The Great Flood, A Mermaid Tale

Back in early November, I told the tale of The Tail, the first mermaid tale. I promised I’d occasionally tell other tales. So today, I’m telling the tale of The Great Flood.

Early one morning, I came into work, expecting it to be just another day of picnicking underwater, doing ballets and waving from the volcano at guests. When I got backstage, though, I discovered it was not to be just another day. Although we were having overcast weather, elsewhere, days ago, the weather had been stormy and rain had fallen in giant buckets. That “elsewhere” was where the springs at Aquarena Springs got its water. It rains there, filters down into the sub-levels and eventually rises in the hundreds of springs where I swam.

We were expecting a huge amount of water -- so much that all workers were assigned jobs to save the show area. The volcano and submarine could float, although they might lose some anchors. But… heavens to Betsy… Ralph(s) was in danger. Ralph, in case you’re just joining in on these tales, was Ralph the Swimming Pig, the most famous performer. (Don’t tell anyone, but there was always at least two Ralphs since, unlike human performers, Ralph wasn’t allowed to swim two shows in a row.) So Ralph and Ralph had to be moved to high ground.

At the time, we had two swans in the show area (someday I’ll tell a tale about them). They can swim, but since management didn’t want them to be able to swim right out of the show area in the high water, they had to be corralled and moved to high ground. Have you ever tried to corral a swan?

All kinds of stuff had to be tied down. Management wanted us to move the catfish that was older than sin and bigger than a zip car to a more secure place. If you think swans are difficult to wrangle, try moving a big ol’ bottom dwelling catfish. We got the swans moved, but not the catfish.

They wanted us to move the ducks, but, come on, ducks can fly.

Finally, the Ralphs, the swans, the volcano were all rescued or tied down or set free.

Then, we, the performers, were told to get in and swim the late morning show. (Shows you what the pecking order was.)

Being spring-fed, the waters in the show area were always crystal clear. That day, the water was so murky it was almost like trying to see through a wall. I could put my hand up about a foot in front of my and not be able to see my fingers. The girls moved ballet up close to the sub, did our moves, then held out our hands, hoping the guys holding the air hoses would spot our palms and give us air. The water was so cloudy the audience inside of the sub would not have been able to see us picnicking on our lily pads, so we took our picnic bags, swam right up to the sub windows, held on to the window frame and ate our celery and drank our punch. Then we turned and swam back toward the volcano, hoping we weren’t wandering off in the wrong direction.

After the show, we headed up top to wave goodbye to the audience as they exited the submarine. An audience that consisted of one man and his dog.

The Authors Guild Weighs In

Last Sunday, we talked about Random House claiming e-book rights via contracts signed before e-books came into existence - and heirs fighting that stance. Today, a week later, we’re talking about the Authors Guild post in response to Random House’s move.

A fundamental principle of book contracts is that the grant of rights is limited. Publishers acquire only the rights that they bargain for; authors retain rights they have not expressly granted to publishers. E-book rights, under older book contracts, were retained by the authors.

The post goes on to say:

A federal court in 2001 examined this precise matter in Random House v. Rosetta Books. Judge Stein of the Southern District of New York was unequivocal in his 10-page decision: authors did not grant publishers the e-book rights in the old book contracts at issue.

The post notes that times are hard in the publishing industry, but adds:

It's regrettable and unhelpful that Random House has chosen to try to intimidate authors and agents over these old book contracts. With such a weak legal hand, it would be well advised to stick to its strength -- the advantages that its marketing muscle can provide owners of e-book rights. It should also start offering a fair royalty for those rights.

Click over to read the full post on the Authors Guild site.

Twitter Discussions

For those of you who think Twitter is trivial or only for selling stuff or self-promotion, you might want to think again. Twitterers are doing more active back-and-forth discussions. One such discussion took place this past Sunday.

The discussion primarily involved independent booksellers, who talked about ideas like making it possible for customers, through in-store kiosks, to access a database of bookseller reviews, view digital content, and browse inventory.

You can go read Breathe Books’ manager Jenn Northington’s summary of the discussion on her blog. You can also go on Twitter and read the posts by the participants and others by searching for #indiekiosk. Keep in mind that when there’s an online discussion about a subject that interests you, you can participate. That # sign means it’s a discussion. If it were a private discussion, the participants would be DMing each other without the # sign.

Last Minute Shopping

If you’ve been thinking of buying an e-reader for yourself or someone else, PC Magazine has a comparison of the different devices. It used to be that there weren’t many choices, but that is changing.

Overall, it’s a good comparison. There was one point that I questioned:

Electronic ink renders text that is sharp and easy to read, but there's no backlighting, so an e-book reader is just like an actual book—you can't read it in the dark.

I thought at least one of the devices had a backlighting feature.

Here’s a comment on Format Issues:

Amazon uses a proprietary format called AZW that only works with its Kindle e-book readers. The B&N Nook and Sony readers support a more-universal standard called ePub, which many libraries across the country are using for lending e-books. Still, Kindle doesn't currently support ePub, and Amazon continues to be the leader in e-book reader sales.

At the end of the article, they rate each of six e-readers. So, if you’re still shopping around for an e-reader, check out PC Magazine’s comparison of the top devices.

Falling Dominoes

I believe there will be a time when e-books will be interactive, have pictures like some of the e-textbooks already have, perhaps even have a way of asking the author questions or visiting their websites (e-readers already have Internet capabilities), maybe even videos.

The Wall Street Journal has an article that shows some of this is beginning to happen.

Macmillan, one of the country's largest book publishers, says it will begin selling enhanced electronic-book best sellers in the first quarter of 2010. The special editions, which will include author interviews and other material such as reading guides, will carry a list price slightly higher than the hardcover edition.

Notice that these enhancements will come with a higher price than the e-book alone. The enhancements also affect the pub date. Macmillan says these new e-books will go on sale the same day as the hardcover edition, then after 90 days, the special edition will be replaced by the standard e-book. BUT, best-sellers not issued in this way will have hard covers issued, then several months later, the standard e-books will come out. BUT, if the book is not a best-seller, the e-book will come out the same day as the hardcover.

Some other publishers are withholding e-books altogether.

At the moment, it’s still convoluted and varies from publisher to publisher. Publishers are worried about profit. With hardcovers selling at around $25, and e-books being sold by Amazon and B&N for about $10 even though they pay the same price for e-books as they pay for hardcover (and are therefore losing money but hoping to gain buyers’ loyalty), publishers worry that retailers will demand a lower price and publishers will have to cut prices and, in the end, lose money.

And if they lose money, then they will cut even more midlist or new authors and… so the dominoes keep falling.

I Blog, I Write

The amazingly talented author, Elizabeth Spann Craig, awarded me her Blogging Writer Award. When I say, “her” award, I mean really hers. She created it. I’m lucky to take a picture that isn’t blurry, and here she is creating awards. Take a look at it:


Here’s what Elizabeth said inspired her to create the award:

Every day the online community of writers amazes me. I get so much encouragement and inspiration from the blogs that I read and from the wonderful commenters on Mystery Writing is Murder. Among the encouragement I get are awards for my blog. To me, they represent a “Good job!”—which I really appreciate.

I totally agree with her on that.

Here are Elizabeth’s rules for the Blogging Writer Award:

You can post this image to your blog…or not.
You may share this award with others…if you like.
You may adapt or alter this image in any way.

As you can see, I posted her award here for all to see. I have no plans to alter the image since, first of all, it is hers, second of all, I love it as is, and third of all, I know my limitations.

I planned to pass on the award, but Elizabeth had such an extensive list of writers she awarded that just about everyone I might have passed it on to was already on her list. What I do want to do is encourage you to click over to her blog post and pick out one or two on her list that you’ve never visited and go leave them a comment.

Where in the World is Helen?

I’m here! I’m there!

Actually, I’m here today to let you know I’m over on L. Diane Wolfe’s blog, Spunk on a Stick’s Tips. I follow Diane’s blog daily. She has posts on writing (she’s the author of The Circle of Friends series) and she also hosts guest authors. She has some weekly features, like the Sunday Sillies and Fridays’ Book News, where she links to other blogs. If you’re not already following her, check out her blog.

She invited me to post on Spunk on a Stick’s Tips about research. For the nonfiction books I write, I do a lot of research. And those of you who write fiction know that fiction isn’t all made up. You have to do research for both fiction and nonfiction.

If you’ve got a few minutes, click over and read my post on researching for fiction and nonfiction, including some personal examples of my own research. I’d love to hear a couple of your research experiences.

Thank you, Diane, for allowing me to take over your blog today!