Lived fully, laughed loudly, gave generously
Kim Stafford read the poem, “Serving with Gideon,” by his father, William Stafford, during a presentation at the Hutchinson Art Center on April 2, 2014.
Stafford believed in the power of one person to make a difference. This poem illustrates how that can happen in small, but significant ways.
Kim spoke about his father being an outsider, observing. You can hear that in this poem in a couple of lines, including, “I was almost one of the boys.”
Susan Branch visited Watermark Books in Wichita this evening to promote her new book, “A Fine Romance.” I have been a fan of hers for many years, at least a couple of decades. When I knew she was coming I started gathering up my books to have her sign them.
Let me just skip ahead to what you probably want to know – yes, she is perfectly lovely in person! She’s just as charming and delightful as you would hope. She signed books afterwards, taking time with each person and posing for photos when asked. I didn’t get a photo with her, but we had a nice chat about vintage linens, costume jewelry pins, and other charming things. I recommended an antique store for her to visit before leaving town in the morning.
Lest you have any doubt about her popularity, let me point out there were people in attendance from Texas, Nebraska, Colorado and Nevada to see her. She has a wonderful website and has made it a point to stay connected with her readers. Honestly, I try to keep myself away from it, because I can spend many happy hours reading her blog and looking at the beautiful artwork. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t provide the address here, so I had to go look at it. I had to. http://www.susanbranch.com/
As you know if you’ve read here for any amount of time, I am a devotee of doing what makes you happy, and using the “pretty things” so many people put aside. Susan encourages these very things, so naturally I feel an affinity for her from the outset. And you know how much I love beautiful things. So… how could I not love a Susan Branch book? Exactly!
Over the years I’ve reviewed more than one of her cookbooks for various publications, and all of those reviews have been glowing. Her books are ones you want to enjoy again and again.
“A Fine Romance” is a departure from the watercolor, handwritten cookbooks she is known for, but completely delightful nonetheless. It is like getting a peek into her personal journal of a two-month long trip to England, with the handwriting and art you expect when you see the name, “Susan Branch.” If you are a Susan Branch fan, you will want your own copy.
At the moment, the way to get a copy is from your local, independent bookstore. Susan and her husband, Joe, have been on a dot-to-dot trip across the country, with the dots being bookstores. They’re traveling in this amazing van.
Her other books were all published with Little/Brown, a large, traditional publisher. With this one she used a local publisher at Martha’s Vineyard, but made all the decisions herself about what the book would look like and what it would include. She has nothing but good things to say about the traditional publisher she has worked with for a long time, but the publishing world has changed dramatically since she started. She wanted to do something different and this is it.
I can assure you you’ll love going along on this journey with her. And if you get a chance to meet her, do! She is just as lovely as the pages of her books would make you believe!
I have posted more photos on my Facebook page. Please enjoy them at your leisure.
Bluebird Books hosted an artist’s reception for my friend, Jocelyn Woodson, Friday evening. Jocelyn does amazing artwork and she is the featured artist in the bookstore this month.
Jocelyn and Melanie, the owner, were discussing the finer points of art display in cool bookstores, or something else. I don’t know. I wasn’t really eavesdropping (for a change!).
All of this was accompanied by music!
Bluebird Books is a new addition to Hutchinson’s Downtown, and it’s marvelous. Not that I want to make you jealous of our bookstore, but just look at it.
I suppose I could love this red chair more, but I’m not sure how. It’s just lovely and perfect in every conceivable way.
And check this out. You can sit in a comfy chair up front and occasionally glance around and check out what’s happening on Main Street.
You’ll also be able to see the book tree to your left, right by the front door. It was a Christmas tree, now it’s a spring tree, complete with chia bunny. I’m kinda in love with chia bunny, for reasons I can’t explain.
This is over near the cookbook sections. Swoon!
The wall beside the cash register has a collection of bluebird art. You’ll also find bluebirds all around the store.
The wall behind the cash register is this wonderful collection of doors – so cool.
At the end of the night, Jocelyn and I took a moment to sit in those comfy chairs up front and soak it all in. Of course, Jocelyn has on the stylish boots, and I have on the wrinkly socks. Why do I post things like that, anyway? There’s probably a psychological dissertation in there somewhere.
“The soul is contained in the human voice,” says David Isay, creator of StoryCorps.
For nearly a decade, StoryCorps has been recording people’s lives. They have permanent booths in various locations, and traveling ones that stop around the country, where people can interview someone they love for 40 minutes. The mission is, “to provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives.” Isay spoke at Watermark Books in Wichita this week.
Isay explained the booths are designed to create an intimate space. The lighting is low, the interview participants are alone with just a facilitator who keeps notes on the interview as it progresses. “We see every interview as valuable and potentially sacred in people’s lives,” Isay says. “It’s an act of generosity when people come to the booth.”
They do take photographs of the participants, but Isay says, “We will never have cameras in the StoryCorps booth.” He loves the intimacy and power of the human voice, and said even if they were video interviews he would probably close his eyes to listen to them.
In the reception before the event, Isay mentioned that people are always surprised by something that comes out in the interview, even if it’s with someone the person has known all their lives. “The reason people get emotional is that listening is authentic and genuine,” said Isay. “Listening to a loved one tells them how much they matter.” And it reminds them their stories are important.
The StoryCorps website has a list of questions people can use to do their own interviews with people in their lives, without coming to a booth. They’ve been gathered over the years as ways to get people to talk about, “the great themes of human existence,” says Isay. As you might expect those are love and death, and not career paths.
“The trick is not to wait,” he says. StoryCorps has a “National Day of Listening” the day after Thanksgiving, when they encourage people to have these conversations. Of course, it can be done anytime. “It’s always an amazing experience to have these conversations,” he says. He knows of what he speaks. He says he recorded an interview with his father, and listened to it the first time at 3 a.m. the night his father died.
In the last decade, they’ve recorded about 50,000 interviews. Each conversation is recorded and the participants walk away with a CD. A second CD is made that goes to the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, if the interview participants agree. Isay said more than 99% of people do agree.
I was first introduced to StoryCorps when I worked in public radio. Each week there’s a segment on Morning Edition. Now I listen to the podcasts regularly. However, that is not what StoryCorps was designed for. Isay explained that was merely a byproduct. “The real purpose is giving people a chance to have these conversations, to know their stories matter,” he says.
They are thrilled to have the Morning Edition segment, but only 1 of every few hundred interviews is edited down to a short segment for the radio. Recently they started doing animations of a few of the stories to appeal to a younger audience. Those are done for about 1 out of every 200 radio segments.
The series has also produced some books, including the latest, “All There Is,” which was just released in paperback. This particular one focuses on love stories. All of these things grew out of Isay’s passion to get people to record and preserve their stories.
StoryCorps works with about 500 non-profits every year to seek different voices who might not otherwise have an opportunity to record their stories. “For people who feel most silenced … this is a profound experience,” says Isay.
When producing documentaries earlier in his career, Isay gave equipment to teenagers to capture their personal stories. He says he learned as he heard them interview their grandmothers, great aunts and other people in their lives, “the microphone gave a license to have conversations they’d never had before.” StoryCorps was an outgrowth of that experience. He now spends most of his time raising money for StoryCorps. “I will devote the rest of my life into growing this, I hope, into a national institution,” he says.
He said StoryCorps is about celebrating the American story and being reminded to pay attention. “It’s amazing the poetry, the grace, the beauty you can find in people walking down the street if you just take time to listen,” he says.
“We’re seeing humanity at its best,” Isay says about the interviews. “When we do that we’re on holy ground,” he says. StoryCorps teaches us about humanity and the importance of listening. “One of the lessons of StoryCorps is to be in the present and take time to say things to people we love,” he says.
Greg was kind enough to take this photo of me with Dave Isay, who was incredibly personable and pleasant.
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Authors are obsessed with getting their books into bookstores. They believe this will be the key to making sales. After all, bookstores are in the business of selling books. Makes perfect sense.
Except it doesn’t.
Instead of being focused on getting your book into bookstores, start thinking about getting your book into the hands of readers.
People in all kinds of businesses don’t really understand who their customer is. If you’re an author, your customer is the reader, not the bookstore. The bookstore is the middle-man. They may be an incredibly pleasant middle-man, and middle-men have their places, but they are not your customer. That is the reader. The reader is also their customer. As you can see, readers are really powerful entities in this equation.
I work with a number of authors, handling various public relations tasks for them from helping build a social media platform to generating their newsletters, blog posts, mailers, and other assorted chores. Many authors just want to write, and not spend time marketing. Unfortunately, that’s not really very feasible these days.
You will either spend a lot of your time marketing, or hire someone else to do it, and even then it will require your attention. It’s just the ugly truth of business today – any kind of business. This is acutely felt in the book industry. Unless you are a proven author with a stellar track record at a big publishing house, you are likely to be spending a lot of what used to be your writing time on marketing.
If you are an author who has decided to self publish, or work with a publishing house outside the major ones, you’d better decide marketing is your second favorite thing – right below writing. Frankly, it probably is far higher on the list than re-writing, and we all have to do that, so just dig in and enjoy.
But, I guarantee, if you create a demand for your book, bookstores will become very interested in carrying it. Despite the obstacles, if they’re having potential customers walk in every day and ask about buying a copy of “Polly’s Last Chance for Pomegranates,” they’ll beat a path to your door, or at least your inbox.
However, don’t hold your breath on that one. Because those customers are likely to just order the book and have it shipped directly to them, never interacting with a bookstore. In fact, for many people, it’s nearly impossible to shop at a local bookstore because there no longer is one. That’s a pity, but it’s the reality.
For those lucky enough to still have bookstores, please support them in any way you can. Buy books there, suggest others do the same, and give them some love. Understand that rent is high and shelf space is limited and manpower is scarce. Just having the energy to order, rotate stock, and handle business is overwhelming for many bookstores. The people who work in bookstores tend to be readers, and they can offer great suggestions for books. Maybe you want to give them a copy of your book so they’re familiar with it.
I wish I had a better answer. I adore bookstores, but this post is about authors and how to get your book out into the world. Bookstores would be a wonderful, logical option except their business model is not geared to today’s publishing market. So, consider how much time it will take you to swim upstream on that. And realize that while you’re doing that, you’re wasting energy you could be devoting to reaching your real customer, the reader.
I spent part of Friday and all day Saturday at the KWA Writer’s Conference in Wichita. It was wonderful to be with other writers and to pick up some tips on structure.
Saturday evening’s ending presentation was one of the most beautiful speeches I’ve ever heard about books. It was by William Bernhardt who is funny, as well as apparently brilliant. (I met him for the first time this weekend, so I’m not really qualified to make that determination, but all indicators would say “brilliant” is accurate.)
I can’t possibly do it justice. He is obviously far better-read than I am, and I was so swept away listening to him that I didn’t take any notes. Trust me, this does not happen often.
One story I do remember is him talking about Harriett Beecher Stowe’s book, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” and its impact on the civil war. He told the story of Lincoln meeting her in 1862 and saying, “So, this is the little lady that started the big war.” Bernhardt pointed out that the power of those words had such an impact on the world that we elected an African-American president less than 150 years later. As he said, whether you voted for Obama or not, you cannot deny that is an amazing change in attitude.
Speaking to a room full of writers, he encouraged us all to go write, because the words we put on the page do matter.
Many people encouraged him to print his speech, and I will be one of the first people buying it if he does. I wish I could share more of it with you, but I was so caught up in the experience I didn’t capture the details sufficiently. In fact, I know I’m only giving you the scarcest hint at how magnificent it was.
Just trust me when I say it was incredible. And go read something!
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A year or so ago, I attended a workshop with author and teacher, Lisa Dale Norton. Here’s the memoir I wrote.
This Thursday, Lisa is doing a free author chat where she’ll talk live with people about writing and memoir. If you’ve ever thought about writing a book, this is a great opportunity to get advice from someone who has two books out from St. Martin’s Press.
Lisa is a great teacher, and gives wonderful advice. Here are the details:
DATE: NOV. 10th, 2011
TIME: 5:00PM Pacific / 8:00PM Eastern
How to join:
– click widget below
– use the guest tab (not registered users tab)
– enter your name in the guest field
– click enter button to join
Kansas Poet Laureate Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg read from her work at the Hutchinson Art Center tonight. It was sponsored by the Hutchinson Reno County Arts and Humanities Council and Hutchinson Community College.
She has written four books of poetry, and much of her work focuses on how writing generates community. This is a fascinating concept to me. I do think the arts of all kinds help form community, and give an identity to it.
Much of what she read was from her most recent book, “Landed.” She said it was 16 years in the making. She said, “You have to wait until the poem arrives.”
As I often do when I see poets, I’m struck by certain turns of phrase. I do not have a sufficient grasp of the language to write poetry, but I love to hear it read by the people who wrote it. It’s so easy – there’s no decision necessary on my part – the writer gives me the intonation the way they intended. It’s an effortless way to experience it.
These were some of the notes I made tonight. Obviously, there’s much more to each poem, and these are just little snippets.
“Where for a moment, all that wants to be said is heard.”
“Why can’t the heart stop asking?”
“When the wait is long and the news is bad.”
“Shards of nightmare.”
“I don’t have language enough to explain how I arrived here.”
“Wind tells the sea in you, the old stars in you too, welcome home.”
“Will you be true to me? Do I know how to be true to you?”
“Music made of air and pulse.”
“I’m just a container for time like a river. Tell, me, what’s not to love?”
“In the end there’s only kindness.”
“In this kindness there are always stories.”
“Only kindness matters in the circle of love he made in this world.”
“Get up from that curb where you wait for the parade of acceptance.”
“Find or make another home.”
“Don’t push choices before their time.”.
