Designing universal knowledge
by Gerlinde Schuller
Lars Müller Publishers, 2009
17 x 24 cm, 304 pages, English
Hardcover, with a large amount of images
ISBN 978-3-03778-149-4
Available at bookstores worldwide

Recently I got into a conversation with some people about how writers can find more time to read. Reading is critical to our own development as writers, yet reading (at least for fun) seems to always get pushed down on the priority list. Add to the daily grind typical family and personal chores and tasks, a few other hobbies and of course that great time sucker, television, and you have a pretty hectic schedule.

The greatest time sucker of all is, however, the internet. How many of you sat down for a few minutes to browse some topics and then discovered you’d spent three hours at it? With the traditional publishing world falling apart and being replaced by digital content, it’s easy for writers to fall into the internet trap as they learn they have to now do most of their own promotion. Publish or perish has been been replaced by “social network or perish” and it is all very time consuming.

This is not intended to be a gripe. I don’t want to hear myself complain anymore than anyone else does, but it all raises some fascinating questions about who we are and where we are going. Perhaps baby boomers such as myself are overly self-indulgent and have spent far too much time pondering the whole “who we are” thing, but it’s a hard habit to shake. As the world around us changes ever faster it’s starting to look like a scene from The Time Machine where the hero watches the world change faster than he can absorb.

I’d like to hear from other boomers, writers especially since we are charged with documenting all this stuff one way or the other, about how you are coping with the modern world. We asked for change and we got it in spades. Is it too much? Too fast? Do people of every generation lament the loss of the past once they exceed age 50? No one warned us what would happen, and if there was a user manual it apparently never made it to press.

In the meantime I am still trying to find time to read a stack of novels and non-fiction books sitting on the floor by my favorite easy chair. Sometimes I think I can actually hear them scream “NO!” as I sit down and pick up the tv clicker. I wonder if one day I will walk in the room to find the television smashed to bits on the floor, covered by piles of books satisfied they’ve finally gotten their revenge on the “new media.” Now about that timeline thing….

Here is this year’s list of most frequently challenged books. Some are of questionable taste and some are just plain stupid, but all are protected under the Constitution. I don’t personally see the need for extreme vulgarity, implicit sex or graphic depictions of violence, but I stick by the right of the authors to write what they want.

Decide for yourself if the books are offensive, stupid or age inappropriate, then take a deep breath and join the ALA in fighting against censorship. I’m also including a link to the entire ALA report, which has some very interesting bits about the challenge to libraries from budget issues and digital publishing.

Top Ten List of Frequently Challenged Books in 2012:

1. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey (offensive language, unsuited for age group)
2. “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” by Sherman Alexie (offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group)
3. “Thirteen Reasons Why,” by Jay Asher (drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited for age group)
4. “Fifty Shades of Grey,” by E. L. James (offensive language, sexually explicit)
5. “And Tango Makes Three,” by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell (homosexuality, unsuited for age group)
6. “The Kite Runner,” by Khaled Hosseini (homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit)
7. “Looking for Alaska,” by John Green (offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group)
8. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz (unsuited for age group, violence)
9. “The Glass Castle,” by Jeannette Walls (offensive language, sexually explicit)
10. “Beloved,” by Toni Morrison (sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence)

The full text of the 2013 State of America’s Libraries Report is available athttp://tinyurl.com/salr2013. The Zmags version of the report is available at American Libraries Magazine.

The big news is that we have a green light, “all systems go” for Stigma to be serialized on the Washington Times Communities site. I will provide a lot more information on this story in upcoming blog posts, but my elevator* version is that Stigma is a psychological thriller about a nice middle class family from Atlanta that tries to refurbish a vacation home in the North Carolina mountains and finds that the house has an ugly history dating back to 1898.

Stigma is also an actual real estate term used for houses where violent crimes may have occurred, and they often stay empty for years because buyers are scared off. North Carolina is one of a few states that do not require disclosure of a stigma unless specifically asked about it. That can lead to some nasty surprises for a new homeowner.

The serialized story will be published as weekly episodes and the entire story will be available as a single volume when completed. I am working with several other people on this as a loose-knit team on plot, characters, technical details and artwork/photography. You will get to meet all the team members here on my blog, and I will also provide a lot of supplemental material here as well. I hope you will find reading all of this as much fun as we do in writing it.

As promised, here are links to all the places you can find me these days:

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/its-about-time/

http://books2day.com/

http://www.scribd.com/rltownley (still arranging content)

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5372730 (still arranging content)

http://pinterest.com/prism001/books-publishing/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/RTs-World-of-Books-Publishing/146363768720417?bookmark_t=page (being difficult)

https://plus.google.com/u/0/109423895495746502918/posts

That’s it for now. I need to rest….

*An “elevator version” assumes you have to tell a story to someone in the time it takes to ride an elevator between floors. It’s a practice that originated in the advertising world where account reps often had to pitch concepts to busy clients, but it applies readily to writers also. 

There are lots of things going on here at the moment, including the task of figuring out how to technically package and deliver the upcoming serialized story Stigma. Should we just put it on a website, publish it on a news portal, make it a pdf or put it in ebook format? Lots of questions, very few answers.

That’s where all of you come in. Below (or to the right) there is a link to a very short survey (I know, I know everyone and their uncle is in your face with “surveys” these days) but this is not for marketing or to grab your email address. Please click either link to call up the survey form – just seven questions.

What I’m trying to figure out is simply how you might read an electronic version of a serialized story. Unlike an entire novel, it doesn’t appear all at once in one place. It happens in episodes over a period of time somewhat like a TV show. That presents unique problems on delivery. Yes, I miss print…

Each episode is going to run up to about 1,500 words, which is roughly 2-3 printed pages. Would you read that right on a computer? Would you want to download it and read it later? Would you like to use it with an e-reader or on a tablet or iPad? All things are possible, but I need to know the priorities for the different formats. If everyone wants an ebook format it would be silly to just publish pages on a website – you get the idea.

So this is your moment. Again, this is NOT a marketing exercise, this is just a way for me to gauge how to actually package the story. There will be additional features later on that will let you comment on the story as it progresses – but first we need to get it to you in a usable format. See how complicated modern life is? Just a few years ago it would be done in print in a magazine and that’s that.

Thank-you in advance for your input. Please feel free to e-mail me if you want to make additional comments to the survey. As for the story itself, things are progressing nicely. I’m working with an informal team and so far the story itself is a real pot boiler. We hope you will agree and follow each episode.

I’d like to point out that there is NO charge or fee for reading this story regardless of format, and at the end I plan to make it available as an entire story as an ebook and you will get a free copy of that. I’m also hoping to make available some of the artwork that will go along with the story. There are no plans for coffee mugs, t-shirts or Franklin Mint souvenir plates…

I look forward to your responses and will share the results in an upcoming post.

Click here to take survey

As much as I liked the column name, I admit I’m simply worn out from trying to keep up with the world and national news. Originally it was just supposed to be about daily life, but with all the ranting and raging going on in the world, I too frequently found myself in the middle of things where I didn’t really care to be. So, it was time for a change. The new column will focus on all things books and publishing. It is not about reviews, though I may touch on individual works and authors. Instead, it will hopefully address key issues facing the book industry today that affect readers. A lot goes on that book lovers don’t get to hear about, and I will try to bring some of that out into the open.

Along with addressing specific topics, I hope to add a weekly newsletter feature that gives highlights and quick summaries of events and happenings in and around the book business. I started my career as a bookseller and there are, frankly, many days I miss that side of the business although it has changed a lot. I ran a high volume bookstore at a time when authors like Robert Ludlum (who lived nearby) was starting to break records on the bestseller list, Erica Jong launched her first book tour from there, and a host of other authors and celebrities were common visitors.

With some luck I hope to recreate some the excitement that existed around books in that day and age, before ebooks, before Amazon and before the rise of the mega-chain stores. We all enjoyed browsing, reading, talking about and just touching books – something that is fading fast in today’s cyber society. I hope everyone who has followed the It’s About Time column will switch over and join me for what will hopefully be a celebration of books and some critical thinking about the state of publishing.

Change may be inevitable, but not all of it is good. With your input and help I’ll try to sort out the good from the bad and revive some of the excitement we all had when books were made entirely of paper and not bits and bytes.

Look for the new column on WTC during the week of March 18-22. I’ll send out a notice when it publishes. See you there!

There’s a bigger problem going on that no one gets to hear much about. In Texas, about 80% of the public schools have been mandated to implement a program called CScope, a liberal progressive curriculum that removes historical and social references deemed not politically correct by progressives.

Here’s the biggest rub: parents cannot see what is being taught and teachers are actually sworn to secrecy. People are finally starting to complain but those involved are heavily entrenched in the system.

The Obama-Biden education plan relies heavily on the same concepts and CScope could eventually be incorporated into a federally mandated curriculum for all public schools to receive government funds. Did you know that George Washington and Abe Lincoln didn’t really exist? CScope has eliminated them from the core curriculum for history.

According to the “new order,” America really only started around the time of Teddy Roosevelt, and at least half the names of “famous Americans” taught about are obscure and liberal.

When you see a kid being suspended for blowing bubbles at classmates it’s more than just a level of stupidity at work. It’s a symptom of a bigger problem – a progressive-led agenda to literally brainwash our children and make them good “global” citizens. CScope teaches that the community matters more than individuals and national identity is a bad thing. According to the new lesson plans, America has been a bully and needs to become an equal partner with all nations regardless of politics.

If this sounds familiar it should because it’s basically the same ideology that the current president grew up with and believes in. It’s what is behind taxing Americans into poverty in the name of social justice and what drives almost every left-leaning program on the books. I know this sounds like another dumb conspiracy theory, but it’s not. Don’t take my word for it, go check it all out yourself. And don’t expect any existing politicians of either party to stick up for your rights as long as they are fat and happy.

Our kids are at the forefront of a major ideological struggle and right now the liberal progressives are ahead. The Republican Party is a joke and Obama is expending all his political resources to breaking the GOP once and for all rather than working to make the nation stronger. So when you see a kid getting suspended for doing what a kid might normally do with a cookie or a toy, take a closer look not just at what happened, but why.

The biggest thing that makes people with secrets, like those who run CScope, nervous is being asked why they do things. Hopefully Texans will wake up fully to having been duped. If CScope endures there, it will get in everywhere, but you’ll never know exactly what they are pushing unless you also sign an oath not to talk about it.

Pop-Tart anyone?

Whatever style of music you like to annoy your neighbors with, the industry’s real problem is that it has focused on trying to find only mega-hits for too long. That is why the music charts are full of the same things over and over and over.

If you cruise the internet music sites you will find hundreds of unpublished musicians and bands doing some really superb work these days, but they never seem to get picked up. While boomers tend to lament the end of the early ’70′s creative period, there is just as much good stuff around today. You just can’t find it.

As I aim the column more and more at the 50+ age group, you will probably hear a lot more about things like this. To me, the biggest problem with getting older is seeing how almost everything has been cheapened or is deteriorating in quality. Some days I envy younger people who don’t know any better. To them, eating off paper plates with plastic forks standing in a mall may seem perfectly normal, but many of us miss traditional meals, eaten on a clean table with dishes and silverware, in the company of friends or family.

It’s the same with the arts. Parading around in a skimpy swimsuit with flashing lights does not overcome the fact that the thumpety-thump pop music came out of a computer program. It’s not entertaining and it has no substance. I’m sure plenty of youngsters will disagree, that’s their prerogative. Our culture has lowered the bar in all areas and there is apparently no changing that.

In coming weeks please watch for more and more articles specific to life after age 50. I will make an announcement of the change in the column and you’ll see a new column “logo.” It used to be “For Boomers Only,” but that word “boomers” still gives me an itch so I’m trying hard to avoid it, at least in titles and graphics. This will not be all doom and gloom, far from it. Life is short, and getting shorter, and it’s time to have a little more fun than we’ve had over the past 30-40 years. Still, there are serious topics to tackle and information to pass on about life in the new millennium.

The next time a young person brags to you about digital music and downloads, you can smile and just reply that we had streaming music long before they were even born. Just don’t tell them it was called the radio.

My first computer was an Apple IIe that I used to design and manage several packet-switch type financial services distributed via broadband cable and satellite. There was no thought or need for a pretty interface, drag and drop or streaming movies. It seems inconceivable to young people today that desktop computers could not even display pictures or play music files. Sounds were of the arcade variety and so were the graphics. Getting a pie chart printed out was a pretty impressive feat back then.

So now we have our old friend Microsoft, which has during its lifetime both delighted and frustrated millions, wanting to change the game plan yet again. As often happens, they seem to be a day late and a dollar short. MS is not a highly creative organization and has always specialized in waiting until others develop software then swooping in and buying the company. That is how they got some really good products that they then managed to turn into bloatware.

Windows 8 wouldn’t be a bad operating system except that MS spent years training us to use previous versions of Windows that at least kept the interface more or less the same. Even Windows 7 uses the same wonky file system and adheres to the PC the same as Window 3.0 did, and you can’t transfer it to another PC. So making Office 2013 adhere to a single computer is not new to MS, but it is cruel to users – at least end users who don’t have massive budgets for an IT department.

Mac has kept with a consistent operating system all these years but their hardware is no longer anything special or even different from what you get in a modern PC. So basically you pay a lot more just to get the latest big cat du jour operating system. Why won’t Apple just let us run their O/S on cheaper PC’s? Well, that’s kind of why Apple is Apple and the mystique lingers. Meanwhile, Microsoft continues to act like a wooly mammoth trapped in a tar pit.

If I were to be pushed for a recommendation on cloud computing I’d suggest going slowly. I’ve used Dropbox for some time now and it is superbly designed and functions without a hiccup. Microsoft products, on the other hand, tend to be bloated, costly, buggy and short-lived. There is no long-term vision at Microsoft, only short-term profits.

So the issue may not be so much that it costs you $10 a month to use their software and keep your data files, but what would you do if they decide to pack it in and change directions next year? They’ve done it before and they could do it again. The other thing is what happens to your valuable files if you forget to make a payment? Well, you know what the electric company does. Microsoft would do exactly the same.

Wordperfect? Will you take me in again? I’m sorry I ran off on you. I never loved Word, honest, it was an empty and meaningless affair…

I used to see men sitting in the shoe store, sullen and quiet, looking like they were about to be executed. Most were in fear that their partners might ask if something went with a particular dress or outfit, knowing full well they couldn’t remember the outfit if their very lives depended on it. And sometimes it did. But guys, here’s another secret – women know that we can’t remember squat about their clothing. They just use all that to keep an upper hand with us.

Still, a lot of men are missing out on a fun experience. It’s like getting a private fashion show and there is something very disarming when a woman gives a man that kind of  pouty little look they do when they want approval. It really doesn’t matter whether you approve or not, but it’s charming that they let us think our opinion counts for something. Sadly, men don’t seem to reciprocate on that sort of thing.

Guys, if your wife or girlfriend only wears sensible lace shoes and can recite from memory mathematical formulas necessary to design suspension bridge trusses, you are probably missing out on all this shoe stuff. But even engineers can have a feminine side and if you are the one to bring that out in her you are in for a really pleasant surprise. If your wife or girlfriend is a militant feminist, it might be time to find another wife or girlfriend.

Probably the best thing about shoes however, is that they are attached to a woman’s feet, which are attached to ankles, which are attached to legs which – you get the idea. And all these years you probably thought the song “Dem Bones” was just about skeletons. Married guys need to be single now and then. Not so they can run around, but so they can take care of themselves for a while and learn to appreciate what they have at home. Single guys, well, we’re just crap out of luck.

So men, the next time you go past a shoe store, or get dragged into one, instead of staring at the ceiling try to indulge your lady and show some interest. She probably still won’t want to watch football with you, but even money says she will just smile and not say anything the next time you put a game on.

Quid pro quo fellas, quid pro quo. Oh, and a very Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone!

This Obama guy, and I am careful to always refer to him as “President Obama” on WTC, may be a swell guy to hang out with. He may be a regular Joe, a family guy, a sensitive and caring fellow, but he seems to work very hard at sounding like an insurance salesman. If you’ve never dealt with one, they scare you to death then make you feel all warm and fuzzy if you buy a policy. It’s very discomfiting.

My biggest problem with all of this at the moment is that it will bump the next episode of Vegas with Dennis Quaid. That program is definitely picking up steam and is about the only thing worth watching on a Tuesday evening. So the liberals in the group won’t get their panties all in a wad, I disliked George W. Bush’s State of the Union Addresses even more, especially after he invaded Iraq. In fact, most state of the union addresses in my lifetime have been pretty lame.

Perhaps I spent too much time on the business side of things over the years, but I really would like to see an annual review process for our politicians. Elections are not adequate to weed out bad performers. Voters are too easily swayed. The process needs a checklist of some kind, definable goals matched against a job description and goal setting for the upcoming year. Millions of workers have to go through that, why not the president?

The real problem with our system is that the lower downs are hiring the higher ups and have no clue what those jobs really entail or how to measure them. Since we’re stuck with that system and can’t really change it, we have to start insisting on more honesty and transparency from politicians. Obama promised all sorts of things but hasn’t been held accountable to any of it. He’s not the only one, he is surrounded by countless other politicians who do the same thing every election cycle.

It’s probably time for a constitutional review and God help us if the current Congress, Supreme Court or Executive Office is involved in it. It may take a miracle, but we need caring men (and women of course) of the same caliber as those who founded this country. Where we can find them in this day and age is a puzzle, but it is definitely time for some housekeeping if this nation is to survive for another 237 years.