When the owners of Attic Window Publishing, Inc. asked Paula Coupe to write a book for them, they gave her several topics to choose from.
“Of course I picked shopping,” said Coupe and proceeded to spend the greater part of a year visiting stores, boutiques, markets and restaurants in the greater Washington, D.C. area. The result, a pocket-sized book called “Gotta Shop: 50 or so great little places in the D.C. Metro area.” This guide gives readers an insight into some of the undiscovered, unusual and offbeat places in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
“Every neighborhood is different. I wanted to feature very small stores — sole owners and woman-owned businesses,” Coupe said. “I like unusual things — love hardware stores and stationery stores. My favorite store in the entire world is Hollin Hall Variety. Ayres and Bruce's run a close second. Fisher’s is my favorite hardware store and I like the Magic Shop in Bethesda, the Jewish Book of Greater Washington in Wheaton, Maryland and Pulp on 14th and U on Capitol Hill. A lot of them are pretty new.”
While Coupe is no stranger to writing, most of her writing has been in the government and public relations arena. She enjoyed writing this book so much that she said she’d like to start writing again.
Coupe’s book is available at Barnes & Noble, as well as some of the stores featured in the book. Cover design was done by Peggy Archambault; Vincent Hughes did the interior design and illustrations.
“It’s the perfect book for a hostess gift,” Coupe said. “Everybody needs to buy one and shop all these stores. In researching this book, I’ve found that they are brave people — they’ve given up 401K plans and things like that.”
THE OWNERS of Attic Window Publishing, Inc., Bill Tabor and Elise Fulstone, have asked Paulette Johnson to write a “Guide to Alexandria” and Laura Bergheim, who lives in Ohio, is working on a rewrite of her book, “The Washington Historical Atlas.” It will be re-released by the owners of Attic Window Publishing, Inc. as “Wartime Washington.”
Fulstone said that this venture is something that she and her husband have been working on for the past three years.
“We wanted to have our own business. We had all these all abilities, and felt they weren’t being used,” said Fulston, who has a law degree, but is currently a full-time mom. Tabor has done marketing for Binary Arts and Time-Life and is now doing development for the Smithsonian.
“He [Bill] has lots of experience,” Fulston said. “We both like to read and write, and both liked the idea of being proprietors. Book publishing just resonated with us.”
When Tabor did some research into the market, he realized that there was a need for a publisher of local interest books; in part due to the death of Alexandria publisher Evelyn Metzger. Fulstone said that the plan was never for them to write, but instead serve as editors and publishers.
“We knew there was a lot of talent in the area and we wanted to go out and work with authors,” Fulstone said.
Coupe has a contract to update her book with new places over the next couple of years. Some people thought that she should have included more stores, but she said that she wanted to keep it to a certain size. Coupe said that she tried not to spend money, but there were some places that she couldn’t resist. She also tried shopping with a friend whenever possible.
“Gotta Shop: 50 or so Great Little Places in the D.C. Metro Area” can be purchased at Barnes & Noble, Olssons Books & Records, Kramers, Politics & Prose and many other local bookstores. It can also be ordered through Washington Book Distributors, www.washingtonbk.com.