Winter 2009 Newsletter
          "It is in middles that extremes clash, where ambiguity restlessly rules."             
                                                                     John Updike 1933 - 2009
Dear Newsletter Readers,
     Here we are in late-winter. What are your plans for keeping focused in these hard economic times? We hope this newsletter will provide some ideas while keeping you informed and entertained.
      Did you catch the front page piece in the Times on the rise of self-publishing? Read our article and see the link to the NYT. We are gearing up to be the one-stop shop for those interested in this economically attractive alternative. We have teamed with a book designer and hope to offer you special packages. (Our next newsletter.) 
     Patrick's men's writing group has started but there is still room. See below.
     This month we spotlight another Wesleyan Writer's Workshop grad that has, what some would consider a nutty idea, but has found its rewards remarkable and surprising. see Spotlight
     We can announce that TEC is working in collaboration with Westport Writers Workshop. See Friends of TEC.
     Patrick has written up his notes on storytelling.  Stories are useful as a device for non-fiction writers to illustrate and personalize their messages.  We have discovered that our writers sometimes have difficulties collecting and re-writing stories. See our article.
    Also, check out the article on what researchers have discovered when reading in an MRI machine. Gee, I thought we weren't allowed to move!
     Every month, we will include the Best Resources List. These are the people that we can heartily recommend that will make your life a little bit easier.
 Coming soon: "Self-Published vs. Traditional: Two Local Authors"
 and look for Self-Publishing packages.

Good writing!
                       Tish and Patrick
The Selectric Keyboard LIVES!
Do you miss your selectric? Do you miss the clickety clack of the keys? Mourn no longer! One keyboard company purchased the rights to use the hardy IBM technology. We just bought one and it is DURABLE. And the sounds! If you learned to type on a typewriter, you will love this keyboard.Pckeyboard.com
The Art of Self Publishing
  Through bleary early morning eyes, I grabbed my NYT and went straight to the art's section for a little escape. And there it was -- another article about the contractions in the publishing marketplace --major cutbacks at HarperCollins. read article.  After I calmed myself down, I realized that is was even more urgent for writers, professional practitioners and business people, to explore self publishing. A few weeks ago, The New York Times published a front-page article on self-publishing, discussing its growing market share and its mainstream acceptance. We urge you  to read it. read full article.
    Is self-publishing for you? If you believe you have to write your book, self-publishing might be for you. Self-publishing is an excellent way to enhance your professional profile. If your wisdom must be shared, if, as a niche fiction or non-fiction writer that traditional publishers don't understand yet, self publishing might be for you.
     Fact: self-publishing can be a relatively inexpensive and efficient way to move your book. Self-published authors keep a greater percentage of the profits and can also excite the interest of mainstream publishing house. Costs are coming down and the turn around is fast. If you need to have a book in your hands quickly, publish yourself.
     From the Times: Self-publishing companies generally make their money either by charging authors fees - which can range from $99 to $100,00 or a variety of services or by taking a portion of book sales, or both. Some allow the author to create the book free, but then make their money on a small printing markup and a profit split with the author.
     However, writers must understand the differences between the different companies. I purchased Top Self-Publishing Firms by Stacie Vander Pol. She did exhaustive research to discover which are the best self-publishing firms. She breaks them out by which firms sell more books, pay the highest royalties, and provide the best overall value for writers.                    
      So first ask yourself this question: Must I  write this book? If the answer is yes, read the rest of this article. more below.

In this Issue
 Feature: The Art of Self Publishing
Update: Men's Writing Group
Spotlight: Readallday.org
Feature:  Storytelling
Best Resources List
Friends of TEC
Our Authors
John Updike Obit
Write Your Own Bio Tip #3
MRI's and the Reader
next issue:
 Self-Pub vs. Traditional:
Two Local Writers Talk
       &       
Winner Take All v. Virtual Viral Buzz: The New Dialectic of Writing and Publishing
 

Tish&Patrick
The Editing Company
We are Patrick McCord and Patricia (Tish) Fried, the editors of TEC.  We offer complete support services for writers, business people and the professional practitioner. Let us get you started: book proposal, brochure, website, bio, keynote speech and blog. We can help you edit or co-write your manuscript, help you find your market niche, and help to develop your concept. We promise to hold your hand throughout the publishing process. Don't forget our one-on-one tutorials. We have book designers, web designers, logo designers, printers - - support services to help get your project done efficiently, elegantly and right the first time.
Call 203.454.4522 or email us click.
Spotlight of the Month:  Readallday.org 
In October of 2008, Nina Sankovitch embarked on an ambitious plan - to read one book a day for an entire year. She set up a website to track her progress and to encourage literacy. "I want to share my joy in reading and to encourage others to find in books the pleasures and knowledge and connections and inspiration that I have found all my life." Her website, readallday.org, lists the books she's read, and includes her reviews, her reasons for this crazy plan, and her observations of how this steady diet has enriched her life as a writer and as a human being.
click onreadallday.org
to read a sample of her monthly updates, see below.
 
Men's Writing Group Has Started!
Work on your writing chops with a no-bull editor in a group that reflects your readers.
Positive feedback, insightful suggestions, support but no frills.  Fiction or Non; thrillers, humor, food, travel, essays, outdoors or indoors, even poetry. 
Patrick adds:  We have a small class with a range of abilities.  One guy is going to publish soon; several of the others just want to explore their as-yet-unformed talents. It works well if we all write and read something every week, and discuss other readings. Nothing to be afraid of; and over ten weeks, everyone learns a few valuable tools, gets some good insights, and develops an idea or project.
When:  Monday nights @ 7:00
Cost: $300 for ten sessions in eleven weeks (one week hiatus around midterm).
Please call/email Patrick to register and for directions.
Email: Patrick or call Patrick @ 203.644.6129.
Feature Article
Storytelling:  Using Narrative to Improve Your Writing
I. Why? All people love stories.  From the very beginning of human organization when we were naked clans fighting for survival, narrative storytelling was a way of explaining how the world works.  Myths, fables, legends, and oral histories precede logic or reason in the human mind's understanding of the world. In fact, as part of our evolution as language-speaking species, as homo sapiens, our brains and perceptions came together to create stories as ways of teaching and explaining.
      Today, our brains are still wired to think of life as a story, a narrative:  everyone thinks of her- or himself as the main character in "The Story of  (fill in your name here)'s Life."  That little voice inside your head?  That's your personal storyteller who narrates the story of your life.
     When we read (or hear, or see) a story, an interesting process takes place: the little voice inside our heads is connecting to the words on the page; we find ourselves applying the words of the story to our own lives.  Therefore, we naturally identify with an interesting story.  Identification is when we personally connect our sense of self (identity) with the traits and problems of a character or characters in a story. continued below.
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BEST RESOURCES
The following companies are tried and true. We do not receive any renumeration .
Design
Our fabulous logo designer:
Bill Kobasz of Reliable Design.

From graphic to web to banners on buses, we recommend Suki Frisch of Pixel & Page,

Graphic and web designer, Laura Case also has twenty years experience as a BOOK DESIGNER LauraCase.

Illustrator, web designer, state-of- the-art S.E.O services, check out the elegant Jeff Seaver Design.

Research
Fran Kaufman has been a university librarian for more than 25 years, assisting undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty with their research. She is an experienced researcher in the humanities, social sciences, business, medicine and health, familiar with all types of proprietary databases, online sources of primary and archival information as well as with traditional print resources.
contact: Fran.

Translation
Award winning translator, Marjolin Jager, Ph.D.
French-English
Dutch-English
English-Dutch 
Fiction, poetry, drama 
Non-fiction, arts, humanities.
Please see her website.

Print
Allegra print and Imaging
Local, reliable, good prices.
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Kew
Scanning photos, banners, film digital needs .KEW

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Write Your Own Bio
Tip #3
Last month we asked you to spend 3 minutes making a list of what you do best. Now spend 2 minutes making a list of words that describe why you like what you do.  Don't edit yourself, just whatever comes to mind.  Honesty is important.
Readallday.org (continued)
"Over the past thirty-plus days I have come to value certain necessary traits of great writing.  But first I want to say straight out that I no longer think writing can be taught.  The art of writing is an art that can be honed, yes, okay.  But story telling (fiction or non-fiction, poetry or
play) is a talent, a gift, a treasure.  A good writer is lucky to have the
ability to string words together and then pull that string to make your
reader read on and on and finish with a sigh of pleasure, and a bit of
anguish (is it over already?) and a hunger to read MORE. I've always enjoyed books but now I'm drawing deeper into myself;  it's like swimming down into a deep cavern of water -- imagine the blue grotto, all glowing and brilliant -- and drawing water into myself with my arms, parting the water so that I can go deeper and deeper into the cave, to find out more and see the connections, the shared characterstics of what makes a book glow so brilliantly, what makes a book great.  Then I come back up again, breathe and rest and think and then I write about what I've read and what I've been thinking.  And then I share what I've written on this website, through my daily postings. And all this happens within a twenty-four hour period.  Amazing, yes, and exhausting, yes."
Self-Publishing continued
1. Do I have some cash? Prices are down but budget in $2000-$5000. 2. Do I have people who can help me?  If your mate isn't willing to edit and/or proofread your book, many of the firms offer editorial and design support that you pay extra for. It is worth it. Of course, here, at The Editing Company, you will get personalized, affordable support, as well as, advice every step of the way.  3. And now, the most important question:  do I have a platform? Or how can I market the book?  For example: can you market the book through your website? Do you have speaking engagements? Do you have a blog, a Facebook account, a newsletter? TEC can help you discover and develop your platform.
next newsletter:
How I got Published:
Two local Authors' Speak!
 

 
You Are What You Read?
Readers build vivid mental simulations of narrative situations, brain scans suggest
A new brain-imaging study is shedding light on what it means to "get lost" in a good book - suggesting that readers create vivid mental simulations of the sounds, sights, tastes and movements described in a textual narrative while simultaneously activating brain regions used to process similar experiences in real life.
"Psychologists and neuroscientists are increasingly coming to the conclusion that when we read a story and really understand it, we create a mental simulation of the events described by the story," says Jeffrey M. Zacks, study co-author and director of the Dynamic Cognition Laboratory at Washington University in St. Louis.
 Does this mean I can learn how to whale hunt without getting seasick by reading Moby Dick? Watch out Nina! Reading all day could get YOU in a lot of trouble.
Friends of T.E.C.
We can announce that TEC is working in collaboration with Westport Writer's Workshop. What we like about this WWW is that they have expert teachers, great information and they are LOCAL. That's right, in Fairfield County, CT,  you don't have to stay in a dorm or a hotel in order to hone your craft. And, if you can't commit to on-going workshop attendance, they also offer one-day workshops. Besides getting all your skills in shape, they offer such practical workshops such as: how to write a book proposal, how to find an agent and silencing your inner critic,-- essential information for the writer. Stay tuned for more information - Patrick will be teaching there soon.
Our Authors
Mark Greene

mark greene
Mark has enlisted TEC for a little editorial help in shaping his new comic-thriller North Maine Weird
This first novel is a crime genre page-turner about an ex-Navy SEAL with authority issues, romantic conflicts, and some dubious business connections. Master Chief Rudd has landed at less-than-desired duty station, teaching officer wannabes survival skills in the tangled woods and mosquito swamps near the Canadian border. Rudd tries to do the right thing with his trainees while maintaining his promising new relationship. Of course, he's the kind of guy whose "right thing" is not always what is written in law... Rudd's methods generate some serious blowback when pitted against the craziness (and the unusual women) that emerge from the trees and tiny towns of the great Northeast.

 

Clare Jaymes

Kathy
Clare Jaymes. (ok that's not her real name.) "Clare" is an amazing woman who has emerged from a life on the street surviving by any means necessary and is now living a responsible, somewhat secure life.  Her novels are based in her real-life experiences.  We met at the Wesleyan Writers Conference, and the first pages she showed me just knocked me out: vivid, compelling, empathetic, and in a fresh, urgent voice. - TF

  
 

Laura Campbell

Laura Campbell

Laura Campbell is a dynamo of a woman. She is the founder of   Discover the D Spot, a Divorce and Life Transition Coach. Laura is creating a Divorce Lifestyle Expo, and with a little help from TEC, she is writing a book, The D spot: Finding Balance on the Tightrope of Divorce. "One day I allowed the "D" word to enter my mind.  DIVORCE.  Could I possibly get divorced?  How could I tell my husband, a good man, that our marriage wasn't right for me?  How could I tell my parents and my friends that I had failed? I was paralyzed by these thoughts and frozen with fear."  Laura gives supportive advice on how to stay grounded and sane, and how to re-invent your life as a strong single woman but without kidding yourself. She also doesn't flinch from discussing some of the not-so-nice truths that all other books on divorce avoid. Yes divorce is a change for a life transformation, but sometimes, you just have to take care of business like getting a job. Or, did you know that STD's are on the rise in single woman? The book is a down-to-earth, warm-kiss and slap-in-the-face read all in one.
 
January 28, 2009 New York Times
John Updike, a Lyrical Writer of the Middle-Class Man, Dies at 76
By CHRISTOPHER LEHMANN-HAUPT
John Updike, the kaleidoscopically gifted writer whose quartet of Rabbit novels highlighted a body of fiction, verse, essays and criticism so vast, protean and lyrical as to place him in the first rank of American authors, died on Tuesday in Danvers, Mass. He was 76 and lived in Beverly Farms, Mass.
"My subject is the American Protestant small-town middle class," Mr. Updike told Jane Howard in a 1966 interview for Life magazine. "I like middles," he continued. "It is in middles that extremes clash, where ambiguity restlessly rules."read more
John Updike's Mighty Pen
By CHARLES McGRATH
January 31, 2009, New York Times
John Updike, who died on Tuesday at 76, was our Trollope and our Proust both. Though a brilliant man, he was not a novelist of ideas. readmore
Storytelling continued The more details we can connect to, the closer the identification.  As a result, a good story can stimulate our minds, memories, and imaginations more powerfully than concepts, rules, codes, facts, or a logical argument. This brain activity is key to narrative logic: the primary way every person understands the world in terms of stories. 
     As a writer, you need to create ways for your readers to connect to your story.  If you are writing fiction or memoir, you are already writing narrative stories. (Skip to the next section.)  If you are writing non-fiction, you should use well written stories and their embedded narrative logic to assist your reader in understanding your thesis or theories.  If you write an effective story that exercises your ideas, you will pre-set the reader's mind to understand you better.  In addition, you can use a good story to illustrate examples, to demonstrate problems, or to show exceptions to general concepts. In fact, it's usually a good idea to begin your chapters, or your essays with a well-designed, well-told story.
II. Every story has the same basic elements:
A point of view  (the narrator) which ranges from knowing everything about the
characters motives and thoughts (omniscient) to a highly personal, limited narrator (first person).
Characters  who have specific traits, usually a main character, or protagonist, puts the
story in action, often s/he is opposed by an antagonist or antagonists, which may be a person, a problem, or a relationship issue.
A setting or settings that tell us exactly where the story is located (a place and a time);
setting also includes the details of the physical world---tools, clothes, furniture, vehicles, vegetation, etc.
Events or a plot: usually focused on the protagonist who has a desire that leads to conflict with antagonist(s) or with her/himself.
A purpose or a theme (usually suggested, not stated outright).
please EMAIL for complete article. Soon we will have articles up on our website and archived newsletters.