murder.booklocker.com

I found the following in a comment left on the interview with Maine author, Peter McGinn and thought it was too important to leave there. 

Hello,

I hope you will overlook my barging into your e-mail, but I am very excited
about personally inviting you, and anyone you know who might be interested, to sign up for the Downeast Writers Conference to be held at Stonington June 14th-16th.

No matter how learned, talented, and user-friendly the faculty — or how lovely a setting chosen for the conference — the success of such a conference lies highly in what the participants bring to the table. Reputations of local writers which preceded them was one of the factors which convinced us that the upcoming conference can be a huge success. Not only are your writers serious about learning new methods and being inspired to better writing, but they have their own ideas and techniques and suggestions which will enrich anything we can offer.

I would suggest that you go to the website for the conference to get an idea of what can be expected and to “meet” the fine authors and other writing people who will be sharing with those who participate. I have worked with the group from FIU for a number of years and can guarantee quality with these people. The folk I have yet to meet come highly recommended, and I am excited about the privilege of spending time with them in this environment.

Some Maine writers have already signed up for the Writers Conference, joining authors from all over the nation. I understand that there are some folks who may have other obligations at that time and cannot commit to the entire conference. I want to make sure that,as much as we hope that many of you will be full participants, we also want to emphasize that the evening sessions– in which the faculty will be reading from their works –are open to the public at no cost.

If you have questions, feel free to contact me at 207-367-2773 or catch Stephen York at his book store. We have recently arrived on the island for the summer and are committed to making this wonderful event as successful as it can be! I hope you will share this information to those who may appreciate the information — by mouth or by e-mail.

Happily anticipating meeting you!

Charlotte Jones Cabaniss Robertson
Conference Sponsor

Marlys Marshall Styne, author of Reinventing Myself: Memoirs of a Retired Professor, graciously took time to interview me last week. This morning she posted the interview on her award-winning blog, “Never too Late!” (first place award from the Illinois Woman’s Press Association in 2007)With the first round of questions, Marlys sent this note:     “I have a feeling that you may not want to or be able to answer some of the questions, but I would like to get something a bit different from the interview I’ve looked at.”

“Since my blog is generally serious and partly about writing, I want to include things I honestly want to know about you. Writing a “puff piece” is just not what I do.”

I’m hoping you enjoy the different approach. 

“I live in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago. I retired in 1999 after 40 years in the English Department of Wilbur Wright College, on Chicago’s Northwest Side, where I was department chair for 7 years and Wright’s Distinguished Service Professor for 1995-96.

I advocate writing for everyone, and hope to encourage my fellow senior citizens to write. I am a member of the Illinois Women’s Press Assocation, the Story Circle Network, the Authors Marketing Group, and the Chicago Writers Association and a volunteer at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Abstract:
“Retired seven years, widowed six years, childless, seventy-three years old, depressed, the author set out to find contentment through reflection and writing. Reinventing Myself: Memoirs of a Retired Professor is a series of personal essays recounting that quest and some of the experiences that came before it.” [Infinity; ISBN: 0-7414-3208-0]

Reviewed by: Margot Wallace (6/25/2006)
“Few people have the imagination and fortitude to reinvent themselves. Marlys Styne had not only the will but the talent to become a writer. Clearly the process of exploring memory has resulted in a the beginning new memories. As she and we reexamine her life, we discover that gumption has been there all along. How many professional women don leather suits, fling a leg over a back seat, and hang on for miles and days as hubby drives his motorcycle all over the world? How many widows see themselves as interesting, separate from a spouse? How many retirees find a second calling? In the reinventing of Professor Styne, the tense is important. She didn’t reinvent herself in a gush of self-discovery, she’s been doing it quietly all along. As for her current iteration as a writer, pay close attention. Her style is straightforward and unadorned, which may speed you past the not inconsiderable wit of a life well observed.”

• Book Review
• Interview
• Inside Scoop Live - Podcast

Visit Marlys’s blog today and please leave her a note that you stopped by.

Tags: Styne, Book Tour, Seniors, Memoir

On this Memorial Day, 2007, it’s important for Americans to do some remembering. While we may remember different things for different reasons, trust me, the exercise will do us good.

My apolgies to Adam Woodworth and Beth Hiitola. I just discovered that I forgot to post their pictures with the Mommy Author - Daddy Author Dialogue. Here they are:

I will be appearing as a guest on Adam’s blog, The Rantings, on Wednesday, June 13.

In Blooks #2 I mentioned a blook that had been described as “the cholesterol-busting quest of a man who aims to find a café serving the ultimate full English breakfast.”  I took a trip to Russell Davies’ blog to check out what kind of blook it might be. I was surprised to discover all the photographs of what Davies calls “ebcb” - eggs, bacon, chips and beans.

If any Americans are wondering, I’ll just say this: the beans look like Campbell’s Pork & Beans, the bacon like rough-edged Canadian bacon, the eggs are fried with soft yolks, and the chips are like French fries. Having said that, though, they sometimes look like Texas fries or steak fries. (Why did I think that chips would look like discs, like thick potato chips?)

The photographs are unnerving. I had to limit myself to what I saw on the front page. No wandering through the archives for more and more platters of the combo for this faint-hearted, slightly queasy American lady. When we were in Canada, I got used to breakfast being served with a side of vinegar accompanied by ubiquitous ketchup bottle. Not that I ever used either. And no, I don’t want to hear about those of you who use mustard or grape jelly on your egg sandwiches!

Food wasn’t the only thing that Davies took photographs of. There are pictures of the interiors and exteriors of the diners he visited. There are pictures of menus and clusters of condiments. While that rounds out the blog — who can look at pictures of just ebcb over and over again? — I wonder how many, if any, will have made it into the blook.

Let me share a description of one of the breakfasts that Davies eventually consumed:

“High quality ebcb, nicely cooked and an extra dark brown dollop of sauce which looks slightly like a proto alien from Torchwood, something that’s just an interstellar blob at the moment but which the special effects folk will soon transform into something sinister. The bacon will be its first innocent victim, pale, wan and unsuspecting. I imagine the chips will put up more resistance, there’s quite a lot of them, and the beans’ll be hard to defeat because they’re so slippery. The egg will be its downfall though, the inner eggy core is well known to be kryptonite to blobby sauce monsters.”

Before you fall off your chair laughing, ask yourself how YOU would describe fifty different plates of the same food. Here’s another:

“A very high quality ebcb. Pale chips, afraid of the sun these chips. Not so the beans which have clearly been sweltering in a tanning facility. The egg is vaguely Martian, at least not of this earth in its contours, but delicious. And a splendid amount of excellent bacon with pinks and reds and browns and whites begging you to slam it in your gob. Genius grub.”

And another:

“The chips were sharp shards of crisp specialness, spearing their way into the soft flanks of the beans which were driven into a careering retreat for the side of the plate. The eggs peered imperiously over the battleground like generals directing their troops from afar. The bacon lurked around the corner, ready to strike when the taste buds had grown weary of the fight.”

I’m not saying that it’s genius. What I am saying is that the next time you need a writing exercise, consider Davies’ task. He had to find a way to describe the same thing over and over. Each time trying to make it unique yet still managing to convey a fairly accurate appearance.

The beginning of my discussion of blooks included the winners of Lulu’s Blooker prize. Russell Davies’ book was on the short list for the prize.

Egg, Bacon, Chips and Beans: 50 Great Cafes and the Stuff That Makes Them Great
Hardcover: 176 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins Entertainment (17 Oct 2005)

Excerpt of synopsis at Amazon

“The book is also an indespensible guide to the finest cafes in the UK, and asks the kind of profound, life-changing questions that we have all been too afraid to ask for too long, delving deep beneath the tea-skin to find the steaming truth within. For example, what is it about tea from an urn, as opposed to tea from a kettle? How cheap can sauce get and still be called sauce? And what is Formica anyway? Is it mined or grown? This book also contains the handy bean colour-wheel (also available in egg, bacon, chip and tea) to do away with bean-hue concerns.”

Tag: Blook

I want to pick up where I left off in my first post on blooks. I mentioned a novel, Hackoff.com: an historic murder mystery set in the Internet Bubble and rubble. Author Tom Evslin notes several things of interest in a post about his blook.

Presentation

It seems he’s thought of everything.

• * “The salesy description of the story which would be on the inside front flap of a physical book” but this is a blook so he gives you a link to the blurb.
• * There’s a faux website for the company that the protagonist leads.
• * Evslin even taunts the reader to, “Check the FAQs if you want to know more about the company and Careers to see if you would have applied there.”

Logistics

A different article covers the logistics of having the novel, Hackoff, online as a blog. Blogs are generally in reverse chronological order which means that you would read the newest first. Evslin solved this (so you didn’t read the end first!) by employing Blookmarks.

Blookmarks

“After you read an episode, click Set Blookmark at the bottom of the episode just as you would put a physical bookmark wherever you left off reading in a traditional book. When you come back to the blook site, just click go to blookmark and you’ll be positioned right before the next episode.”

Feed readers also order posts from newest to oldest by default. But Evslin says, “Fortunately, many feed readers do allow you to reorder individual feeds so that the oldest is first - that’s the order you want for hackoff.com.”

In my first post on blooks (blogs-into-books) I cited an article which referred to the coming of Slurper. Evidently the company (blurb.com) changed their mind about the name of the software. The only surviving hints are in the current heading on their site, “Blog Slurper converts your blog into a book … automatically” and the first paragraph, “Slurp your blog into Blurb’s BookSmart™ software to create a bookstore-quality book, and end up with a permanent and portable archive to share with others.” You can download the software and slurp tonight for free — you only pay when you publish your book.

Yep, I can hear some of you thinking about slurping and producing your own book sans Blurb.

From another company called LAB Aprise! comes something called BlogCollector® with allows you to backup your blog. As an inducement they say, “Guess what, many people do not feel comfortable to read blogs! They prefer classic elegant books. To reach these audience, you can publish your blog into a book with BlogCollector.” Are we amused, bemused, musing? Like BookSmart™, BlogCollector® is free.

Although a lot of the blooks that are in print have been self-published, “There is even a British publisher called The Friday Project, which focuses specifically on turning internet sites, including blogs, into books.”

“Founded in 2005, The Friday Project focuses on developing brilliant books from the most exciting and innovative web sites, properties and content.” “Sales and distribution is handled by Pan Macmillan, giving [TFP] huge national and international reach. [They]’ve formed creative partnerships across the globe, building relationships with overseas publishers, TV, film and radio production companies and merchandising groups.”

I think it worth noting that TFP won the UK Young Publisher of the Year award in 2007 from the British Book Industry.

More on Publishing Blooks

From Media Life Online comes a list of blooks, complete with the names of the publishers and the URLs of the blogs. For instance, Belle de Jour’s book, “The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl,” (Source blog/site) and a blook which is described as “the cholesterol-busting quest of a man who aims to find a café serving the ultimate full English breakfast,” Egg Bacon Chips and Beans by Russell Davies.

Tag: Blook

Long-time friend (40 years!) Donna Jackson has posted her interview with me on her blog. I asked Donna to share some personal background with me and she sent me a list which she called “a thumbnail bio in bullets.” Sounds like a title for a book, doesn’t it?  The irony is that I can’t make bullets appear before items on a list, nor numbers for that matter, compliments of the Ginseng Coffee WordPress Theme!

• * born & reared in Rapid City, South Dakota
• * trained for officership (minister) in The Salvation Army in Chicago
• * been an avid reader since I was able to read (age 4 or 5)
• * love intrigue and mystery and have forever (even as a kid loved the Nancy Drew series
• * when in Kenya loved it when someone brought a mystery book and left it for us. We shared it with everyone. Same when I was in Hong Kong.
• * have written the beginning sentences to at least ten different mysteries. The novels will never be written…just the openings
• * education: M.A., M. Div., D. Min.
• * appointments with The Salvation Army - corps (churches), Divisional Headquarters, Territorial Headquarters, College for Officers Training, overseas
• * I would rather read than eat

Major Jackson is currently stationed in Minnesota.

Congratulations to Shawna R.B. Atteberry:

“I have just finished the book proposal for the Spiritual Direction 101 book. Yeah! The Hubby is going to look over it tonight, and tomorrow I send it to the director of Beacon Hill Books!”

And to Marlys Marshall Styne:

“It’s official: both my book, Reinventing Myself: Memoirs of a Retired Professor, and this blog, “Never too Late!” were awarded first place in their respective categories in the IWPA’s Mate E. Palmer Communications Contest yesterday. Both will go on to the National Federation of Press Women’s national contest.”

Looks like I’m in good company at the Chicago Writers Association

Eons (”Lovin’ life on the flip side of 50″) has a utility for seniors called Life Map that allows you to create a visual timeline of your life. The software is not the best but almost anyone can use it.

First off, there’s a timeline divided into decades that forms the base of the map. You simply click on a decade to show all the years. Then you select an icon from thirteen different categories, such as Learning, Homes, Military, or Accomplishments. You are about to create what is called a “Life Bit.”

On a new page you can fill in the form for this Life Bit: a brief description, location, and date. [NOTE: if the date is not filled in correctly, it won't "take"!] You also have the option of uploading a photo associated with the event you’re recording.

Eons provides a tutorial, suggests ideas for Life Bits, and has a page on scanning photos. There is also an historical timeline which runs across the bottom of the Life Map. Events there can serve as memory triggers.

While I find this somewhat interesting, it’s really just another variation on scrapbooking your life. There are autobiographical bits, but the result is not autobiography. Nor is it memoir. No one viewing it ever gets to know you.

One of the most helpful exercises I ever had my students do was to pick a holiday. I then had them write about that particular holiday at three different times in their life. For instance, Christmas when you were a child, when you were first married, when your first grandchild was born. Do you see where I’m going? Each instance reveals more about you, what you valued, where you were positioned within the family.

The part that made the exercise into memoir was the taking of those three events and applying the perspective of the present day. Sure, that’s how you remembered Christmas as a kid — from a kid’s perspective. But looking back, as a parent, as a grandparent, what do you see now? This is the heart of memoir, a real Life Map as it were. Where have I been as a person — not a record of events — but growth as an individual.

I keep hoping that you don’t think these posts about this virtual book tour of mine is just BSP, blatant self-promotion. If you’re an author, you need to be asking yourself questions as you read about what’s happening on my tour.

Today I’m being interviewed by MysteryBuff. If I were a mystery author reading this post, I would ask myself, “I wonder if MysteryBuff would interview me?” Granted, MysteryBuff reads mysteries, so there’s at least a chance she’s read your book or might want to. Why not go to her blog, drop a comment and ask her to contact you? But be careful — don’t alienate her by doing BSP in the comment. Indicate that you actually read her post, then ask politely for her to get in touch with you.

I’ll give you a for instance. Yes, I interview authors. I haven’t yet done a book review here but who knows? Yesterday one of the comments I got on the blog was BSP (except it was done by someone else on the author’s behalf). It did tick me off a bit because it even included blurbs from other authors!

Back to my story. After a link to a sample chapter were the words, “We’ll be happy to send you a hard copy for review.” Okay. I said I didn’t do reviews. Am I now tempted to change my mind? Do I want a free book?

Kestrell, The Blind Bookworm, does book reviews. Mind you, she’s a woman who has a visual handicap. Do you have your book in a format which would allow her computer or mp3 player to read it? If so, then you might want to contact her. Another thing, until she interviewed me, she had never considered doing an interview. Now that that door is open, you ought to be wondering if she would interview you.

Most of the folks that have interviewed me have sent me questions. Some have been pretty typical, the standard author-interview kind. Others were a little offbeat, even provocative. What kinds of questions would you like to answer? If there’s any interview in your future, you might want to jot down the questions you would like to answer. So when you’re filling out the interview form, feel free to add those gleanings, so you can talk about what you really want to talk about.