New Portraits

Work needed some photos of me for various promotional purposes, so hired Rod Leland to do the shooting. He's undoubtedly the best photographer in Southern Alberta, and the best I've had a chance to work with... Quite happy how these came out. Indeed, looking at the photos he did of my colleagues, they're all surprisingly good. (Well, academics are not always the most photogenic individuals.) I've started integrating some of these photos into my various websites, and the instantly raise the look of the page, over the rather stiff directory photo I was using before.

For Zane

Kasia's friend Zane is in Japan for this semester, so they have been exchanging emails; so we thought it would be a good thing to post some recent pictures of Kasia for Zane here:

Here Kasia is dancing in Lethbridge's Bon Odori Japanese Dance Festival, July 17, 2010.

Below, Kasia's true passion: horses and riding.

Now that winter is coming, Kasia's riding lessons have switched to an indoor facility.

Novel Update

So, I was cleaning out the basement office last week and stumbled upon my old writing files, so I dusted them off and sorted through to find the original outline for the novel I am currently at 90,000 words on. Several facts struck me.

First, the outline (which would have come after a long period of thinking of the story before committing an outline to paper) is dated March 17, 1975. So that means I have had this novel in my head for well over 35 years. The original outline is very close to the current version; as close as I would likely stick to any outline in the actual writing stage. (My characters are the sort who insist on saying what they want, even when it means going off script.) So that's pretty amazing to me considering I haven't seen this outline since filing it in this filing cabinet when I first moved to Lethbridge, 20 years ago. I've added the character of a young boy sometime in the 1990s (because Sean Stewart told me it is next to impossible to write good action SF with kids in it; so, you know, wanted a bit of a challenge) and I added a dog during the actual writing (because I got a dog during the actual writing, and because, you know, the boy needed a dog). So considering it's all just been scenes evolving in my head all those years, bit surprised to see how close I am to original idea.

Second, the two pages of opening scene (all that existed aside from the outline) are hand printed on strips of lined paper stapled to an 8.5 X 11 sheet. That is, I had written a bit, then changed my mind, cut the sentences I wanted to save out of the page, and stapled them to a new sheet, to continue writing; then cut the bottom off that page, and stapled surviving paragraph to a new sheet; and repeated this several times until filling the page. Which is how one did word processing, circa 1975.

Third, the initial outline is on a 5X3 index card hand printed in such tiny letters I cannot read it without a magnifying glass. I recall that I used to keep all my notes that way. Unbelievable -- and unreadable -- to me now. I hereby solemnly swear not to take typing for granted again. Long live the keyboard! (If I thought typing 90,000 word manuscript was hard, I cannot imagine what it would have been like writing a novel by hand.

Fourth -- and this really hurts -- are lines like this piece of dialog: "Frayer is well into his fifties, but don't let that throw you, he's a damn good officer." Questions of literary merit aside, it's a little annoying to have one's younger self send such a clear message to me now, saying I am of such an advanced age to be officially over the hill and my competence suspect. *Sigh*

Fifth, re-reading this outline, it appears that I didn't have any ideas back then either for what comes next. I have about three scenes left to cover on the original outline, and then I'm on my own.... 36 years and I still don't know how the stupid book is supposed to end.

Kasia Manual

This being the start of school, and Kasia's first week in Grade 1, we were asked to write a letter to her teacher to help her place Kasia in context. This is an abridgement of what my wife wrote:

If Kasia came with an instruction manual, the on-switch would be a picture of a horse. She is obsessed with horses and mythical horse-like creatures, such as Pegasus’s and unicorns. The off-switch would be a picture of a raw carrot—unless she got to feed it to a horse!

Kasia is a really cool kid. Sometimes she is shy, but once she gets comfortable in a setting, she tends to dominate a room and ‘take charge’. For this reason, she is particularly excited when she gets to be an assistant to her teacher and really enjoys helping out when there are kids who are new or struggle socially.

We have always been impressed by Kasia’s sense of compassion. If a child is hurt or crying, she will seek out the child, ask to help and will connect on a very empathetic level with their emotional state. She feels others’ sufferings very deeply—sometimes too deeply. Although this empathy will be applied to other children, it is most apparent when she sees/hears of the suffering of an animal. For this reason, she is deeply connected to issues of animal cruelty and neglect. She is very interested in wild horse conservation and dog rescue work. We have a dog, Jackie, who was rescued from an environment where she suffered terrible facial/head injuries and lost an eye [her full name is One Eyed Jack(ie)!] If Kasia had her way, we would have a ranch with hundreds of horses and dogs. Just to warn you—if there is a dog being walked through the playground, Kasia will be right there. We have instructed her to always ask permission to pet the dog first and she tends to be quite good about this.

Kasia has a really great sense of humour. She loves puns and practical jokes. She often comes out with witty comments which seem beyond her years. Indeed, we often discover the extent of her vocabulary when she comes out with a witty retort using unexpected words. She might have a future as a standup comedian. She has done improv through drama programs and shines in this area.

Kasia loves to sing. She has a lovely voice and can riff on the harmonica like an old blues singer.

Kasia has been very reluctant to learn to read. Her explanation to us is that ‘reading is what you do when you don’t want to play ponies’. And, there is nothing better in her mind than playing with her toy horses. Her sister, who reads a great deal, uses the excuse/explanation of reading to avoid playing with her sister. Typical teen behavior, but Kasia seems to blame the reading, rather than her sister.

Kasia loves science. She particularly loves doing experiments or studying something (like a leaf) in great depth, memorizing every nuance. She has recently developed a fascination with history and has started requesting history lessons at night instead of bedtime stories.

Kasia wants to be a vet when she grows up. Actually, she wants to own a horse ranch in Hawaii and work with rescued dogs and horses. She is totally obsessed with horses and loves to ride. She takes riding lessons and asks daily for us to buy her a horse of her own. Any writing or reading activity which involves animals will engage her attention.

Kasia Sings

A brief clip showing Kasia's signing.

Tigana in concert, Empress Theatre, Aug 20, 2010

Introduction by Kasia:


Tigana sings:



The videos should be self-explanatory, but I was extremely proud of Tigana's performance, and pleased at the reception from the audience. I doubt many of them realized that she is only 12, but they applauded enthusiastically, and I think, genuinely. Her performance was part of a local vaudeville evening, so the quality of acts varied, but Tigana's was certainly as good as any and better than most.

Mary also recorded Kasia singing as we waited in line to get into the show, and I think I hear the six year old beginnings of a similarly beautiful voice there...I'll post the clip in the next post.

Irfaan in Belize

Irfaan, one of my favorite students, is currently doing his student teaching in Belize. His blog is worth following because he is a good writer as well as an all round interesting guy.

Galt Museum Saturday Program

Kasia (with help from Dad) and Tigana building 'gopher puppets' at the Galt Museum as part of Napi Tales, one of their Saturday at 1:00 kids programs. Kasia's puppet was a gopher princes (thus the blonde hair); Tigana's is a snake (note forked tongue and the first of the scales being put on). The puppets were designed to pop out of the ground/tin on cue. The Napi story teller was wonderful, and all the kids who made puppets got to be in the show.

the New Vanity Publishing

Thanks to the revolution in publishing technology, it is easier than ever for people to find a print-on-demand (POD) publisher, or an e-publisher, or to self-publish. Self-publishing has the obvious problem that one can't really know if one's book is worthy without objective third party review — and even then, there have always been great books that went on to great commercial success after being rejected by 47 editors.

And, unfortunately, there have always been truly terrible books that have been published by 'editors' at vanity presses.

In the old days, vanity presses were slowed down by the fact that actually printing copies of books cost money, so it was fairly obvious when the publisher asked you, the author for the money, that you were dealing with a vanity press. (Legitimate publishers pay the author, not the other way around.) Lots of still people got sucked in, but most could be warned away by friends and family.

Now, with epublishing requiring very little money (or talent) upfront, many more individuals have set themselves up as epublishers. Some of these are legitimate publishers with high standards putting out excellent product; especially those who also do POD. Five Rivers Chapmanry would be a good example of an excellent print-on-demand publisher who also puts out e-editions.

Others, not so much:

www.ebooksforpleasure.com

I don't know about you, but the titles alone scare me.... take for example Patricia Backora's SciFi series with titles like "Beam Me Back to Bible Days", "Forbidden Love in Christ's Millennium", or "Tough Love in Christ's Millennium: Part I" Gosh, I wonder why titles like these could not find a legacy publisher?

Yikes!

This is not to suggest, I hasten to add, that I have something against Christian SF. There are plenty of great Christian SF authors (Donna Farley comes to mind), but these titles are not promising.

But publisher Chris Fayers does have standards! Here, quoted from Chris Fayers' twitter feed: "Now is a great time for the unpublished! We will publish your fiction! Just make sure it has commas and full stops and that sort of thing." In another tweet he says "I had a book in the other day which had no paragraphs, not even at the end of chapters. The author said she was not computer literate." Well, okay then! Sentences! Paragraphs! Where else in epublishing will you find that kind of demanding expectations?!!

Remember Fanthorpe readings? Where aspiring authors would sit around at writing workshops taking turns reading selections from Fanthorpe's (he wrote under a number of pen names) books aloud because they were so appallingly bad it gave everyone in the room encouragement, on the grounds if this clown could get published, anyone could.

(If you are not familiar with the Fanthorpe phenomenon: he had a contract to produce a book a week back in the early 1960s, the publishers' only requirements being that (a) the manuscript be typed and (b) that the manuscript be exactly 109 (or whatever, I forget the exact number) of pages long... Fanthorpe managed the first requirement because his mom operated a typing school: he would walk up and down the rows dictating his novel aloud to the students, and then put the manuscript together from the best typed pages. Not a lot of editing and revision going on there! He managed the exact page requirement by stretching out or cutting short the final scene based on feedback from the typing students over how close he was to the last page. In one memorable case, the hero takes three pages to turn the doorknob to open the door to reveal the final scene because Fanthorpe had three and a half pages to go. Memorable writing, I tell you!! I actually have a pretty fine collection of Fanthorpe because they are incomparable works! Thankfully.)

Patricia Backora and some of the other authors sold at ebooksforpleasure, are, I'm guessing, the new Fanthorpe.

I also love that these books appear to be sold only through "http://www.ebooksforpleasure.com/bookstore/sci-fi" because one of Chris' tweets says "Authors, don't get lost on Amazon, we are looking for new fiction" which suggests to me that these books aren't even sold on Amazon....


Sigh.

Robert

==========
A correction from Donna McMahon (author of Dance of Knives and second childhood) :
OK, I just have to make a few corrections here. Lionel Fanthorpe wrote pulp novels for Badger Books (in England) in the 50's. He was in his early 20's at the time. They wanted 50,000 words, so he would write to 50,000. If there was still plot happening at 49,000, he'd come up with a deus ex machina and wrap everything up; if he was running short, he'd pad. "I say, Fred, this alien invasion problem reminds me of the Punic Wars...." And then the character would deliver three or four pages of description of the Punic Wars. He also made extensive and creative use of the thesaurus. He dictated his books and they were typed up by his mother and sisters. Nobody, including Fanthorpe, is sure how many books he wrote since they were all under pseudonyms, but the figure cited is that he was averaging a book every 12 days. The sheer, raging ridiculousness of them spawned a small but dedicated fandom.

Two of these fans are Paul and Debbie Cross, who run a bookstore in Portland, Oregon. They used to hold regular Fanthorpe readings at Orycon back in the 1980's. One night about 2 am, Debbie's phone rang. She answered it and somebody says "This is Lionel Fanthorpe calling." She said "Oh, yeah, sure," and hung up. But he phoned back, and it was indeed Mr. Fanthorpe, who'd done his time zone arithmetic incorrectly. He said he'd heard that the convention featured his books and he wanted to attend. And there ensued much trepidation--would he expect people to take his books seriously? (This being before the internet, there was really no information to be had on him.)

Well, the Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe (he's an Anglican clergyman) turns out to be a charming, funny character with a great sense of humour. He's every bit as eccentric as you might imagine--he's into paranormal research, martial arts and UFOs and hosted a British TV show.

You can enjoy some of his Badger book covers here: http://krustelkram.blogspot.com/2009/11/lionel-fanthorpe-badger-book-cover.html

His style is rather well captured in this short excerpt:

"Everywhere was dark, dark darkness. Blackness. Black. Black blackness."

Nazis from the Moon

I talk a fair bit about the future of publishing, so I thought I mention one possible future for the movie industry. The producers of Iron Sky have raised 8.5 million from fans who want to see the movie made. They did this by producing a couple of trailers for the film, uploading it to Youtube where it has been viewed over a million times, and asking for micro investments from viewers who might like to see the trailer turned into an actual movie.



And it seems to be working.

Here's the description of the film from the Iron Sky website:

The Story of Iron Sky
Towards the end of World War II the staff of SS officer Hans Kammler made a significant breakthrough in anti-gravity.

From a secret base built in the Antarctic, the first Nazi spaceships were launched in late ‘45 to found the military base Schwarze Sonne (Black Sun) on the dark side of the Moon. This base was to build a powerful invasion fleet and return to take over the Earth once the time was right.

Now it’s 2018, the Nazi invasion is on its way and the world is goose-stepping towards its doom.

At some level you have to love the idea of flying saucers filled with Nazis attacking the Earth...one of those concepts that is so dumb it just might make a great B movie. But check out the trailers yourself and look around the site. A fascinating alternative to the Hollywood machine....

(see also the Wired Magazine article.) Thanks to Kevin Kozoriz for bring this to my attention.

Espresso Books

Well, I got excited there for a minute.

The day following my Keynote address at the conference in Beverly Hills, Mary took the kids to Disneyland while I worked on some writing. I took a long lunch break, however, to walk around Downtown Disney, the shopping and restaurant district which doesn't require any admission fee, though you do have to clear security. So walking down the street I spied this sign and thought, "Wowhoo! A bookstore built around the Espresso Book Machine!" Which is, of course, what I have been going on about in this blog and elsewhere. And where else would you expect to find such an avant garde concept realized than Disneyland!"

So I go in and look around what appears to be a fairly mundane bookstore, but at the middle back of the store is a sort of closed in alcove/counter deal with a clerk stacking books, presumably hot off the Espresso press. I elbow my way through the crowd
and look around for the machine.

"May I help you," the woman asks, seeming my obvious lost expression.

"Where's the machine," I ask in response, because I'm thinking, half the point of having an Espresso Book Machine is letting people watch their book being printed in front of them. I mean, it is way cool. Hiding the machine in the back is just wrong.

"What machine?" the clerk asks, not unreasonably.

"The Espresso Machine!" I enthuse.

Long stare as the clerk tries to decide if I have perhaps already consumed more caffeine today than is altogether healthy. "Um, its right over there in the coffee bar section."

"No Espresso Book Machine?" I ask, knowing full well that there is not. "But your sign says, "Espresso Books!"

Another long uncomprehending stare. "Because we sell Espresso, and we sell books."

"Have you thought of putting a comma in there? Between 'Espresso' and 'books'. Because it now looks like you have an Espresso Book Machine. It's kind of false advertizing and you know, disappointing."

"I'm sorry, what are you talking about?"

I tried to explain, but elicited only a shrug. Not her problem.
"No one else has ever complained."

And that was that. So Disney Downtown, not necessarily at the cutting edge.
But for a minute there...had me going.

X marks the spot

Looked up in the sky to see huge 'X'; it took a minute or two for me to think of taking out my cellphone and snapping this picture, so it had already started to blur. But I have to tell you, that 'X' made me nervous. Who or what was marking our location and to what purpose? Vogon Hyperspace Planning Council was the first thing that came to my mind...

Ideology and Blame

Allow me to quote from a press release on a recent article:

Financial Literary Bailout for the Younger Generation

Hanover, NH-June 2, 2010-In the aftermath of the global financial crisis,
financial literacy is still low among young adults. According to a new study
published in the Journal of Consumer Affairs, only twenty-seven percent of people aged 23-28 can answer three basic questions about interest rates, inflation, and risk diversification, and other basic financial concepts. Furthermore, this result was amplified when studying the answers of young women, African-Americans, and Hispanics, and those with low educational attainment.
...
The research, headed by Dr. Annamaria Lusardi, shows that financial literacy
is largely influenced by parental education levels and financial habits.
...
Lusardi says, "If we do not address financial illiteracy among young people
through high school literacy classes, we will fail to equip young people
with the tools they need to make financial decisions, and we may pay the
cost down the road. Not everybody has an opportunity to learn from their
parents or their friends. Young people at the start of their career, or who
are in the process of buying their first home need to be financially
knowledgeable before they engage in financial contracts."

It is the final paragraph that is most interesting. It is a fascinating example of the sort of thing I teach in my sociology of education course: the ideology of individualism focuses our attention on the individual and blinds us (well, average Americans, anyway) to the true structural problems. What we see here is the structural problems of capitalist economy, and specifically the recent economic collapse due to unregulated sub-prime market etc, translated into the individual consumer's fault! If only consumers were better educated, there would not have been the problem! It is a wonderful example of 'blaming the victim'!

And the solutions to economic problems -- education! Great how problems in the economy caused by bad (unethical) business decisions suddenly become the fault of consumers and the 'failed' education system.....

Keynote Speech at Beverly Hills Hilton

Right to Left: Keynote Speaker, Dr. Stewart L. Tubbs, The Darrell H. Cooper Professor of Leadership and former Dean of the College of Business at Eastern Michigan University; Dr. Turan Senguder, Conference Chair and CEO The Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge; and Robert Runté, Keynote speaker; the International Business & Economics Research Conference, Los Angeles, June 2-5, 2010.

I don't usually talk about my day job in this blog, but I got to be one of two keynote speakers at this conference, which was an interesting experience for me -- liked being in such elevated circles! At first glance, an education professor giving one of the keynots at a business conference may seem odd, but I was talking about the "assurance of learning" process, which is a hot button issue for business schools these days. I also presented a paper on my research on professional workers, which I co-wrote with my wife, who is a business prof. It was a very enjoyable conference, with some great discussion. Even the banquet was exceptionally good -- better banquet food than I usually get at Education conferences, though this conference was at the Beverly Hills Hilton, so you sort of had to expect great food and service.

Anyway, thought I'd show you what I look like on the job, for once.

Tooth Fairy

Kasia, my six-year-old, turns to me and asks very seriously, "Dad, what happens when the Tooth Fairy loses a tooth?"