Barbara Loeb is the co-editor of The Woman Who Loved Mankind by Lilian Bullshows Hogan, the fascinating life story of a 20th-century Crow woman elder. Loeb and Mardell Plainfeather set out to tell Hogan’s story in traditional Crow storytelling forms.  When Mardell … Continue reading From the desk of Barbara Loeb

Ray A. March is the author of River in Ruin, which discusses the history of the Carmel River since the arrival of Europeans to the Monterey Peninsula in the 1700s, focusing on its uses, users, and the recent impact of development. … Continue reading From the desk of Ray A. March

Susan Blackwell Ramsey is the author of A Mind Like This, winner of the 2012 Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry. Below she describes how she came to write the first poem titled “Pickled Heads, Saint Petersburg.” (Read the full poem here.) … Continue reading From the desk of Susan Blackwell Ramsey

Today is, as we all know, April 1, and so we must sift
through our inboxes, news feeds, and information sources and decide what is
real and what is not. Each year there are some April Fools’ jokes that are
extremely clever. These jokes draw you in and even though you are well aware
what day it is, you nonetheless find yourself wondering if it just might be
true and how fantastic that might be.

This year, April Fools’ Day came early for some. If you are
a follower of world soccer, you may have heard about the French journalist who
fabricated a story about a dream soccer league that was to be set up by Qatar
in which the very best club teams from all over the world would compete for
untold riches. The story was meant to be a commentary on the ridiculous amount
of money floating around the global game and the lengths to which people (and
countries, in this case) will go to get a piece of that cash. The journalist’s
story was picked up by a renowned
English journalist working for one of the biggest newspapers in England. After
the fake nature of the original story came to light, he indicated that he had
corroborated the story with his sources before publishing it in the newspaper.
The two journalists have since been in a standoff as to whether the story is
true or not. Either way, it has all the hallmarks of a classic and well-thought
out April Fools’ joke . . . just a little early.

Continue reading “Doc Martyn’s Soul: April 1”

Jan Riggenbach is the author of Midwest Gardener’s Handbook and a longtime garden columnist and feature writer for Midwest Living magazine. Her recent release, Your Midwest Garden is a guide to the flowers, shrubs, vegetables, fruits, and other plants that thrive and make beautiful Midwest gardens. Below she tells us her “Gardner Story.”

For years I’ve
heard from readers who have a shoebox full of my garden columns clipped from
the newspaper. Over and over, I heard the same complaint: “I can never find the
column I’m looking for when I need it.”

I promised
I would gather the columns into a book. This year, in Your Garden: An Owner’s
Manual, it finally happened. I laughingly tell readers that the index is the
most important part of the book because now they can find what they’re looking
for.

I’ve read
and reviewed a lot of garden books over the years, but the ones I keep are the
reference books that I turn to again and again. To help make my own book a
useful reference, I added plant lists so you could see at a glance, for
example, which perennials to plant for fall bloom or what annuals will thrive
in the shade. In the appendix, I added a month-by-month garden chore list, fine-tuned
for Midwest gardens.

My
audiences gasp when I tell them it took me almost 40 years to write this book,
but it’s true. In that time, I’ve written nearly 2,000 columns from which this
book was distilled.

Continue reading “From the “garden” of Jan Riggenbach”

You can judge a book by its cover; in fact, I hope you do because we
spend a lot of time honing the titles and cover designs for our books. With
more and more people purchasing books online, it’s even important than ever to
grab them with a good title or compelling cover.

In the online world of search
engine optimization (SEO), a title needs to come up if a consumer is looking
for a book on a certain subject. That’s why I’m such a stickler for non-fiction
book titles (except perhaps, memoir) to say what the book is about.

In a recent meeting about titles
for forthcoming books, I raised the point that a particular title didn’t tell
you what was the book was about.

“Well, if you read the book,”
someone said, “you’ll know why the author wants this title.” I countered, “With
that title, I’m definitely not going to read the book.” We settled on keeping
the title, but with a very descriptive subtitle that captures what might come
up when someone searches that subject online.

Different genres have different
conventions for titling. It’s okay to go for a snazzy title paired with a long,
long subtitle on a sports or business book. (That seems to be the acceptable
approach now, anyway.) Personally, I love it. A recent favorite of mine: Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, and
Assassination during the 1934 Tour of Japan. How could you resist a book
like that? Apparently you can’t because it’s been a hot seller for us. Of
course, some books don’t need a subtitle; the title says everything. I love 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before
They Die. End of story.

Religious books are tough to title.
You have to convey why the book is unique but remain respectful, while
explaining what the book is about. I’m particularly proud of the title we came
up with for —well, I don’t have to tell you what the book is about because the title
and subtitle say it all: From Gods to
God: How the Bible Debunked, Suppressed, or Changed Ancient Myths and Legends.

Fiction and literary memoir are a
bit more challenging. We seldom change the title that the author submits; it
would be like changing the title of a painting. Our memoirists, in particular,
seem to be quite skilled at titles. For example:

 

Continue reading “The Director Dish: Judging a Book by Its Cover”