Tag Archives: order fulfillment for independent publishers

Show Me! Tell Me!

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“Wherever men have lived there is a story to be told.” ~ Henry David Thoreau  

That’s it – I have had enough. I am finished, out of here, done, fini! The television is going off.  DYJHITW all you hear about is people suspected of killing their children, political posturing and positioning, people in cars running from the law! 

What ever happened to the Land of I CAN, I WILL, I DO! I want to hear positive stories to lift my spirit, tales to help me believe in the good of mankind, news that inspires me to follow in the footsteps of people who have overcome because their heart and souls are working hard to make this a better world. Despite what the media would have us believe, fulfilling stories like that can be found! 

How about sensationalism of a different kind? 

I am turning off that squawk box, right here, right now. 

 I may have to take a sneak peak at the TV every once in a while though. There is a story I want to see on PBS’s “Directors Cut” that is near and dear to my heart. I think it will  be shown sometime in July. It is all about an independent film called “ALPFD.” http://bit.ly/mEF3FN.  The film has undone stereo typical thinking in the filmmaking industry that in order to produce quality films you need a big budget, big production crew and big bucks. If you hear when the movie ALPFD will be featured on PBS “Directors Cut” , let me know. I do not want to miss it. IMHO it will be a good show! 

As I end this blog, I have just gotten more exciting news about ALPFD and it’s U.S.  theatrical release. There is also an arrangement in the works that will increase the visibility of this film,  not just in theatres but in households across America, too! For more information, please visit http://bit.ly/mAvP5d.

 TLK2UL8R.

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A String of Summer Memories

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“Childhood is the most beautiful of all life’s seasons.” ~Author Unknown 

Yesterday’s blog writing about summertime in Steamboat Springs, Colorado set-off a string of magical childhood memories of growing up in ‘burbs of Baltimore in the 1950s and 60s. When I return to that time and place in my mind,  it is so fulfilling that I enjoy remaining stuck there; not rushing back into present day life. 

Our neighborhood was outside Baltimore City limits, developed as part of the post WWII surburban boom. The community was filled with children to play with. In our family, as was the case in most others, kids were shooed out the door to play and not allowed to spend much of the day in front of the TV. Had we spent the amount of time in front of screens as kids do in this digital age, it would have given our mother apoplexy. Instead of being inside, our summer days were filled with: 

  • Spontaneous BBQs and games of softball with neighborhood families.
  • Running through the neighborhood playing flashlight and catching fireflies (lightning bugs as we called them).
  • Basking in the sun until our skin turned a lovely shade of toast.
  • Playing in the stream that bordered our family’s multi-acre wooded property.
  • Gathering green moss and piecing it together to make moss mattresses, in the woods, resembling patchwork quilts.
  • Doing swan dives, cannonballs and back-ward flips off the diving board in our family pool.
  • Listening to hits of the 1960s on my treasured transistor radio. It came complete with a wrist strap.
  • SummertimeVacation Bible School at the church my Dad built. http://bit.ly/jA0Cpp.  
  • Selling colorful tissue paper flowers, we had made, outside the neighborhood store
  • Taking a drawing class at the YMCA (I was no better at drawing than playing the clarinet). Some things are just not meant to be! 

Childhood times may be gone, but they need not be forgotten! Have you ever considered independently publishing your life story as a “love letter to future generations?”   Begin telling your life’s tale today! Don’t know where to start? There are companies that can help you along the way.  http://www.telling-your-story.com/seminars.htm

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A Glimpse into the Colorado Film Industry

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“Design creates culture. Culture shapes values. Values determine the future.”  ~ Robert L. Peters 

On this Film Friday, let’s look in on the independent film industry in Colorado, once again. It has been about a year since we have visited the filmmaking scene in the State “where the columbines grow.” 

Did you know that there has been a newly formed Colorado Creative Industries Division? The Colorado Council on the Arts and the Art in Public Places programs merged, last July, to form this new division, which is overseen by the Office of Economic Development and International Trade. http://1.usa.gov/jauOKx. 

The mission of this division is to promote and expand an industry that already creates over 54,000 jobs and $20 billion in revenue in Colorado as a result of making feature films, television commercials and shows, still photography, emerging mass media projects and music videos. The Colorado Creative Industries Division hopes to position the State as a leader in providing jobs and revenue through creative enterprises and entrepreneurs. There are incentives available to entice imaginative and innovative filmmakers to the State. For more information on the application process, and funding for film projects here in the State of Colorado, please visit http://www.coloradofilm.org/incentives.html. 

Perhaps  an independent filmmaker here in Colorado should produce a full length, feature film interpreting author Daniel H. Pink’s vision of a world ruled by right brained thinkers. It would make for interesting viewing and a fascinating case study to look back at the film fifty years from now to see if the world is anything like what Pink envisioned. 

What is your opinion of what a right thinking world would be like? Would it be a world filled with free spirits and dreamers not getting much done or can creative spirit set us on a new path toward a fulfilling, vibrant, unique economy in the 21st century? We would like to hear from you!

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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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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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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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Delivering e-News

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“All progress occurs because people dare to be different.” ~ Harry Milner 

Can you remember when the most fulfilling way to start the day was sitting around the kitchen table with coffee cup and newspaper in hand? Used to be the only way to get your daily journal of news in-print was by subscribing and having it delivered to your mailbox or door in the wee hours of the morning, before the sun came up.  With the arrival of the internet, things have changed! 

The newspaper industry has been thrown into a quandary over how to keep their subscriber base with the availability of free content over the internet, through digital devices and applications that are being developed so quickly that it makes ones head spin. Newspaper publishing has been going through adjustment and re-tooling to keep up with this digital age of communication. 

Can traditional, in print, newspapers survive?  

Several months ago, the New York Times http://bit.ly/p9l62 changed their policies on providing free content on-line. There is now a “pay-wall” for those who frequent their site for news content more than 20 times per month. Unlimited access to the New York Times has gone by the way-side. Will “pay walls” be a growing trend among newspapers? 

Monthly access to the Times site is available through smartphone applications for $15. To add accessibility through computers too, on an unlimited basis, the $35 per month subscriber fee is available through their “All Digital Access” plan. 

To encourage traditional subscribers to continue to receive newspapers in-print, there is a perk of unlimited mobile access as well as web-based access. This applies for those that subscribe to Sunday news only, too. For more information on digital subscriptions to the New York Times, please visit http://wapo.st/gINfhH. 

There is a very interesting article on 5 myths of newspaper journalism and advertising. To read the article, please visit http://wapo.st/ebWTsg. If you want to know even more, The Pew Research Center for Excellence in Journalism is studying the impact this digital age has on traditional newspaper publishing. Visit their on-line website, too. http://bit.ly/ftb6Hb. 

No matter how you like to receive your news, in-print or through e-versions, keeping up with what is going on in the world will never go out of style!

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