Sorry for the long hiatus. Moving back from school and getting set up in my new job kept me away from the Library Project
pretty effectively, but I'm back on and happy to be on now.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Writer of the Week: Annie Fox
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Writer of the Week: Marc Acito
This week’s featured writer is Marc Acito, author of How I Paid For College and Attack of the Theater People. Marc is also a frequent contributor to National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” and for ten years was a comedic operatic tenor. Marc uses libraries to immerse himself in the world he’s writing about.
Anne: What is your writing process like?
Marc: I work in bed, in the time-honored method of Mark Twain, Winston Churchill and prostitutes. Before my feet even hit the floor, I reach down for my laptop and get started. Writing is a lot like dreaming, so it's how I ease into the day. I don't actually get up until I'm hungry.
I like to immerse myself in the world of whatever I'm working on, so I listen to music that puts me in the zone, read and watch everything I can that relates, post pictures above my desk, which, of course, I only see in passing because, as I said, I work lying down. My desk doesn't even have a chair.
Working all day in your pajamas sounds cushy, but it's also dangerously close to clinical depression. So I try to motivate myself out the door once in a while. Since I live in Portland where it rains 200 days a year, this is difficult.
I try to make people laugh, make 'em cry and make 'em think. I want my work to give people a lift. Life is hard enough as it is.
Anne: What role does the library play in your writing?
Marc: I'm a promiscuous library user. The only affordable way I can immerse myself in the world of what I'm writing is by borrowing the books, CDs and DVDs from the library. At any given time, I've got a knee-high stack of material waiting for me.
Personally, I rarely buy a book I haven't already test-driven from the library. I figure if I'm only going to read it once, why own it? If I truly love a book, then I buy it, so I can mark it up with underlines and marginalia. My habit began out of a combination of financial necessity and limited space, and now reflects my commitment to a sustainable lifestyle. Plus, I've got a pretty small house.
Anne: Did you use the library a lot growing up? What were your favorite books?
Marc: As a kid, I spent hours in the library. My father had an office in a different town that had a better library, so on Saturdays he'd drop me off while he put in a few hours at work. I was eight years old, but I'd skip the children's section and go straight to the adult library to scan the theater and film section. I'd find the scripts of musicals, then go over to the record section and see if they had the corresponding original cast album. Back then you could listen to LPs with headphones on turntables right there and I'd follow along with the scripts, absorbing the shows as if I were seeing them. That year I familiarized myself with pretty much the entire history of Broadway, an interest that continues to this day, as evidenced by my two theater-related novels.
We moved the following year and I was slow to make friends. So every afternoon of fourth grade I'd go to the school library, take out a book, then fill the rest of the lonely day by reading it, typically finishing it under the covers with a flashlight. Then I'd go back to school and repeat the process. I must've read 200 books that year. Over Christmas vacation I did nothing but devour Gone With the Wind for the first time, all three bazillion pages.
That was also the year I read every Agatha Christie novel, a task I've since repeated twice. Her work has since influenced my own a great deal, particularly her corkscrew plotting and eye for social satire.
I'm forever grateful for those libraries. Jorge Luis Borges said, "I have always imagined Paradise will be a kind of library" and I couldn't agree more. To have a world of information available to me was indeed heaven.
Anne: When you write, do you think about your readers?
Marc: Having trained as an actor, and then worked as an opera singer, I think like an entertainer. How could I possibly hope to occupy readers for hours if I didn't think about their needs? Every time I write I think, "Is this worth chopping down a tree?"
Anne: At the risk of sounding like a bad joke, what do writing and theater have in common?
Marc: Very little. I had my first play produced this past fall and found it the antithesis of writing a novel. For starters, there's all this white space on the page with only twenty thousand or so words, compared to a hundred thousand in a novel. And there were all these actors and designers to flesh out all those details I would normally create myself. I found it a refreshing change.
Anne: Do you have any advice for people looking to break into either field, writing or theater?
Marc: When embarking on a career in the arts, there's no shortage of people who will ask you, "But what are you going to do to fall back on?" This is well-intentioned but unhelpful because it presupposes you'll fail. All too often, however, the young artist responds by venturing out into the world without any sustainable means of support. But with rare exceptions, it takes years before you can make a living as an artist. So, rather than asking yourself, "What am I going to do to fall back on?" an artist must ask, "What am I going to do in order to succeed?" You need a plan to sustain yourself through those lean times, not just at the beginning, but also throughout your career.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Writer of the Week: Kristene Smith
To start a series of interviews with writers who are passionate about libraries, I’d like to introduce you to Kristene Smith, CEO of Kristene Smith, Incorporated and author of the Style Tips of the Week series. Kristene is from Sacramento, California and just released the second volume of her Style Tips series, written for professionals trying to cultivate a personal and business brand.
Anne: Tell me a little bit about yourself.
Kristene: I am 39 years old and grew up in Sacramento, California. I was always good in English and wanted to be an English teacher when I grew up. That didn't happen, but I did go into communications and continued using my writing skills in my work. There are five kids in my family and I distinctly remember our mother taking us to the library on a regular basis. We visited Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in South Sacramento.
In 1996, at 26 years old, I started my first business - a public relations company. This company quickly became successful and I refocused it in 2006 toward advertising. I also wanted to share my knowledge with a wider audience and thought writing a series of books would be a good way to do that.
Anne: What is your writing process like?
Kristene: I start with developing the table of contents, then chapter outlines, and chapter research, writing and rewriting, editing and proofing. I take many of the photographs myself and purchase the rest.
I insist on complete solitude when I am writing and designing my books. I don't like distractions or sudden loud noises or interruptions. At home, I have a beautiful detached studio that works great for this purpose, and I do use it often, but I prefer the library. I only go to the quiet floors where people respect silence. Between kids, the phone, work and everything else, the least I can do to concentrate is move into a quiet space and anticipate a spectacular outcome. I owe that to myself and my readers.
Anne: What’s a working day at the library like for you?
Kristene: I come prepared with my chapter piles, research and laptop, but realize I may need more information and inspiration than I already have.
I start by looking for titles that will help me formulate my ideas and content direction, and maybe take a few of the library books to my table. Everything is spread out and I only work with pencil and paper at that point just making notes on what information I can use
Once I read through everything and gather all data, I start typing. I do not edit at this point, just type. When I am finished I do two things: talk to the librarian about my project and get suggestions on other titles to review, and use the library's search system to see if there are other titles at their sister branches, and order those titles if necessary. They usually come to my home library within two to three days. I always find tons of books I can use. I also use the library's article database quite extensively, and I can access that from home, which is great.
With respect to layout, I do that on another day entirely because it's a creative process. Without any research or content to do, I go to the library strictly to design, preferably by 8:00 a.m. It's the lack of noise that gets me through this process, which can be time-intensive. I don't need anything from the library at that point, but I am there for up to six or seven hours at a time on some days. If I do this for five or six days in a row, the book will be done.
After layout, I re-proof four or five times then I'm ready to publish and get ready for promotions.
Anne: What do you hope to accomplish with your books?
Kristene: I am trying to pass along tips and ideas that are time and cost effective that will become second nature to the reader. So many times, more information just seems like a chore to absorb when we are already busy. I teach lifestyle integration into business so that business image will become part of one's marketing program, and not a chore. I'm also trying to live up to my word about style, and that's why my books are full color and filled with creative elements not normally found in marketing books.
Anne: You talked earlier about going to the Martin Luther King Jr. Library growing up. What were your favorite books as a child?
Kristene: Growing up, I loved all kinds of children's books: Sesame Street, Dr. Seuss and tons of other books written for young kids. We regularly checked-out books from the library - lots of them. As I got older, I read Nancy Drew type books quite a bit. Also, I recall To Kill A Mockingbird being my favorite high school reading and I loved to write essays.
In my late teens, it seemed that real-life murder mysteries took center stage for a long while. My interests changes to more general reading material, business books and how-to as I matured, and now my personal library is filled with over 700 books and magazines on business and lifestyle topics that interest me.
Anne: Do you have any advice for aspiring writers? (Or public relations students like myself?)
Kristene: Writing is a process that needs to be afforded time and focus. Often, we have many competing priorities such as school, family, social obligations, and church. After the initial desire to write comes about, the question becomes "Where do I find the time to get it done?" The problem is that the time is never just going to appear. A writer has to make it appear.
This means an aspiring writer must learn to block out time and learn to say "no" if they want to accomplish a goal and finish a project. Just like scheduling any other appointment, writing is a huge task that demands focus and attention and must be set into blocks of uninterrupted time - certainly where libraries come in. I would also suggest that writers learn to write in organized steps. First set-up a binder to hold everything, then write in steps: organize chapters, do research, write, edit, integrate art, etc. The process that works best for that writer is the one they should follow with each book.
Regarding PR - there are just a few things to remember in order to have a successful journey: top communications skills, top writing skills, lack of fear in your work, creativity, budget management and probably the most important is relationship building. You need to be able to pick up the phone, call anyone, and make it happen, from the Mayor to the janitor and everyone in between. Stay visible and maintain your relationships. You will find that you may be the only one keeping up the relationship at times, but that's okay, it will be there when you need it.
Photo by Larry Dalton
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Writer of the Week: Kristene Smith
To start a series of interviews with writers who are passionate about libraries, I’d like to introduce you to Kristene Smith, CEO of Kristene Smith, Incorporated and author of the Style Tips of the Week series. Kristene is from Sacramento, California and just released the second volume of her Style Tips series, written for professionals trying to cultivate a personal and business brand.
Anne: Tell me a little bit about yourself.
Kristene: I am 39 years old and grew up in Sacramento, California. I was always good in English and wanted to be an English teacher when I grew up. That didn't happen, but I did go into communications and continued using my writing skills in my work. There are five kids in my family and I distinctly remember our mother taking us to the library on a regular basis. We visited Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in South Sacramento.
In 1996, at 26 years old, I started my first business - a public relations company. This company quickly became successful and I refocused it in 2006 toward advertising. I also wanted to share my knowledge with a wider audience and thought writing a series of books would be a good way to do that.
Anne: What is your writing process like?
Kristene: I start with developing the table of contents, then chapter outlines, and chapter research, writing and rewriting, editing and proofing. I take many of the photographs myself and purchase the rest.
I insist on complete solitude when I am writing and designing my books. I don't like distractions or sudden loud noises or interruptions. At home, I have a beautiful detached studio that works great for this purpose, and I do use it often, but I prefer the library. I only go to the quiet floors where people respect silence. Between kids, the phone, work and everything else, the least I can do to concentrate is move into a quiet space and anticipate a spectacular outcome. I owe that to myself and my readers.
Anne: What’s a working day at the library like for you?
Kristene: I come prepared with my chapter piles, research and laptop, but realize I may need more information and inspiration than I already have.
I start by looking for titles that will help me formulate my ideas and content direction, and maybe take a few of the library books to my table. Everything is spread out and I only work with pencil and paper at that point just making notes on what information I can use
Once I read through everything and gather all data, I start typing. I do not edit at this point, just type. When I am finished I do two things: talk to the librarian about my project and get suggestions on other titles to review, and use the library's search system to see if there are other titles at their sister branches, and order those titles if necessary. They usually come to my home library within two to three days. I always find tons of books I can use. I also use the library's article database quite extensively, and I can access that from home, which is great.
With respect to layout, I do that on another day entirely because it's a creative process. Without any research or content to do, I go to the library strictly to design, preferably by 8:00 a.m. It's the lack of noise that gets me through this process, which can be time-intensive. I don't need anything from the library at that point, but I am there for up to six or seven hours at a time on some days. If I do this for five or six days in a row, the book will be done.
After layout, I re-proof four or five times then I'm ready to publish and get ready for promotions.
Anne: What do you hope to accomplish with your books?
Kristene: I am trying to pass along tips and ideas that are time and cost effective that will become second nature to the reader. So many times, more information just seems like a chore to absorb when we are already busy. I teach lifestyle integration into business so that business image will become part of one's marketing program, and not a chore. I'm also trying to live up to my word about style, and that's why my books are full color and filled with creative elements not normally found in marketing books.
Anne: You talked earlier about going to the Martin Luther King Jr. Library growing up. What were your favorite books as a child?
Kristene: Growing up, I loved all kinds of children's books: Sesame Street, Dr. Seuss and tons of other books written for young kids. We regularly checked-out books from the library - lots of them. As I got older, I read Nancy Drew type books quite a bit. Also, I recall To Kill A Mockingbird being my favorite high school reading and I loved to write essays.
In my late teens, it seemed that real-life murder mysteries took center stage for a long while. My interests changes to more general reading material, business books and how-to as I matured, and now my personal library is filled with over 700 books and magazines on business and lifestyle topics that interest me.
Anne: Do you have any advice for aspiring writers? (Or public relations students like myself?)
Kristene: Writing is a process that needs to be afforded time and focus. Often, we have many competing priorities such as school, family, social obligations, and church. After the initial desire to write comes about, the question becomes "Where do I find the time to get it done?" The problem is that the time is never just going to appear. A writer has to make it appear.
This means an aspiring writer must learn to block out time and learn to say "no" if they want to accomplish a goal and finish a project. Just like scheduling any other appointment, writing is a huge task that demands focus and attention and must be set into blocks of uninterrupted time - certainly where libraries come in. I would also suggest that writers learn to write in organized steps. First set-up a binder to hold everything, then write in steps: organize chapters, do research, write, edit, integrate art, etc. The process that works best for that writer is the one they should follow with each book.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
SPRING Into Action for National Library Week!
On Saturday April 11, the Library Project kicked off National Library Week with our SPRING Into Action! book fair at Chester County Book and Music Company. Throughout the day, friends of the Library came in to get a head start on their summer reading for a good cause – 15 percent of the sales from a specially marked register went directly to the Library Project. I got to spend the day catching up with long-time supporters and introducing new people to the Library Project’s work. Leah Johnson, pictured here with me, is a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church, where the Library Project got its start, and she’s been a supporter from the start.
Take a second look at that photo, and you’ll notice I’m wearing a La Entrada Library Project shirt. The logo on the tee is a copy of the logo on the wall of the library in La Entrada. Please send me an email if you’d like to purchase a La Entrada t-shirt to show your support. They are made one at a time and the color and text can be changed to suit your personality.
Chester County Book and Music Company has been a great help to us over the years, from our first event, a book fair and signing with illustrator Mike Berenstain in 2006, to the donation of items for our 2007 Holiday Bazaar, to a series of collections benefiting the foundation. I encourage you to stop by CCBMC the next time you’re looking for a good read, and support a local, independent, socially-conscious bookstore and their wonderful staff, like Thea Kotroba, pictured, who has been a great help in organizing Library Project events. I have nothing but good things to say about CCBMC and everyone who works there, and I thank them for another successful Library Project fundraiser.
Photos by Teresa and Anne Hawkins
Friday, April 10, 2009
Event: SPRING Into Action!
I'm hoping to see you tomorrow at our SPRING into Action! book fair at Chester County Book and Music Company. Fifteen percent of book, calendar, card, game and plush toy sales made at a special marked register (follow the balloons!) will support the Library Project. I'll be there, too, with information about book sponsorship - a great gift to slip into someone special's Easter basket. I'll also be sporting my hot-off-the-presses La Entrada Library Project t-shirt, coming soon to a torso near you. Check it out! CCBMC is a great locally owned and operated book store, and they have been a great partner over the years.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Upcoming Events
Mark your calendars!
- On Tuesday, April 7, I will be on WCHE's "This Week in Business" with Cynthia Ericson at 3:45 pm. Tune in to 1520 AM.
- The following Saturday, April 11, the La Entrada Library Project is having an in-store book fair at Chester County Book and Music Company. Fifteen percent of all book, calendar, stationary, card, plush toy and game purchases made at a designated register will benefit the Library Project. Come out and share your love of books with readers around the world!
Coming soon to the blog: Writer Wednesday interview series. Let me know who you'd like to hear from, and what you'd like to know. Some questions will be selected from your suggestions!
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