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Well Red
Coyote bookstore in Sedona. |
Sedona's Well Red CoyoteBy M. Saldivia-Berglund,
PhD
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Sedona.biz
Kris Neri: “We’ve both enjoyed a lifelong love of books.”
(Sedona, Arizona) - If you love to read
good books, not only will you find them at the cozy and eclectic The Well Red Coyote bookstore —
we think the best
independent bookstore in Sedona and perhaps Northern Arizona — but you'll
also find the story of its owners, husband and wife Joe and Kris Neri, a
captivating novel unto itself. So curl up in your
favorite armchair and let's begin.Chapter 1
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Joe & Kris
Neri |
Joe & Kris met in
their native New Jersey and were high school sweethearts. They tied
the knot in 1968 and moved to California in 1971; first San
Francisco for seven years and then Los Angeles until 2005.
In Los Angeles Joe
organized, managed and fronted for one of the premier blues band in
Southern California called
Blues Dawg. He wrote and composed about half of the music they played,
and the other half were “covers” of other musicians’ songs. Blues Dawg has recorded five CD’s. Kris is a mystery
writer and a teacher. She has
published three mystery novels: Revenge of
the Gypsy Queen (1999), Dem Bones Revenge (2000), and
Never Say Die (2006).
Chapter 2
For twenty years, the
mystical beauty of Sedona drew Kris and Joe here for vacation. They
ultimately decided to relocate here “because we love the area and we wanted a
better quality of life than was possible in Los Angeles”—Kris
remarked.They arrived
determined to
open a bookstore. “There was no plan B”—said Joe smiling.
That goal was fulfilled in April
2005 when they christened The Well Red
Coyote bookstore at its grand opening with the motto “books on the rocks.”
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Blues Dawg
give Joe a plaque |
When they left L.A.,
Joe's band members honored him with a plaque that hangs
on one of the bookstore walls. Joe still maintains a
connection to these musical roots by organizing free music events at the WRC,
and he often participates by playing some of his favorite songs on
acoustic guitar. Some of the renowned musicians that
have performed on the premises are the Native American percussionist
and flutist Tony Redhouse; Celtic Pop music and guitar player
Vyktoria Pratt Keating; the blues of Danny Rhodes; jazz/new age
fusion with the keyboard and guitar of Alexander; and Native
American bamboo flutist Jesse Kalu.Chapter 3
I sat down with Joe and Kris
in their store over a cup of
coffee and some delicious cookies.M.S-B: What
motivated you to open a bookstore in Sedona?
JOE: After many
years coming to Sedona, we noticed that there wasn't a good general-
interest, independent bookstore that would satisfy the literary needs of Sedona residents. We have a library 200 yards
away from here that’s gorgeous and beautiful, and it gets about fifteen
to twenty thousand visitors a month, in a city of eleven or twelve
thousand people… so Sedona is a very literate, educated,
book-reading, book-loving community… but it didn’t have a bookstore.
It had New Age stores and tourist stores but it didn’t have a
bookstore. We designed this to be for the residents of Sedona.
The idea of the bookstore was to create a true community asset - a
place for real book lovers, with a great inventory of interesting
books and a regular calendar of interesting events.M.S-B: What are The
Well Red Coyote's main goals?
JOE: Our
objective is to be the best bookstore we can be, with a special
focus on the needs of the residents of Sedona and the Verde Valley.
We want to provide our customers with a current, unique and
interesting inventory of books and we want to bring to the store
authors, poets, artists and musicians to share their experiences
with our customers, firsthand.M.S-B: Which activities are the highlights of The
Well Red Coyote?
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Joe, Kris,
Philly, and Annabelle. |
JOE: We've had over 200 authors, poets, artists and musicians appear here
since we opened, and we offer all of our events at no cost to attendees. All
have been special and enjoyable. Some of the smallest names have drawn the
largest audiences, and there's no way to tell in advance who will be popular.
We're especially proud of the writing workshops we offer. So many people in
Sedona are writing. Local aspiring writers have the chance to learn from a
broad spectrum of nationally-prominent writers in all fiction categories. [Kris
has also published a DVD called "Writing Killer Mysteries" that is available in
their store, offers writing workshops, and teaches an online writing course for
UCLA Extension Writers' Program. She has her own website
at KrisNeri.com].Having a bookstore… the first event that comes to mind is a book signing.
Basically an author comes in and signs books. Kris has done it and we’ve been
all around the country doing it and we’ve seen other people doing it… the bottom
line is that book signings are boring. Absolutely mind numbing boring. Basically
an author sits behind a table with a stack of books and says come over here and
buy my book, and I’ll sign it for you. Big deal. Here we want the author to not
only to sell the book and sign the book but also give us something back: talk
about the craft of writing, talk about how your life impacted your writing, tell
us something more than just what’s between the covers. And it is working. That’s
what people want to hear. And believe me, Kris and I are having more fun than
anybody else. It’s just wonderful.
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Inside the Well Red
Coyote |
We’re also proud of
the healers we have brought in. Many in Sedona are trying to heal
the damage they’ve suffered in the past. We’ve featured many gifted
healers who offer tremendous insights that can set people on the
right path. Sometimes they’ve even given hands-on demonstrations.
We’ve had so many fascinating speakers: geologists who explain about
the evolution of the rock formations in this area; motivational
speakers who can help us all to improve our lives; and alternative
health speakers.We
also feature are a lot of poetry. We sponsor the NORAZ poetry
group. They have a writing workshop here on Wednesdays where they share their work and
they have exercises. We often have a poetry
reading prior to it. We try to offer as many local poets as
possible to give them a chance to read their work and share it.
We also have the “Open
Mic” nights for writers. These readings are not
published but rather something a writer is working on. We do this once a month;
the first Sunday of every month unless it's a holiday. There are very few
opportunities for writers to read their unpublished work. It's really nice to
support them.M.S-B: How do you
decide which books to put in the store? Is it based mostly
on local writers or independent writers? Is there a general theme or
genre you focus on?
KRIS: We have a
combination. Everything from national best-sellers to local writers,
books in between best-sellers and tiny small books. We try to
have a really interesting selection so that there’s something here
for everyone.JOE: … but we
don’t want to be another chain bookstore. Every book in here has
been picked by Kris or me… mostly Kris. She is exceptional in terms
of being able to select books that are somewhat different; that
you’re not going to see in the top 20 best-sellers.
Well, you see some
of those (pointing to some books), and some of the others are eclectic kind of choices. We
listen to our customers. They tell us what kind of books they like.
KRIS: We
listen to our customers. People say “you know I’ve just discovered
something that I think you should carry.” We look at it and, more
often than not, we buy it. We have a lot of
faith in our customers’ judgments. And it is always presented in a
very positive way: “I think this will be good for you.” We
appreciate their advice because you cannot know everything yourself.
But the customers seem to like
our taste too. We like theirs and they like ours, but because there are
hundreds of thousands of books published every year we have to make choices,
and we can’t carry everything.
The way we handle that is to do special
orders. We do special orders constantly. People call us or stop by
all the time. If there is any way to get it, we get it for them. We
can find rare books for them, and things of that nature. We
didn’t expect we'd be searching for rare books but we are getting kind of
good at that. Our business is growing
into different areas that we didn’t expect, like the music. We get an idea and we say “let’s try this."
It’s fun for us, and it
keeps it interesting.M.S-B: What kind of
books are most popular?
KRIS: Certainly
the national best-sellers sell well. We sell loads of fiction.
There’s a lot of fiction readers here. We also sell a lot of
biographies and books on history. We also sell many books on personal growth because a lot of people in
Sedona are on some sort of personal growth journey.
M.S-B: Where do
you see yourselves in the near future?
KRIS: In terms
of short-term or long-term goals… it’s hard to say… we don’t know
until we get new ideas. We don’t have a
“business plan” to follow. Things just happen.JOE: Our objective
is just to keep growing and continue to be what I
consider to be the best independent bookstore in Northern Arizona. But that’s a very subjective title that I’m bestowing on us, of
course [Don't worry, Joe. We agree with you!].
KRIS: We may also
branch out into other areas with certain 'hard-to-find" gift items.
We have two new artists; one local and one
from California that have given us stuff that is available no place
else. One of them, Bette Golden Lamb is from California. She is a
potter and a mystery author, so we carry her ceramics and her books
that she co-authors with her husband, JJ Lamb. Another artist is
Francie Dunwell who just moved to Sedona and we feature some of her
work here. She is an artisan doing Native American prayer fans and
walking sticks, as well as some unusual work with rocks and stones.
KRIS: Most
people do tell us they like the atmosphere in here; the way it looks
and the way it feels. We have comfortable chairs where people can
sit for a while and look through books. This is the kind of place we
would go to if we were traveling here.
M.S-B: To close our
interview, what kind of reception have you had from the public since
opening your business?JOE: The one
thing that is really gratifying to me is the acceptance of the
Sedona community. They are absolutely friendly and welcomed us.
Everyday I meet someone new, whether it is a tourist or someone who
has lived here for 50 years. You never know who’s going to come in.
The End?
Never the End....
The Well Red
Coyote is located at 3190 W. Highway 89A, at the corner of 89A and
Dry Creek Road.
Contact:
Joe Neri
The Well Red Coyote
3190 W. Highway 89A – Suite 400
Sedona, AZ 86336
(928) 282-2284
Email:
books@wellredcoyote.com
Website:
www.wellredcoyote.com
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