A Long Way from Manuscript

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Meredith Ann Rutter

Members of TEAM TSA (this group at Disney in 2012) participate in athletic events to support the mission of the Tourette Syndrome Association to discover a cause and find a cure for tourette syndrome.

This past Tuesday marked the start of Tourette Syndrome Awareness Month (May 15 – June 15). I know this because I stay in touch with Brad Cohen, whose book (co-authored with Lisa Wysocky) Front of the Class was one of my former company VanderWyk & Burnham’s success stories.

I was alerted to the plan for the book in 2003 by an agent, but Brad was really the one who found me. His agent had exhausted her own list of publisher contacts but it was Brad who went online and looked for the small independent publisher with a mission that spoke to him. V&B’s mission statement is to publish books that promote learning, compassion, and self-reliance and make a difference in people’s lives. It surely was a match. Brad and Lisa finished the manuscript on schedule, and I made sure it was edited, published, and publicized (thank you, Kate Bandos!) on schedule. A lot of attention was paid by the media, but the big hit was a feature on Brad in People magazine (Sept. 12, 2005).

About 200,000 people in the USA have TS. Sounds like a small fraction when seen as a percentage (0.06%) of the country’s population. But I choose to look at it as a number that averages 4,000 per state. That means a lot of people, and a lot of kids, suffering from misunderstandings about the syndrome. It’s not about yelling out swear words, which occurs only in about ten percent of cases. It’s not something to make fun of, which occurs constantly and is especially hurtful to the youngsters, too often shutting them down for life.

Paperback cover

Hardcover cover

In my own life, publication of Front of the Class marked a milestone. It was not only one of the books that I personally had a hand in making happen, it has made a true difference in young kids’ and in families’ lives around the country if not the world.

DVD cover

Beyond the hardcover edition that V&B came out with—winning two awards, by the way!—the paperback rights went from V&B to St. Martin’s, which jumped on the bandwagon because the film/drama rights had just been sold to Hallmark Hall of Fame. The movie premiered Dec. 7, 2008, and has been rebroadcast many times since. If you haven’t seen the movie (or perhaps you’d prefer to read the book?), this would be a good time to do so. You’ll be glad you did, and you can spread the word to others in your own circles. It’s a worthy cause … and to think a good ol’ book helped it along. Ahhh.

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Let’s Talk Gray, I Mean Grey, and NPR Too

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Meredith Ann Rutter

Let’s get one thing straight, right off the bat. The color gray, with an a, is the American spelling. Grey, with an e, is the British spelling. A person’s name may be either, of course. I have known for years that it’s a losing battle to fight for the gray. There’s simply too much confusion over it, and who really cares anyway, except for editing-diehards (we really are impossible to kill). The huge ballyhoo around the erotic Shades of Grey trilogy (Book One: Fifty Shades of Grey) may be the tipping point for gray v. grey, despite the fact that the Grey in the title is a person’s name.

I swear I was one of the last to know about the latest in erotic fiction. A friend of mine had to alert me to the trilogy. She had posted something on Facebook about “50,” and I asked what she was talking about. She was flabbergasted at my ignorance, given the attention I pay to anything booky. I thanked her for the info and ordered up a copy. I’ve only just begun, being about 2% in (yes, I chose Kindle for this one).

On another front (stay with me–there will be a connection) I’ve participated in National Public Radio’s Three-Minute Fiction (often abbreviated 3MF) contests. Each time, NPR identifies a judge who will provide the groundrule for the particular round (the current, round 8 judge is Luis Alberto Urrea, and he provided the groundrule that each short story would begin with this sentence: “She closed the book, placed it on the table, and finally, decided to walk through the door.”) As part of the fun around the timing of the contest, NPR has a Facebook page for interested parties (read Excited participants) to chat about the process and whip themselves into a frenzy as a few stories are released each week leading up to the naming of the winner.

If you’re familiar with NPR, you think of them as pretty darn highbrow and in the nicest of ways. Well, at least I do. Interactions on the 3MF Facebook page are very respectful even as the commenters let their enthusiastic name-the-winner impatience shine through. Still, we’re all happy to have a place to occupy us while we wait. Yesterday the Facebook moderator posted this question: “Wondering what’s on your nightstand right now, 3MF’ers. I’m currently reading ‘I’m Proud of You’ by Tim Madigan…and you?” She got lots of answers, with an incredible lack of much duplication.

I read about thirty of the responses and then chimed in: “I could name The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, though that’s actually on my ‘daystand.’ On my nightstand right now is Kindle, and its currently set to 50 Shades of Grey, Book 1. There, I admit it.” The 3MF Facebook moderator responded to very few individual comments, but about ten more comments by other writers and an hour later, she did post again, with: “Meredith Ann Rutter, The only book I’ve downloaded on my iPhone was 50 Shades of Grey.”

I howled, and couldn’t wait to tell you.

Chair Image: luigi diamanti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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New Uses for Used Books

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Meredith Ann Rutter

Item 1: At breakfast in Genoa, Italy, the other day (heh-heh), at the start of our trip to walk Cinque Terre (out of this world vacation experience), I noticed how the hotel decorated its breakfast room. It felt like a personal welcome. True, I couldn’t read the books–in Italian–but it was the thought that counted.

Item 2: I must share this with you, an article from Publishers Weekly (scroll to top of link, title “You Know You’re Going to Want One…”) about a vendor called NovelCreations (linked in the article). Think holidays and get order(s) in soon. I doubt she’ll be able to keep up.

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Three Cups of Tea Author Cleared in Civil Suit

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Meredith Ann Rutter

Image: AP Photo/Central Asia Institute, Sarffraz Khan

A tweet this morning by Publishers Weekly alerted PW’s followers to an AP article (click here to read it) about the dismissal of the civil lawsuit against Greg Mortenson, the author of Three Cups of Tea. I’m very happy for Mr. Mortenson and relieved for all his readers!

This was one of those books that I’d had no interest in reading because I let the cover sway me. I thought it was a book about women who bonded over tea. It’s nothing of the sort. I read it after a couple of friends told me I had to. It’s the story of Greg Mortenson’s efforts to get schools built (relying on local people) in Afghanistan and Pakistan to educate girls as well as boys. I’ve always believed the plaintiffs in the civil suit were wrong in their portrayal of him as intentionally misleading readers. The judge has now called their case “flimsy and speculative,” and I hope Mr. Mortenson can get more rest now.

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Book Review: Palm Trees on the Hudson

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Meredith Ann Rutter

Palm Trees on the Hudson: A True Story of the Mob, Judy Garland & Interior Decorating by Eliot Tiber is a prequel memoir by the author of Taking Woodstock. Although I was in the right age group, I didn’t attend Woodstock, nor have I read or seen the movie Taking Woodstock. But when the publisher of this prequel memoir sent me a copy in the hopes I’d be intrigued enough to review it, he was right. The book describes author Tiber’s experience of being 20-something in the 1960s, and in Manhattan to boot. I have posted my review on the Book Review page (in menu tabs above).

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No Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Meredith Ann Rutter

Pulitzer Prize juror Maureen Corrigan, Georgetown University professor of English and 22-year veteran book critic on NPR's "Fresh Air" (photo from Georgetown U. website)

If you’ve been following the news, you have already seen the lists of Pulitzer Prizewinners and heard the news that nothing was selected to win in fiction this year. Wow. Quite a disappointment for a lot of people, from authors to booksellers, not to mention readers.

Here’s an item you may not have seen, which provides an added point of view from one of the jurors whose task was to make recommendations to the Pulitzer judges. I’m quoting below from the “Publishers Lunch” newsletter (4/19/12) written and delivered by Publishers Marketplace:

Adding to the voices on the Pulitzer Prize controversy is fiction judge Maureen Corrigan. Writing in the Washington Post, she says: “Like everyone else, we three jurors found out Monday that there would be no 2012 prize in fiction. That terrible news capped what was otherwise the greatest honor of my career as a book critic and professor of literature…. I’m angry on behalf of those novels.” Corrigan dismisses the “second-guessers” who questioned the three unanimously-selected finalists. “In our collective judgment, these very different novels are three very distinguished works of fiction.” She adds, “The Pale King captivated us, even in its unfinished state. Swamplandia! is animated by high-flying story-telling ambition and Mark Twain-like humor. (Catch that exclamation point!) Train Dreams starkly summons up the lives of humble bit players in the saga of the American West and reads like myth.”
 
She suggests possible remedies to the selection process, but perhaps most importantly, Corrigan reveals that the board received their nominations “in early December” and says if they are “unhappy with the jury’s choices, then why not request that the jury put forward alternative selections?”

I did read Swamplandia! earlier this year, as it was a gift from a friend, and I thoroughly enjoyed it as a unique reading experience. Humor, trepidation, family relationships … well worth a read for any fiction buff. The content and style are refreshingly new. Did it deserve a Pulitzer? Perhaps not. But it certainly deserves attention, just as, I assume, the other two finalists do.

My opinion on the lack of a fiction winner is that it’s probably good to shake us all up now and then, remind us that the Pulitzer Prize stands for the highest of the high, and sometimes we just fall a bit short of the goal. (By “us” I mean the strivers in various categories; feel free to expand it metaphorically.) Better luck to us next year!

Unrelated Comment FYI: I’m heading to Italy today for a tour of the Cinque Terre area with my husband and two friends (who selflessly planned the whole thing). Read a book while I’m gone, and let me know about it if you like. (I’d like!) I’m bringing four books on my Kindle: the final two in the Hunger Games trilogy (Catching Fire and Mockingjay); Fifty Shades of Grey, Book One; and Escape from Camp 14. Ciao, baby.

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Please Consider Voting for Me

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Meredith Ann Rutter

Goodreads.com is holding a contest April 10 to April 23 for an Independent Book Blogger Award (IBBA). When you get to the Goodreads page (after you click on “Vote” below), you’ll need to register or sign in to accomplish the actual vote. Once you’ve signed in, return to the IBBA section and click on “Publishing Industry” at the bottom of the four categories in the left margin. Yours In Books will be in that particular mix. Many of you won’t have the time or patience to do all that, and believe me, I get it. Thanks to any who persevere!

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Vote for this blog for the Independent Book Blogger Awards!

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Young and Old and a Goal-Driven Author

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Meredith Ann Rutter

In the 1990s I was fortunate to make the acquaintance and eventually become a four-time publisher of Dr. William H. Thomas. Here’s a link to his 2004 nonfiction book What Are Old People For? (click on the book cover on the left side there). Quoting from elsewhere on that publishing site, the below will give you an idea about the man:

Winner of the Heinz Award for the Human Condition and named as one of America’s Best Leaders by the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Bill Thomas is a geriatrician and a visionary with an international reputation as one of the leading authorities on the future of aging and longevity. His honors have also included the America’s Award (established by Norman Vincent Peale and sometimes called “The Nobel Prize for Goodness”), the Molly Mettler Award from the Health Promotion Institute, an award from the Giraffe Project (for sticking his neck out), and a three-year fellowship from Ashoka for his social entrepreneurship work with the Eden Alternative and improving the lives of elders.

The reason I’m commenting on Dr. Thomas today is that he has published a new work of fiction called Tribes of Eden, which is now available as a paperback (it has been available as an e-book for several months now). I just placed my order with Amazon. Here’s a blurb about the book: “On the run after America’s sudden and utter collapse, a family finds sanctuary in the heart of a community thriving ‘off the grid.’ But when the lure of a virtual new world order divides the family, the elders of the community recognize that humanity’s fate rests with a chosen girl and a surprising alliance between the least powerful — the young and old.”

Although The Hunger Games has the spotlight now, you may want to recommend this less-violent story to the young adults in your life. I have a feeling it is a story that they will carry forward with them. The trailer is below.

Baby with Grandmother Image: healingdream / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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An April Fool’s Day Quiz

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Meredith Ann Rutter

In each category, match the number of the statement with the letter of its author. (Answers at “For Fun” tab above.)

Politics

1. It may be true that you can’t fool all the people all the time, but you can fool enough of them to rule a large country.
2. It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.
3. A fool and his money are soon elected.
4. There was a time when a fool and his money were soon parted, but now it happens to everybody.
5. You may be able to fool the voters, but not the atmosphere.

a.  Adlai E. Stevenson
b.  Abraham Lincoln
c.  Will Rogers
d.  Will Durant
e.  Donella Meadows

Battle of the Sexes

6. The silliest woman can manage a clever man; but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool.
7. Personally, I don’t like a girlfriend to have a husband. If she’ll fool her husband, I figure she’ll fool me.
8. A mother takes twenty years to make a man of her boy, and another woman makes a fool of him in twenty minutes.
9. Fool! Don’t you see now that I could have poisoned you a hundred times had I been able to live without you.

f.   Orson Welles
g.  Cleopatra
h.  Robert Frost
i.   Rudyard Kipling

Human Nature

10. The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool.
11. Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
12. No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.
13. The serpent, the king, the tiger, the stinging wasp, the small child, the dog owned by other people, and the fool: these seven ought not to be awakened from sleep.
14. The young man who has not wept is a savage, and the older man who will not laugh is a fool.
15. Whatever talents I possess may suddenly diminish or suddenly increase. I can with ease become an ordinary fool. I may be one now. But it doesn’t do to upset one’s own vanity.

j.    Epicurus
k.   George Santayana
l.    Hunter S. Thompson
m.  Benjamin Franklin
n.   Dylan Thomas
o.   Chanakya

Miscellaneous

16. You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
17. He who hesitates is a damned fool.
18. You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool Mom.
19. You can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on.
20. Fighting is like champagne. It goes to the heads of cowards as quickly as of heroes. Any fool can be brave on a battlefield when it’s be brave or else be killed.
21. If I make a fool of myself, who cares? I’m not frightened by anyone’s perception of me.

p.   Mae West
q.   Captain Penny (kids’ show) circa 1960
r.   Margaret Mitchell
s.   George W. Bush
t.   Angelina Jolie
u.  Abraham Lincoln

See answers at the “For Fun” tab in the above menu. The only person I tested it on was my husband, and he got 9/21. How did you do? If you feel like sharing, leave score in Comment below. Happy April Fool’s day!

Laughing Orange Image: Theeradech Sanin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Book Review — Typography 101

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Meredith Ann Rutter

I was on the editorial side of things in my first job in publishing, but I well remember people on the graphics side moaning about how terrible it was that computers were making it so easy for “just anyone” to think they could design a page of type. In fact, their fears had merit, and untrained people had a ball combining more than just a couple typefaces on a page, selecting typefaces that did a poor job of reflecting the tone of the content, and allowing paragraphs of type to annoy readers in subtle but powerful ways.

If you know anyone who is currently trying to lay out a newsletter, for instance, who has had no training in the fine points of typography, you may want to give them a copy of the book I recently reviewed called Type Matters! (see the Book Reviews tab in the menu above).

Caveat: The book is a product of England and therefore includes some minor oddities in terminology and spelling, but it’s still a nice gift book for newbies to typography.

Image: Arvind Balaraman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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