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New Video: Michael C. Bevis and "And God Looked Away" |
AuthorViews is proud to present two minutes with writer, musician, artists and Katrina survivor Michael C. Bevis, cut from his poignant interview at the 2008 Alternative Media Expo in New Orleans.
Bevis' debut book, And God Looked Away: A Katrina Journal, is a graphic and vivid personal account of the traumatic experiences that Bevis and his girlfriend endured and witnessed while riding out the most destructive natural disaster in American history.
But as Bevis discusses in the video, it wasn't the storm itself that did most of the damage. Levee failure, subsequent flooding and the pitifully slow governmental response were what really did New Orleans in.
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New Video: Louise Shaffer and "The Ladies of Garrison Gardens" |
AuthorViews is pleased to introduce Emmy-winning actress and author Louise Shaffer.
AuthorViews interviewed Shaffer at the 2007 Tennessee Williams Festival in New Orleans about her most recent novel, The Ladies of Garrison Gardens, the sequel to her debut novel, The Three Miss Margarets.
The Ladies of Garrison Gardens is a page-turning mystery about friendships, secrets and fortune in a small southern town.
In this video, Shaffer talks about how her training as an actress influenced her ability to create realistic characters that readers can't help but believe.
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New Video: Paula Chase-Hyman and "So Not the Drama" |
AuthorViews is pleased to present two minutes with young adult fiction author Paula Chase-Hyman, cut from her interview at the 2007 Virginia Festival of the Book.
Chase-Hyman met up with AuthorViews to discuss So Not the Drama, the first novel in her Del Rio Bay Clique series. So Not the Drama is a funny and meaningful story about friendships, name-calling and the pursuit of popularity in high school. What makes this novel different than your typical high school story, however, is its incorporation of ethnic and cultural diversity. Finally, a teen book in which not all the characters are white!
There are now two more Del Rio Bay Clique novels available, as well: Don't Get It twisted and That's What's Up.
In this video, Chase-Hyman talks about So Not the Drama, and her inspiration to write stories for teens that embrace -- rather than ignore -- diversity.
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New Video: Shelley Jackson and "The Chainbreaker Bike Book" |
AuthorViews would like to introduce the lovely Shelley Lynn Jackson, New Orleans bike mechanic and co-author of The Chainbreaker Bike Book: A Rough Guide to Bicycle Maintenance.
We interviewed Jackson at the 2007 New Orleans Book Fair, right after we interviewed her co-author Ethan Clark. The Chainbreaker Bike Book is part repair guide and part zine -- an interesting read for bike enthusiasts and would-be mechanics.
In this video, Jackson talks about The Chainbreaker Bike Book and her experiences as a female bike mechanic.
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New Video: Tedd M. Walley and "MATHILDA" |
AuthorViews is pleased to present two minutes with writer, graphic artist and publisher, Tedd M. Walley, cut from his interview at the 2008 Alternative Media Expo in New Orleans. Walley is the creator of Voodoo Maverick Publishing and its explicit, violent and unique comic book series, MATHILDA: The Forces of Evil VS. The 3rd Grade.
At first glance, I didn't know what to expect. Walley approached the AuthorViews booth dressed completely in black -- black boots, black leather pants, black shirt and black hat -- with tattoos, piercings, aviator sunglasses, and even a few skulls here and there. You don't have to be a detective to figure out why Walley is often referred to as the "man-in-black" of the comic book world.
Once the interview began, it was obvious that beneath the dark exterior was an extremely talented, creative and well-spoken individual. Walley is an entrepreneur, comprising his own one-man company called Voodoo Maverick Publishing. Walley founded the company so that he could launch, develop and market MATHILDA effectively.
It's amazing how much effort Walley puts into Voodoo Maverick and MATHILDA. He does everything -- writing, penciling, inking, lettering, advertising, marketing, promotions and web design. All this on the side of his full-time job as the Professor of Visual Communication at Delgado Community College in New Orleans.
In this video, Walley discusses MATHILDA and why he thinks readers enjoy it so much.
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New Book: Savo Heleta and "NOT MY TURN TO DIE" |
AuthorViews is privileged to introduce Savo Heleta, author of NOT MY TURN TO DIE: Memoirs of a Broken Childhood in Bosnia, a personal account of his family's tragic experiences in the war-torn city of Gorazde, Bosnia, during the civil war in the 1990s.
When I was a little kid, I remember hearing about Bosnia on the news and in school almost every day. I heard what was said, but that's really all it was to me -- words -- part of a story I couldn't even begin to understand.
While I was enjoying my childhood naivety, 5,000 miles across the world, Heleta and his little sister, Sanja, only a few years older than I was, were living in complete fear every day -- threatened, shot at, terrorized, detained, and starved -- simply because they were Serbs living in a Muslim city.
Now the Bosnian conflict from the '90s is back in the news again, as Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton recently made MIS-statements about dodging sniper fire when she visited Bosnia during the war. Here's what Heleta has to say about the recent Hillary-Bosnia controversy.
Over the past few weeks, Heleta has been gaining recognition throughout the media not just as the author of an anticipated bestselling book, but as a survivor of a horrific event who has adopted a philosophy of forgiveness, reconciliation and teaching rather than hatred and revenge. Now working towards his Masters Degree in Conflict Transformation and Management at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), Heleta devotes a great deal of his time trying to convey that what happened to him and his family could happen to anyone in the presence of power-hungry, corrupt leadership.
Heleta has provided us with an excerpt from NOT MY TURN TO DIE called, "Muslims or Serbs: Who Is To Blame?" It's a poignant overview of some of the horrifying experiences Heleta and his family endured in their home city of Gorazde.
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FREE Internet PR Chat Series Released on AuthorViews |
AuthorViews President Steve O'Keefe runs a FREE Internet PR Chat series every week for his sister company Patron Saint Productions, a publishing consultancy specializing in online marketing strategy, campaigns, and training.
Steve's lessons are informative, interesting and interactive, so we thought it would be a good idea to introduce the AuthorViews audience to the series. It's a completely FREE program, and we invite anyone interested to participate.
The chat series takes place every Friday from 12noon ET to 1PM ET, using Skype and FreeConferenceCall.com. Each week Steve teaches a different topic in online PR, such as social networking, online video syndication, blog PR, discussion group PR, and more.
To join the action, there is a FreeConferenceCall.com dial-in number and access code. When the lesson is about to start, simply dial 712-451-6100 and when asked for the code, input 596632#, and you'll be connected to the lesson instantly. It's really easy and toll charges or minutes are based on your own phone plan.
During each lesson, messages, files and links are passed through a chat program called Skype. Although you don't need to have Skype to participate on the call, it makes the lessons easier to follow, so we encourage you to download it if you don't already have it. Skype is a new technology with an already massive user base, so it's a great program to familiarize yourself with anyway. You can download Skype here.
If you have any questions about the FREE Internet PR Class, please feel free to contact us.
In addition, we will be posting transcripts and podcasts of each lesson after it takes place, so you can get all the info even if you're unavailable while the class is going on live. You can start looking for the transcripts and podcasts on AuthorViews every Friday afternoon after the class.
Hope to catch some of you tomorrow!
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New Video: Antonio Crawford and "Henrietta the Hyena" |
AuthorViews is pleased to present two minutes with writer, publisher, and now children's book author, Antonio Crawford, cut from his interview at the 2007 Virginia Festival of the Book.
Crawford has been in the publishing business for years, but this is the first kids' book he has been involved with. What a debut! Henrietta the Hyena, written and published by Crawford, is a fun, captivating and educational children's story, filled with bright, colorful illustrations and a writing style that evokes learning.
In this video, Crawford talks about Henrietta the Hyena and the joy he gets from working with and teaching children.
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New Video: Louie Crowder and "Calme Au Blanc" |
Louie Crowder's Calme Au Blanc is a play about living and loving in downtown New Orleans, around the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
AuthorViews met up with Louie Crowder at the 2008 Alternative Media Expo in New Orleans to talk about Calme Au Blanc. In this two-minute video cut from his interview, Crowder discusses how living in a city as culturally rich as New Orleans can have a profound impact on what people do and how they do it. For Crowder, New Orleans culture permeates what he writes about and even his writing style.
We are releasing this video just in time for Calme Au Blanc's final week of performances. After a successful run at the Big Top Gallery in New Orleans, this is your last chance to catch the play.
The final three performances are Thursday through Saturday, March 27 - 29, at 8:00PM at the Big Top Gallery.
Also, to give you a preview of Calme Au Blanc, Crowder was nice enough to provide an excerpt from the play, which you can read below the video.
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New Video: Ethan Clark and "Leaning with Intent to Fall" |
AuthorViews is proud to present two entertaining minutes with New Orleans biker, punk, and author Ethan Clark, cut from his interview at the 2007 New Orleans Book Fair.
Leaning with Intent to Fall is a series of Clark's personal stories about public drunkenness, getting chased by stray dogs, hitchhiking across the country, and other wacky and amusing adventures that celebrate the biker-punk subculture. Clark's stories take place in pre-Katrina and post-Katrina New Orleans, as well as in Asheville, NC, where Clark relocated after the hurricane.
In this video, Clark talks about some of the wild things that happened to him in his first month-and-a-half back to New Orleans after Katrina, while he was trying to finish up his book.
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New Video: Michael Dingler and "NOLA Rising" |
From the Crescent City, AuthorViews is excited to introduce Michael "Rex" Dingler, New Orleans artist, activist and creator of the NOLA Rising Project. We met up with Dingler at the 2008 Alternative Media Expo in New Orleans for an interview you don't want to miss.
If you've had the chance to wander around New Orleans within the last year or so, anywhere from the bustling streets of the French Quarter to the emptiness of the lower Ninth Ward, you've no doubt seen the uplifting work of Dingler and his NOLA Rising Project.
NOLA Rising is a post-Katrina art campaign encouraging the people of New Orleans to display works of art across all areas of the city, in hopes of renewing the creative spirit of New Orleans and just giving residents something bright and cheerful to smile about.
Since the project's inception in mid-2007, Dingler personally has drawn over 2000 posters and 500 signs that have been put up by NOLA Rising "street teams" on walls, telephone polls, bulletin boards -- anywhere and everywhere -- throughout the Greater New Orleans area.
Dingler has spawned an entire movement out of his vision to brighten up New Orleans. Friends and supporters contribute to NOLA Rising with paintings and signs by the hundreds, hoping to replace the bleakness of a hurricane's aftermath with creativity, color and the New Orleans spirit.
For some (ridiculous) reason, there are a few individuals throughout the city who have taken offense at the project, viewing the art as nothing more than graffiti.
According to an article in The Gambit Weekly, "Fighting the Aerosol Nation," for the past five years, Fred Radtke has been in charge of a Louisiana nonprofit organization called Operation: Clean Sweep, essentially an anti-graffiti task force.
With the support of local government and law enforcement, Radtke is responsible for removing graffiti. But since he can't just erase the graffiti, Radtke covers it with gray paint, and consequently has come to be known as the The Gray Ghost.
Over the past few months, Radtke and Operation: Clean Sweep have begun to target NOLA Rising, specifically Rex Dingler. This is not only unfair, but insane, since Dingler clearly has positive intentions, not to mention the fact that this project has nothing to do with graffiti -- it's installation artwork that can be removed easily. What's the point of painting the "gray ghost" over a stapled-up poster that you can simply pull down?
Radtke has gone so far as to have a police officer cite Dingler for 1,100 counts of illegally posting on telephone polls, an absurd charge that Dingler is fighting wholeheartedly, despite the immense cost of his legal defense. As the trial date nears, here's what Dingler has to say about Radtke.
Taking the advice of his legal representation, Buddy Spell of the law firm Spell & Spell, Dingler has set up a defense fund to help him raise enough money to cover his legal costs. Donations to the fund can be made to:
SPELL & SPELL
C/O Michael Dingler Defense Fund
924 Ellis Street
Franklinton, LA 70438
Check out Dingler's AuthorViews video and the Defend New Orleans video, for more information on NOLA Rising and the trumped-up charges against the artist.
There's also a good article in New Orleans CityBusiness, called "'Gray Ghost' Feuds with Nola Rising Creator," which offers statements from both Dingler and Radtke.
Photos courtesy of Humid City
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New Video: Chris Matherne and "The Shaping of a Destiny" |
AuthorViews is excited to present two minutes with fantasy novelist Chris Matherne, cut from his interview at the 2007 New Orleans Book Fair.
Matherne is a life-long fan of fantasy and adventure novels. In fact, he decided to write The Shaping of a Destiny because he was tired of reading "slow paced fantasy adventure books that seemed to crawl along at a snail's pace." Matherne's debut novel is anything but slow.
In this video, Matherne discusses why he thinks readers enjoy The Shaping of a Destiny, and offers two humorous anecdotes about his writing experiences.
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New Video: Valentine Pierce and "Geometry of the Heart" |
AuthorViews is proud to introduce Valentine Pierce, a native New Orleanian and staple of the New Orleans poetry scene. Pierce has been reading and performing her poems all over the country for years, from clubs and coffee houses in the French Quarter to art galleries and festivals on the West Coast.
AuthorViews met up with Pierce at the 2007 New Orleans Book Fair to talk about her first poetry anthology, Geometry of the Heart. Although Pierce has had nearly 60 poems published in various books and anthologies, this is the first time she has published an entire book with her work exclusively.
In this two-minute video cut from her interview, Pierce recites a poem she wrote about living in New Orleans -- a taste of the soul and passion we can expect from the rest of her poetry.
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