I wrote this post out of mostly desperation. I am a high school teacher here in California that retired at the end of the last school year because of COVID and all of the pain and trauma involved that just broke me. I had been a teacher for 25+ years but COVID was too much and i couldn’t take it anymore. I knew that teaching was not a high income profession but I didn’t realize that my retirement check would be so small (my Cal STRS counselor said to teach a few more years to increase my salary, but I just couldn’t because of the virus.) Anyway, I am not here to ask for financial help for me, but for my wife and her bookstore. ( I hope I can advertise a business in here.) My wife has owned her bookstore online for 15+ years and with my regular salary and her business income, we did OK. But now with my low retirement check and people not buying as much as they were during the pandemic her sales have really dropped off. So if any of you are book COLLECTORS (not just readers), please visit her website: www.showlettwestbooks.com. If you are a collector of horror, fantasy, signed editions (like the photo at the top), children’s books, etc., she could really use the sales.