The Literary Life

From the staff of BookSwim.com

Monday Mayhem – Last Minute Gift Edition

Book Purse

How is gift giving mayhem? Well – for those of you who have Christmas as your “end-goal” for gifts, you have less than 11 days left to shop. If you celebrate Chanukah (Hanukkah) then you have only a few days left until its completion. If you celebrate some other holiday in this season, then I’m sure you’re deadline is closing in. The holidays are always fraught with insanity because a few questions need to be answered: “Who do I buy for?” and “How much do I spend?” It isn’t until those questions are answered before the big question gets asked:

WHAT THE HECK DO I GET?

Hopefully I can help spur your imagination with some gift ideas.  Anyone close to me can tell you that I put more thought into gift giving (especially delivery of the gift itself) than most people.  In the past, I’ve written computer games, folded oragami until my fingers bled, built practice swords, hunted e-bay for antiques to be restored, and even more crazy ideas.  I rarely overspend and try to keep my buying short, so if you’re crafty then you can take advantage of these ideas, otherwise you’re going to fork over some major dough.

1) The Book Purse (Pictured Above).  Rebound Designs has them for sale for $125.  While that price-tag is reasonable, I wanted to customize the book, so my only option was to build it myself.  All materials (including the super glue, fabric, hot-glue, handles, clasps, book, etc) were $45.  My final product took 3 hours to make and isn’t as nice as Rebound Design, but it is completely personalized.

2) The Origami Heart Story – This takes time and a bit of creativity, but the total cost of this project can be as cheap as $3.  The only consumables are pencil or pen and the folding paper.  While you can use expensive nicely designed oragami paper, you can also easily buy cheap paper (or wrapping paper) and use that.  The idea is this, you write a story in pieces (number each one) and then you fold those pieces up into something significant to the story.  Instructions on folding an oragami heart can be found here.  The person gets to open the gift, see the oragami and then take it all apart and unfold the story.  You can number the outside, or just let the person try to put the puzzle together.

3) The E-Bay wheel of fun – E-bay truly is a unique marketplace.  While 80% of the items sold there are easily found in stores, there are some gems sold only on e-bay or in tiny boutiques.  Take a few minutes and think about a person and come up with 3 or 4 descriptors about them.  Then, add an item type to those descriptors.  If the person is over-the-top, outgoing, and loves jewelry then search that – you’ll be shocked at what you find.  Price usually is right as well.

4) The Unique Gift Card – While a Best-Buy or Target gift card is great for someone you barely know, it really screams: “I don’t know you well enough or care enough to get you a good gift.”  A friend of mine receives about 10-15 Best-Buy gift cards every Christmas from family.  The more specific the gift, the more thoughtful it is.  For example, a reader would much more appreciate a gift card to a used bookstore or BookSwim.  A movie watcher would love a netflix giftcard.  If you get something too specific, you risk them returning it, but if you know someone is a pen enthusiast, and you find a cool custom pen-maker a gift-card there is very thoughtful and appreciated.

Do you have any quirky gift suggestions for this holiday season?  How have you been pinching pennies (or have you not been) when it comes to gifts?

-Nick

No Comments by Nick on December 14, 2009
filed in "I Should Probably Read More" by Eric, Company Blog

The Influence of Music on Books

Every author has his or her own style when it comes to writing but a notable size of authors write while listening to music. Some authors choose to have the radio on in the background, whereas other choose to put their playlist on random. Quite a few even build a specific playlist for each book that they write. If you look up some of your favorite authors, they tend to post their playlists on their blogs. I personally fall into the last category where I select a choice few songs to listen to over and over while I write.

What I find odd with myself is that I like to read in total silence. My wife reads with music or TV on in the background, but me, I like to focus and concentrate on whatever I’m reading. Actually, I think its more that reading for me is not a creative process, and it strains my brain to try to digest the other stimulus as well as the emotions/thoughts I have from reading. For me, writing and reading are two very different processes.

I’ve also noticed that the playlists for many authors (at least the ones who actually complete books) tend to be short (no longer than 30 minutes long). For me, it has been very similar, and the size of the playlist has no bearing on the size of the text I’m writing.

In college, I did quite a bit of writing, ranging from 500 word short stories to 35,000 word novellas. In all cases, my playlist consisted of around six or seven songs. The only exception to that was when I put on a techno/trance song that was one-hour seventeen minutes long – which I listened to on repeat about 10 times to finish something I wrote. The music that drove my writing varied from techno to classical to industrial to Japanese pop.

How does music effect your reading? Do you listen to music when you read or write? Can you guess what music an author may have been listening to?

-Nick

1 Comment by Nick on December 9, 2009
filed in Company Blog

Dictionary.com’s Most Top Words Lists

Every year Dictionary.com releases some metrics as to the most popular search, the biggest gainers, and biggest loser.  Business Week wrote a very good article with some interesting insight from last letters, but I wanted to put some of my own thoughts down.

Top Searched Words of 2009

  1. Affect
  2. Ubiquitous
  3. Irony
  4. Socialism
  5. Effect
  6. Melancholy
  7. Love – You can tell the mood when melancholy is more searched than love… :/
  8. Integrity
  9. Nostalgic
  10. Pedantic

Top Gainers of 2009

  1. Esurient – Esurient is such an esurient word for wanting to be a top gainer.
  2. Impeded
  3. Shuddering
  4. Fugacious – I bet this won’t be here long…
  5. Suffering
  6. Negative
  7. Namaste
  8. Adjuvant – Dictionary.com was very adjuvant in defining adjuvant.
  9. Callipygian
  10. Twitter

Top Decliners of 2009

  1. Bush – I’m not going to touch this with a 10 foot pole.
  2. Maverick – *pew pew*
  3. Solace
  4. Liberal
  5. Obsequious – As you wish
  6. Rhetoric
  7. Superfluous
  8. Condescending – Well, duh!
  9. Cynical – Bought its way onto the list.
  10. Ostentatious

Top Misspelled Words of 2009

  1. Perseverance – Keep trying, you’ll get it right
  2. Convenient – Apparently irony (see above) strikes here.
  3. Embarrassed – You should be if you can’t spell this.
  4. Prerogative – I’ll spell it however I want.
  5. Pretentious – If you can’t spell it, you’re not.
  6. Appalled – I’m shocked you can’t spell it!
  7. Genius – …
  8. Definitely – I have definitely misspelled definitely.
  9. Inadvertently – I swear, it wasn’t on purpose.
  10. Separate – All here on one list.

What are your thoughts on these lists?

-Nick

No Comments by Nick on December 1, 2009
filed in Nick's Notebook, The Literary Life

Monday Mayhem – All Roads Lead to BookSwim #3

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend.  I spent my days relaxing, eating leftovers and partaking in something I call “The Big Clean,” which is where I clean my house in preparation for Christmas/New Years (when my house gets unclean once again).

Keeping with the Monday Mayhem tradition, this is the final installment of All Roads Lead to BookSwim.  I’m sure in a few weeks there will be new search terms to look at, but for now, this is all we have.

little girl wants her rent – Thank you, Will Ferrel.
low carb casserole – Life’s short, eat carbs.  Unless you are our founder, George, who has a gluten allergy.
marijuana horticulture – I’m not sure you can rent consumables, or illegal substances…
messy girls naked – If by girls you mean books, and by naked you mean without their dust jackets.  Though our books keep their dust jackets on.
moms sexy honk – Beep beep!  Honk honk!
news 12 buckwild – We goin’ get buckwild?
pass pokemon platinum official strategy guide – BookSwim uses avid reader.  It’s super-effective.
rent a bitch – I met a dog breeder whose business card was ‘A stud for every bitch.’
rent a monkey for a day – Here, you can rent books as long as you want.
rent a sharkskin suit – I think you’re looking for Avelle
rent a vortex – Aunty M, Aunty M, it’s a twista!
seven naked happy girls – It’s two better than 5!
wacky questions and answers – Why’d the chicken cross the road?  Potatoes.
where did speak the book took place and time? – It be grammar lesson timez now?
why columbus sailed east to the indies – To rent books from BookSwim?

I hope you’re all enjoying your days.  Don’t forget to get gifts for those you love.

Do you have an idea for Monday Mayhem?  Let us know.

-Nick

No Comments by Nick on November 30, 2009
filed in Company Blog

A Very Late Monday Mayhem – All Roads Lead to BookSwim

Monday was a crazy day and our normal Monday Mayhem got a bit delayed.  But, I wouldn’t want you to feel like me completely forgot you, so I’m making up for it by posting today.  And we’ve got some good ones for you.
generation t 108 ways to transform a t shirt – Is this a Bubba Gump shrimp reference?
how can i meet amir blumenfeld – Who is Amir Blumenfeld?
how many presidents have had syphilis? – A shockingly interesting answer.  Not sure what it is, but I’m sure it’s shocking.
how to rent clothes for men – Ew?
hydrocodone 5mg/325mg dosage – We rent books.  We don’t sell drugs.  Have we not gotten that message out?
im writing a novel about an italian falling in love with an irish – Sounds like a plan – when it’s done, let us know and we’ll add it to the catalog.
invisible man ‘i am an invisible man. no, i am not a spook like those who haunted edgar allan poe means – Say that three times fast…
iowa farm life in 1900 – I’m sure it wasn’t easy.
is the current economic and political crisis actually prophesied in the bible? – For every event there were 99,999 crazy people predicting something else and one “sane” person who predicted things correctly.  My bets are that one person was wrong about every other prediction they made.
landlord tax writeoffs – BookSwim is not a tax writeoff.  Sorry.
lessons for too many toys – Did google read my Christmas list?

-Nick

No Comments by Nick on November 24, 2009
filed in Company Blog

Women Dominate BookSwim’s Favorite Authors List

Lately there has been huge buzz about the lack of women in some of the largest publications’ book lists.  One example is Publishers Weekly’s Top Books of 2009 list which was completely devoid of women authors.  This has sparked an interesting debate as well as a hot trending topic on twitter #fembook.  BookSwim understands the importance of equal representation – and that doesn’t mean that there needs to be an even amount of men and women within any given book list, but that there is an equal vetting process.  We took a look at our Top Favorited Authors page.  This page is generated by the number of members we have that have selected an author as their favorite.  One could call it a popularity contest in a way.  As of writing this article, 7 of the top 10 authors are women.

#1 James Patterson

#2 Jodi Picoult

#3 Dean Koontz

#4 Stephanie Meyer

#5 Janet Evanovich

#6 Laurell K. Hamilton

#7 Nicholas Sparks

#8 Nora Roberts

#9 Jennifer Weiner

#10 Charlaine Harris

What are your thoughts on the top 10 “Most Favorited” authors?

-Nick

No Comments by Nick on November 19, 2009
filed in Company Blog

Monday Mayhem: All Roads Lead to BookSwim #2

Last week was our first installment of both Monday Mayhem and All Roads Lead to BookSwim.  We have seen quite a few crazy things that brought in viewers and we’re going to continue that until we’ve run out of crazy things to tell you about. This past Friday was also Friday the 13th, so in light of that, I will be listing 13 new crazy search terms that led people to BookSwim.

blog 21 day cleanse freston – We have a blog, but does it need to be cleansed of freston?
boarsex with woman – With safe-search on, we’re the 2nd result…  for a book named Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex.
boner slang bodypart – Willy?  Wang?  I couldn’t find our listing, but someone searched that and found us…
book swim with the whales – Move aside, swimming with the dolphins, it’s BookSwimming with the whales!
brain rules repeat to remember 30s 2 hrs – brain rules repeat to remember 30s 2 hrs, brain rules repeat to remember 30s 2 hrs…
buffalo bills player paralyzed – Film at 11?
cadaver studies 1800s – Wouldn’t want to confuse them with those done in the 1900s.
can wine amplify spiritual focus – I don’t know but I’ll participate in the research.
car does not exist – The beginning of that search term was… “Due to the economy…”
chicka chicka boom boom – wikkidy wikkdy whack, yo!
did mitty kill a terrorist – Mitty the Kitty was a Ditty!
does anyone know of a place where you can rent books kind of like renting movies – :: Raises hand :: PICK ME!
if you thought the notebook was a tearjerker, get out the hankies, pull up a chair, and get ready – I’m ready, now what?

Do you have a blog?  Have you heard about us from a crazy search term?  Let us know!

-Nick

No Comments by Nick on November 16, 2009
filed in Nick's Notebook, The Literary Life

Sexy Cover for a Book I’ll Never Read…

Our friends over at BookGasm recently put out a post of 5 sexy book covers of books that they have no intention of reading.  As a quick response, we decided to add to that list and add one more book with a sexy cover/title that we here at BookSwim won’t be reading.

Old Tractors and the Men Who Love Them.  Need we say more?  This beauty has an ISBN of 0760301298 and can be purchased from Amazon for as little as $3.99 + shipping.

Do you know of any funny book covers?

No Comments by Nick on November 13, 2009
filed in Company Blog

The Book Trailer – Amazing or Preposterous?

Book marketing in the 80’s and 90’s was, for the big publishers, a somewhat standard ordeal.  It started with sending out galleys and ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) to book reviewers and magazine editors.  Then traditional advertising spots were bought in the book sections of magazines/newspapers.  Upon release, the author was sent around to talk shows and bookstores to talk about the book, all while displays were bought at major bookstores.  While some publishers ventured out beyond that, those were the methods that worked – and why should someone do otherwise?

Well, along came the internet to shake up the advertising world.  Between facebook, twitter, goodreads, LibraryThing, Shelfari, and book blogs, as well as a slew of other online media, publishers have been playing around with how to best utilize these new tools. One of the most recent trends is my topic for today: the Book Trailer.

A book trailer is almost exactly like a movie trailer – in fact, after watching quite a few of these, I was asking myself, “When is this movie coming out?”  Below are a few examples of book trailers:

These are three examples but there are hundreds of these book trailers, drastically ranging in quality and length.  Some of them take a humorous approach and talk more about the author, whereas others focus on the book itself.

The effectiveness of these book trailers is questionable at best.  It becomes nearly impossible to draw a direct correlation of the increased (or decreased) sales of a book based off a book trailer.  While a trailer that has 1,000,000 views may be considered a success when it comes to viewership, many forms of media just do not convert as well as others.  That being said, trailers do open books up to a wider audience.  With some claiming that the average internet user has an attention span of about nine seconds, book trailers with moving images and sounds better capture the interest of most web browsers. These trailers can reach many non-readers or occasional readers and bring better awareness.

Personally, I would prefer a sample chapter to get me interested in a book.  Animation for me stimulates a different section of my brain and desires.  I want to see the movie for Stephen King’s new novel (I’m sure they’ll make one) because of this trailer, not read the book.  To me, the beauty of a book is that I get to use my imagination, and not be given the exact likeness of a character.

What are your thoughts on these book trailers?  Do they make you want to read the book more?  Does it give you desire for a movie version?

-Nick

No Comments by Nick on November 12, 2009
filed in Nick's Notebook, The Literary Life

The Shelf Ratio – Are You a Pack Rat?

The other day I was going through my book shelf to add more books that I’ve read to my goodreads read shelf.  I shocked myself at how quickly I got through it and started to think of books that I read and didn’t own.  At first, I started to think about the journey that my books may have made – did I sell the book on half.com, had I borrowed it from someone?  Was it part of a collection?  Had it gotten lost somewhere.  Being a concrete thinker who loves statistics, I decided to come up with a ratio – and this ratio is called the Shelf Ratio.

Like any good ratio, it comes with a few friends.  I’ve decided to outline those ratios and explain what they might tell you about yourself:

The Shelf Ratio: The amount of books you own and have on shelves (lost or in boxes don’t count) divided by the number of books you’ve read.
The Wanting Ratio: The amount of books you haven’t read and have on your shelf divided by the number of books you have on your shelf that you have read
The Pack-Rat Ratio: The amount of books you do not plan on reading again that are on your shelves divided by the amount of books you do plan on reading again that are on your shelves.
The Good-Friend Ratio: The amount of books you have lent out divided by the amount of books you are currently borrowing.

To share a bit about me, I will share with you my ratios:
My Shelf Ratio: 20%.  I’m a big fan of borrowing/renting books.  As well, most of the books I get, I don’t want to keep, so I resell.
My Wanting Ratio: 30%.  This is very high, but mainly because I keep my shelf so slim.
My Pack-Rat Ratio: 20%.  The only reason I hold onto a book is if I wish to read it or if I wish to give it to someone else.
My Good-Friend Ratio: Ignoring the books my wife has “lent” me to read, I’m on a 10:1 or 1000%.  I am pretty quick to lend a book to a friend, but between my lack of time and my BookSwim membership, I tend not to need to borrow books.

What are your ratios?

Some milestones and what they mean:
Wanting Ratio > 50%: START READING!
Pack-Rat Ratio > 100%: Get rid of those excess books.  Sell them, lend them to friends, that’s good books being wasted!
Good-Friend ratio < 50%: Read and return those books to your friends, and hand out your old books to friends as gifts!

-Nick

1 Comment by Nick on November 11, 2009
filed in Company Blog

Monday Mayhem – All Roads Lead to BookSwim?

In an effort to deliver more to our faithful readers, today I introduce you to two new features of the Literary Life: Monday Mayhem and All Roads Lead to BookSwim.

Monday Mayhem is going to be a weekly post every Monday which will highlight things that we find outrageous and enjoyable.  All Roads Lead to BookSwim is a short series in which we will outline all of the crazy search terms that lead people to us.

Web search is part of our lives…  so much so that the search giant Google has made its way into our lexicon as a verb meaning “look up.”  You may not use it in your life, but chances are you’ve heard someone say: “I’ll google it,” or “Did you google your new boyfriend?”  While many of us do very simple searches and search for common things such as “chocolate chip cookie recipe” and “book rental website” others search with a very different style.  To those people, we now say thank you for providing us with some hilarious content.  And now, without further ado, I bring you the first installment of “All Roads Lead to BookSwim.”

(all of the below were gathered from Google Analytics and are all search terms that resulted in a click to the BookSwim.com website)

rakhi - Rakhi is an Indian festival of brothers and sisters.  What’s most interesting is that quite a few people came in with this search.
big ass girl - I was afraid to repeat this search in google to see where BookSwim actually resulted.  To my surprise, we’re on the 2nd page of results, with few adult sites ahead of us.
enough to impress a king – You’re dang right we are!
big ass black girls – I’m starting to see a trend…
police field operations 7th edition – I swear, I didn’t do anything illegal!
rent capitalism – At first, I thought: “Duh.”  Then I thought, “Irony?” Then I was like: “Ohhh…”
unknown naked girls - BookSwim is not an adult website.  Google may be confused?
antics meaning – Despite the many dictionaries ahead of us in the search results, someone decided to try to search for the definition amongst one of our book descriptions.
are you a kid looking for special opportunities? - Oooo. Pick me!  Pick me!
ass instead of rent – This sentence is amazing.  Ass could refer to a donkey or the rear end of a human.  Rent could refer to that annoying monthly bill for the dwelling in which you live or for the act of renting – such as what Netflix and BookSwim do for DVDs and books (respectively).  Donkey instead of your apartment bill?  Human backside instead of Transumerism?

Have you found us through some crazy method?  What was the craziest search term that someone used to find your blog/website?  Let us know!

-Nick

1 Comment by Nick on November 9, 2009
filed in Nick's Notebook, The Literary Life

Amazon Kindle Endorses The Literary Life

Despite being a person who’s been an actor (unsuccessfully), a writer (unsuccessfully), a programmer (somewhat successfully), a businessman (not successful yet), and a husband (my wife says I’m successful but I think she’s just being nice), I’ve been asked the question “How do you know if you’ve made it on the internet?”  Until today, I had absolutely no way of answering that.  When I first started using the internet, my answer would have been “have your own domain name.”  Now, there are 5 year olds with their own domain name with a whopping 1 visitor a day (themselves).  A few years later, I would have said “when you get funding.”  But, with companies like WebVan.com getting funding (think buying your groceries from amazon…  Mmmm Tuscan 2% milk).

Later, I would say that you’ve made it if you’ve made money from your website, but then Google Adsense came around and allowed anyone with a mouse and 10 visitors was receiving a check from Google.  Today – I believe I bring to you an ultimate measurement of what it means to ‘make it.’

A…
Tweet…
Endorsing you…
From your biggest competitor…

Today, kindle_blog – the twitter name for Amazon’s Kindle blog service, told the world of our presence.  The tweet in its exactness follows:

“BookSwim.com Rental — The Literary Life – by BookSwim Online Book Rental – Kindle Edition. http://bit.ly/nB1FY”

I saw the link scroll by on my TweetDeck (program I use to monitor my drug called twitter) and nearly fell out of my chair.  I followed the bit.ly link and realized it went to amazon’s page which allows you to pay for a subscription of ‘The Literary Life’ blog to be downloaded directly to your Kindle.  Yeah – I know, we’re in the big leagues now.  Well, I’ve gone and made it, I guess its time to retire…  Or maybe I should just go back to my day job of keeping bookswim.com up and running.

Have you had an “I’ve made it moment?”  I’d love to hear about it!

-Nick

No Comments by Nick on November 3, 2009
filed in Nick's Notebook, The Literary Life

A Small Tribute to Jorge Luis Borges

Bookmarks Magazine’s September/October issue featured a piece on Jorge Luis Borges – one of my favorite authors.  His life is well documented on Wikipedia, so I will not go into much detail on that, but a few points of note: he at one point worked at a library and was relieved of his position due to reading and writing too much.  He was also a great influence on such major authors as Umberto Eco, Carlos Fuentes, and many other Spanish writers.  While his work has widely been translated and he was (and still is) widely read throughout the world, his presence on American readers’ bookshelves is limited mainly to scholars and reading fanatics.

I was introduced to Borges while in college.  I took a class entitled “Experimental Literature” which opened my eyes to some very interesting works as well as some writing that was just extreme (for example, a book written without using the word “the”).  As I continued my education, I took a series of classes studying this genre and did quite a bit of writing and reading, but I still found that Jorge Luis Borges’ words were most enjoyable.  His book Labyrinths is the only book that I have read more than once (in fact, I’ve read it four times).  What I love most about his style is how he blurs the line between truth and fiction by creating a story that is so authentic, it is unclear what is made up and what is real.

After being reminded of my enjoyment of Borges, I decided to write a short story.  I wouldn’t say it is in the style of Borges, but the inspiration was there.  I hope you enjoy it!

A Sleepless Night (1800 words)

-Nick

No Comments by Nick on October 29, 2009
filed in Nick's Notebook, The Literary Life

Author Interview: Stephanie Klein

Stephanie Klein is a blogger, writer, mother, TV show writer, and author of Moose and Straight Up and Dirty. She describes herself as “A foodie who sometimes abuses hair care products, I write about love, relationships, fashion, family, and strength of self. I’m a writer, photographer, and lifestyle connoisseur living in Austin, Texas–a respite from New York, where I was born and raised.”

There is a Broadway musical, Avenue Q, in where there is a song, “What Do You Do with a BA in English?”  You have a BA in English – what can you do with that?
 Stephanie – I actually got a BA in English with a concentration in creative writing and psychology.  When I graduated, I got offers in editing, but because I could not afford to stay in Manhattan and be an editor, I was forced to look for other work.  I actually got a job in 1997 with a dot com doing editing, and then designing websites for large clients.  Companies will hire smart people that they can train properly.

Right now, you seem to have quite a few jobs: mother, photographer, blogger, writer – Do they equality take up your time?
Stephanie – Every day I wear a different hat and some hats just don’t come off – like being a mother.  If I were to go to a dinner party and someone asked “what do you do?” I would at first be a writer and a mom.  Under the writer category it would come down to author, blogger, screenwriter, and a TV writer.  Photography is last, it fits in when I’m on vacation or when my kids are getting ready for Halloween.  Writing / storytelling has always been my passion.  You can tell a story with any medium, so as long as I can tell a story, that is what I enjoy.

What are your kids going as for Halloween?
Stephanie – I am going to be the Queen of Hearts , my husband the Mad Hatter, my daughter Alice, and my son the March Hare.

Do you see yourself blogging 10 years from now?
Stephanie – Probably, if there are still blogs 10 years from now!  In one form or another, I will always be writing and sharing it publicly.  I love the interaction that I get with readers.  It helps me.  Sometimes I will write myself into a shell when I’m writing a TV show or a book, and it is a tool that helps me to vent.

Do you ever feel like there may not be something worth blogging one day?  What do you end up posting?
Stephanie – Oh yes, very often.  Of course there’s always something worth blogging about, but sometimes I get lazy or tired or burnt out and sometimes posts aren’t going to be good.  I can’t always just bitch about a long day and the problems I face.  I will just throw up a picture or in some cases I will hold off on a post for a day or two.  I do try to post at least 4 times a week.

Your latest book, Moose, is about your youth where you were overweight and went to fat camp.  What advice do you have out there for overweight children?
Stephanie – For Elementary/Middle School age – It’s hard not to fit in.  You need to focus your attention on doing things to bring out your talents in life.  If your family focuses on weight – your parents are wrong.  Focus outside of losing weight, focus on things you like doing and are good at doing.  If you like taking pictures, grab a disposable camera and take pictures of your town.  Set goals for yourself – make a new friend, get up every morning before school and take pictures.  Reaching your goals is how you build self esteem.
For high school age – take it easy on yourself.  Remember that when you die, our weight is not written on our headstone.  People remember us for the things we’ve said and done in our life, not how much we weighed.  If your doctor tells you that you need to lose weight, do it, but if the doctor says you’re healthy, then you are healthy.

What advice do you have for those skinny kids?
Stephanie – Be nice to the people who sit next to you in school, because you never know if one of them will turn out to be a memoirist and will write badly about you.  No matter who you are, everyone gets made fun of at some point.  We hold on so tightly to whatever identity is given to us when we’re kids.  You aren’t who you are right now – you don’t have to be the person you are right now forever.

What was the most shocking thing for you when you were writing your first novel, Straight Up and Dirty?
Stephanie – How much publishing and PR and marketing you need to do on your own.  An author is responsible for the success of their own books.

Was it easier or harder to write the second book?
Stephanie – I guess it was harder because it was so different.  Straight Up and Dirty was an adult memoir – about my adult life.  Moose is a childhood memoir, so I had to remember and relive all the memories.  I did have all my childhood diaries to remember and review those events.  One of the hardest things about writing a childhood memoir is trying to look and be authentic to what voice you want to go in – your childhood voice or your adult voice.  Every time I interjected the adult voice, I needed to make sure it was worthy.

You have some exciting things in the works and even a TV show. Do you see yourself writing another book?
Stephanie – Yes – definitely.  It will be a book about friendship.  It will be a memoir and it will be experienced-based.  It will be about how I moved to Austin and knew no one.  It goes into how I met friends as an adult.  Also: how to get rid of toxic friends.

What is your favorite children’s novel?
Stephanie – The Olivia books.  They are fun because she has attitude.  Also Dooley and the Snortsnoot.  It’s about a little boy who is a giant, but he’s little and doesn’t understand why he’s little.  It’s a book about bravery and how he stood up for himself.

If you were stuck on a broken elevator with an author, which author would you want to be with?
Stephanie – John Irving, because he’s such a master storyteller.  He knows when to turn plot around, which details to weave through successfully.  I know I could sit there for hours upon hours with him and stay gripped about whatever event we were going through.  He brings your emotions along for the ride. Laughing, crying, scared – that’s what makes us feel alive.

Why do you think your blog is so popular?
Stephanie – The reason that my blog has gained popularity is because I am honest.  I think people relate to honesty well, just putting things out there and not worrying about what people will think.

Thank you, Stephanie. We wish you luck with your writing!

-Nick

No Comments by Nick on October 26, 2009
filed in Authors Speak, The Literary Life

Reader Spotlight: Carrie F

Carrie is a high school English teacher, owner to a pug named Spencer, and an avid reader.  I had a moment to chat with Carrie and learn more about her as a reader.

Would you call yourself a book worm?
Carrie – Absolutely – I grew up with a mother who taught 1st grade.  She knew all about reading and how to teach me how to read.  When I was only 3 years old I was always being taken to the library.  When my birthday or Christmas came around, I would receive books as gifts.  Soon, it came to be that I would look forward to receiving books.

You’ve read more than 2000 books.  How did that happen?
Carrie – I am always reading.  I always have a book with me.  I have one in my purse, one in the car, one on the coffee table… As soon as I have a spare minute, I pick up a book and read.

You gave a 1 star rating to everybody poops – why?
Carrie – Because poop is gross.  Writing a book about pooping is weird.

You gave a 2 star rating to Don Quixote – why?
Carrie – I had no emotional reaction.  It was probably the professor that taught me the book.

You have a pug, Spencer, do you read aloud to Spencer, or does he just curl up with you while you read?
Carrie – He always curls up with me when I read.  Sometimes he gets jealous and will slap the book down with his paw.  I have read aloud to him before.

Do you think that schools do enough to explain the importance of reading?
Carrie – I think that schools explain the importance of reading to get through school.  What I don’t think is explained is why it is good to be a reader.  There is a difference in reading enough to get by and people reading beyond that.  Students need to be opened up to different authors and types of books.  If they enjoyed reading more they would enjoy school more and would be better educated.

What do you do to make reading fun for your students?
Carrie – I like to introduce them to novels that they might get into.  The secret life of bees for example – everyone likes it.  It takes effort to figure out what interests each child – so I will look into what a child likes and I will give him a book that hits an interest that he has.  Fridays in my classroom are Drop Everything And Read days.

There is a big debate on the internet how we mislabel “football”.  Do you think we should call it “Hand Egg” instead of football because it look as if you’re holding an egg in your hands more than hitting a ball with your foot?
Carrie – I love it – it should be hand-egg.  It is much more interesting than football and it makes more sense and may make more people pay attention.

What is your favorite childrens book?
Carrie – There is a book that my mother gave to me “If I were a wishful unicorn.”  Also Dr Seuss.

You mention your favorite authors are Jodi Picoult, Marian Keyes, Emily Giffin – do you have a favorite novel?
Carrie – One novel that has really spoken to me is Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult.  It’s about highschool and being friended and bullied – being cautious and aware of surroundings.

Thank you Carrie!  If you are a reader and would like your story shared with the world – let us know and we’ll set up an interview.

-Nick

No Comments by Nick on October 23, 2009
filed in Reader Spotlight, The Literary Life
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »