from Smith in every volume.
Volume 1 starts off the series with light or cozy stories.
Volume 2 takes a journey through history, exploring past mysteries—from our own timeline and alternate ones.
Volume 3 features mysteries colliding across genres.
Volume 4 features non-human detectives.
And Volume 5 ends the series with dark or noir stories.
To learn more about the series or to buy the books in ebook, trade paperback or hardcover, click here.
Now that’s the right kind of mystery!
Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.