Questioning the Approach of PA Libraries to the Budget Mess

First, a little background. The state of Pennsylvania is presently in a budget stalemate. There are a number of issues, but one is library funding. No matter what, it looks like Pennsylvania’s libraries are going to lose money, but on the one hand the cut is 14 percent and the other hand the cut is a devastating 50 percent. In response to this dire forecast the Philadelphia Free Public Library has floated a “doomsday scenario” in which they would close all of their branches. You can read a more detailed story on the stalemate and and the Philly shutdown here.

I need to preface my remarks with the fact that I am a HUGE library supporter. I have worked in libraries. I volunteer at a library. In my day job I work with libraries. I am a regular patron of my own library. That said, I think Pennsylvania’s libraries, in particular, Philadelphia is handling this situation all wrong.

Libraries have traditionally been strapped for cash and unlike, say, the local school district, they don’t have the authority to raise taxes to make up for budget shortfalls. They are really beholden to their legislators both at a local and a state level. Libraries know this, and yet they never seem to play their cards right in this area. Yes, many libraries have contacted their legislators and urged their patrons to do the same, but I think it may be a case of too little too late.

Libraries, by and large, tend to not be publicity savvy. They are busy being libraries and helping people, and believe me, I understand that, but this is the 21st century, and libraries need to recognize that they also need to have a public relations plan. They need to have a campaign that puts libraries in the spotlight. The Philadelphia Free Public Library is in the spotlight right now, but for all the wrong reasons. Threats are not the way to win friends.

Speaking of friends, I think librarians need to do a better job of befriending politicians. I know that for very good reasons libraries have been a-political and have strived to remain politically neutral. Libraries can’t come out in support of a particular party or candidate. However, what they can do is make their local legislators part of the loop.

Invite politicians at both a local and state level to library events. Host a legislator’s breakfast where librarians can talk with their elected officials and then take those officials on a tour of the library so that they can see all the great things you are doing with what little money you receive; show them how you can do even more wonderful things for a few extra bucks. Don’t forget to make sure the media is there for these events. Politicians like to get their picture in the paper when they are doing good things for their community.

Above all, though, libraries need to stop focusing on the negative. Put an end to the Doomsday Scenarios. Instead, Philadelphia Free Public Library, tell everyone about all the amazing things you have done for the good people of the City of Brotherly Love. Both the non-library-using public as well as the politicians may be very surprised by all the different services you offer and the valuable resource that you are to your community. You might even make a few new friends.

I know it seems like I am kicking libraries when they are down, but that is not my intention. I love libraries, I just think sometimes they don’t always do the smartest things. I feel a change of strategy is in order. What do you think?

A new look

I was never completely satisfied with the old look of this site, and wanted something a little less clunky. Since this site is created using WordPress themes, I didn’t think it would be too hard to simply change the theme to something more to my liking. There are two problems with this. The first is that I am picky. The second is that changing a theme and tweaking it is never that simple for non-coders like myself.

Well, many hours after this “quick” project began, I have something that I am happy with. Other than a massive headache, I escaped relatively unscathed. For amateurs looking for a theme that can be customized with relatively little pain, may I recommend the Aeros theme. The theme is set up in such a way that backgrounds can be changed. Well, I say very easily, but it took me a while to realize that what I needed to do was download the entire theme file to my computer, unzip it, add the image I wanted to the themes folder, zip it back up, then upload the whole thing to my WordPress account. For serious programmers this sort of thing is probably something you don’t even think about, but amateur that I am it was a frustrating learning experience.

You can use any image you want with this theme to make it completely your own. I found a background image that I liked (they have some really cool stuff) from Fotolia.com downloaded that, and went through the whole aforementioned ordeal.

Now, I am going off to take some aspirin and recover from my ordeal.

Pirates, Cyborgs and Time Travel, or my week in books

One thing I love about books is all the different places I get to experience and visit all from the safety of my living room couch. This week I’ve gone to some pretty cool places.

Sara Varon’s lovely little graphic novel Robot Dreams took me to a world where a lonely dog can make his own best friend from robot kit. This is a wonderful and touching story about friendship with a bittersweet ending.

The pirates, cyborgs and time travel mentioned in the title of this post are all featured in The Sons of Heaven by Kage Baker, the final book in her Company Saga. I’ve followed the saga from the beginning, and have put off reading the final book for awhile because I just wasn’t ready to say goodbye. I was glad to see all my old friends for a little while. For years, it’s been nice to know that Santa would be bringing me a new Company book. Well, Baker continues to write books beyond the land ruled by Dr. Zeus Inc. and her novels will continue to take me to wonderful places that I have never been before. Still, I already miss Mendoza and Lewis and Joseph and all my cyborg friends.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart, took me on a road trip up to an exclusive New England prep school. Frankie’s rise from geeky freshmen, to cool crowd member, to criminal mastermind offers an interesting take on gender roles and stereotypes as Frankie encounters challenges at her elite, tradition-bound school. Not satisfied with being excluded from the all-male secret society, she decides to shake things up.

Emer Morrisey encouters an all male society of her own in The Dust of 100 Dogs by A. S. King, and makes herself a member. In this case, it is the pirate world. There are no cyborgs here, but a certain amount of time travel if one chooses to count reincarnation as a form of time travel, and how could you not? This inventive story spans centuries and continents as it tells the story of a one-time female pirate cursed to live 100 dog lives, before coming into her own again as a modern teenage girl haunted by her bloody past and driven by the promise of treasure. It’s a wonderful, action-packed ride of a novel and I was glad to stowaway in its pages for a little while.

Books are a wondeful, inexpensive way of getting away for awhile and without the hassle of waiting on airport security lines or getting stuck in highway traffic.

You Never Know Where Your Writing Will Take You

Chances are, you haven’t heard of Rebecca Woodhead . . . yet. I began following her blog about the ups and downs of being an unpublished writer. Then I began following her Twitter updates, as she decided to compete in the Miss Twitter competition. Now, I am following her latest blog the Word Nerd Army and waiting for one of her unpublished books to finally make it into print. Something tells me, I won’t have to wait too long. You can read part of Rebecca’s story here. While there’s nothing wrong with the traditional path to publication, writers should keep in mind there’s more than one way to get your name out there and find a happy home for your  work. If nothing else, Rebecca’s story is a great argument for the importance of setting goals.

Making a Deal with the Devil

For some there are two types of writing. There is the sort of writing that constitutes the creation of actual literature, the writing of novels, short stories, plays, poetry, perhaps even newspaper articles and depending on how broad one wants to go, blog posts, twitter updates, and there’s this other sort of “writing” a dark, soulless thing known as screenwriting, which lacks all literary merit and is the sign of a seriously depraved individual.

OK, perhaps I exaggerate, but there is a pretty dark view of Hollywood writing held by many who revere the more traditional forms of writing in general. How appropriate then that the most recent screenwriting book I read is The Devil’s Guide to Hollywood: the Screenwriter as God by Joe Eszterhas, which is as dark and cynical a portrait of screenwriting as one could hope for written by someone who has made a killing in this business. The book pretty much lacks the bright optimism that infects so many books on the subject of writing and yet still manages to be completely inspiring.

Here are some things I learned while reading The Devil’s Guide to Hollywood:

“In 1991, during the Gulf War, Iraqi airplanes dropped leaflets on our troops that said, ‘Your wives are back at home having sex with Bart Simpson and Burt Reynolds.’”

George Foreman’s literary advice: “Writers used to give us character but now too many writers have abandoned character.”

Critics “want to kill you, rape your wife, and eat your children.” Critics bash screenwriters because they are jealous of screenwriters and because they don’t have to be nice to you in order to get an interview, because no one wants to read an interview with a screenwriter anyway.

Actually just about every page of this book was filled with useful little gems, as well as even more funny bits. For me I am beginning to think about making a deal with the devil, or at least getting back to that screenplay of mine.

You are Not Alone: Join a Writing Group

Writing can be a pretty lonely thing. Most of the time it’s just you and your computer (or if you are more like Harriet and yours truly you and your notebook.) Yes, we tend to be the quirky, iconoclastic ones always at the fringes of things, watching everything that goes on and recording, recording, recording.

Sometimes, though, it’s nice to take part in things too, and to have a little human interaction. Some social activities frighten me terribly, but there is something comforting in a writing group. It’s a place where I can go and meet other people like me. These people get it!

I found my new writing group thanks to Meetup when I was looking for things to do in my new for-now home. There are a host of online writing groups as well, but that’s not quite the same thing. If you can track down a group of writers in your area, I urge you to do so, and if you can’t track down a group, maybe you should start up a group of your own.

I just got done listening to the audio version of Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories by Chuck Palahniuk. This is a collection of essays and articles on various different individuals and groups of people told in that unmistakable Chuck Palahniuk style. (If you’ve ever heard the phrase “building an author brand” tossed about and wondered what it meant read a few of Palahniuk’s works and you will quickly see how he has mastered this concept.) What I found fascinating, though, were the passages in which he discussed writing, which occurred at the beginning and the end of the book. In fact, if you haven’t read this book, I urge you to hunt down a copy, and if you read nothing else, read that introductory essay on writing. Good stuff, and I think anyone who has ever written, ever considered writing will quickly see that this is someone who gets  it!

Oh, and in case you wondered if any good came of writing groups, Chuck Palahniuk used to belong to one.

Win a book: Drama Queers

Bibliofreak has a book give away running until August 16. Hop on over and tell the world just what sort of geeky (or incredibly cool) clubs and activities you were involved in during high school, to be eligible to win a a signed copy of Drama Queers! by Frank Anthony Polito. Click here for more information.

Recovering from my Library All Nighter

I used to work full time in a library, and continue to volunteer for the library because I enjoy it so much. The library has an annual lock-in event for loyal teen advisory board (TAB, if you want to speak library lingo) members.

The evening begins at 9 p.m. (a little bit earlier for us chaperones) and ends at 8 the next morning. We spend the night in the library playing a bunch of fun games, eating, making up skits, eating and having a great time. It’s a night of complete sleep deprivation that is always a blast for the teens as well as the chaperones.

The days of stodgy old librarians shushing everyone are long gone. Libraries are bright and inviting places for folks of all ages, and the librarian profession attracts some of the most talented, creative and hard-working men and women out there. If you haven’t been to a library lately, I urge to get out there and see what you’ve been missing.

Libraries need your help more than ever, and that’s why I put together this list of 6 things you can do to help your library. If you are a teen and are looking for a great way to meet new people and have a great time join your local TAB group. If one doesn’t exist, see what you can do about starting one. The teens “graduating” this year from our TAB group all had the same story about being shy and reluctant about getting involved with TAB, but have since gone on to become loyal members and have enjoyed years of fun with the group.

If you don’t mind, I think I am going to go and get caught up on some of that lost sleep.

Thoughts on School Visits by YA Authors

I’ve been flipping through a book called The Making of a Bestseller: Success stories from authors and the editors, agents, and booksellers behind them by Brian Hill and Dee Power. The book is something of a mish-mosh, and most of the information is not relevant to me, but something said by the only YA author quoted in the book struck a chord with me this afternoon, and prompted me to put down the book and get on the internet.

In the section on promotion authors were talking about in-store signings. Christopher Paolini said that in-store signings are not very lucrative for writers and can be real hit or miss affairs. He pointed out that he has always done much better with school visits. Paolini noted that at store signings he would be lucky to sell 40 books, but visiting schools he often sold 300 books or more.

My internet search brought me to this post at Author 2 Author that just happened to be posted today on school author visits. How’s that for timing? Anyway a little more hunting did turn up some more school author visit information at Cynsations, with this interview with picture book author Toni Buzzeo on her school visits. Finally here’s a video with some footage of a visit by Chris Crutcher (if you scroll down on Crutcher’s website there is a link under For Educators that has some information on his school visits) to a high school that I dug up on YouTube:

Because of my day job (I sell books to libraries.) I know more librarians than bookstore owners, and I although I am still more than a year away from having a book of my own to sell, it might be time to think seriously about this school visit thing. Especially for an author starting out, I don’t feel I would want to charge a lot of money for school visits. If they were schools that I could drive to within, say, 2 hours (and I’m lucky enough to live in an area where they are a lot of schools that fit this bill) then travel expenses would be pretty minimal. Obviously, for further away visits I would have to charge additional money. Well, it doesn’t hurt to start thinking about this now. Have you done school visits? What are your thoughts on this?

What I’m Reading: The Eternal Kiss

The Eternal Kiss: 13 Vampire Tales of Blood and Desire is an anthology of vampire short stories by some of the best young adult authors out there (no not her, but there are some great writers in this anthology like her and her and her.) I’ll be honest I’m not a big fan of vampire stories. I have a hard time taking them too seriously. That said, I enjoyed most of the stories in The Eternal Kiss. I also was impressed by how each story was so different from one another. Vampire stories don’t need to be formulaic and trite.

That said, there isn’t much new under the sun. So, if you’re going to write some shocking scene of vampires or demons, there’s a good chance that someone’s already imagined it before. As Stephenie Meyer found out when she was sued for plagiarism. The real crime is likely a lack of originality on the part of both authors, but I suppose as more and more vampire tales are written it’s going to be that much more difficult to write completely original and compelling vampire stories. Perhaps it’s time we became obsessed with some new creature of legend. The Jersey Devil anyone? Bigfoot?