HOT, HOT, HOT! News to Bake Your Brain

Boy, is it HOT! Bet you haven't heard that before. LOL

Well, the weather is going to cool down a bit this week. Out here in Aberdeen we'll see a twenty degree dip from the 80's. But we're not here to talk about the weather.

Things are heating up on the home front. We continue to work on the renovation of Harbor House (still quite enough to keep us busy) as well as active promotion. We were in the newspaper this week and last week we were on the radio. There are a few other media things lined up and we're about a month out to open.

We continue to find good deals on some of the furnishings we need. Now we just need 30+ folding chairs, LOL (and a few other things).

In other news:

My lovely wife is getting a book together for publication. And I have a new idea (a book of my poems and Ruth's photos). However, most of my writing (other than ad copy and press releases) has been set aside while we get Harbor House off the ground.

I'm working on a play (39 Steps) at the Driftwood Players Theatre; building sets and working on a lighting effect. That's in my free time. LOL

That be it for now.

If you'd like to know how the IndieGoGo goes you can click here.

I'm Back on Track from my Amtrak Attack

Traveling by rail via Amtrak. SoCal 2015 vacay.

I used to think that riding a bus was an adventure. That is until my recent west coast rail trip. The return home from central California via Amtrak’s Coast Starlight to Portland was fraught with near calamity and a good measure of delay.

We set out well enough from Fresno, transferring to the Starlight in Martinez on schedule. All went as planned until just before we crossed over the Sacramento River. There the train ran over a five gallon propane tank somehow left on the tracks and we stopped dead in them. (Well, not literally.) No announcement was made about the delay or the potential hazard, but I managed to get this information from a porter. Whether this was an intentional terrorist act was not discussed.

While the container didn’t explode, tank goodness, it had managed to get wedged somewhere in the works and needed expert removal. I can envision the vessel dragging under a wheel, sparks flying along the tracks before the conductor says to the engineer, “Ya think that thing might blow?” About an hour later, after the fire department made it on the scene, we were again rolling along.

Incident number two came along a while later, not long after we picked up (cue Psycho music) “the family.” The family came complete with two inept parents and a screeching toddler from hell. It was immediately clear who had the control in the familial unit. This went on all the way to Albany. No attempt to truly reign-in the child was made. Between “the family,” the pot smoker in the john, the guffawing fat lady, the loud phone-talker, and the “incidents” I got very little sleep. But I digress.

Again the train made an unscheduled, mystery stop in the wilderness. We were told it was a structural inspection. Why and why then we were not told. I began to become somewhat concerned and the demon-child was getting on my nerves. We were now an hour and a half behind schedule and I’d been on this train for nearly twenty-four hours. I desperately yearned to be free of these huddled masses and be home to the freshness of the open sea. But…

Delay three came just after “the family” got off the train at Albany. Somewhere in the vast pastures of the Willamette Valley the train plowed through a flock of marauding sheep and had to stop for yet another inspection. I was getting a very baaaaad feeling about this trip.

I pictured the conductor alongside the tracks, “Well Larry, it looks like we’ve picked up a stowaway.”

“Yup,” says the porter.

“You jus’ gunna stand there Larry?” asks the conductor, “Or you gunna pry that thang outta there?”

Needless to say we were now behind by two hours and I was hungry. Once underway, as if on cue, the dinner menu was announced. The chef came on the PA system with the bonus offering of roast lamb and the porter was seen knitting a sweater.

As I wrote this we were one hour outside Portland and I’m I hoping nothing else would go wrong, but this is Amtrak and a lot can happen in an hour. I did have a concern: I had checked my luggage and was sure that was a mistake (he said sheepishly).

I'm home now and back at work. Disneyland was a blast and the creative batteries are recharged. I should be able to get some writing done.

Talking Turkey on the Upper Left Edge

Photo by Ruth A. Zschomler

You might wish to check out my Thanksgiving tale, called Turkey Lurkey, I've had published on The Upper Left Edge. 

Here's the link.

The End of Publishing as we Know it?

Most everyone knows that the publishing industry is changing--even struggling. Certainly this is known by everyone who writes or publishes.

There are many signs.

Independent and corporate bookstores are closing. Publishers are consolidating. Amazon is growing. ebooks and self-publishing are quickly taking over the market.

Everywhere you see the publishing industry (publishers, editors and agents) condemning the indie market, railing against the "unchecked" movement, decrying a "gateless" freedom where anyone wanting to can now publish a book. Such prattling is a sure sign of fear on their part as cash flow continues to dwindle.

The tendency certainly begs the question: "Is this good or bad?"

That depends.

On the one hand publishers have always served as "gatekeepers," regulating the quality of grammar and "worthiness" of what the public reads. In so doing they have stifled voices and thought, but kept the "standard." They have offered a sort of "badgeing" or approval service to the public. But they have also taken the lion's share of the profits and also the brunt of the risk. The bulk of authors either get rejected or, if published, see very little of the profits (royalties rarely pay more than 12%).

On the other hand, when there are no gatekeepers, anyone can have a voice. Today people are less trusting of corporate authority than in the past. They don't want authority figures telling them what they can and cannot do. They are reticent of accepting fed information. Fewer and fewer people trust the media industry and many feel it is biased. Citizen journalism, by way of the web, is on the rise as it has been since the 90s. Most people trust what their friends say before they trust the media.

This also reflects on the publishing industry. People are now saying "you can't decide for me what is worthy of reading," and they take their friend's advice over what marketing campaigns push at them. In fact, publishers are trending toward throwing their hands up when it comes to marketing--offering less and less to new authors. Often what efforts they do make do little to boost their bottom line.

You heard it said that you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. The same is true for readers: You can lead a person to a book, but you can't make them read it. No amount of marketing is going to get people to read. Word of mouth is the most effective means of advertising.

So, on the one hand you have publishers touting their "filtering" philosophy, and, on the other, you've got a public saying we don't need you.

The industry hates the indies.

At first they said it wouldn't fly and now mock it, hoping it will go away. But it won't. It grows. And most indie books aren't nearly as bad as they say they are. Some are, but many are quite good.

Authors are wising up, too. They know they don't need to face endless rejection, that they can earn more in royalties, and that they can get books to market when they want (not wait years for the corporate wheels to turn).

Furthermore, it would be wise for the publishing industry to take the initiative to reinvent themselves to embrace the movement rather than buck it. But they won't, because, even though the trend may see their demise, they are greedy. Before you know it, it will be too late.

Publishing is no longer for the elite few, but for everyone with a voice.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/28/waterstones-james-daunt-interview-books-bookshops-ebooks