Interviewed on Authors On Show

Check out my interview on AOS - the first one since my high school newspaper interviewed me:

http://newandgoodreading.blogspot.com/2011/05/interview-with-slush-pile-readers-first.html

I Hate It When People Say...

1. “The Kids today just aren’t as smart as they used to be.”  Yeah right.  If you believe that, then you’ve forgotten what it was like when you were a student.  It’s such an overused phrase – I’m sure people have been saying that since the cavemen learned to speak.
2. “At the end of the day…” We all know that is a figurative saying.  But the end of one person’s day is the middle of another’s.  I imagine a conservative and liberal saying “at the end of the day” and maybe they will both be right as the pendulum swings back and forth.  Overused.  I hear everyone saying it WAY too much.  From now on, I'm going to play dumb and take it literally every time I hear this. "Really? Tomorrow?"  Maybe if enough people play dumb then this hackneyed saying will die. 
3. “World Class.”  The county where I work offers a “World Class Education.”  Then I went to GMU where they offer a “World Class Education.”  Who started it, Prince William County School District or George Mason University?  Perhaps neither because I also heard a “World Class Radio Station” and a “World Class Bakery.”  Google “World Class” and you get: coaching, gymnastics, driving, ink, beverages, paints, organization, etc
4. “Signature.”  A restaurant’s menu claims: that’s our “signature” dish.  There are “signature” foods at supermarkets.  It’s just as bad as “World Class” when it comes to companies using it as a slogan.  Come up with something more original.

Add your least favorites here:

Copyrights and ISBN Numbers

I should have waited before hastily posting my last blog. Ends up my publisher knew all the answers - next time I will go to him first. Here is Slush Pile Readers response:

so here's the deal:

An author of a text does not need to file copyright. An author automatically receives copyright when he or she writes a text. It is as easy as that. However, some people prefer filing for copyright just the same, to feel more secure. Some argue there are definite benfits, others argue it is unnecessary to file for copyright. Should there be legal issues down the road (someone plagiarizes your for for instance) it is of course always better to have your work registered and filed with the proper authorities.

When a book, or text, or website, is first published it is instantly protected by copyright. Just the same, some prefer filing so that if any dispute were ever to arise they can prove, by showing the filing date, that they have copyright. However, in this day and age it is easy to trace texts online. For instance if you search fro SPKG on google you find all the different versions that you have put up online. It will be very difficult for anyone else to claim they should have copyright to it: on SPR for instance we can trace the day you registered and when you put up SPKG. In sum, copyright is quite easy to prove these days. Besides, copyright infringements of texts is very rare (beside people copying snippets for uni. papers and articles, but that is something else) and really doesn't occur much, if at all.

On SPR we describe the copyright process and we end it by stating it is up to the author to file or not.

As to the time it can take, it depends on their workload: anything from a month to several months.

ISBN is like a social security number for books, a unique numeric identifier for a specific edition and variation of a book. ISBN is not per se necessary for e-books sold in a single outlet. If a book will be sold in many outlets in paper format it does needs an ISBN not to hamper sales. A publisher usually buys a big lot of ISBN numbers so they always have some handy and assigns them to the books they publish. When it is time SPR will take care of that for you! So you don't have to worry about it! If you want to find out more about ISBN you can check out www.isbn.org.

Hope that answers everything! If not, ask again,

/Pascal

Have You Copyrighted Your Book?

I have poked around Slush Pile Reader and other sites and seen enough books that I know are published, so I have a couple of questions:

I applied for a copyright on April 15^th and I still haven’t heard thing one.  I thought it’d take a week or so and now it’s over a month.  What takes so long, do they actually read the entire book?  If so, I applaud their efforts.  Have you applied for a copyright and how long did it take?

I’m a little confused – when you get a copyright, is that when you get an ISBN number or does that come when the book actually gets published?  It’s something that I’m going to find out soon enough but I’m still curious.

So how has the publishing experience been for you?  Would love to hear your thoughts...

Am I Stupid, a Jerk, or Some other Adjective?

Every year I go to a different baseball stadium with a couple of friends.  We’ve
gone to San Francisco, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Pittsburg, Baltimore, St. Louis,
Washington, Boston, Detroit, Cleveland, and LA.  This year we decided to go to
New York.

Here’s the problem: I’m editing a book.  I couldn’t afford to take a weekend off
and head to New York to watch a few baseball games.  I’ve been delaying it for
far too long.  It should’ve been done weeks ago. It shouldn’t take me too long
to edit a book – this is my dream after all.

And going to New York would mean leaving my wife alone with Xavier, who’s only
11 months.  Xavier was having his first swim lesson.  And Monica was going to a
party an hour and a half away, which meant she’d have to travel three hours
alone with Xavier in the car.

The Monday before, I realized it was a stupid idea.  I got an email from my
friends.  It cost 180 dollars per night to stay in Manhattan.  And add another
160 dollars for the two tickets.  I pulled out my checkbook.  All I had to do
was write a check for 340 dollars and I’d be free to work on my editing and I’d
be able to help Monica with Xavier.

Monica refused to let me.  She insisted I go.  She didn’t want me to break up
the tradition.

So I went.

I packed my laptop with my USB.  Maybe I could do some revisions while I was in
New York.

Wrong.

I called Monica on Saturday morning.

Xavier loved swimming.

He laughed and the teacher picked him when modeling what to do.

Things where great.

Monica and Xavier were happy.

I went to the game.

The Yankees won.

Everything was going according to plan.  I hoped to do a little editing before
going to bed.

Then Monica called again.

Xavier apparently missed his father.  As Monica drove home, he wouldn’t stop
crying.  She put the cell phone on speaker as I heard Xavier make sounds like a
wounded animal.  He cried and cried as Monica had to stop nine times.

Nine times. The hour and a hour ride took over three hours.

Xavier sweat so much that his clothes were soaked.

So was his hair and the car seat.

Monica was frazzled.

As I helplessly listened to Xavier crying for a half an hour.

If only I didn’t go, this would not have happened.  And writing
that check for 340 dollars would have saved me a lot of money.  Do you know how
much food costs in Yankee Stadium and in New York City in general?
Yankee Stadium is beautiful.  They spared no quarter when they made it.  But
looking at it, I felt miserable even though the Yankees won both games.
Am I stupid for putting off editing and finishing my manuscript so I could spend
a weekend in New York?  Now my book will come out at least a week later – if not
longer.

Am I a jerk for leaving my wife alone with Xavier wailing in the back seat – not to mention missing his first swim lesson?

I decided that this would be my last year to indulge in Baseball Weekend.

KJ Kron

How do you keep track of your edits?

I sit down to edit and I have to remember, where did I save my latest copy to SPKG?  I pull out my three USBs or flashdrives – I’m not even sure what to call them.  Remember when ATMs first came out?  I called them “cashflow” machines.  That’s what my bank called them.  It sounded more normal than “ATM” but no one says “cashflow” anymore.  Does anyone call them “flashdrives”? Are they known exclusively as “USBs”?

My USBs are old.  One only has 128 MB.  That’s the dark ages.  Another one has 1 GB and the other has 2 GB.  Even those seem outdated compared to the amount of memory offered now.  So when I do a major edit on SPKG, I rotate my USBs and even computers.  First edit, desktop. Second edit, laptop. Third edit, my oldest USB. And so on.  But that got too complicated.  It’s much easier to just save it to the same USB.

I feel like I’m doing this wrong.  I have to remember – where did I save it last?  I check the properties to see which version was saved last since I have forgotten.  There has to be a better way.

So what do you do?  Always save over your original copy or do you change the name after an edit.  Do you save it in different places or always the same place?  

Karen Bessey Pease author of Grumble Bluff Interview

I stated reading Karen Bessay Pease’s Grumble Bluff on Slush Pile Reader and

Authonomy, two on-line sites, and finished reading it after it was published.

Karen was generous enough to let me ask her a few questions.

KJ Kron:  You really pulled me into your story when the bullies of the school

target Katherine, who is overweight.  How did your idea?  

Karen Bessey Pease:  I think every writer pulls stories from their observations and experiences.  When I sat down to write Grumble Bluff, all I had in mind to write was a simple story which might entertain-- and provide ‘life lessons’ for--my daughter, who was eleven years old at the time.  In all honesty, I didn’t know where it would take me, and I didn’t have a plan.  Each evening over the course of two weeks, I added a bit more to the story.  As I wrote, I recalled my own upbringing in the beautiful forested mountains of Maine.  I called upon the memories of the years I spent roaming the hills and valleys with my friend Patty, to whom Grumble is dedicated.  I thought a lot about friendship, and family, and about the trials of growing up.  Grumble Bluff is the story which emerged as I wrote for a young girl who was the same age I was when I first met my best friend thirty-nine years ago.

KJK:  How serious of a problem do you think bullying is today?

KBP: I don’t believe the inherent nature of human beings changes.  Nowadays, folks are better educated about issues such as discrimination and tolerance, sure.  But bullying has been a part of our lives for as long as we have had a societal existence.  Chickens aren’t the only creatures who feel the need to establish a pecking order when they are sharing the same space.  :o)

However, contrary to what many people believe, it is often the bully who suffers from the least amount of self-confidence, or who deserves the most sympathy.  Aggression is sometimes the symptom of serious problems in a bully’s private life.  All is not black and white, and learning how to deal with other personalities can be very challenging for developing children.  As the tag line for Grumble Bluff says, “Growing up is tough.”  But I came to realize something else as I wrote this novel, and it’s summarized in the rest of that tag line.  “Growing up is tough.  Katherine Anne and Greta are tougher.  Discover the awesome power of friendship in Grumble Bluff.”   When two people click, magic happens.  I’m lucky enough to know that, first-hand.

KJK: Greta is another target for the bullies.  How would you contrast her

personality / situation with Katherine?

KBP: Greta was the ‘new kid in town’.  In the best of circumstances, it is challenging for a child to have to make new friends.  In Greta’s case, she had an additional obstacle.  She had to overcome the ignorance and fear of a community which hadn’t had to confront the illness of HIV/AIDS before her family’s arrival in rural Maine.

KJK:  Is Grumble Bluff close to where you live?

KBP: The fictitious ‘place’ of Grumble Bluff was inspired by a quiet and tranquil spot here on The F.A.R.M., my 70 acre homestead in Lexington Township.  Originally, my husband and I purchased 50 acres when we bought this abandoned and ramshackle farmhouse.  A few years later, we were able to purchase an abutting parcel on the back side of our acreage.  Pease Brook (named after an ancestor of my husband’s, we later discovered) winds through a ravine which is surrounded by mature and verdant forest.  Since the piece of ground was ‘land-locked’ (meaning no deeded ‘right of way’ existed connecting it to a public access point) the trees had not been harvested for generations.  It’s as close to an ancient, pristine forest as we can get, nowadays.

KJK: What do you feel is more important to Katherine, Grumble Bluff or Greta?

  

KBP: Wow.  What a question!  Grumble Bluff is a place of solace for Katherine Anne, and has always been a sanctuary where she could go to think, and feel, and heal.  The Bluff is an intricate part of her life.  However, Katherine Anne’s life changed—dramatically and for the better—once she befriended Greta. I hope she’ll never have to choose between the two, but I’m pretty sure Greta would win in any contest! 

KJK:  I read on your blog a post about windmills.  Are windmills threatening to

go up in / near Grumble Bluff?

KBP:  May I say “Wow” twice in the same interview?  Heh… Around these parts, folks know enough not to mention the topic of mountaintop industrial wind to me unless they have a day or two to sit and ‘jaw’.   Yes, grid-scale wind facilities are threatening the wilderness and mountains all around my home, here near the Bigelow Preserve and the Appalachian Trail.  When I first began to study this issue, I had no idea the scope and scale of Maine’s Wind Energy Plan, nor did I know that the arguments used to promote it were based on misinformation.  I thought, like many people, that ‘wind’ must be ‘green’ and good, and that it would counter the effects of global warming and reduce our dependence on fossils fuels.    After doing some independent investigation, I knew that wasn’t the case.  And when I decided to oppose the Highland project (proposed for five mountains in a neighboring Plantation) this issue wasn’t quite so ‘personal’.  I was being an ‘active citizen’ because after all my research, I believed it was the right thing to do.  But now… this rural area has been targeted by no less than four wind developers, and the closest proposed project will be directly behind my home.  Even more challenging-- the corporation proposing it is the biggest ‘wind’ developer in the world.  It’s a daunting task, but I’ve been amazed at the groundswell of citizens who are getting educated and stepping forward to protect Maine’s renowned “Quality of Place’.  (Aren’t you glad you asked THAT question?  Sorry, pal.  I can’t help myself!)

KJK:  Maybe that can be another plot in a future book.  Any way, how long have you been working on Grumble Bluff and the series?

KBP: As I said, Grumble was written during the evenings over the course of two weeks.  I’ve completed two sequels, and each took a similar amount of time.  However, with the second and third, I had an editor-- who made my life quite… interesting.  Heh… he’s now my best friend; and he taught me a lot about how to graciously take criticism.  He’s also made me (I believe) a better writer.

KJK: I first read your book on authonomy when you got an agent or was it a

publisher?  Did that lead to your publication?

KBP: Grumble Bluff was actually published by a small, new publisher a month before I put it up on Authonomy.  My marketing coach suggested the site, because she believed the novel had the potential to attract a larger, more established publisher.  And within days, I was offered a representation contract by Bonomi Associates in London.  However, after presenting Grumble to 13 publishing houses in Britain, they weren’t able to get a more lucrative offer for the novel.  Nonetheless, I was very flattered and grateful to have a reputable agent ‘pick me up’.  Such things give a gal a little confidence!

KJK:  I read a little more of your book on Slush Pile reader.  How would you

contrast SPR with authonomy?

KBP: The two sites are worlds apart.  I stayed with Authonomy for awhile, even after my agent asked me to make Grumble ‘private’.  I thought maybe I could help other writers by offering suggestions about their manuscripts.  But—and this is just my opinion—I didn’t like the environment very much.  Manuscripts were being ‘backed’ as favors, or as swaps.  Books were advancing to the top which didn’t seem to be nearly as well written as others authored by people who refused to ‘play the game’.  So, while I made some great friend on the site, I decided that it was not a good expenditure of my time and effort to offer honest comments when all that really seemed to be desired was a ‘spot on the shelf’.

 

Slush Pile Reader is different.  The owners of the site have worked hard to avoid the mistakes made on Authonomy.  There is less pressure for writers on the site, and not so much personal drama.  The people there genuinely seem to want to improve their writing styles and techniques.  Over the course of the last year, I know I’ve learned a lot from the other authors at SPR.  And by the way… I’d like to congratulate you again for making it to the top of the Slush Pile!  St. Peter Killed God is a worthy manuscript, and I’m very happy for you. 

KJK:  Is your book available as an e-book?  If not, any plans to make it

happen?

KBP: No, it isn’t.  And yes, it’s an option- but one I haven’t taken advantage of.  Not yet.  To be honest, I’m in a bit of a quandary.  My lifelong dream has been to be a published (and successful) author.  And finally, I’ve been granted a chance to fulfill that dream.  But my writing (and marketing) has taken a back seat for the last few months as I’ve thrown myself into this citizens’ movement.  This is not the direction I ever expected my life to take, but I made a choice to fight for something I believe in and I feel obligated to stay involved until it’s over, one way or another.  I believe that Grumble Bluff and its sequels have an enduring quality, and that they will ‘speak’ to people tomorrow as well as today.  Life is full of surprises and unexpected turns, and I know that this effort I’ve dedicated myself to will prove to be a blessing.  I only hope I’m not too exhausted at the end of it to pick up a pen (or tap at a keyboard) again!   Thank you, Karl, for the honor of participating in this interview, and for opportunity to talk about my story of friendship.

KJK: I completely enjoyed Grumble Bluff.  You have a knack for pulling the

reader in and getting me to root for the underdog.  It was a roller coaster of

emotions.  Well done.  If you have a chance you should read this book.