Hugh MacLeod, Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is the Message

My sister suggested a book to me, Hugh MacLeod's, Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity. Being part of the blogging world you might recognize Hugh from his blog gapingvoid.com. His other claim to fame is the drawing of cartoons on the back of business cards. I have posted a book review on my website, www.carpebiblio.com. What I wish to discuss is the organization of his book and website design.

From the organization of his book, I would say that MacLeod could be a student of Marshall McLuhan’s – The Medium is the Message. In that the meaning conveyed on the page is so much more than the text alone. MacLeod has taken the dynamic material from his website blog and transferred it to a static medium, the book page. In the process though he did not loose the message, but instead used his drawings and spacing to maintain the meaning.

In early days of web design, hypertexting between and within a page added an extra dimension to the text that enhanced the message. But it soon became obvious to everyone that while hypertexting and linking enhanced the message, the web addresses changed quickly creating voids in the message. Links also pulled people away from the main site, which was bad for generating advertising revenue. In fact, my current employer frowns on links in the text altogether.

Anyhow, reading MacLeod's book made me think of McLuhan's famous line, "The medium is the message," and I think about how much the web has changed since the early days of web design. While the web seems to be using less hypertext, a tremendous number of new tools are on the scene and being utilized. Web builders now need to consider using podcasts, wikis, knowledge clouds, widgets, YouTube, Facebook, and Myspace to enhance their clients entertainment and knowledge enhancement, and of course to generate revenue from sales and advertising.

Florida Writers Association

This past week I joined the Florida Writers Association, and I attended my first meeting of the Wesley Chapel group. Dr. Richard Wilber, Assistant Professor, Department of Mass Communications, University of South Florida did the presentation. He teaches journalism, and magazine article writing. In addition to his academic publications, he has also published leisure reading. His popular culture works include Science Fiction short stories, baseball and mysteries. His next book, Rum Point, A Baseball Mystery is scheduled to come out in late October

His presentation focused on the tremendous amount of work associated with getting published. In addition to the writing, a large amount of research material needs to be gathered, and interviews conducted. Generally an author writes a lot more material than is included in the finished manuscript. Rick emphasized that the published work is only the "tip of the iceberg." For instance an author may only use about 10% of a two hour interview, but the rest of the information provides the author with background material that adds authenticity to the story. Rick may write 100,000 words to net an 80,000 word book. but he saves those extra 20,000 words. He may need them for a future project.

I enjoyed Rick's talk. That is a good thing, since this was my first Florida Writer's Association meeting, it encouraged me to attend another one. Their annual conference is coming up later this month, and I will probably attend.

Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Award

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) annually presents the Bram Stoker Award for outstanding horror writing. The Bram Stoker Award is given for superior achievement rather than for best of year. The awards have been presented since the association’s incorporation in 1987. Since 2005, the awards have been presented in eight categories – novel, first novel, short fiction, long fiction, fiction collection, poetry collection, anthology, and nonfiction. In 2008, Stephen King won the award for Duma Key.

The Horror Writers Association also occasionally presents a Lifetime Achievement Stoker for individuals whose entire body of work has substantially influenced Horror. Stephen King and Richard Matheson are two authors reviewed on the Carpebiblio website that have received a Lifetime Achievement Stoker.

In addition to the Bram Stoker Award and Lifetime Achievement Award, the Horror Writers Association also occasionally presents awards to fields other than writing that support the horror genre. These include the HWA Specialty Press Award; the HWA Librarian of the Year Award; and the HWA’s Volunteer Service Award.

epistolary novel

I was working on a review of Dracula, and came across the term epistolary novel. Having a librarian for a wife can come in handy. She dug out her Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, and handed it to me. It turns out an epistolary novel is a novel written in the form of a series of letters exchanged among the characters of the story with extracts from their journals sometimes included.

So Dracula would be an epistolary novel since the entire story is told using journal entries, letters, and newspaper clippings. Another epistolary novel would be The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. One advantage of this style of story telling is it allows the author to write the story using several different character voices without losing the reader. While in Dracula the style hindered the interaction of the characters and did not provide a lot of dialogue, this was not the case in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

American Library Association Literary Taste Breakfast

I am much chagrined that I have not added a posting since February, I will try to do better in the future.

I recently attended the American Library Association Conference in Chicago. While there I had the pleasure of enjoying the parks along Lake Michigan. I also enjoyed the Chicago Art Institute, the Field Museum, Soldiers Field, and Navy Pier. I highly recommend all of them.

As for the conference, I attended the Literary Taste Breakfast. Each year, the Reference and Users Services Association creates a list of Notable Book authors, and a list of recommended reads for adults. Four of these authors are invited to give a talk at the Literary Taste Breakfast. I have attended the breakfast for several years and always find it enjoyable.

The authors in attendance this year were Peter Manseau, Toby Barlow, Nick Taylor, and Mark Harris. Peter Manseau discussed his book, Songs for the Butcher's Daughter. Toby Barlow talked about his book Sharp Teeth. Nick Taylor and Mark Harris provided insight into their nonfiction books. Taylor wrote American-Made: the Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR put the Nation Back to Work, and Harris discussed his book, Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood.

While the authors briefly describe their books, and possibly provide an excerpt, it is their discussion of the behind the scenes activities that makes the breakfast so enjoyable. The hours spent on the computer, and trying to pull the truth from interviews with historical figures that may not remember things accurately. Barlow, a first time author, discussed his character road blocks, and journey to publication.

If you are an aspiring writer, you should take advantage of opportunities that provide you the chance of listening to successful authors and their insights towards the act of creative writing, and getting published. Generally the Literary Taste Breakfast is a small enough venue that you have the opportunity to access the authors, ask them questions, and get an autograph. Also take not that getting published is only half the battle. You also have to market the book, and public appearance are a most for any new writer.

New Florida Author - Ward Larsen

Ward Larsen, a Sarasota resident and former Air Force pilot recently published Stealing Trinity. It takes place in the United States towards the close of World War II. A Nazi spy makes a last ditch effort to steal information on the Manhattan Project. I found the character development excellent, and the story believable. Larsen provided the right number of plot bumps and twists to keep the story suspenseful and interesting. Stealing Trinity is Larsen's second book. His first book was The Perfect Assassin.

Sad news in the writing world

Sad news for the writing world, in the past month two prolific writers died. Michael Crichton and Tony Hillerman. Michael Crichton, author and movie director lost his fight against cancer, and died on November 4th. Tony Hillerman, author, journalist, teacher and World War II hero, died October 26th of pulmmonary disorder. I have enjoyed reading both of these authors, and their passing saddens me.