Thursday, July 31, 2008

Rituals of Preparation: Making the Most of Your (Oh So Valuable) Time

Being both an editor and a writer, one of the most difficult things for me is actually getting my day going. I confess that I am a notorious procrastinator, both in my creative and professional life. Part of this is habit, but the other part is not always having an anchor in my day that tells my brain it is time to get to work already, no more excuses, no more fear.

Luckily, I have found a way to make my time count. World-renowned choreographer Twyla Tharp, in her book, The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It For Life, talks about the importance of ritual in beginning her day. She says, "I begin each day of my life with a ritual: I wake up at 5:30 a.m., put on my workout clothes, my leg warmers, my sweatshirts, and my hat. I walk outside my Manhattan home, hail a taxi, and tell the driver to take me to the Pumping Iron gym at 91st Street and First Avenue, where I work out for two hours. The ritual is not the stretching and weight training I put my body through each morning at the gym; the ritual is the cab. The moment I tell the driver where to go, I have completed the ritual."

Don't get me wrong: I am not saying we editors and writers need to get up at the crack of dawn to get the most out of our day. The point is in the ritual itself: one act that signals in our minds that the working day, whether it be creative or professional, has begun. For me, this means rolling out of bed in the morning, walking into the kitchen and making a pot of coffee. The moment I hear the dripping hiss of the coffeemaker waking up, a switch turns on inside my brain that tells me it's time to get to work. By the time I take my first sip, I am already sitting at my desk, planning out my projects for the day.

Tharp says, "Turning something into a ritual eliminates the question, Why am I doing this? By the time I give the taxi driver directions, it's too late to wonder why I'm going to the gym and not snoozing under the warm covers of my bed...The ritual erases the question of whether or not I like it. It's also a friendly reminder that I'm doing the right thing. (I've done it before. It was good. I'll do it again.)"

So if you're like me and need a little something extra to get you going, try establishing a ritual that makes your space feel good, and most importantly, makes you want to get to work, whether it be on the story you can't bring yourself to start or the editing project gathering dust on your desk. As Tharp says, "The only criterion is this: Make it easy on yourself. Find a working environment where the prospect of wrestling with your muse doesn't scare you, doesn't shut you down. It should make you want to be there, and once you find it, stick with it. To get the creative habit, you need a working habit that's habit-forming."

So pick your ritual, get to work, and, like me, you may be surprised at how much more productive you can actually be.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Trend Spotlight: Young Adult Book Sales to Rise

As the economy declines, every area of our lives is affected. Book sales have been dropping which makes the task of submitting a manuscript to be published all the more daunting. Many authors have turned to self-publishing or print-on-demand services like Lulu Publishing. (Check out Ken Arnold Books for a local example of this and some great reads!) Of course this requires a bit of marketing and business know-how that working with a publishing house would handle. There’s good news for young adult writers, though.

Despite the fall of book sales overall, young adult books will continue to sell and even grow this year. So polish your writing and schedule a free initial consultation with our newest editor, Andrea Deeken, who specializes in children’s books, or with our senior editor, Ali McCart, who specializes in young adult fiction and nonfiction.


Hot books right now:

Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer














Inheritance series by Christopher Paolini

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak














Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury

Trend Spotlight by Adriel Gorsuch, Indigo Editing, LLC

Now Espresso and Books Go Together Even Better

Only four years ago, I first heard book industry folks talking about how great it would be to have an ATM for books. Just walk up, pick the book you want from the electronic archives, or enter your own, pay $3, and push Print. A book pops out, and you take it home.

This book ATM is now available, believe it or not, for a mere half million dollars. It's called the Espresso Book Machine, and Time magazine has named it one of the best inventions of the year.

Read Time's blurb here and more about it at On Demand Books.

My question is this: Will this system of electronically storing and printing only when asked for save our natural resources, or will the cheap access to books will make them seem more dispensable and in the long run waste more resources?

Monday, July 28, 2008

Ink-Filled Page Summer 2008

The Summer 2008 issue of the Ink-Filled Page is out. Download your free copy here.

Here's a sneak peak:

A forty-hour car ride with your wife and two young children? Men everywhere double over in pain at the thought. Well, I took the lumps and lived to tell.

Let’s begin by answering the obvious question of why? When I was a kid, my family drove from New York to Florida on an annual basis. The trip was a pilgrimage of sorts to visit my father’s large family in Miami and to escape the harsh New York winters.

Work had gotten slow, and I was faced with an impromptu family vacation. The consensus was to head for surf and sun, but last-minute airline tickets were priced through the roof. With the prospect of a vacation in peril, a veil of disappointment settled upon my family. “We could drive to Florida,” I said.

From "The Long Drive," by Jonathan Willard
Art: "Piano Man," by Sarah Hicks

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Portland Literary Events

Monday, July 28
Rhys Bowen will read from A Royal Pain
Where: Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd.
When: 7:00 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://www.powells.com/

Monday, July 28
M. Thomas Cooper will read from 42
Where: Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://www.powells.com/

Monday, July 28
Calyx Press will be celebrating its 32nd Anniversary, with readings by Ursual K. Le Guin, Frances Payne Adler, Paulann Peterson, Pam Crow, and Willa Schneberg
Where: Powell’s City of Books on Burnside, 1005 W Burnside
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://www.powells.com/

Tuesday, July 29
Garth Stein will read from The Art of Racing in the Rain
Where: Annie Bloom’s Books, 7834 SW Capitol Highway
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://www.annieblooms.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp

Tuesday, July 29
Naomi Novik will read from Victory of Eagles
Where: Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd.
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://www.powells.com/

Tuesday, July 29
Jonathan Evison will read from All About Lulu
Where: Powell’s City of Books on Burnside, 1005 W Burnside
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://www.powells.com/

Wednesday, July 30
Brad Hudson will read from Run Faster: From the 5k to the Marathon: How to Be Your Own Best Coach
Where: Powell’s City of Books on Burnside, 1005 W Burnside
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://www.powells.com/

Thursday, July 31
Doug Dorst will read from Alive in Necropolis
Where: Powell’s City of Books on Burnside, 1005 W Burnside
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://www.powells.com/

Thursday, July 31
Robert McDowell will read from Poetry as Spiritual Practice: Reading, Writing, and Using Poetry in Your Daily Rituals, Aspirations, and Intentions
Where: Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://www.powells.com/

Friday, August 1
Annie Bloom’s will host a release party for Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
Where: Annie Bloom’s Books, 7834 SW Capitol Highway
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://www.annieblooms.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp

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Wednesday, July 23, 2008

New Release Spotlight: Swimming with Strangers

Swimming with Strangers
By Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum

I admit that the cover is what drew me to the book. A woman stands waist deep in a large body of water as a storm rages overhead; she’s soaking wet despite the bright red umbrella she clings to.

Then the title popped out: Swimming with Strangers. Those three simple words symbolized so much next to this image of a solitary woman. When I got home with the book, only moments passed before I was curled up with it, the promise of wordplay at hand.

The talent evident in Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum’s collection of short stories goes well beyond the cover. Her stories begin with seemingly ordinary circumstances—a student crushing on her professor, a couple who finds their relationship is not what they imagined it to be, a teenager caught in her parents’ divorce—and yet Lunstrum crafts her words and their cadence to make the stories anything but ordinary.

“In the boat Alma sat up but slipped her hand beneath Charlie’s, felt the cool of his grasp and the knit of his fingers between hers as he held to her.” These could be any two people in the world, and in life we might easily dismiss this scene. Lunstrum’s voice doesn’t allow us to, though, as the ascenders and descenders of her words loop around our minds and captivate them, washing away all desire to look the other way.

And even in the midst of ugliness, Lunstrum brings the beauty of language: “She imagined the wasps as she dipped her head beneath the surface—their frantic buzzing like the buzzing of the water rushing into her ears, their movements disoriented and unsteady where they shivered above the broken husk of their nest.”

Lunstrum’s writing reminds us that short stories are far from a lost art. Capable of entrancing more than any tome could, each story in Swimming with Strangers will caress your word-savoring yearnings.

Review by Ali McCart, Indigo Editing, LLC

ISBN: 9780811860765
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Pub Date: November 2008
Hardcover: $22.95

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Portland Literary Events

Monday, July 21
Sharman Apt Russel will read from Standing in the Light
Where: Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://www.powells.com/

Monday, July 21
Geoff Hollister will read from Out of Nowhere: The Inside Story of How Nike Marketed the Culture of Running
Where: Powell’s City of Books on Burnside, 1005 W Burnside
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://www.powells.com/

Tuesday, July 22
Tyler Colman will read from Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink
Where: Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd.
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://www.powells.com/

Tuesday, July 22
Ethan Canin will read from America America
Where: Powell’s City of Books on Burnside, 1005 W Burnside
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://www.powells.com/

Wednesday, July 23
Tom Spanbauer will read from Faraway Places
Where: Annie Bloom’s Books, 7834 SW Capitol Highway
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://www.annieblooms.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp

Wednesday, July 23
Dagmar Herzog will read from Sex in Crisis: The New Sexual Revolution and the Future of American Politics
Where: Powell’s City of Books on Burnside, 1005 W Burnside
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://www.powells.com/

Thursday, July 24
Phillip Moffitt will read from Dancing with Life: Buddhist Insights for Finding Meaning and Joy in the Face of Suffering
Where: Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://www.powells.com/

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

New Release Spotlight: Slumberland

Slumberland
By Paul Beatty

Slumberland, the third novel from Paul Beatty, is an equal combination of reflections on language and jazz music (with some rock, classical, and pop references thrown in for good measure). The narrative is built around a plethora of pop culture references (ranging from Pink Floyd to Samuel Becket to LL Cool J) that can be either side-splitting, laugh-out-loud hilarious or distancing and only potentially amusing, depending on whether or not you understand them. It’s the kind of postmodern name-dropping that makes those well versed in pop culture, literature, and underground DJ hip-hop feel proud and elitist, and those who aren’t as well versed as if they’ve missed the boat on its maiden voyage.

The loosely composed and developed story consists of Ferguson W. Sowell (a.k.a. DJ Darky) searching Berlin, just before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, for a virtually unknown free-jazz musician named Charles Stone. DJ Darky has created the perfect beat, and he needs a perfect musician to lay down the perfect solo over his masterpiece. The novel benefits from the tremendous wordplay and rhythm of the voice, creating an auditory experience that seems a representation of listening to amazing, transformative music.

As a metaphor for conspicuous segregation and the stratification of identity, Wall-era Berlin is an ideal backdrop for Beatty’s playful meditations on race and identity. “Blackness is passé,” the narrator says, but in the end, Stone answers him with, “Being passé is freedom. You can do what you want. No demands. No expectations.” The characters constantly straddle the tumultuous line between the simple freedom of racial/ethnic equality (“colorblindness”), and the desire to maintain and express one’s identity through ethnicity and heritage.

The novel is very funny—so funny it’s easy to look past subtle anachronisms like the mention of Affirmative Action or Halle Berry circa 1989 Berlin. But the important undertones throughout—the pluralistic nature of identity, the cultural inability to escape history, and the unifying and transformative power of music, and all art—are what allows its playfulness to grab hold of the reader and never let go.

Review by Caleb Murray, Indigo Editing, LLC

ISBN-13: 9781596912403
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Pub Date: July 2008
Hardcover: $24.99

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Yay!

I know many publishers are a bit concerned about book sales right now because of our country's economic slump. Today's Shelf Awareness newsletter shows that while says aren't through the roof, they're not declining, which in my book means a little celebration is in order.
Keep up the book-buying!

May Bookstore Sales: 2.6% Rise, Up 4.9% for the Year

After a blockbuster April, when bookstore sales rose 8%, bookstore sales in May were up 2.6% to $1.154 billion, according to preliminary estimates from the Census Bureau. For the year to date, bookstore sales have risen 4.9% to $6.604 billion.

By comparison, total retail sales in May rose 2% to $364.570 billion. For the year to date, total retail sales were up 3.3% to $1,667.529 billion.

Note: under Census Bureau definitions, bookstore sales are of new books and do not include "electronic home shopping, mail-order, or direct sale" or used book sales.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

New Release Spotlight: Good-bye, Baby Max

Good-bye, Baby Max by Diane Cantrell
Illustrated by Heather Castles

In Good-bye, Baby Max, Diane Cantrell expertly weaves her experience as a kindergarten teacher and counselor into an endearing story that deals with death and loss in a classroom setting. When Max the baby chick fails to thrive and later dies, the young class comes face to face with death in a way that is vividly realized by Heather Castles’s moving illustrations.

That’s not to say there aren’t some bumpy parts on this ride. At times, Cantrell’s rhyming four-line stanzas feel a bit contrived and choppy and get in the way of the real story here. Characters occasionally get muddled as well (in one instance, the same child takes her turn at Show and Tell two weeks in a row, which would not happen in a kindergarten classroom without a riot taking place). Castles’s illustrations, on the other hand, are so brilliant in both color and form that they transcend these small hiccups in the text, allowing the book to fully evolve as the creation it was meant to be. Rendered in colored pencil, the illustrations are truly beautifully accomplished.

All in all, Good-bye, Baby Max is an excellent read for children, whether or not they may be struggling with death or loss. With subject matter that is rich and compelling, it is obvious Cantrell has had experience with these important issues; the love and passion she has for her work really comes through in the book. Good-bye, Baby Max is definitely one to put on the shelf for the little person in your life.

Review by Andrea Deeken, Indigo Editing, LLC

ISBN:1-933538-95-3
Publisher: Bridgeway Books
Pub date: February 2008
Hardcover: $16.95 US


Sunday, July 06, 2008

Portland Literary Events

Monday, July 7
Neal Skorpen will read from The Bicycle Book: Wit, Wisdom and Wanderings
Where: Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://www.powells.com/

Monday, July 7
Dick Lewis and David Loftus will read from Beowulf and from Grendel, in an event titled Story Time for Grownups
Where: Grendel’s Coffee House, 729 E Burnside
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://wweek.com/

Tuesday, July 8
Johan Bruyneel will read from We Might As Well Win: On the Road to Success With the Mastermind Behind Eight Tour de France Victories
Where: Powell’s City of Books on Burnside, 1005 W Burnside
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://www.powells.com/

Wednesday, July 9
Leif Enger and Lin Enger will read from So Brave, Young, and Handsome, and from Undiscovered Country
Where: Powell’s City of Books on Burnside, 1005 W Burnside
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://www.powells.com/

Thursday, July 10
David Wroblewski will read from The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
Where: Powell’s City of Books on Burnside, 1005 W Burnside
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://www.powells.com/

Thursday, July 10
Rayo Casablanca will read from Six Sick Hipsters
Where: Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://www.powells.com/

Friday, July 11
Ellen Sussman will read from Dirty Words: A Literary Encyclopedia of Sex
Where: Powell’s City of Books on Burnside, 1005 W Burnside
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
For more info: http://www.powells.com/

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Wednesday, July 02, 2008

New Release Spotlight: The House at Riverton

The House at Riverton
Kate Morton

Kate Morton’s first novel, new to the U.S. market but previously a critical and popular success in England and in her native Australia, kept my fingers turning pages till midnight and my brain happily restless with its revelations till long after that.

Told mostly in flashbacks by Grace Bradley, a ninety-eight-year-old whose memories of her time as a housekeeper and lady’s maid for the Hartford family in early-1900s England are reawakened by a researching filmmaker, this book oozes over its edges, stopping not at its main story but rounding out its ancillary ones so that the reader truly finds satisfaction in the full ending. It is a successful blend of historical fiction—in which characters are enhanced by, and not made only of, details of dress, avocation, and occupation (in fact, Morton seems to poke a bit of fun at the “life” that history is usually given, when Grace goes on a Disney-fied tour of the manor she once worked in)—and of intrigue, at the end of which the suspense really pays out for the reader, in both heartbreak and horror.

Morton is a skillful writer—she gracefully captures the dread present-day Grace feels when she hears her own voice—“[Mine] was the voice of age: faint, worn, almost invisible. A pale ribbon, frayed so that only brittle threads survive. Only the merest flecks of me, my real voice, the one I hear in my head and in my dreams.” Just as seemingly effortlessly, she conveys humor, as when older sister Hannah Hartford works to convince younger sister Emmeline that the latter has the choicer part in a family play, even though Hannah is God and Emmeline is leprous Miriam.

If anything could be improved, it’s the pacing and amount of details given during acquaintance Robbie Hunter’s return to the Hartfords’ lives, but that’s a minor quibble. Morton has the reader from her first line—“Last November I had a nightmare”—through her last—“I know how good you are with secrets.” Nothing—including closing the book and turning off the light—will change that.

Book Review by Kristin Thiel, Indigo Editing, LLC

ISBN: 978-1-4165-5051-8
Publisher: Atria Books
Pub Date: April 2008
Hardcover: $24.95

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

New Release Spotlight: Visibility

Visibility by Sarah Neufeld
Illustrated by D. Meister

Comics and graphic novels are the fastest growing genre in literature. As a dedicated book reader, I felt that my literary experience was lacking because I’d never read a graphic novel. I’d picked them up in bookstores, but was always daunted by the intertwining of words and pictures. I may have read Moby-Dick, but I was intimidated by novels written for ten-year-olds.

Then I discovered a genre that is, for me, a stepping stone into the world of graphic novels—the illustrated novel.

Visibility, written by Sarah Neufeld and illustrated by D. Meister, is an illustrated novel for ages thirteen and up. And it was just the thing to ease me into the genre. An illustrated novel has illustrations suggestive of comic book illustrations, but the words and pictures are kept separate, making it easier for a newbie like me to read.

Visibility is about Natalie Irving, the teenage daughter of a widely unpopular superhero mother, Jadyn. While Natalie is boringly normal, her mother has the ability to become invisible. Natalie deals with the normal teenage issues of feeling invisible among her peers, and the certainty that her mother cannot possibly understand her. As the plot progresses, Natalie learns that she has more in common with her mother than she imagined, and she begins to understand the heavy responsibility of having super powers.

Though Visibility may not become a literary classic, it was an enjoyable read, and the illustrations added depth to the reading experience. Teenagers will relate to Natalie’s struggles with peers and parents. Adults can appreciate the new twist on the superhero story while they are introduced to the genre that is so popular with their children. I recommend Visibility for anyone looking for an introduction into the world of illustrated and graphic novels, as well as for anyone already familiar with the genre.

Book Review by Emilee Newman Bowles, guest reviewer

ISBN: 978-0-9801419-0-0
Publisher: Bowler Hat Comics
Pub Date: June 2008
Paperback: $15.00