Roy Miller's Blog, page 295
January 20, 2017
The Aggressive Left
"You're about to see how a government is supposed to be run liberals."
"I love reading the comments of all the crybaby liberals bahahaha."
"If Obama didn't get impeached ain't nobody getting impeached."
These are just a few of the onslaught of comments awaiting those who tuned into CNN's live stream of the President Elect's first press conference since the election. President Elect Trump ended up being 14 minutes late but depending on who you ask, that's not surprising.
Recently I had a discussion with a friend about how the so-called left has been getting increasingly aggressive over the last few years. People that normally consider themselves pacifists and those that are supposed to preach love for everyone have been calling for violent protests and uprisings. Has the time finally come that citizens of the liberal persuasion are tired of getting trampled over? I, for one, hope that it has.
Over the last eight years of President Obama's term, the status quo has pretty much been kept. Democrats consistently pleaded for Republicans and Independents alike to give the President some time and see what happens in a year or two. Republicans consistently did everything they could to stop President Obama from passing any kind of legislation or repealing what they had put in place. Of course, the roles were reversed when George W. Bush was President and the practice has been going on for generations, so there's no surprise there. But when it comes to 2017 and the inauguration of the most controversial President this country has seen, we're looking at a very different situation.
Millennials are arguably the most politically inclined young generation we've ever had. Add to that the numerous ways in which societal normals are being shaken up (gender identities, bathroom assignments and safe spaces among them) and the right-wing strong arm of President-Elect Trump is poised to create sparks over the next four years that could potentially light a very dangerous fire.
Tired of being considered weak, leftists are starting to fight back, and not with just words. There has always been a left-sided group that has been protesting with sit-ins and signature collecting, but what we saw at Occupy Wall Street has only been growing; the use of arms from once-pacified people. Those who would once grab a clipboard are now grabbing molotovs. Those who would once call for peace and love are now calling for scrappy human shields to protect themselves and what they love with literal life and limb.
People are waking up and realizing that not only words but soft actions are not enough.
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The inability for people to agree on pretty much anything is the major force driving a divide down the center of the United States. If we take the Colin Kaepernick situation, it's a perfect example of an infinite loop. We have people that say America is about freedom and our ability to exercise free speech and protest against things we disagree with. Colin decides to kneel for the pledge, and he gets torn apart by the aforementioned people, who say, "you can protest, but not like that." There's too much personal opinion weighing in from every angle to allow for a uniform decision of what is acceptable and what isn't. This back and forth feeds on itself until the inevitable lashing out in anger, and those that are truly responsible are right there to point the finger.
Whether you believe that the number of black men killed by police is increasing, or you believe that media influence is just showing it more to create a racial bias for their own agenda, the stories are creating an unrest in people that we haven't seen in a long time. Whether you believe that Trump won his campaign on racism and bigotry, or that, once again, the media is skewing things in their favor, more conversations than ever are happening between young people and old, politically-inclined and politically dumb. And those conversations are leading to riots, kids chaining themselves to construction equipment and veterans vowing to die protecting Americans from their own government.
As anyone that keeps up on news knows, getting involved with this stuff can lead to getting arrested or even killed, so others have chosen to get involved behind the screen. Anonymous has been politically active, from taking digital shots at the Polish government in 2012 to releasing the names of police officers and government employees in the US with ties to the Ku Klux Klan. Anonymous reminds us that there are more ways than one to get involved, but as Deric Lostutter can tell you, it's not always smooth sailing, even if they can't see your face.
Either way you look at it, the next generation is gearing up for war, and not just abroad.
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Some will say that the left resorting to violence is a complete abandonment of their core values (usually those on the right.) Some will also say that this progression was only natural after so many years of injustice despite never-ending efforts to change things at the base of our government. Either way you look at it, the next generation is gearing up for war, and not just abroad. With the rise of Antifa groups and groups that teach preparedness in self-defense, off-the-grid living, and political activism, it's only a matter of time before we see a crescendo of violence that very well might take us down from the inside out.
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LitHub Daily: January 20, 2017
The Best of the Literary Internet, Every Day
TODAY: In 1910, Joy Adamson, author of Born Free, is born.
“They see the same person they’ve always seen—the consummate classroom troublemaker; a vain, insecure bully; and an anti-institutional schemer, as adept at ‘gaming the system’ as he is unashamed.” Speaking with three of Trump’s biographers. | POLITICO
The Trump transition team has announced its plan to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities. | The Hill
“If the counternarrative has the power to change the law, it still exists as a counternarrative.” Speaking with Claudia Rankine about the Racial Imaginary Institute. | The New Yorker
“[Rachel] Cusk apparently had demanded too much—she had become a mother and wished to remain herself at the same time.” On motherhood, Outline, and Transit. | Broadly
“This is a time for resistance. That’s what I hear these days. (Fact: it always was.)” Chiwan Choi, Natashia Deón, and other writers “share short essays of strength, hope, reflection, and resistance.” | PEN Center USA
“Love was not something I would have previously thought to look for in a President, but now I’m wondering how I’ll do without it.” Ann Patchett on Obama’s displays of lovingness. | TIME
The finalists for the 2017 National Magazine Awards for Print and Digital Media and the 2017 Edgar Awards nominees have been announced. | ASME, TheEdgars.com
Also on Lit Hub: xx
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40 Reasons To Learn a Dead Language
I began learning Latin six years ago, as I was approaching the age of 60. My baffled friends understood making the effort to learn a language that would facilitate foreign travel—French, Italian, even Hindi. But Latin? No one anywhere speaks it, and it’s notoriously difficult. To my friends it seemed a lot of effort for something “useless.”
Which is part of why I wanted to learn it. After I stopped working as an editor at Harcourt, I found myself living in the country, surrounded by the silent woods, with too much time on my hands, and no outside sources of structure or discipline. I wanted to embark on a new endeavor, one that would be more than a hobby, that might lead to a new life, even though I didn’t know what that life might look like. I wanted something that would require the sort of devotion that I had willingly given to editorial work, something that would be fun and meaningful.
I discovered a new life in Latin. I had missed the conviviality of sales conferences and BEAs, and I found it anew in Bidua Latina (Latin-speaking weekends) and Conventicula Latin (week-long Latin speaking retreats). I began offering Latin classes to teenagers at my local library. And I wrote a book about my romance with Latin.
There are many reasons to learn Latin. Here’s my list:
1. Because it’s eccentric.
2. Because it uses the same sort of analytical skill that math does, but rather than equations, you end up with poetry.
3. Because it’s not simply goal oriented.
4. Because it’s a challenge.
5. Because it opens up a completely different time and culture.
6. Because it is gymnastics for the mind.
7. Because it is both elegantly compact and wildly errant.
8. Because the only knowledge that is useless is knowledge you lack.
9. Because you can understand all the magic spells in Harry Potter.
10. Because de gustibus non disputandum est.
11. Because it improves your memory.
12. Because it is the home base of English.
13. Because you can translate all those Latin phrases writers throw into their books and articles.
14. Because it allows you to join a conversation that’s been ongoing for thousands of years.
15. Because it inspires love as well as exasperation.
16. Because you can understand medical terminology.
17. Because learning to parse verbs and nouns helps you parse other questions.
18. Because it is a gateway into many other modern languages.
19. Because it improves speaking and writing skills.
20. Because it is constantly amazing.
21. Because you can read some great literature in the original language.
22. Because it builds your vocabulary.
23. Because, like all parents, it is something to be reckoned with.
24. Because it helps you understand Western history and culture.
25. Because you will know the difference between e.g. and i.e.
26. Because orators crib from the great Latin rhetoricians all the time.
27. Because it helps you make connections between disparate concepts.
28. Because it teaches you to order your thoughts in a fundamentally different way.
29. Because communicating with the dead is important.
30. Because it is ubiquitous and immortal.
31. Because you will learn about ancient mythology, gods, and goddesses.
32. Because you can’t understand where we are without understanding where we’ve been.
33. Because you will be able to decipher legal terms.
34. Because you will get to know the original Dead White Men on their own terms.
35. Because you will be able to decipher botanical terms.
36. Because you can use it to create new nomenclature for sexual persuasions.
37. Because you will know which of the credits on John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight are fake, and which are real Latin.
38. Because you can scatter Latin phrases into your conversations.
39. Because your friends will think you are crazy in an interesting way.
40. Because it just might change your life.
Ann Patty, the founder of Poseidon Press, was an executive editor at Crown and Harcourt. Living with a Dead Language: My Romance with Latin (Viking, June) is her first book.
A version of this article appeared in the 04/11/2016 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: Loving Latin
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Spotlight: Eric Weiner and Geography
Photo: Justin Tsucalas
Eric Weiner’s book The Geography of Genius examines the flourishing of creative genius in certain places at certain times in history. Ancient Athens for thinkers, Renaissance Florence for art, Vienna for music and Silicon Valley for techies are all his topics. His previous book, the best-selling The Geography of Bliss, was about the world’s happiest countries. A former National Public Radio foreign correspondent, he’s known for his mordant wit.
Where do your ideas come from?
Many ideas come to me when I’m traveling. There is something about getting out of my everyday surroundings that unshackles ideas. Maybe it’s my relatively clutter-free existence on the road, or the exposure to foreign peoples and ideas. Henry Miller said, “One’s destination is never a place but a new way of seeing things.”
What has writing on “genius clusters” taught you about creativity?
Creative geniuses don’t appear randomly, but in groupings, almost always in cities, which provide the stimulation, resources (usually money and patronage) and opportunity for interaction with like-minded people. But they’re only welcoming up to a point. They tend to be competitive places. I think a degree of friction is essential. Creativity is largely a response to a challenge. Change your place, I believe, and you can change your life.
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned about writing, especially since you came from radio?
Working for NPR made me a better writer. Radio forces you to cut to the essence of a story. You have to grab them from the first second and not let go.
—Sharon McDonnell is a freelance travel writer in San Francisco.
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IDPF Close to Finalizing W3C Merger
During a tense community meeting at Digital Book World on Wednesday, the executive board of the International Digital Publishing Forum announced that an agreement finalizing its merger with the Internet standards organization, W3C, was weeks away.
Although IDPF executive director Bill McCoy continued to call the merger agreement "aspirational," he acknowledged that a final agreement between the two organizations was near. IDPF board president George Kerscher said the merger would assure that there will be no “fork in the EPUB standard, it will be a rock solid world standard maintained by the W3C and the publishing group within the W3C, and have more resources than we have at IDPF.”
W3C business development leader Karen Myers was on hand to outline how the publishing community will be integrated into the W3C organization. She also outlined a tiered level of membership and dues—the W3C has hefty dues for full membership and access to working committees--created for IDPF members to cushion and encourage their introduction into W3C community.
Nevertheless, McCoy and the rest of the IDPF executive board face continued challenges to the merger by OverDrive CEO Steve Potash, founder of the Open E-Book Forum, the predecessor organization to the IDPF, who has mounted a campaign to block the merger. At the meeting, Postash continued to call on the IDPF to delay the merger for six months to search for what he calls an alternative plan.
Board members declined to delay the merger and made pointed efforts to rebut Potash’s anti-merger claims. In particular, McCoy was forced to respond to accusations made that details about McCoy’s post-merger employment by the W3C and “six-figure salary” (including commissions based on individual IDPF members taking full membership in the W3C) were not communicated to members.
McCoy was emphatic that “there are no secrets.” Although he acknowledged his employment details were not made available to the general public, he said his post-merger employment and compensation was “always part of the plan. ”
He said details about his employment were provided to IDPF members at the time of the merger vote in November 2016. McCoy, who is the IDPF’s only paid employee, said, “I’ll make less money with the W3C,” and the commission plan “will give me a little more money,” if he can lobby former IDPF members to become W3C members..
McCoy also said that more than 50 companies who have IP rights around contributions to the EPUB standard had relinquished claims to those rights to the standard. IDPF is working to make sure that the EPUB standard is a “royalty free standard open to everyone." He said those submitting the rights did so voluntarily and that those 50 companies represented more than 97% of the likely owners of rights available.
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January 19, 2017
GLA News | WritersDigest.com
Hi there writer friends!
Chuck Sambuchino, long-time editor for Guide to Literary Agents, is no longer with Writer’s Digest. Never fear, though: The great content you’ve come to expect from GLA will continue, and we’re excited to deliver brand-new agent information, query letter and proposal tips and much more. Stay tuned for news on a new GLA editor and agent expert, coming soon. And, as always, thanks for reading the GLA blog.
If you’re an agent looking to update your information or an author interested in contributing to the GLA blog or the next edition of the book, contact Cris Freese at cris.freese@fwmedia.com.
Also, if you don’t own it already, be sure to grab your copy of the newest edition of The Guide to Literary Agents!
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LitHub Daily: January 19, 2017
The Best of the Literary Internet, Every Day
TODAY: In 1921, novelist Patricia Highsmith is born.
The finalists for the 2017 PEN Literary Awards have been announced. | PEN America
“I read my poem, feeling American poets alive and dead by my side, feeling myself as representative in the most grave and beautiful way.” Elizabeth Alexander on composing and reciting a poem for Obama’s first Inauguration. | The New Yorker
Listen to me if you know what’s good for you: An advance look at Han Kang’s Human Acts. | Read it Forward
“What I call for is a literature that craves the conflict and owns the destruction, a split-mind literature that features fear and handles shock, that keeps self-evident ‘reality’ safely within the quotation marks.” Aleksandar Hemon on writing in the age of Trump. | The Village Voice
“Those people who believe themselves to be beyond identity and ideology will, sooner or later, charge us with identity and ideology if we dare to commit that most unnatural act of speaking up and out.” An excerpt from Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Nothing Ever Dies. | BLARB
“There is an art to dying and the boy does not have it — never mind he has been dying since first he was born.” A short story by Chanelle Benz. | Electric Literature
Twice a year, the just-announced Full Stop Reviews Supplement will “feature some of the best reviews of debuts, works in translation, and books published by small presses” from their website. | Full Stop
Also on Lit Hub: xx
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25 Years Ago Is Ancient History
More than 25 years ago, I wrote a novel for middle grade readers called The Law of Gravity. It tells the story of an 11-year-old girl who attempts to make her reclusive, agoraphobic mother come downstairs and out into the world. The sales staff at Morrow Junior Books worried that children would think it was a work of nonfiction. They thought to have a line under the title that called it a novel. I asked my 10-year-old son if he knew what that meant. “Sure,” he answered. “Sometimes it’s fiction, and sometimes it’s nonfiction.” I phoned my editor: “Definitely don’t identify my book as a novel,” I said, telling her about my son. That’s why on the book jacket it said “a story.”
That novel had a good life. The Law of Gravity was well reviewed, was on many state reading lists, and became a Weekly Reader Book Club selection and a Scholastic paperback. Scholastic immediately changed the title to What Goes Up Must Come Down, a very clever title that neither the Morrow staff nor I had considered. The book sold for more than 20 years before it went out of print.
But then a new option became available. StarWalkKids Media is bringing out my book in an e-format. “Would you tweak the story and bring it up to date?” I was asked. Up to date? I thought I had written a contemporary story. But I was wrong.
Upon rereading it, I discovered that a quarter of a century ago is ancient history. My protagonist, Margot Green, lives in New York City. I gave her a large dog so she could safely walk the city streets alone. Nowadays, Margot can carry a cell phone and let her mother know exactly where she is and when she will be home. She can call the police if necessary. Other new devices enable my characters to view movies streamed onto their television sets or other devices.
Thinking back on the books I most loved and read as a youngster, I realize that most were out of date even when I read them. Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House Books, for example, were set in the 1870s: Betsy-Tacy and Heidi lived without electricity and without the inventions that came later. The differences in the lives of these characters to my own just seemed to add a charm to the books. I never objected to their old-fashioned settings.
In my book, Margot frequently goes to her local public library accompanied by her dog. When I wrote my book, this was permissible. Nowadays, except for service dogs, animals are not allowed inside the New York Public Library. It would have been an easy thing to eliminate the presence of the dog, except for the charming illustrations by Ingrid Fetz, which show the dog inside the library.
I could eliminate the drawings, but I decided against it, since outside of N.Y.C., children don’t know the library’s ruling about animals. Another drawing that is a problem shows Margot riding a bike without a helmet. Hopefully this won’t upset my e-readers.
The value of money is always a problem with passing time. I increased the amount Margot was paid for babysitting to $10 an hour. Shea Stadium, where the New York Mets played baseball, has been replaced by Citifield. Luckily, I never mentioned the price of the tickets when Margot went to see a baseball game.
I also made some language changes in my revision. Originally, Margot sits “Indian style,” but nowadays this is a politically incorrect usage. So in the updated version, Margot is sitting cross-legged.
At the conclusion of most chapters, Margot sends a letter to her best friend, one of those old-fashioned letters that are placed in an envelope, sealed, and mailed with a postage stamp attached. Today, paper letters are passé. The appropriate thing for Margot to do in this day and age is to send a text message. The revised edition of my book has text messages. They were not written by me. My 15-year-old granddaughter, Juliet Hurwitz, took on the assignment!
The e-book will be available with the title What Goes Up Must Come Down. It will also say, “Original Title: The Law of Gravity.” And hopefully, the story will live happily ever after—at least until another wave of new technology arrives on the scene.
Johanna Hurwitz is the author of 75 books for young readers; many are now available exclusively as e-books.
A version of this article appeared in the 04/18/2016 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: Tech Story
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Expert tips for author school visits
When Kelly Milner Halls arrived for a school visit, the librarian warned her about a quirky third grader who would be at every one of her six sessions that day. He had checked out only one book each week: Milner Halls’ Tales of the Cryptids: Mysterious Creatures That May or May Not Exist.
“He sat with me at lunch and got suddenly quiet,” says the author. “Then he said, ‘I never thought this day would come.’ I asked, ‘What day is that?’ and he said, ‘I never thought the day would come when I would meet someone like me.’ Those are the days when you know you’ve got a good life.”
School visits such as the dozens Milner Halls does allow authors who write for children to increase both readership and book sales. Best of all, writers have a chance to interact with – and learn from – their target audience. “My life is about curiosity,” Millner Halls says, “and we get to celebrate that curiosity together.”
Schools across the country pay for dynamic speakers to offer presentations to small and large groups. With thousands of authors eager to connect with their audiences, how can you ensure that your performance stands out as more thrilling than the Kidizoom Smartwatch DX?
Picture book author Kim Norman runs a blog called Cool School Visits. When she receives contact information for a school’s event coordinator, she sends guides to her books with activities that teachers can do before or after her visit. She offers a poster that coordinators can download from her site and bookmarks for distribution. She also provides a video compilation of book-cover images and pictures of her Newfoundland dog for organizers to run as students assemble for her presentation.
“In advance of my visits,” she says, “I send coordinators a ‘scavenger hunt’ of my website for students to do before I come. It’s a fun little quiz about images and factoids that they can find on my site.”
Young adult author Maria E. Andreu notes that the more prepared the school is, the more successful the author’s visit will be. Before one of her events, administrators got a grant to buy copies of her book The Secret Side of Empty for English classes. “They prepped students by having them write questions ahead of time, planned a breakfast and reception and involved their school media team in an on-camera interview with me,” she says. “The kids were excited and engaged because they’d been so involved in the planning and execution of the event.”
“Performing to a group of 300 students is like a Springsteen concert,” says David Biedrzycki, author and illustrator of the Ace Lacewing Bug Detective series. “You’ve got to rock it. Do something that no one else does. Be educational without appearing to be.”
Biedrzycki visits more than 60 schools a year and engages students with real-time creations of digital art on a laptop and graphic tablet. Milner Halls, whose topics are far-ranging, shows a PowerPoint presentation as she talks. She brings fossils and artifacts for students to touch. “I engage at least three of their senses, connecting with kids who learn in different ways,” she says.
Most authors agree that a successful presentation includes humor and gets students laughing. Some show funny pictures of their dogs. Others show funny photos of themselves as children. “Humor is the great icebreaker,” Biedrzycki says. “It gets kids on your side.”
Expert tips on school visits
“Encourage teachers to read a chapter or two of one of your books aloud to the class. Share book trailers in advance. These fun, short videos are an easy way to hook the kids’ interest in books and in the author.” —Julie Berry, The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place
“Discussion guides are great, especially if they’re aligned to the Common Core.” —Maria E. Andreu, The Secret Side of Empty
“Preschoolers have very short attention spans, so my best word of advice is to gather in a classroom setting, rather than an assembly, and to keep your story sessions short – 20 minutes at the most.” —Laura Sassi, Goodnight Manger and Goodnight Arc
“Because many of my books have to do with sports, the school has the kids wear their favorite sports jersey on the day of my visit. It adds to the excitement and increases engagement from the students. —Brad Herzog, Count on Me Sports series
Melissa Hart is the author of Wild Within: How Rescuing Owls Inspired a Family and Avenging the Owl.
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PW Talks to Omar Saif Ghobash
Omar Saif Ghobash, the United Arab Emirates ambassador to Russia, underlines some of the issues young Muslims are likely to face in a world of extremism and Islamophobia in Letters to a Young Muslim (Picador, Jan.). The book, which is comprised of 27 letters written to his sons, argues against religious radicalism. Like many fathers, the ambassador hopes his words are met with an open mind, especially by his eldest teenaged son.
“I have specifically said to him that I don’t want him to read the book just out of obligation to me and that he could read it in his own time,” Ghobash told PW. “I don’t want him to feel burdened by my desire to tell him things.”
Drawing on his personal experiences, Ghobash explores what makes young Muslims vulnerable to radical interpretations of Islam in the book, including illiteracy as well as unemployment, which millions of Arabs face today. “Extremism makes sense to young men who don’t necessarily have any meaning in their lives and don’t see a way forward,” said Ghobash. “It appeals to male testosterone and adrenaline, and it takes care of the impatience that young men often have.”
Rather than being influenced by a minority of extremists, Ghobash suggests young Muslims take their own way forward in faith. “I want my sons’ generation of Muslims to realize that they have the right to think and decide what is right and what is wrong, what is Islamic and what is peripheral to the faith,” he writes in the book. “It is their burden to bear whatever decision they make.”
Ghobash emphasizes the importance of doubt when finding a voice that is true to Islam and considering religious ideas, even though doubt has a negative connotation in the Arabic world. “Doubt often implies atheism,” said the author. “But actually, between doubt and atheism, there is a tremendous amount of work that can and should be done [in terms of religious beliefs].”
The book is also written for those interested in learning more about Islam, and Ghobash encourages readers to combat Islamophobia by embracing the differences among Muslim practices. “Both Muslims and non-Muslims can come face-to-face with the great and legitimate diversity of Islamic expression,” he said. “This diversity opens up the possibility of tolerance and appreciation.”
Marketing and publicity for the book includes a national advertising campaign; a national media campaign with coverage in NPR, TIME, and more; select author events, targeted outreach to foreign policy and political organizations; and a library and academic marketing campaign.
"One of the author's hopes was to present some possible ways to think about being Muslim in the 21st century," said Picador publisher Stephen Morrison. “He has broad and unique life experiences that we thought informed his writing and worldview: we felt that it was a book only he could write.”
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