Category Archives: families in the Arts

Sweet Magic in the Room

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“Books are uniquely portable magic.” ~ Stephen King 

Late Tuesday afternoon a group of people came together all for a common cause at the Bud Werner Memorial Library www.steamboatlibrary.org  in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The motivating force was an interest in learning more about this thing, called independent publishing that has been gaining momentum in recent years and is now the on the fast track! 

What fun it was to sit down with a group of like-minded people, to network and provide support for each other. I do believe She Writes Steamboat is the start of something good!

The kick off began with a personal story of how many years ago, one employment ad and one independently published book catapulted a person, on a leap of faith, into the beginnings of an industry that is just now beginning to realize it’s full and exciting potential. 

Another attendee was there to share and celebrate with members of She Writes Steamboat her independently published book that is hot off the press! More will be forthcoming in a future blog about this book. Last night, I purchased a copy, and I need time to read and digest it, so I can do it justice when I share with it with our blog readers. 

After the business of talking about the vision for this meet-up group, the magic really began to happen as we sat and exchanged questions, answers and knowledge about the industry itself. We are hoping to share more than cake in the future. The mission of this group is to provide fulfilling support to independent publishers so they will find sweet success in their independent publishing endeavors. 

If you have ever considered telling your story, sharing your educational or career knowledge, entertaining or informing others through the medium of an independently published book, film or music, the time is now! Resources are available for anyone who wants to become a published author. 

Stay tuned to this website. Real soon we will be unveiling some educational content for want-to-be publishers that will bring a better understanding to others of this fascinating and dynamic world of e-commerce and e-marketing for independent publishers. You may even decide to take a leap and begin telling your story, too!

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Narratives in Medical Curriculum

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“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ~ Maya Angelou 

Writing medical histories through the narrative form is currently being incorporated into curriculums in medical schools in many parts of the country. Medical students are learning how to better assess medical conditions through more intensive listening to the patient, and recording what they hear into narrative forms. The goal is to make healthcare decisions for the patient based not only on statistics and tests but by also “reading” a patient’s unique personal story of how they are feeling and their own symptoms. 

Why is the addition of the narrative form being incorporated into the way medical schools have traditionally taught students to diagnose illness? Empathy for the patient has been missing in this age of highly developed technical medical testing. Listening to a patient’s story leads to a better understanding of the whole picture of a person’s medical situation. A person’s emotions and spirit about the way they are feeling is part of the overall report, too. 

Daniel Pink’s book, A Whole New Mind, http://www.danpink.com/whole-new-mind explains how our society is on the brink of a whole new age of thinking. We have gone from an agricultural age (farmers) through the factory age (industrial), to the information age (business based on knowledge workers) to the emergence of right thinking business people, who are creators and empathizers. Surprisingly, we are moving into an age where more Americans are beginning to work in fields such as arts, entertainment and design than those working left brain fields (accountants, lawyers, insurance adjustors). In order to be accomplished in these growing fields of work, right brained thinking skills must be used and developed. 

Prosperity and abundance has brought a whole new need for fulfilling emotional, aesthetic and spiritual needs. Jobs in the “caring professions” counseling, nursing, healing are surging, too.  They are not jobs that can be decimated by workers overseas who can work faster and cheaper.

To read more about this movement toward the new conceptual age and right brain thinking that Pink claims will change the world, pick up A Whole New Mind.  Many libraries have it and it is a Business Week best selling book. It’s a fascinating read.

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To Every Thing…A Reason and A Purpose

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Last week, I watched more TV than I have in a long, long time. I happened upon two shows on Rocky Mountain PBS that were, indeed, “well worth watching.” Both of the shows reminded me that God provides all of us with special gifts. Talents are latent for an entire lifetime for some people, and are never discovered at all. For others, revelation is by way of accident. Sometimes, natural endowment is recognized at a very young age giving opportunity for a life time of developing and fulfilling a person’s giftedness in one or more areas of multiple intelligences that Howard Gardner has identified in his studies. http://bit.ly/cNMRPe. 

Unlocking the Mystery of the Musical Mind, on the PBS Nova series, highlighted 4 rare instances of musical masterminds that were discovered through unusual circumstances.

  • A blind and severely autistic man, unable to count to 10, is discovered to be a musical Cervantes.
  • An orthopedic surgeon, after having been struck by lightning, becomes an extraordinarily gifted and obsessed composer and musician.
  • A man realizes drumming helps to control his completely debilitating and self-destructive tics caused by Tourette’s syndrome. http://bit.ly/dqgFbr.
  • It is determined that a woman has a condition called amusia. She is helping researchers understand this brain defect that is marked by the inability to recognize melody, pitch and musical harmony. 

On the other PBS show, Great Performances, a little girl whose soprano voice is so exquisitely developed at 10 years, she goes on stage at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida. http://bit.ly/kdWesi. She is accompanied by 17 time Grammy award-winning composer and pianist David Foster. Jackie Evancho is now a 4th grade recording artist. Her first album, Prelude to a Dream, has already sold over one million copies. 

The contrast between each individual left me with a sense of wonder. How can each of us be so uniquely genetically wired by our Creator? In the instance of the autistic man and the man suffering from uncontrollable symptoms of extreme Tourettes syndrome, they have been given musical talent clearly intended to help themselves with their deficiencies. Others are sharing their personal compositions for the understanding and enjoyment of others. 

St. Francis DeSales said it best. “Be who you are and be that well.”  I believe our interests and passions in life were given to us as a way to discover our natural gifts, talents and qualities.

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I Am a Lucky Gal!

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“Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope.”
– Bill Cosby

Dear Dad, 

Happy Father’s Day! On this day, I would like to say thank you for the way you raised us four kids. It was not until I had a child of my own, did I come to fully understand and appreciate some of the things you said and did for “my own good.” 

  • Thanks for making me do things, whether I wanted to or not.
  • Thanks for not always giving me what I wanted but always fulfilling my real needs.
  • Thanks for making me accountable for my own actions and not always taking up for me.
  • Thanks for your quiet, steady presence in my life.
  • Thanks for being the “king of rig.” There were many things we had because you “rigged things” your way, with your building skills.
  • Thanks for not letting us whine (well……not too much).
  • When we whined….. thanks for not listening!
  • Thanks for doing your best at keeping me centered and balanced– my husband, your son-in-law, appreciates that.
  • Thanks for the love you have given to your eight grandchildren and teaching them the lessons that their parents forgot.
  • Thanks for giving me security in knowing that you would always be there for me, no matter what. 

We are grateful that you have lived to a healthy, ripe age. Your eight grandchildren are as crazy about you as your four children are!  Happy Father’s Day, Dad ~ You are in my thoughts on this day! 

 Love, Your Elder Twin Daughter    

      Grandfather & Grandson together last year.

 Wonder where that 22 yr old got his  genes for extremely premature gray hair?

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Film Friday Update on ALPFD

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“Filmmaking is such a collaborative medium.” ~ Daryl Hannah

“Filmmaking is such a collaborative medium.” ~ Daryl Hannah 

The film A Lonely Place for Dying is proving it is alive and well on the film festival circuit that is for sure! I received an update this week on this film that is drawing more attention and awards on the film festival circuit with each passing week. 

So far, ALPFD can boast of 38 Official Selections into Film Festivals across the country and 45 nominations in various categories of awards. This low budget, independent film has won 19 Awards including 14 awards for Best Feature Film. The musical score by Brent Daniels has won awards too. 

Last summer, ALPFD was featured in MovieMaker Magazine www.moviemaker.com  (Issue 88) in an article called “Period Pieces on the Cheap.” It is notable for the sizeable number of visual effects shots in a production of less that $ l million dollars. There were more than 350 visual effects, most of them created on a computer without bells and whistles, from a dorm room at DeSales University http://bit.ly/mF9VB9.  

The total budget was $200,000. Everything was done with economy in mind. Yet this film attracted high profile actors, James Cromwell and Michael Wincott. A Lonely Place for Dying has proven that low budget films can attract quality actors, fans and win fulfilling awards too! 

Just as we promised we will continue to follow this film as it continues on the film festival circuit. The results are not in on some nominations yet. It has claimed awards in Santa Fe, Durango, Cinema City, Wild Rose Film Festival, Myrtle Beach and Indie Spirit…. just to name a few. My guess is there could be more awards on the way.

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Advocating for the Arts

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“The degree to which the arts are included in our educational curriculum is totally inadequate. The arts are just as important as math and science in an education and just as important as any other endeavour in our lives.”.         ~Ken Danby 

Good Morning! My blog today is going to be short, but it is about a real concern that I have. Yesterday, I received an email from the Americans for the Arts Action Fund and it seems that a bill has been introduced to end federal support for arts education. 

My response to this is “what about the children who are not particularly academically wired but are artistically and creatively gifted?” School curriculum without art education will leave those children behind. Increased drop-out rates will come as a result of kids not being able to excel and prove themselves in non-academic areas. 

Don’t let bill HR1891 terminate federal support that is needed to continue arts education in schools. All this talk of “creative economies” will be for naught! Children who excel in the arts, are the future of creative economies. Many of them will lead the way in finding innovative ways of doing business that will ignite our country. 

Parents, arts groups, teachers, and business people who depend on hiring the “creatives” need to speak up now, and oppose HR 1891. As a country, we need to be fulfilling our obligations to educate children who think outside the box, too! 

For more information on the Arts Education Fund or to donate for the continuation of arts education, please visit http://www.artsactionfund.org/.  To voice your opposition to these cuts in arts education, please go on line now and respond by emailing

advocacy@artsusa.org. 

Thanks for listening, thanks for responding!  

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What is Your Currency?

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“Live out your imagination, not your history.” ~ Stephen Covey 

Creative economy has been the buzzword here in Colorado and in pockets all over the United States. It is about making a living artfully through our passions and living with purpose in all that we do. 

More and more, people are realizing that there is great personal value in fulfilling our lives with what we love to do, rather than just existing to make the almighty buck. Individuals are beginning to realize that the vicious circle of working lots of hours just to have, to spend, to accumulate and keep up with the Joneses does not necessarily make sense. It is not a sustainable way to live. It is hard to enjoy and live healthy lifestyles when we are stuck on the treadmill of working more hours just to be able spend more. 

Relationships, community, volunteerism, thinking beyond our selves and our material needs are beginning to take priority in people’s lives, as this slow economy has forced us to see that there are other ways of being. And that is not a bad thing! I love hearing stories of people who are successfully recreating themselves and their businesses in these times of economic hardships. 

There was a story this week in the Steamboat Today newspaper about an artist who decided to act upon his longstanding interest in the fabric arts. Now, he is winning international acclaim for his creativity and artistic talent in making quilts. To read his story, please visit http://bit.ly/l58Ad0. For those who are unable to travel to see David Taylor’s quilts, I hope some day he will independently publish a book and sell it on the world-wide-web, with images of his fabric creations and his thoughts about using his creative talents for personal fulfillment. 

Do you have creative currency that has been dormant? Believe in yourself and dare to expend energy on making a new life for yourself through your passions. Write it, publish it, sew it, knit it, cook it, paint it, mold it, build and grow it – what ever IT is!

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Making her Debut

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“Our aspirations are our possibilities” ~ Samuel Johnson 

Happy Flag Day, everyone! 

Next Tuesday, a week from today, the arrival of Summer will be sharing the day with another debutante in town. Her name is She Writes Steamboat. This new meet-up group has been organized to provide networking opportunity for independent writers and publishers, filmmakers and musicians. Providing support and fostering independent publishing success is the goal. 

Steamboat Springs is a good a place as any for www.SheWrites.com to make an introduction. The town has a great number of women who love to read, write and create! People arrive at this gateway to Routt County for all different reasons and from a variety of places all over the country and the world. Some come seeking refuge from their extraordinary lives elsewhere and others are simply looking for a fulfilling existence in a small town community of diverse, well-educated and energetic people. 

The pathways that have led people to this resort mountain town are as varied as the people themselves. Each person seems to have a unique story of their current life or of times elsewhere. In this community there are bountiful tales to tell of women living purposeful and faithful lives. 

This is an open, friendly community, and today on this Flag Day, I will hang a banner on this website to welcome anyone who wants to learn more about the fast growing and dynamic industry of independent publishing. Women wishing to move in a positive direction to bring personal fulfillment, career advancement and increased visibility for themselves and their businesses are encouraged to attend. 

 Author Mary Kurtz will be sharing her newly published book  At Home in the Elk River Valley: Reflections on Family, Place and the West at our first She Writes Steamboat meet-up event!  Join us at the Bud Werner Library www.steamboatlibrary.com on Tuesday, June 21st at 4pm to celebrate with Mary and other members of She Writes Steamboat!

Spread the word and bring a friend!

Steamboat!

 

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Safe Harbor for She Writes Steamboat

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“Dwell in Possibility” ~ Emily Dickinson 

On last Friday’s blog, mention was made of Chicken and Egg Pictures, a non-profit organization supporting women independent filmmakers. The tag line of this non-profit “Incubating and Hatching All at Once” well represents what I have been feeling about She Writes Steamboat http://on.fb.me/lbnPms  over the past few months. I have been envisioning and growing in my mind, a meet-up group that will provide networking opportunities and support and foster independent publishing success. 

I have decided the time is NOW to hatch the group and support a group of women who have stories to tell, but are still in the incubation period and want to actively hatch and grow their desires. 

For those just starting down the road to independent publishing, beginning can be a scary thing! Women are good at supporting and communicating with each other in their efforts to succeed. What independent publishers have in common is a real and pressing need to inspire and entertain others through storytelling or to educate and inform all through the power of the written word. With independent publishing, there is no competition because everyone has an individual and unique narrative to tell. 

So my thoughts are “why not get together, meet-up and all be there for each other.” Our first She Writes Steamboat meet-up will be Tuesday, June 21 at 4:00 pm at the Bud Werner Library Hall. 

Ladies, feel free to invite others who are in any stage of publishing or those interested in learning more about the independent publishing process. At our first meeting, we will be discussing what time we should schedule our future meetings, how often we chicks should gather. We will be laying the groundwork for a group that I hope will be a safe harbor so independent publishers will not feel as if they are all alone in their publishing efforts. 

Join Us! There is nothing to lose and everything to gain in learning more about the dynamic industry of independent publishing. There are no membership fees. By the way, this group is affiliated with www.SheWrites.com.

 

         See you then!

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Yippee! More IPPY!

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“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” ~ Wayne Dyer 

Supporting independent publishers is what  Cornerstone Fulfillment Service, LLC is all about!  Never too much focus can be paid on folks working in an industry that is dynamic, growing and full of promise. Independent minded-folks know that by browsing  www.goodsearch.com, a great number independently published books, films and music can be found. These publications  are unique and different than what many of the traditional publishing companies have to offer.  

Our emphasis on the 2011 IPPY awards continues, this week. What a fulfilling feeling it must be for an independent publisher to earn  IPPY award stickers to grace the front covers of their books! There are so many wonderful award-winning books this year. It would take more than “a month of Sundays” for me to mention each and every one. Here are a few more award-winning independent book picks: 

  • Religious Fiction: The Community of Promise – The Untold Story of Moses (Entos Press)
  • Visionary Fiction: The Angel and the Brown-Eyed Boy (Vilasa Press) 
  • Children’s Picture Books: Skywriting: Poems to Fly (The Creative Company)
  • Juvenile/Teen/ Young Adult: Grace: A Child’s Intimate Journey through Cancer and Recovery (Happy Quail Publishing)
  • Biography: The Hammersteins: A Musical Theatre Family (Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers)

 To learn more about the IPPY awards and the 2011 award-winning publications, please visit http://bit.ly/llL02x.

 We will take one last look tomorrow at a few more prize-winning independently published books. Then we will turn our attention to other fulfilling events that are on the horizon in the independent publishing world. Stay tuned!

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