S.L. Viehl's Blog, page 156

Making Books Interactive

Here's an interesting glimpse of one possible future for children's e-books; a video ad for an iPad app that allows the reader to interact with a story as they read it (also has some background music):

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore iPad App Trailer from Moonbot Studios on Vimeo.

Worth a Hundred Thousand Words

Sorry I'm late posting today; Photobucket is being ornery for some reason.

While sorting through a box of photos at my favorite art store I found this uncredited image for sale. At first glance it looked like an illustration of that old chestnut take a long walk off a short pier. Something about it nudged my imagination in a different direction, though, so I added it to my stack of stuff.

Inspiration and imagination combined always produce some interesting results. Although the image seems grim, it delighted me. I've walked along a hundred piers like this because I've always loved the sea at night. I can't even tell you how much of my life I've spent sitting on the sand or perched on the end of a pier watching the moonlight on the water. One of my earliest memories became a journal entry about how as kids we used to spend hours running around after dark rescuing newborn loggerheads. My happy associations then blossomed into a poem about my guy and our magical first date, also at the beach. Now it's starting to grow into a story, and while I'm not sure where it's going, I've learned to leave it alone and give it time to percolate.

A few years ago I took this photo by the sea:



Some of you might even remember the blog post I wrote about it. The inspiration didn't end there; it kept growing in my head until I had the beginnings of a story. As I was outlining the original idea I realized my story pic was bigger than a short -- much bigger. While I had my doubts, I went along for the ride, taking notes as characters and situations began to take shape. As they did the grafitti took on new meaning, which became the flow of the plot as I asked and answered all the questions it brought to me: What makes us master ourselves? What drives us to take control of our lives? What happens to those who won't, or can't? What if someone had the ability to steal that from you, and take you over at any moment, and make you do anything they wanted?

Interested in more? You can read the rest of the story by investing in my novel Nightbred , due out in December.

Expecting a single photo or image inspiration to grow into a book is unrealistic, of course. Sometimes an appealing picture is just that -- a picture that you enjoy or that invokes happy memories. Every now and then, however, you will find an image that is more than a visual delight -- and you'll know it because it opens a kind of window in your head and expands as it shows you what no one else can see. Your job as a storyteller is to show others what you've seen through that window.

You can't do that if you only take a few seconds to look, so give it time. Make a hard copy of the image or photo and keep it over your desk or make it the cover of a notebook. Don't put yourself on a time limit, either; with my Master Yourself photo it took about four years from the day I took the shot to the day I wrote the last word of the novel it inspired. Keep looking at your image, keep thinking about it, and in time you may find an entire new world waiting to be explored.

Now or Later

I've noticed something about the times in which we live: we can get everything we want, often instantly, without leaving home. Need to talk to someone? Text or call them on their smart phone. Want to watch a movie? Get it on demand on your TV or by streaming download online. Need to gift shop? Buy from the internet and have it shipped to your house. Want a newly released book? Get it in five seconds by wireless download on your e-reader. Want a romance? Go to an online dating site and be "matched" with those most likely to appeal to your heart (or attend one of those speed-dating sessions and meet ten or twenty prospects in under an hour.)

It seems like everything we need has become or is becoming immediate and utterly convenient. Considering how volatile fuel prices are I think this is (somewhat) a good thing. Telecommuting jobs are becoming more available, too. Someday soon we might not need cars or a job away from home. One day we might not have to step one foot out of the front door for anything but our own pleasure.

If we have any time left for it, that is.

The downside to this right-now, can't wait, must-have culture of immediacy is less noticeable, but it's there, lurking in the shadows behind the touch pads and the one-cup coffeemakers. We have no time for ourselves anymore. All the time people save with these time-saving devices and services is spent doing more stuff rather than less.

Technology has made privacy and personal time obsolete. If you're not telling the world your thoughts and activities by the minute, or making yourself accessible to others 24/7, people actually become angry with you. They regard it as a form of insult. Ask someone to turn off their phone for a day -- just 12 hours -- and they'll likely tell you they can't. Someone might text them, and woe be on the head of anyone who doesn't text back immediately.

I've also observed that with so many choices to make everyone is becoming collectively indecisive. I think it's sheer confusion combined with mental exhaustion. With all the stuff you have to do, how can anyone keep it straight? Just think about what we do online. Have you checked your Twitter, your Facebook, your e-mail, your LinkedIn, your blog, your comments today? How many hours will you spend trying to keep up with all of it? How much defeat and guilt do you feel when you can't? I mean, hey, everyone else does it . . .

I don't, but even I fell victim to the culture of immediacy earlier this year when I allowed myself to be inundated by the must-have-it-now needs of others. Somehow I was persuaded to juggle two deadlines, a contract negotiation, a book production, a variety of domestic crises and various projects others needed me to do for them. As a result I didn't have time to update my events calendar, but I was sure I had everything straight in my head. I was so tired and frazzled that I didn't realize I'd inverted two dates in my memory. As a result I missed by one weekend one of my favorite annual events; one I have attended faithfully the last seven years. That was a sign to me that I needed to stop, think, regroup and reorganize my time, and weed out some of the unnecessary activities inflicted by others to focus on those that were important to me and my well-being.

Unless the planet is hit by a massive EMP I don't see it getting better anytime soon, so it's up to us to deal with this problem. If you find you're being stretched too thin by all that's expected of you, here are some suggestions on how to eliminate the unnecessary, make better decisions and take back at least some of all that time you're supposed to be saving:

Deviceless Day: We used to have these things called weekends, during which we were off duty and free to do pretty much whatever we liked. Remember those? I won't be so crass as to suggest we return to that lovely practice, but it doesn't hurt to choose one day each week to shut off all the phones, computers and other electronics and make it your personal Deviceless Day. To avoid affronting your coworkers, family and friends, let everyone know in advance that on that day you will not be available to them at all.

Live By the 1:2 Time Ratio: For every hour you give up to the culture of immediacy, reserve two hours for yourself. That means if you spend an hour tonight online updating stuff, you should spend two hours doing something that relaxes you or that you personally enjoy.

Narrow Your Choices: Often people have towering stacks of books, movies, CDs and games that they never read, watch, listen to or play because they can't decide what they want. Since you can get practically anything immediately it is tempting to hoard stuff. To combat this, use the finish-first approach by not buying new books or other forms of entertainment until you've finished your latest purchase. This is tough to do, but if you stick with it you'll find you spend less and enjoy more.

Ward off the Immediacy of Others by Making Decisions: Someone has to make a decision; it might as well be you. For example, I've always asked my family what they'd like for dinner, but often they couldn't give me an answer. Every night I had conversations like this: Italian? Maybe. Asian? Well . . . Burgers and fries? Hmmmm. Not sure. They tried at first to counter my question by giving me that Magic 8-Ball answer of saying they'd let me know later. And then they tried to wait to the very last minute. Since I happen to be decisive, and I'm running a home, not a restaurant, gradually I began ignoring their stall tactics and making the choices myself. When there were objections, I told them that anyone who complains about what I make is then given dinner-making duty for the next night. Now they either let me know what they want, or eat what I choose without a peep. Apply the same logic to any immediacy problem your family or loved ones present to you and you'll find it solves it rather quickly.

Work Your Passions While Accepting Your Limitations: For many reasons I am not suited to participating in social media; thus I have never texted, Twittered, Facebooked or any of that stuff. I know it can be fun, it's a decent promotional tool, and I would probably sell a few more copies of my books if I devoted myself to all the various aspects of it. I also envy other authors who handle it so well. That said, I understand that it's not for me, and I've accepted that unhappy fact. So I devote the time I would spend on it doing what I am good at it, which is writing books, talking about books, teaching, finding free resources and helping other writers when I can -- all the things about which I'm passionate and (unlike social media) that I love. By doing this I've inadvertently developed my own form of social media; this blog, the connections I've made through writer friendships and getting to know my colleagues in a less conventional manner. Bottom line: do what you love and you never regret a single second of the time and energy you spend on it.

Photo credit: David Hughes

Roll With It

Most writers are familiar with haiku, a form of Japanese poetry composed in three lines of words that total seventeen syllables (five in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third.) Haiku are deceptively simple-looking; at first glance they seem like little more than small snapshot observations of nature or life. Then the underlying meaning starts to sink into your brain and spread out, often swelling into something of cosmic proportions.

I often write haiku, and while I've never aspired to create the cosmic variety I enjoy the challenge of the form. I regularly use the nature photographs I take as inspiration (all really great haiku have some allusion to nature in them.) Until my last run to the art store I've never seen anything about haiku except a few books, and then I passed a sale table and spotted this:



Haikubes are made by Forrest-Pruzan Creative, and distributed by Chronicle Books (the same publisher I've been stalking for their journals.) Basically this is a box of 63 word cubes which you roll like dice and then arrange into haiku:




Each word haikube contains five words, and whichever one lands face up is the one you can use for your poem (two of the cubes have words that offer a specific direction and theme to inspire and guide you, and the rest are your poem building blocks.) All of the word cubes also have a blank side. When the blank face came up during one of my rolls, I interpreted that as cosmic permission to use any of the five words on the cube; one could also use it to create a blank space in a line to fill in with a word of your choice.

Once you've perfected your poem and are ready to put your haikubes away you can arrange the set to display your haiku on the very top layer of the box, like so:



Poetry is a creative battery-charger for me; like journaling it's the writing I do most often for myself. Composing haiku helps me get more in tune with the world around me as well as my inner worlds, and seems to restore a balance between my perceptions and my emotions. As a storyteller I find it valuable, too. When I'm having a difficult time with a character, occasionally I'll write a haiku about them or from their POV, and that tends to shift my focus around the problem I'm having to what I need to know to solve it.

Haikubes aren't cheap -- the set lists online for $24.95 at the publisher's site. I got mine for 50% off, and now that I've tried them I'm going to make another trip to the art store to see if I can get a couple more sets for a future giveaway (I know, I should have grabbed them while I was there, but I wanted to test drive the set first.)

Meanwhile I do have another online giveaway to steer you to -- Tiger Pens Blog is giving away a Kaweco Classic Sport fountain pen in blue (the nibs on these pens are especially nice and have a beautiful flow.) They're also willing to ship internationally, so everyone has a chance. If you'd like a shot at winning, stop in and leave a comment on the giveaway post here.

Winners

Thanks to all of you who volunteered to be my lab rats test subjects for the book drop experiment giveaway. This was so much fun I'm definitely going to do it again.

In the meantime, we cranked up the magic hat, and the winners are:

Margarent M. Fisk, who is "in it for the story, so it's hard to limit." (Limits? Hey, we don't need no limits)

Kaplooey Mom, who likes "books where the hero or heronine saves the day/world/universe and gets their romantic interest of choice. Humor is a bonus. All else is brain candy." (I am so stealing that last phrase.)

DeeCee, who refused to accept defeat by Google Chrome, and likes "UF/PNR that have multiple book story arcs with fewer than 10 TSTL moments." (Now I want to borrow some of your books.)

Winners, when you have a chance please send your full name and ship-to address to LynnViehl@aol.com, and I will commence the book drops. My thanks to everyone for joining in, and I'll report back on the winners' reactions once they have a chance to read their books.

They Finally Got Me

It's mine, thanks to my lovely family, who decided to drag me into the twenty-first century and the E-Future by giving it to me for my birthday. So now I have to learn how to use one.

Here's a peek at the first book I bought (which is ridiculously easy, and now I get why people are buying so many e-books):



Works of e.e. cummings, which is not a complete works (which I would have preferred) but includes The Enormous Room, the one novel he wrote that I've never read. I also wanted Edward to be the first author on my e-reader; he's always brought me luck.

My other purchases: Marjorie Liu's Hunter Kiss novels, because that's the one series I want to take with me wherever I go, and I assume this thing will be traveling with me. I also invested in Carolyn Jewel's Free Fall as my first indie author buy.

So now I'm curious -- if you have an e-reader, what was the first book you bought for it, and why?

Book Dropping

I read a neat article this morning about a dedicated knitter in Cambridge who participates in yarnbombing -- the practice of anonymously leaving or covering something in a public place with knitted or crocheted work. Some of these projects aren't small, either; I've seen a photo of a tank covered by a yarnbombing (which you can check out too if you scroll down here.) While some people don't care for the practice I think it's charming.

I've often handed out my books to strangers in public a few times, but I always ask first if they'd like one. Just shoving a book into someone's hands seems a bit rude to me. I've also read about releasing books in the wild, ala Book Crossing, but I've never purposely left books in a public place to be found by anyone (accidentally, however, I have -- and I apologize to whoever found my old copy of Brave New World on that park bench three years ago.) I think my main hesitation is the prospect of a child too young to be reading my adult fiction picking up the book and reading it without letting Mom and Dad know. Under those circumstances some books can be like Pandora's box.

I most like finding out what people enjoy reading and without warning giving them books I think they'll appreciate. I think of those as book drops -- the gift of a story I believe is suited to the recipient but that they don't expect. I have pretty good luck with matching the book to the person, too.

Today I want to try a controlled book drop experiment -- on you all, of course. In comments to this post let me know in general what sort of stories you enjoy reading (and it seems to work better if you don't tell me the names of your favorite titles or authors, but instead describe the type of story) by midnight EST on Sunday, July 15th, 2012. I'll choose three names at random from everyone who provides me with a description, and send the winners a book I think they'll enjoy reading. In return, I ask that the winners tell me after they've read the book what they thought of it so I can post the answers here on the blog. This giveaway is open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something at PBW in the past.

Survival Kits

The last time I went book shopping at BAM I also found an odd little survival kit:



How many items useful for survival purposes could you fit in a sardine can, anyway? To find out I brought it home and popped it open:



It's cute, but from my ex-military POV it's not really practical. The matches, compass, razor blade and the can itself are okay, but I'd probably dump the rest and replace them with a decent Swiss Army knife, water purification tablets and as many high-calorie food bars as I could fit in the can. Or I'd give up all of it for a knife, a comprehensive medical kit and a functioning personal locator beacon.

When I travel I always take the things I can't live without while I'm away from home in my own personal sanity survival kit: my camera, a journal, a notebook, a variety of pens, a paperback to read, a small sewing or quilting project, music CDs or an audio book for the car, a partial manuscript to edit and a smart keyboard. I can usually fit all that into a small tote bag, but if I have to sacrifice anything I'll give up the paperback (as long as I know I can get to a book store at my destination.) If I have extra room, I'll add a research book or a new magazine.

What do you need to survive when you travel? Let us know in comments.

Not So Blank Books Part II

As I mentioned last month, my latest quest is to explore the latest types of ready-made journals and find those that offer a little more for the user than the usual blank pages. Last time Diana Gillette recommended in comments the terrific journals published by Chronicle Books, and now that I've hunted down some of their offerings I'll definitely second her opinion.

Here are my latest finds:



Chronicle Books' Treetop Journal. Colored and decorated pages in ten different repeating theme designs. I like the quality of the paper and the size, and the playful design of the pages has universal appeal. $9.95 list; I got mine for $8.96 at BAM.



Liberty Art Fabrics Journal Set from Chronicle Books. Three slender notebooks, each with covers depicting various patterns from Liberty Arts Fabrics. One is ruled, one is blank colored pages, and the third has graph paper. I thought these would be handy for research trips; a writer could jot down notes in the ruled book, make sketches in the unlined book, and chart or map locations in the graph book. $14.95 for the set of three; I bought this set for $13.45 at BAM.

(From here click on the links to see photos of the journals and their pages.)

My Listography Journal, published by Chronicle Books' Kid division. I've seen variations of these guided journals everywhere; they offer prompts on every page for making lists. This one is personally themed, so you'd use it to list all the stuff about you in response to the prompts (what you dislike, places you've vacationed, your favorite bands, etc.) This one would be excellent for first-time journalers as well as writers (the journal would be a fun way to get to know one of your characters better by filling it out for them instead of yourself) $12.95; I bought mine for $11.65 at BAM.

I Heart Every Thing journal, also from Chronicle Books. This one has unruled white pages with lightly decorated borders; a great journal for writers who sketch or want to use visuals. Discounted at BAM for $5.00; I got it for $4.50.

Mental Floss journals with ruled white pages and elastic corner closure bands. Every couple of pages you'll find a bit of oddball trivia to inspire you. BAM has these discounted at $5.00 each (originally $12.99) and my discount card brought them down to $4.50 each. Note on the condition of these two: because they were in the discount bin and not covered with protective cello they were a bit dinged on the covers and had some light soiling on the page edges. To deal with wear and tear like this I remove the soiling with a kneaded eraser and hide the worst of the dings with a book cover or added embellishments.

Next up: Like journals, notebooks are also evolving, and I'm in the process of collecting some very unusual examples. Stay tuned for part three of my quest report, and you'll have a chance to win your own not-so-blank book.

Off to Play

I'm taking the day off to hang with my other people and enjoy some summer fun. While I'm out, do check out this very cool video from Glen Milner about the birth of a book, UK style.

Birth of a Book from Glen Milner on Vimeo.