On a limb with Claudia

Having sent Who I am, the third Fey book, and sent it off to the proof readers, I have been cruising around the web. Here’s a few things that caught my eye.

1. As a follow up to last weeks post about the disgusting cowardice of the Republican party, Representative Andrew Weiner discusses why he was so angry. There’s not much we can do about this bill now. There feels like there’s not much we can do about the grid lock in Congress over reasonable issues. The Republican’s are holding until election day in the hopes of changing Congress. We can only hope they are not satisfied.

2. This is an interesting article in the Financial Times about the Crisis of the Middle Class. This is not a new story. The War on the Middle Class
was published in 2006. What’s interesting about this article is how it relates issues like the Tea Party to the crisis of the Middle Class. I posted this link to Twitter and was surprised to hear from a number of people overseas. They were surprised at this look at America’s middle class.

3. This is a gorgeous gallery of photos. “Taking old World War II photos, Russian photographer Sergey Larenkov carefully photoshops them over more recent shots to make the past come alive. Not only do we get to experience places like Berlin, Prague, and Vienna in ways we could have never imagined, more importantly, we are able to appreciate our shared history in a whole new and unbelievably meaningful way,” says Alice. Here’s my favorite.

4. While we’re on photos, this was posted by Drew Carey on Twitter. In celebration of the Federal Court Judge Vaughn Walker’s decision to overturn California’s ban on gay marriage, I share:

5. I can’t find a link to this. I was sent this Haiti update from SOS-Children’s Villages. (If you haven’t looked into SOS-Children’s Villages, they are an amazing charity.) SOS Children’s Villages had been in Haiti a long time prior to the earthquake. When the news media looked for legitimate resources, they went to SOS Children’s Villages. Here is their report about Haiti five months later:

HAITI:  FIVE MONTHS AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE

June, 2010

On January 13, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti and destroyed thousands of buildings and hundreds of thousands more lives.  Our SOS Village of Santo, near Port-au-Prince, was spared.  There, over 200 orphans were already living prior to the earthquake, safely and well taken care of in SOS houses in SOS families.  Good construction made all the difference and left all our facilities standing.  The SOS Village subsequently has become a haven for other children who have lost their parents.  We currently have custody of over 500 children for whom we still search for family members; we have 800 students in our primary and secondary schools.

The Phases of Haiti Relief

What follows below is a description of the phases of SOS relief efforts.  Budgets will be refined over time as fundraising continues and needs change.

Phase I:  Basic survival, water and sanitation, food and medical treatment (January – March, 2010)

Phase II: Mid-term shelter, protection and care (March, 2010 – present)

Phase III:  Assistance in Haiti reconstruction

• Phase I:  Basic survival (COMPLETE)

In the initial weeks following the earthquake, tons of food and medical supplies, as well as hundreds of tents, were distributed by SOS in collaboration with other international nongovernmental organizations (INGOS) who were part of the Cluster on Child Protection.  We also took in hundreds more children without parental care and started work immediately on family reunification.

At that time the Haitian government gave SOS temporary custody of the 33 children who were being transferred illegally out of Haiti.  That incident positioned SOS in the middle of an international news story. Coverage on the Today Show, MSNBC, Anderson Cooper, Larry King, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post enabled SOS to address a key question:  what exactly happens to children who lose their parents in a natural disaster?  As experts in raising children without parental care, SOS was able to answer:  children are first registered and receive safe shelter.  Following that, efforts start to reunify families.  When reunification is not possible, more long-term options must be considered.

• Phase II:  Protection and temporary care (IN PROGRESS)

We are now in the second phase of Haiti relief and coming to terms with the fact that our SOS Village has swelled to over 800 children who need love, food, clothing,  trauma and grief counseling, schooling and a sense of hope.  Conditions are overcrowded for meals, play and sleeping.  Tents on the ground predictably will create challenging conditions as the rainy season—and hurricane season—descend.  Therefore, SOS is now bringing to Haiti innovative polypropylene shelters that “pop up” quickly into sturdy, dry, lightweight houses that can last 3-5 years and withstand winds of well over 100mph.

By mid-June, each of these 100 shelters will house up to eight people in 242 square-foot individual family units.  Another 16 small shelters will be used as latrines and showers.  Many will likely be installed in the community as well as in the SOS Village.  SOS is also feeding an estimated 10,000 people a day through dozens of food distribution centers in the Port-au-Prince area.

SOS Children’s Vilages is working with major INGOs on child protection issues, including UNICEF, Save the Children, and World Vision.  We are also pursuing a collaboration with Partners In Health and its sister associations, Zanmi Lasante and Zanmi Beni.

• Phase III:  Shelter and reconstruction

SOS intends to build new facilities when critical needs assessments have been completed.  This likely means  new schools, community centers, and perhaps the construction of a new village.

Each other…all they have left.

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Every major problem we have in the US can be traced back to Congresses dependence on lobbyists and special interests.

Global warming? check. (Whole sale support for the industrial food complex.)

BP Oil Spill? check. (The rig was built by Dick Cheney’s company Haliburtan after all.)

War in Iraq? check.

War in Afghanistan? check.

Lack of jobs? check.

Economy? check.

What can we do? We can support Citizen Funded Elections. (What is that? Click any of the words and find out!) It’s an idea that even the Organizing for America is starting to talk about. (Of course, Organizing for America has not yet taken up the ‘commit to not take special interest money’ piece of this. But it’s a move in the right direction.)

In this 18 minute video, Lawrence Lessig says it best:

The video is well worth the time. It gives some history and decades of thought. Check it out!

If you want something fast and easy to do, take the pledge to not donate to any candidate who opposes Fair Elections.

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Now, imagine walking around with the solar system sized penis.

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Last weekend, we had the luxury of going to Dinosaur National Monument. I use the word ‘luxury’ because Dinosaur is so remote that very few people have achance to see the amazing beauty of this monument.

We’d hoped to see dinosaur bones, but found that they were 1) in the quarry, and 2) the only access to the quarry is through a condemned visitors center. (We’re told that stimulus money has been allocated to reconstruct the visitor’s center and open the quarry. Take a virtual tour of the museum and quarry.)

Instead of bones, our friends Jen and Steve encouraged us to visit the junction of the Yampa River and the Green River. This location is the site of one of environmentalists first win over the power companies.

And what a win it was.

I’ve never seen a more beautiful canyons. The grandeur of this canyon humbles Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon and even Bryce Canyons.

I took a bunch of photos to share with you. The photos are a little ‘whited out’ because it was just starting to spit ice flecks and snow.

Green River Canyon

Yampa River Canyon

Yampa River Canyon

It’s hard to gain a perspective on the scope of these canyons. We hiked 1 mile into a point to see the junction. We’re over 7,000 feet. The river is bright florescent green and the mountains seen to go forever. There’s a sense of unreality and timelessness to the place.

How could something so amazingly beautiful go so unnoticed?

I was particularly fascinated with this part of the Yampa Canyon. It looks as if the original continental plates smashed together at this location. Over the millennium, the river had worn away at this secret junction to expose the thrust to the heavens.

In this shot, you can see the river winds behind these gorgeous canyon.

This photo shows the Echo Park area they were going to fill with water.

We had a wonderful time. We saw no one the entire time we were there. And we will definitely be back.

If you’re ever driving through Utah, I’d strongly encourage you to take a little detour to this National Monument. The views are spectacular, humbling, and well worth the journey.

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As promised, here is a free digital copy of The Fey by Claudia Hall Christian

When you download the book, you own it. Feel free to send a link to this post to your friends and family. Don’t be shy, pass it around. Bring it to your bookclub. Talk to your friends on line. Tweet about it.

We want The Fey to be read and enjoyed.

Why are we doing this?

We believe there are a lot of stories to be told. We believe that clutching onto stories keeps them from growing and being enjoyed. Claudia spent three years working to get this book right. There was an additional year editing and massaging The Fey. This book deserves to be read by as many people as possible.

So download the book, read it and enjoy.

What do we want in return?

Read the book. Write a review at Amazon or Goodreads or Barnes and Noble. Talk to your friends about it. Pass it along to your family members. Call your local library and request The Fey for their collection. Request The Fey at your local bookstore.

If you’d like a copy of the book, feel free to buy one for yourself or forty of your close personal friends.

If you convert The Fey into your favorite format, please send them to us at cookstreetpublishing at gmail dot com. Please only one conversion per format. If we get them, we’ll post them here.

Download the book – Enjoy!

The Fey by Claudia Hall Christian is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Based on a work at alexthefey.com.

Special Thanks to Corey Doctorow for leading the way!

Downloads

The Fey (plain text) .59 Mb
The Fey (.pdf) Letter 2.9 Mb
The Fey (.pdf) A4 3.3 Mb

Versions created by friends and fans

The Fey (Mobi Reader) .32 Mb (Thanks Cha0tic!)

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Recently, I had the pleasure of reading a proof edition of Stink : Poetry and Prose of Detroit.  I was blown away by this depth of this book. It’s written both in prose and poetry to give a balance of the ideas and reality of the city now.

As a city, Detroit has taken the brunt of our current economic tourmoil. It’s hard to conceptualize that one city could fall so far and so hard. I’ve heard people say they’d rather be in Beruit than Detroit now. Gangs have all but taken over the neighborhoods. Good, honest people hide in terror in their homes. Drugs? Sure. Unemployment? More than any city in the United States. Hopelessness has become a way of life in Detroit.

And Stink tells it all.

When Steinbeck set about writing his California novels (The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, In Dubious Battle), I seriously doubt he thought he was documenting the Depression. Yet decades later, these novels help us understand beyond the numbers and figures. Through Steinbeck, we begin to understand the people who lived through the Depression.

In Stink, Mark created the same kind of genius. He’s documented the hearts, souls and minds of the people of Detroit living through our current whatever-you-want-to-call-it.

The book is only $9. Mark explains more about he book in this blog post. Do yourself a favor, email him at detstink@gmail.com and beg him for a copy. You won’t regret it.

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The Blog Tour starts tomorrow with a Thursday 13 interview about writing at Popping Bubbles!

The questions and requests keep coming! It’s a very exciting time for me!

Here’s the list of blogs and dates. If you have time, I’d love to see you around the Blogisphere! 

May 21, 2009 - Popping Bubbles

May 22, 2009 - Devyl Gyrl

May 25, 26, 27 and 29, 2009 - Not a Mean Girl

May 28, 29, 30, 2009 - The Eclectic Collection

June 1, 2009 - Puniglio

June 2, 2009 – Raven’s Range

June 8, 2009 - Tuesday Update

June 9, 2009 - Dark Novels

June 9, 2009 - Tinkerbell

June 10, 2009 - Tiny Tyrant

June 11, 2009 - As Kat Knits

June 12, 2009 - The Morning Meeting

June 13, 2009 – Dolce Bellezza

June 15, 2009 - Kymlee is Awesome

If you’d like to host, I’d certainly love to visit! Just drop me a line at:  alexthefey@gmail.com  We have a few more blogs to schedule. 

I’ll be back next Wednesday with another (less than) fascinating look at Claudia.

Cheers!

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I don’t usually pass along this kind of information, but it was very helpful to me. An accountant friend of mine emailed me with this:

IRS plans to audit 1 of 44 returns this year to help fund stimulus…targets are:

• EITC,?Earned Income Tax Credit,?
• Schedule C, ?independent small business on the 1040, ?
• Schedule E, ?rental income property?and?
• Form 2106, unreimbursed employee expenses.

Thought you’d like to know!

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Thursday 13 – On publishing

(Thursday 13′s were revived by Janet and?Megan?)

Ok, I’m on a little bit of a rant. So please forgive me, but I think people need to know about the changes in publishing. So many authors hold on to their fiction, hoping and praying for to win the lotto and a big publishing house will deem them valuable.?

It’s a new time. New times require different and new methods of publishing.

So here’s my list of thirteen thoughts on publishing:

1. Publishing standards were created when books were set one character at a time.

2. Most ‘great works of fiction’ were written long hand with fountain tip pens.

3. There’s never been a time when so many people not only could read but had the capacity (internet, libraries, Amazon) to read.

4. eBooks are the only growing segment of the publishing market.

5. Large publishers have consistently lost money while small publishers have flourished.

6. Large publishing houses no longer support their authors with editing, copyediting or marketing assistance.?

7. More and more, authors are on their own to care for their books including all marketing, copyediting and content editing.

8. ?On average, a new book sells fifty copies. Most assume that’s the number of friends and relatives recruited to purchase the book. (This number is from ‘How to write a bestseller by Mueller.)

9. The large publishing houses have stopped or dramatically slowed their purchases. I’ve heard that they are simply ‘not buying’.

10. At the same time, traditional distribution channels (i.e., book stores) are locked down by publishers. In other words, you must be a publisher to get your book into most bookstores.

11. ?If you’re interested in publishing, and books, you should read these articles.?

• Giving it away by Corey Doctorow
• Books, Going Forward by Mark Tavani
• Read it and weep by Jason Boog
• Blog books open doors by Jason Davis
• Generate Buzz on the Web
• The Wovel
• Tim Ferris on using a viral idea to create a best seller

12. Many publishers are hiring writers to churn out the same books over and over again so that they can fill their list. These authors work for the publishers writing exactly what the publishers want them to write. Period.

13. The number one reason publishers fail is over stock. Publishers must pre-print books. They sell them to book stores who buy them on credit. Book stores have months to attempt to sell the book. If they are unable to sell them, they return the books to the publisher. Ever been to a 50% off store? That’s all the back stock that didn’t sell and was returned from bookstores.

Share with me - what do you know about publishing today that you’d like to share? Leave it in the comments and I’ll link to you here.

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So, N over at Fear and Parenting emailed to tell me that I had agreed to be interviewed by her.

I did?

My state of shock and horror was only enhanced by her copy of my comment on her blog post. Dayum, I need to pay more attention when I’m commenting…. Sigh….

I am a person of my word. So, if you can stand to learn a bit about me, here’s our interview.

N at Fear and Parenting: 1. Why did you start your blog in the first place?

I started my blog in 2004 (I think) when blogs were first coming out. We were looking for better ways to interact with people at the Open Grove. We’d had a forum for a long time, but it became fraught with spam and stupidity. We thought that a blog might be the ticket.

I originally blogged on MoveableType, then shifted to something else. I shifted to WordPress on the recommendation of the tech support at LunarPages (my hosting service). WordPress was about a year old. 

Over time, the blog has grown in a variety of ways. I’ve never been very comfortable talking about myself, so Claudia rants are rare.

Well, Ok, they are rare in life too.

I try to support, interact and inspire, myself first, but others as well. This blog has drawn such a tremendous community. I’ve met so many amazing, talented and silly people. I am deeply grateful every day for the blog, the people and most particularly the capapcity to meet and greet like minds.

N at Fear and Parenting: 2. Every week you list your unconscious mutterings meme. What has to be most disturbing response you’ve received to that weekly post? (Please tell me it’s not one of mine!)

I don’t think I’ve ever had a disturbing response. My buddy Van at FuriousBall always puts something in that’s a little off. He does that on purpose to wave ‘hello’. Or at least that’s what I tell myself. Truth told? I leave pretty random things on his blog. Like he has this fascination with Brazillian models and…. Nevermind.

Mostly, I love the way the mutterings reflect the places people are in their lives. So many people are growing, striving and achieving. I love being able to see their process in one post. 

I just love mutterings!

N at Fear and Parenting: 3. You’ve got to be one of the most genuinely nice people I’ve ever met – a true and rare breed to be sure. But no one can be THAT good. What’s the most un-nice thing you’ve ever done?

Boy. I have thought a lot about this question. I don’t think of myself as a ‘most genuinely nice person’.

I had a really tough growing up. I had it bad at home and was the bottom, smelly kid of my elementary school. Just to give you and idea. The one elementary school friend I thought I had told me at my father’s funeral that she used to make cruel jokes about  me behind my back. She feels bad about it – because it was extreme and I was always her good friend. But, as she said, ‘you know how kids can be’. (For the record, I don’t really know ‘how kids can be’. I think some kids and people suck.)

I am so grateful for these experiences. I learned at a very early age how fragile a heart can be. I learned how one comment can destroy a person.

Since that time, I’ve made a lot of mistakes. Usually, my mistakes revolve around speaking about something that’s so obviously true to me, but not true to someone else. 

I’ve hurt a lot of people’s feelings over the years. I don’t think I can pick one moment as an un-nice thing. I know that it’s happened. I’ve learned that hearts break and heal very very slowly.

Online, I try to think about the other person. What might they read here? What might they think?

I don’t mind apologizing because I know how difficult it is to communicate – to be heard and to understand.

N at Fear and Parenting: 4. You’re one of the few online friends who’ve met me in person. Was there anything about meeting me that surprised you?

I was surprised at how much we had in common.  Simply put: your husband wants chickens (as is my life long dream) and you don’t want them (as is my husband’s life long goal). I am humbled and awed at this simple similarity. 

N at Fear and Parenting: 5. You’ve been on the hunt to find the secret to happiness for quite some time. What will you do once you’ve found the goose who lays the golden egg?

I think I’ve been trying to find out why, given the exact same circumstances, some people are happy and other people are not. It’s a fascinating to me, really.

I can’t imagine ever staying unhappy. I can’t imagine any reason to do that. But people do it. 

If you ask them, they’ll tell you that they have to. (shrugging) Yeah, I don’t get it.

That said, I’m confident in the decades of happiness research collected at the World Database of Happiness. Happiness is pretty simple. 

• Know what you want.
• Believe you can get what you want
• And have the capacity (health, mostly) to work toward what you want.

That’s about it.

The tough part is knowing what you want.

Want to be part of the fun!?! I know you do! Follow these instructions:
1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

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