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New Video: Jennie Shortridge & Eating Heaven |
Today's feature is the only AuthorView video we shot in Seattle, Washington, on the summer 2005 tour. It features bestselling author Jennie Shortridge with a 2-minute riff on her new book, Eating Heaven, from NAL/Penguin.
Jennie's first book, Riding With the Queen, was a semi-autobiographical road trip story about pursuing your dreams and the challenges of mental illness. Her new book, Eating Heaven, is a different kind of trip, through the territory of dieting, food, writing, and relationships. Caution: This video will make you hungry -- watch before lunch!
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New Video: Susan Harrow offers A Six Figure Book Advance |
Happy Friday! Today we are pleased to present media trainer to the stars, Susan Harrow, in a 2-minute video clip talking about her new book, Get a 6 Figure Book Advance.
Let me tell you a little about Susan Harrow. She is a walking contradiction. Most of her books are about making it big -- such as today's featured title and another book we have here at AuthorViews, {ln:op:harrow/book.php">The Ultimate Guide to Getting Booked on Oprah. These books cost a lot of money.
And then there's Susan Harrow, the author of Sell Yourself Without Selling Your Soul, from HarperCollins. Susan has a deep spiritual side that's not just for show. During the AuthorViews Summer Tour 2005, it was Susan Harrow who lined up many of the top authors we filmed in San Francisco, Santa Fe, and Los Angeles. She opened her Rolodex, used her newsletter to spread the word, and sat down with us for a precious interview with awesome hair. Check it out.
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New Video: Maggie Lichtenberg & The Open Heart Companion |
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Wednesday, 01 February 2006 |
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Today is the beginning of Heart Month here in the U.S.A. as well as in Canada and the U.K. It's appropriate, then, that today's 2-minute video is for the new book, The Open Heart Companion, by longtime publishing coach Maggie Lichtenberg.
Maggie opens her heart to us in this brief clip, explaining how she learned she would need open heart surgery, then learned how badly prepared she was for the recovery process. Maggie saw a need for a companion to guide you through recovery, and she created that companion in the form of this book.
If you are with the media, you should consider writing about Maggie Lichtenberg or having her as your guest this month. Those in your audience who are diagnosed with heart trouble, or are facing surgery, or are in recovery, will really appreciate hearing Maggie's tips for handling the psychological barriers to full recovery.
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New Video: Carol Adrienne & The Purpose of Your Life |
AuthorViews is very pleased to have Carol Adrienne in the house! Adrienne is co-author, with James Redfield, of The Celestine Prophecy: An Experiential Guide. The book she shows us today is The Purpose of Your Life, published by HarperCollins.
You might recognize Adrienne from her appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show talking about The Purpose of Your Life. In her 2-minute AuthorViews video, Adrienne says that the purpose of your life is not something you figure out, but something you tune into. It's an interesting distinction. Won't you take a look?
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New Video: Johanna Vondeling & Berrett-Koehler Publishers |
Today's video is another first for AuthorViews. Johanna Vondeling is our first video of an editorial director talking about her publishing house's line. Instead of pitching a book, Vondeling is pitching Berrett-Koehler Publishers out of San Francisco, California.
Notice how quickly this simple, 2-minute video communicates the publisher's mission: positive change agent. In the process, Johanna highlights two big books for the new season, from bestselling authors Ray Bourhis and David C. Korten.
AuthorViews are terrific for presenting a spring or fall line to employees, sales rep, booksellers, the media, and other trade contacts. You should let us shoot your season preview video at Book Expo America 2006 or one of other AuthorViews tour stops.
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What Is New Orleans? Pelicans |
This year, I have seen dozens of Brown Pelicans on the Mississippi River and the Industrial Canal. Not so long ago, the entire known population of Brown Pelicans in Louisiana was zero: "To this day, the brown pelican's disappearance [in Louisiana] remains one of the most astonishing events in the annals of American ornithology." At Christmas time, I saw a single flock more than two dozen large checking out the cruise ships housing relief workers docked at the Riverwalk.
The Brown Pelican is one of nature's greatest comeback stories. It is a symbol of renewal. Katrina may have decimated the Gulf Coast in the eyes of humans, but the Pelicans don't seem to mind it a bit.
Your Brown Pelican is an odd looking bird. About 25 or 30 pounds, maybe two feet from shoulder to tail and another three feet of neck and bill, it looks like a gargoyle when perched on a pier, the bill and neck folded, a small bulbous head with big eyes and Mohawk hair. This is not a pretty bird.
The Brown Pelican is slow to take off -- clumsy, gangly, coping with an unwieldy bill and massive wings. Once airborne, they fold in the neck and take few strokes to the glide. They like to ride the levee through town, startling tourists on the Moon Walk (named for Moon Landrieu, poppa of those precocious Landrieu sibs, U.S. Senator Mary and Lt. Governor Mitch).
Speaking of siblings, the flag of the sovereign state of Louisiana features a Pelican on the nest, feeding three chicks her own blood by piercing her breast. That image comes from a Native American story -- what most other states would have considered "heathen" at the time Louisiana adoped this big bird as its symbol.
Supposedly the state bird of Louisiana is a Brown Pelican. But the one shown on the flag is its larger cousin, the White Pelican, and a very cartooney-looking Pel at that. Let me tell you about the White Pelican. I saw two of them this winter, bobbing at the intersection of The River and the Industrial Canal that runs through the heart of the Ninth Ward. These birds have chests as big as 55 gallon drums: big, white, barrell chests. They are three feet from shoulder to tail, five feet of neck and bill, and a wingspan over 12 feet wide: white in the center of the span and charcoal at the tips. This bird could take you in a fair fight.
Twice this Winter I have seen large flocks of big White Pelicans drifting South. You see, our white birds are back, our brown birds are back, and neither strain is used to taking guff from anyone -- man nor beast. That's New Orleans, baby, that's New Orleans.
 Pelican Plates
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New Video: Jerry Sears & Generating Trust |
Today's author has one of the most remarkable faces you will see in a video: round, animated, sincere, it is impossible to turn away from Jerry Sears.
We filmed this interview in Boulder, Colorado, last summer. After filming for over an hour, the tape ran out. I asked my cameraman, Jesse Vohs, to put another tape in and he looked at me like I was crazy. Surely we had enough film in the can for a two-minute video.
The entire two minutes you see here came from that last piece of film. Almost uncut, it is one of the loviest videos I have ever made. Jerry's book, Generating Trust, is about "rainmaking" -- the salesman kind, not the shaman kind -- though by the end of the video you might not be so sure.
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New Video: Lawrence Wright & The Looming Tower |
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Thursday, 26 January 2006 |
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Today's video is for a book so new, not even Amazon has it yet. Lawrence Wright is a screenwriter (The Siege) and a columnist for The New Yorker. The Looming Tower, a book about the Saudi bin Laden family and the history of the Al Qaeda movement, is sure to cause a stir this fall when it is released for the five year anniversary of September 11, 2001.
This interview was recorded in Austin, Texas, on the AuthorViews 2005 summer tour. We were lucky to catch Larry Wright in town; he has made dozens of trips to the middle east over the last five years doing research for this book. When we interviewed him, he was still assembling and fact-checking the final manuscript.
Of the book's title, Wright says it refers to a verse from the Koran that Bin Laden used often: "Death will find you even in the looming tower." The verse was also found on the computer of one of the members of the Al Qaeda cell in Hamburg and it appears to be a code used by the 9-11 hijackers.
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New Video: Carly Newfeld & Intuition |
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Wednesday, 25 January 2006 |
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Carly Newfeld is a longtime member of the Findhorn Community in Scotland. Findhorn is famous as a spiritual center and as a major force in the natural living movement.
In today's video, Carly talks about The Findhorn Book of Guidance and Intuition. Intuition is something we all have, but we don't always use it or trust it. Carly talks about the role intuition plays in her life. She also provides some background about Findhorn for those -- like me -- curious about this special community I have heard so much about.
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Today's Video: Mike Hoy & Loompanics Unlimited |
While we have promised new video every day, I am going to take a pause from our releasing schedule and show an older video to honor my former boss, Michael Hoy, proprietor of Loompanics Unlimited, "publisher and seller of the world's most controversial and unusual books."
Mike was the "guest of honor" at the 2004 New Orleans Bookfair where we made today's AuthorViews video. In the video, he says "I've been doing this for approximately thirty years and, the good lord willing, I'll be doing it for another thirty." Apparently, the good lord has other plans; Loompanics announced this week they are going out of business.
I spoke with Hoy two days ago and I'm happy to report that it's not ill health or some lawsuit that is responsible for closing Loompanics; rather, it is fatigue with slowly declining sales. Most books in Loompanics' legendary catalog -- which Hoy proudly displays during his AuthorViews video -- can not be found in even the largest bookstore; now, however, they're available online from stores such as Amazon.com that sell virtually every book.
Loompanics will be greatly missed as the problem child of American publishing -- a living symbol of freedom of the press. You will find many places that sell unusual books but almost no one anymore with the courage to publish them: books that every government wants destroyed and most parents wants prohibited.
In the coalmine of book publishing our canary just croaked. Book publishing will be so much more boring without Loompanics.
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Loompanics: "Sticking It to the Man" |
I recently learned that my former employer, Loompanics Unlimited, is going out of business. I worked at Loompanics from 1983-1985 as a typesetter, then again from 1989-1994 as editorial director. Some of the favorite books I worked on included:
Jim Hogshire's Sell Yourself to Science: The Complete Guide to Selling Your Organs, Body Fluids, Bodily Functions and Being a Human Guinea Pig. The book is serious, funny and outrageous -- a wicked combination at the heart of many Loompanics' books, such as How to Start Your Own Country and Successful Armed Robbery.
Jim DeKorne's Psychedelic Shamanism: The Cultivation, Preparation and Shamanic Use of Psychotropic Plants. In the great tradition of first-person psychedelic narratives, right up there with William Blake, Timothy Leary, William S. Burroughs and Terrence McKenna. C'mon baby, let's trance the night away!
William J. Murray's Anarchic Harmony: The Spirituality of Social Disobedience. One of the finest dissertations on freedom you will ever read. A tremendously overlooked book.
One famous book published by Loompanics before I arrived was Bob Black's The Abolition of Work -- one of the most important counter-culture works published in my lifetime. The Anarchist Cookbook, often associated with Loompanics, was never published by them. Principia Discordia by Malaclypse the Younger was one of Loompanics' most popular titles. I believe the company's all-time best seller was The Complete Guide to Lockpicking, by Eddie the Wire.
In a news release, Loompanics' proprietor Mike Hoy said, "For thirty years I got to live my dream, and stick it to the man. I always strived to encourage people to question authority and think for themselves. My guiding principle was that freedom should be fun!" Way to go, Mike.
For those who are interested, Loompanics is selling inventory at 50% off while it lasts. The rights to many valuable titles are available for purchase. For more information, contact editorial director Gia Cosindas
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New Video: Stephen Harrigan & Challenger Park |
This 2-minute video is a first for AuthorViews: the first time we have launched a pre-release video. Stephen Harrigan's new novel, Challenger Park, won't be released by Knopf until April 4. We have the video for the book here, today, now.
Challenger Park, promises to deliver the lives of astronauts in a way no other book has. In his AuthorViews video, Harrigan talks about the dozens of trips he made to Houston, Texas, during the writing of this book to interview astronauts and NASA staff.
Challenger Park, follows on the heels of Harrigan's best-selling book, The Gate of the Alamo.
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What is New Orleans? Chocolate. |
Is New Orleans chocolate? We'all free people of color down here. One of the things that makes New Orleans a jewel worth saving is that it's probably the most racially mixed up city in America -- okay, maybe behind New York City.
Is New Orleans chocolate? For over 100 years before the Louisiana Purchase (1803), New Orleans had no laws prohibiting mixed marriages. We got your creoles, your cajuns, your Africans, your Haitians, your Native Americans, we got dark chocolate and light chocolate and white chocolate like me.
Is New Orleans chocolate? We're not only chocolate, we're fruity. We have one of the healthiest, most respected gay, lesbian, and trans-gender communities anywhere on earth. You are talking about a city where plumbers and contractors and musicians cross dress without ridicule, often without notice.
Is New Orleans chocolate? We're not only chocolate, we're nuts. You are talking about a town where the most prominent civic leaders spend weeks dressing in outlandish outfits and pretending they are dukes or debs, injuns or witch doctors.
Is New Orleans chocolate? Most cities I've lived in or visited have a clear dividing line between racially distinct populations. There is no straight line anywhere in New Orleans. We miss our beautiful dark chocolate people, our caramel people, our oreos, our crackers, our queens. There is plenty of room here for anyone willing to fix a place up, and that's a good thing because the only thing that works in New Orleans right now is people banding together to take care of themselves.
Is New Orleans chocolate? We'all free people of color down here. You should join us!
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