Tuesdays with Story
WRITER’S MAIL for September 30, 2011
Writer’s Quote
‘In an abundant society where people have laptops, cellphones, iPods and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books.’ – Harper Lee
Tuesday Night at BN:
… didn’t really happen. Three people showed up, and among those three, none of us had submitted anything for this week. We had a lovely time chatting, though.
Who’s Up Next?
October 4: Rebecca Rettenmund (journal entry), Barb Sorensen (???), John Schneller (chapter, Final Stronghold), Jennifer Hansen (chapter 4, Shadows of Yesterday), Liam Wilbur (chapter, Scott & Rory), Jim Cue (part 2, short story), and Greg Spry (chapter 12, Beyond Cloud Nine).
October 11: Cole Ruby (chapter, Champions), Terry Hoffman (chapter, The Tome), and Jack Freiburger (chapter, Path to Bray’s Head), Carol Hornung, (Sapphire Lodge), Holly Bonnicksen-Jones (Coming Up for Air), Jen Wilcher.
October 18: Greg Spry (chapter 12, Beyond Cloud Nine), Judith McNeil (???), Aaron Boehm (screenplay/part 12, Hell Cage), Millie Mader (chapter 29, Life on Hold), Pat Edwards (poems), and John Schneller (chapter, Final Stronghold).
Fifth Tuesday
… remains in the planning stages. It is in November, 2nd & 4th hosts! Details to follow. Eventually.
Writers Mail: Duty Roster . . .
Thanks to everyone who signed up! Jen takes over in October, and it goes from there. Sign up now to take on the newsletter for a month! It’s not difficult! Really! Let me know what month you’d like to take!
October – Jen Wilcher
November – Pat Edwards
December – Clayton Gill
January – Liam Wilbur
February – Carol Hornung
Since writers are much like teachers… (from Terry Hoffman)
The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life.
One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued,
“What’s a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?”
To stress his point he said to another guest;
“You’re a teacher, Bonnie. Be honest. What do you make?”
Teacher Bonnie, who had a reputation for honesty and frankness replied,
“You want to know what I make?
(She paused for a second, then began…)
“Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.
I make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor winner.
I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents can’t
make them sit for 5 min. without an iPod, Game Cube or movie rental.
You want to know what I make?
(She paused again and looked at each and every person at the table)
I make kids wonder.
I make them question.
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions.
I teach them how to write and then I make them write.
Keyboarding isn’t everything.
I make them read, read, read.
I make them show all their work in math.
They use their God given brain, not the man-made calculator.
I make my students from other countries learn everything they need
to know about English while preserving their unique cultural identity.
I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe.
Finally, I make them understand that if they use the gifts they
were given, work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life.
( Bonnie paused one last time and then continued.)
Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, with me knowing money isn’t everything, I can hold my head up high and pay no attention because they are ignorant. You want to know what I make?
I MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN ALL YOUR LIVES, EDUCATING KIDS AND PREPARING THEM TO BECOME CEO’s AND DOCTORS AND ENGINEERS……….
What do you make Mr. CEO?
His jaw dropped; he went silent.
Words (and numbers) of encouragement, from LinkedIn:
Google counts books ranging from obscure doctoral theses in university libraries to the most popular fiction books of all time. According to Bowker, the leading authority on book statistics, slightly more than 25,000 fiction books were published in the U.S. in 2002. By 2008, this figure more than doubled to over 53,000 fiction books published. In 2009, the recession’s impact reduced the number of fiction books published, but an impressive 45,181 titles were still published. On average, fiction books represent about 16 percent of the total books published in the U.S. each year.
According to the Google Book Project, throughout modern recorded history, nearly 130 million book titles have been published. In August, 2010, Google software engineer Leonid Taycher described Google’s analysis and algorithms for identifying and quantifying the total number of books published. Google Books refers to books that include the same text as “tomes.” Twice-weekly, Google software engineers combine all records available for new books into “tome clusters” which are then further analyzed for an accurate count. The exact number of books counted by Google as of August 2010 was 128,864,880.
Get all the details, read the whole post – subscribe to the RSS or leave your comment at http://earthgiants.com/fiction-books-by-the-numbers-%e2%80%93-get-the-statistics-behind-fiction-books/
New Words: paperphilia from Wordspy.com
n. A deep appreciation for the aesthetic qualities of paper; a preference for reading items printed on paper rather than displayed on a screen.
—paperphile n.
Example Citations:
Paperphilia seems to have captured imaginations worldwide in the last few years, its resurgence coinciding with a rekindled consumer love of simple arts and crafts, part of a “digital backlash” as Benja puts it. “Paper is unassuming and humble, we see and use it everyday.”
—Frankie Unsworth, “DQ 40 Profile Benja Harney,” FrankieUnsworth.com, March 6, 2011
Why Moleskines, and why now? Their resurgence coincided exactly with the rise of digital connectedness, and my gut told me the two must be related. But how? Was it just nostalgia, an effort to escape from the messiness of the present into the simplicity of an idealized past? Maybe paperphilia really isn’t so different from the recessive pinings that motivate some people to own antique cars.
—William Powers, Hamlet’s Blackberry, Harper, June 29, 2010
Earliest Citation:
When it comes to the crunch the mug punters — that is you, me and those others who are called end users — prefer the information on a piece of paper. …
This paperphilia accounts for the staggering success of facsimile transmission as a means of communication.
—Gareth Powell, “The fax of life,” Sydney Morning Herald, February 28, 1994
Notes:The word paperphile is a few years older, dating to an April 18, 1998 Globe and Mail article titled “Those paperphiles still demand piles of the white stuff.” Here’s a slightly older citation that seems to be referring to a person who likes newspapers:
According to John Walsh, an out-of-town paperphile, sports reporters who are particularly helpful to Rotisserians with timely Sunday gossip are Peter Pascarelli of the Philadelphia Inquirer; Richard Justice of the Washington Post; …
—Peter Golenbock and Alex Patton, How to Win at Rotisserie Baseball, Vintage, April 12, 1987
Related Words:
celebriphilia
dead tree edition
drool-proof paper
extremophile
logophilia
Plutophile
retrophilia
Category:
Art and Design
The Last Word
‘Don’t tell me the moon is shining, show me the glint of light on broken glass.’ -Anton Chekov
Tuesdays with Story 
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