April 1, 2025 Probably not the best day to post this, but here goes! No April Fools joke here!

I cannot believe that a year has passed since our last update regarding Kim’s health.  I am sure you will notice that we are not getting things done as quickly as we once did and figured it was time for an update.  This is especially important to the many new customers we get each week to better help you understand why we don’t get back to you as quickly as we should. 

For those of you that do not know, in December of 2023 Kim had a brain tumor removed from the left side of her head.  After radiation and chemo, the most significant ongoing symptoms Kim is experiencing are:

• Aphasia, for those of you that do not know, she is mentally her old self, just as sharp as ever, she just cannot relay the information in her brain to her mouth or her fingers, hence I, Tony, handle the phone calls and the long e-mails. If an e-mail is more than a sentence, she usually just forwards it to me. If you do get an e-mail and it does not make sense, it does to Kim, simply ask her what she means, it won’t hurt her feelings.  I would like to thank everyone for all the well wishes that you send in your e-mails, I am sorry that we don’t always respond back, but rest assured they are read and appreciated. 
• Her eye sight, the retina in her left eye has suffered some damage, whether it is from age, the tumor, radiation, chemo, or a combination, one-one can tell us for sure, we are currently working to get that issue resolved, but in the meantime it is difficult for her to function as her vision for lack of a better description, is like her eyes are looking at two different levels, nothing is straight.  
• Of course she gets tired very easily. Consequently, we usually only work from 9 to 3 Tuesday through Friday, we don’t respond to work e-mails when we are not at the office, and our weekends are Saturday through Monday.  We try to come in over the weekend just to respond to orders and e-mails, but we usually do not make it in every day.  So, it is quite possible that if you place an order Friday afternoon, you may not get a response, other then the one the website generates until one day during the weekend or even not until Tuesday Morning.

Now, not to pile it on, but my mother, who lives in a “mother-in-law” home on our property, had a stroke in December, she is doing very well, but I am the only one that can take her to her appointments (Kim can no longer drive).  Between outpatient therapy, and the numerous doctors a typical 84-year-old with medical issues has to go to, I am generally taking either her, Kim or myself to one appointment or another more days during each week than not, for example this week represents 4 appointments over 3 days and it is a very light week!

What I am trying to put across here, things are slowed up, but believe it or not we are getting it done, if you are looking for speed, I’m not sure we are your source, but if you don’t mind waiting, I still believe we have stuff you won’t find anywhere else and customer service second to none.

Also, please be aware, we are no longer buying on the secondary market, or taking on new consignments.  We still have thousands of books to put on the website from Bill and Tim as well as one other large collection we have been selling for the last few years and it is imperative we get those books listed before we even think about purchasing on the secondary market again.  New titles are still coming in every day, many are presold so we usually don’t get them on the website until they arrive and we have written/shipped to those that have gotten particular authors or series from us over the years.

Finally, thank you all for the over quarter of a century of support, we will continue to do the best we can.

Tony and Kim