John Hattaway » In Order to Write

Blogging on Copyright

smokingpen — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:11:12 +0000

For those reaching this post first, I am a graduate student at Fairfield University in the Master’s of Fine Arts in Writing program and as a part of that program we are having seminars and panels on specific aspects of publishing and law regarding publishing as well as editors, publishers, and etc.

Joe is one of the MFA students. He is telling us about copyright law since he is also a lawyer and some experience in property rights law. Currently, he is telling us about the different kinds of intellectual property.

Five types of IP (intellectual property): ideas, products, processes, expressions, and names.

These are manifested as: know how, developments, inventions, works of authorship, music and sounds, discoveries, and celebrity.

He says that everything he is presenting to us today is protected by copyright.

Protected property is any tangible medium of expression.

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Copyright is a form of protection provided by law to authors of “original works of authorship,” from the time the work subsists in fixed form.

He is talking about different applications of this and is specifically talking about Gone With the Wind and derivatives of the name.

There is a list of kinds of things that are protected. And now we are learning what is NOT copyrighted. Specifically, ideas. Ideas are hard to protect. Naturally, you want to place the idea on a piece of paper so the idea of the expression is put down on paper. The ideas for plots are not protected, but a specific plot is protected.

Having an idea is not the capture of its entirety or its essence. If you want to talk about your “idea” and someone has the potential for taking the idea and using it, you want to have some kind of a contract with the other person so they don’t steal or make a profit off of your idea. This is often called a confidentiality agreement – which is used frequently in business.

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Two divisions of law: pubic law and private law. Pubic law is designed to be protected by the government. Private law is contracts, non-disclosure, and etc. that is covered under private law.

Not protected words and slogans, but trademarks are and as a result trademarks can cover words and slogans.

Trademark law is more a matter of public law than private law. Governed by trademark statutes in Washington D.C. and most people use the federal method of filing trademarks.

Things having utility are not copyrightable, but that is what patent laws cover.

Q) What if someone takes something that simply has a copyright notice that someone else takes?

A) You still own it. Now you have to show history of ownership before you can take it to court.

Copyrights are protected regardless of submission to copyright office.

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Q) Can’t I just mail it to myself?

A) Yes. But it doesn’t work in trial. There is a lot of stuff that has to happen (discovery) prior to going to court.

Q) Can I send my manuscript through email?

A) Yes. That is sufficient because it allows for an electronic record WITH a date and time stamp that is more reliable than using the regular mail.

Q) What about the date a file was created?

A) Depends. Not the only thing that will prove the case.

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Keep everything. Drafts. Paper copies. Etc. as a history of revisions and ownership.

Q) If you have a manuscript or proposal and submitting to agents is putting a copyright notice on the bottom sufficient?

A) Yes. We will get to that more. Also, add it to your header so that when you work on the manuscript it is always there.

United States now a signatory of the world copyright law and something copyrighted here is acknowledged around the world.

You can register copyright and it makes all the sense in the world to register it. The reason you want to do that is by registering you now get access to the courts. The question becomes one of enforcement. You don’t have to register early to register later on and get the same access. Registration is necessary for jurisdiction to open up the federal courts.

File prior to three months AFTER it is published allows someone to sue for more money. If you wait until after three months you can only sue for what you actually lost.

Q) Don’t publishers normally register copyright for you?

A) Hopefully.

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He is talking about the lengths of time copyright lasts since 1978. Long periods of time, JSYK.

Q) What about multiple copyrights in a book?

A) Those cover revisions. Doesn’t change the end date for the original copyright.

Q) Does a new copyright exist from publication?

A) No. It’s recognized creation.

Q) Do you have to prove when it was created?

A) Only in an infringement lawsuit.

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Registration can be done in several ways. Prefered method is going online and registering electronically. Two copies and a fee depending on format of submission with paper submissions costing more.

TX = text form of copyright.

VA = visual arts form of copyright.

Q) What about changes to a work after several years on something already copyrighted?

A) Copyright both forms.

You can register both TX and VA for anything you write.

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Fair Use

Allows public to use other work. This means we have to allow other people use our work as well. The law takes into consideration, “What is the use this work is being put?” e.g. the more you take, the less money can be made from that work.

Commercial interest is key to fair use. Am I making money or not? as well as amount, substance, and portionality of work being used.

What does copyright not protect?

Quotations, excerpts, use or parody, copy by a teacher or student, etc.

All government publications are not copyrighted – typically.

Works not fixed in a tangible form.

A massive list of things that are uncopyrightable.

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Works made for hire

Work created for someone else where work is owned by the corporation or business paying you to do the work :: work made for hire.

Contributions to a collective work, a part of a motion picture or other audio visual work, translation, suplimentary work, instructional texts, tests, answers, and etc.

There is an angle to who owns what under work for hire. His example is a lawyer being paid to be lawyer who creates software. Software is still owned by lawyer not company.

This gets into contract law.

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Transfer of Copyright

Assignment is the transfer of the copyright. Don’t sign an assignment of copyright. Tear it up.

Q) Have you copyrighted the powerpoint presentation?

A) Yes.

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The bulk of the material is done. Not too interesting, but definitely good info.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

Real Heroes Fly

Short Break in the Day

smokingpen — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:31:27 +0000

Because I am a first semester student at Fairfield University’s Master’s of Fine Art in Writing program and because this program is in it’s second semester and is trying to get off the ground, and because I think it is interesting and deserves to be shared, I am writing about my experiences, both personal and as a writer/editor, during the ten day residency.

I have some time off. We’ve eaten lunch. It was some kind of salomi on a roll thing that, for me, didn’t seem to be all that good. Honestly, that is kind of the consensus of a lot of people I seem to sit around. We are all interested in what is being served and want the food, but not really enchanted with it. As a result, lunch, breakfast, dinner all become periods of conversation and relating and talking about things that, maybe, don’t really need to be talked about. I don’t know. You find out a lot about the people around you by the main questions that have been asked, “What is your name?” “Where are you from?” and “What genre are you?”

In fact, at meals the poets have declared, and reiterated (which caused me to sit at another table) a specific table for themselves. I suggested, before (really) anyone was in the room that they collectively move to another table and see what happens. I can’t say anything has happened or that they listened, but was interested in the reactions all the same.

The day is split into workshops in the morning and seminars after lunch with readings and other activities planned for after dinner. Honestly, they do keep us hopping around here and, just to clear my head, I decided to wander off across the bridge that connects Ender’s Island to the rest of Mystic last night and realized, as I was walking, that dark clothes and the wool sweater I was wearing were not immediately conducive to not having anything reflective or a flashlight and as a result I made it past the Yacht Club before turning back and returning to the island – coincidentally, as I walked back it started to rain making the fortuitous decision not to chance fate all the more pragmatic in its execution.

We went over a couple pieces today. One I struggled with how to help the author improve. What impresses me, at least in the workshop environment I am a part of, is that people were interested and enthusiastic and, I think, offered criticism in a way that may help the author progress. Because I saw something that, in my opinion, was more this is what happened and then this and then this and then this and … you get the picture, all I could suggest was that there may need to be more realization in writing. On top of which we went over a piece I wrote specifically as a sample (because my hard drive died and I lost everything and you SHOULD weep for me) but had some aspects to it that left people (to include myself) with unanswered questions: Why? Why? Why?

Regardless, I have been taking pictures and keeping in touch with Erin and Camper. I miss them. They feel so far away and part of that is just simply that I can’t drop everything for a couple of hours, run home, spend a few minutes, hold my boy, then head back. And a part of me wants to be able to do that.

On top of which, I did take some pictures of the large chapel and the smallest chapel (my favorite one) and will try to find a good time between now and the last day to get pictures of the third chapel. Since that is where we are workshopping (or at least where I am a part of this weeks workshop) one might assume that to be easy, but a part of me wants it set up as though a service could be held there at any moment. It is actually called The Novitiates Chapel, for those interested.

Beyond that, I am heading home tomorrow evening and will come back sometime on Friday. The weather was supposed to be nasty the rest of the week and now there is a much nicer forecast. Beyond that, Erin has been updating the world with the things we are doing (or more accurately, what she is dealing with) and I am trying to support her without throwing everything here to the wind and running home to try and help get our heads around things. Granted, given a couple of days, we are in a much better situation, but that doesn’t change the lingering feelings and fears.

That is all, for now, I think. I will try (or at least try to try) to post some of the pictures I’ve taken later this afternoon or tonight.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

Real Heroes Fly

Currently Sitting in an Editor’s Panel

smokingpen — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:29:20 +0000

Today has been great. It always starts with breakfast at 7:45 a.m. which, I think, suggests that we aren’t very sensitive to the whole stereotypical writer working until the wee hours of the morning lifestyle, followed by our writer’s workshops. I will write more about those later.

In case you are unaware of what I am doing, I am currently at my first 10 day residency at Fairfield University’s Master’s of Fine Arts in Writing program. Today we have three editors, invited by Michael White, to talk to us about the industry.

At present, we have three editor’s from two different medium sized presses telling us about how they accept books or ideas to produce into books from authors and what goes into the process. Immediately, I am curious about how they think this mirrors the business proposal process where the entrepenuer (sorry Erin) has to do all of the research legwork in order to pitch the idea to the editor and make it as cogent and marketable as possible.

We are learning, at present, about how these editors got their jobs. The first, 25 years in the business, worked her way up the chain starting as an intern and then taking different jobs at different publishing houses and publishing related houses until she landed the position of imprint manager at the publishing house she is working at now.

Also, we just heard that Oprah sells, which is why, for those who are curious, no one (to include Cormack McCarthy) does not say, “No,” when Oprah calls and asks the individual to be on the show.

And now we are hearing about adaptability, the use of as much of your interests and technological background, and etc. to the publisher as you can if you want a job.

They are telling us that everything has moved toward the electronic format for editing and line editing and etc. This includes the Kindle, which is the hot property from Amazon, that everyone wants to read.

As I am listening to the current editor talk about his job I want to point out that the third panel member arrived a few minutes ago and sat down. He was running a little late because the train he was riding on didn’t arrive on time.

Currently, what I am taking away from this is adaptability into the electronic markets is key to success with different publishing houses. He is talking about Twitter and Facebook and Myspace and blogging and how this allows an aggregate links and information out to potential buyers more quickly.

Now we have the third editor from a different publishing house, it sounds like he is the managing editor of the house and is thanking Michael White for inviting him up.

He is telling us that to be interesting we need to ask questions but is going to precede that aspect of the panel with a description of his job and his pubishing house and that the literary novel is the heart and sould of his company. He is telling us that his approach to publishing is as a result of his background as a musician and started the publishing house while he was a full-time musician – he just gave the name of the band. He published a book in 1997 on a whim after making a lot of money in 1996 with his band. He is talking about the independent label he was working with as a musician and realized that he liked independence and as a result he started a publishing company. The first several years of publishing he only published one a year, sometimes two, and didn’t have a background in publishing learning as he went. He tells us he has pretty good taste in literature.

Just said he sold off the printing rights to his first book to a major publisher who has done exceptionally well with the title since acquiring it from his company.

He just said no one reads anymore and I am curious as to how he thinks the market and industry would need to change in order to help influence people to want to read more and if readers like the Kindle will help with that or if the industry needs to move toward a traditional advertising and marketing approach for a typical business.

He’s stated a belief in public engagement which, again, makes me wonder what his approach would be if he could re-imagine the market. One of his projects include the Brooklyn Book Festival and this editor is the chair of the Brooklyn Literary Council and putting together the Brooklyn Book Festival.

“Reverse gentrification of the literary world,” is the motto of his publishing house where he feels that books need to get into the hands of the poor and traditionally illiterate and as a result, his efforts are not to dumb down literature but to help make it available to people who might not find the book naturally.

He is expressing the diversity of his authors and how they affect him – just made a joke about white male authors and how they do move him but not always in the way that Jamaican’s or others might or often do.

Now waiting for the “tell us” portion to come to an end (it feels like it will soon) and questions to happen. We have, probably, about 30 minutes before we all have to disband, so . . . should be interesting to see what questions and answers are produced from this group of MFA students.

Q) The group, as a body, was asked about the Kindle phenomenon.

A) The third editor says we are going to have a digitization of literature and stories will be told but that electronic media is a part of the future and even though we prefer the printed page, the future is digital.

Second editor is saying that iTunes is the forerunner of what will happen in book publishing with the big fear people stealing content, though there are some ways to protect against that. He is talking about the potential for change in the industry.

First editor is talking about the need to drive people to read and that electronic sales and electronic offerings have proven to improve sales of books.

Q) The panel was just asked what they look for in a memoir.

A) Her answer is something that resonates with a universal experience and/or is unusual in a unique way. A blog may be interesting to family and friends but is not, necessarily, a much wider and broader audience.

Q) What do you spend most of your time doing during the day.

A) First editor spends most of her time on problems and does her editing on the weekends. She loves problems free authors. (Note, this same editor said when working for National Geographic she found out anyone will tell you anything if you identify yourself as working with National Geographic.)

Third editor is telling us he seconds first author and ends up spending most of his time on emails and with agents and foreign rights. He is expanding this with a story about a bad author who became attached to him in an unhealthy way (I am reading stalking in his words) he is saying crazy and obsessed. This author took so much time and energy including multiple failed lawsuits and etc. that his publishing house has become rigorous about screening the personalities of the authors signed; but necessary for the size and nature of his publishing house.

He tells us the publishing world, in general, needs to know that all of their authors need to treat people with respect and a single bad author will cause irrepairable damage to the entire office. Apparently, he will turn down an author and novel because the author appears is disrespectful. He illustrates this by using NPR and an author telling off the producer of the show rather than working with them. He just said, to laughter, that a book and an author have to be judged together.

Second editor says email and meetings are what takes up most of his time/day. He doesn’t read as much, but gets things in and out quickly.

Q) Why isn’t poetry being published as much and what makes a publishing house less likely to look at poetry? Why is it less marketable?

A) First editor, you’ve answered your own question – e.g. it’s less marketable. Sharing a story about a large publisher being allowed to publish poetry by the success of fiction. Also Kindle chooses who they will publish and as a result poetry is not a selling item. Bookstores are a lot like Kindle and choose not to sell poetry. Also, interent allows you to market yourself, put poems out, gain a following and prove it, then a publisher is more likely will publish you… publishign is for profit.

Second editor, did put out a poetry book but that the book is completely niche-ey. Specifically, Mets poetry and sells to baseball fans even though it’s not about baseball.

Third editor does publish poetry and they struggle with it and publishing poetry makes his job even more precarious. Says that people don’t know how to read poetry, to include himself, but isn’t adept at poetry and as a result can’t decide what is good or bad and has to get other’s to help him decide what is good or what is bad. Economic outcome of some poetry drains monetary resources. Telling us about a program called, “Why Poetry,” at the Brooklyn Literary Festival. He wants to see poetry as more accessible just like books.

Q) How does a psychologically balanced person approach you with a novel? Essentially, how do you want to be approached about a novel?

A) Third editor, send a querry letter because the staff is very small. His publication isn’t accepting manuscripts – though he is reading querries and will follow up on something that sounds interesting. If you know an author or a friend of the publisher or a friend of an agent who will recommend you, it is easier to get a manuscript in the hands of the publisher and etc. and will rise the manuscript to the top of the pile.

Q) Do you deal with agents?

A) Third editor, yes. But not more than a regular author because he likes to deal with an author directly. (Agents become mediators between publisher and author.)

Q) Are you doing anything with your business model in formats or marketing [to get the books out to new people]?

A) Third editor, does lots of public events like street fairs. Do events in galleries trying to find places that reach people, especially if an author will captivate people. Especially if an author will captivate people. The publishing house does a lot more public events than other publishing houses of the same size and larger. Cover design has changed over time.

Q) Do you review online journals for authors for particular genres, work, etc.?

A) First editor, if she is looking to hire a writer, regionally based, she will call the managing editor of a newspaper and who is reliable and a great writer. Might do the same with a magazine. Go to the editor to find out who works out well. Not a lot of time to go to online journals to find authors. Not much time to trawl (sp).

Third editor, doesn’t read online or print journals because it feels like an issue of time. New employee follows journals. Not proud of the fact that he doesn’t follow online journals.

Q) Can you give an example of a proposal, she was excited about, and how did it get there?

A) Had a proposal she was excited about but didn’t turn out the way she wanted or hoped it would. Is trying to see if the author will make changes to make it more sellable. Talking about a magazine that is a free giveaway and a proposal that came from a reader of the magazine and was intrigued by the proposal which was visual, and found out it was a magazine piece that no one would actually buy and now needs meat or needs to be dropped. It was not agented, though agents, if they get the publisher, can sell a lot easier because they understand the needs of the publishing house. Annoying agents are most likely going to annoy editors as well.

I think that is it and as a result, will be heading off to the afternoon seminar.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

Real Heroes Fly

One Last Thing Before Bed

smokingpen — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 03:38:07 +0000

As already stated, I am at Ender’s Island off of Mystic, CT for about ten days. I will make a trip home at the end of this week for around twenty hours to spend time with Erin and CAMPER, but for the most part my life is encompassed by that of the MFA-Writing writer.

Today was a good day. One of the first things I did, once I kind of head my head about me, was to wander around taking pictures of some of the buildings. Honestly, this is more for Erin than anyone else as she loves retreats and retreat centers and I am on a retreat (residency really) at a retreat center. My first full day experience, other than taking pictures, was a lot of, what felt like, activity from a workshop class where we discussed a first chapter from a novel to a seminar on finding the premise in fiction to lunch and breakfast and dinner and then a reading by three of the faculty members, all of whom are published authors, and two of whom moved me in a way I can’t really explain – and it’s not the kind of movement where the need to write comes into play, but it did include me going and purchasing a book by one of the faculty members, Da Chen, and then asking him to sign it. Since those pictures are on my phone and this is made considerably easier (posting) when I transfer pictures to my computer and then from the computer to this website, that will have to wait for some free time tomorrow or later in the week. Regardless, I did take some pictures of Da’s signing books and I have to say this is the coolest book signing I’ve ever witnessed.

Regardless, today was a good day. It was fun. Filled with people and conversation and good food. I am, as is true to who I am, kind of aloof to a lot of things more as a result of this weird terror inside of me that screams, “NO!!!” very loudly when it’s time to meet new people, but still desiring to get to know some of these people as these are the men and women with whom I will be making this graduate journey for the next couple of years.

Now, school, I am sure, is fun and me updating my blog is also (at least of late) kind of a unique thing, however, I am closing this entry down after only a few hundred words because I am tired and because I need to sleep. However, I am having a good time, enjoying where I am at and what I am doing, and really do expect that by this time in 2011 I will be a graduate and ready to really publish something – even though I still harbor plans to do that between now and then anyway.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

Real Heroes Fly

The Long Something

smokingpen — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:01:09 +0000

I think I often have great plans to do big things. I think some of those big things include my blog and making it more popular and more accessible. Point, I started at the earliest posts editing them so that the links all went somewhere, images were either updated or deleted, and they cross-referenced older posts. I worked on that for a few days, got about fifty or so posts in, realized I had something like 1000 to go through, and thought to myself, “Someday I will have enough money I can pay someone to do that.” Truth told, I still harbor that plan and I don’t think I will ever actually get around to doing anything with it.

Erin and I were speaking the other day, as we do every day, about stuff when she pointed out something I’d been thinking about for a couple of weeks. I have two things in my life that I am more likely than not to spend money one – heck, if I am having a bad time for long enough and sooner or later I am going to spend money on one or the other or both – the first are books and the second is software. Now, I am not a software person in the sense that I will buy games galore; however, I am a software person where I will purchase and use something for writing or organization or project management and see how it works and then draw up plans on how I might make changes and then wish or dream those beautiful dreams about how, when I have enough disposable income (or an investor) I will change the face of the internet and off-line computing with my ideas. Heck, not too long ago I came up with the next billion dollar idea that will (probably) never see the light of day from me because . . . well, my reasons are my own.

As for books, before Erin (b.E.), I think between 1/4 and 1/2 of my income went to the acquisition of books. I spent a lot of money at Borders and Amazon.com that it justified and probably (without spending more money) could inherently justify having Amazon Prime for some years. Fortunately, I still spend money at Amazon.com and, when time and our finances permit, I can spend some money at Borders as well. Most often, though, Borders comes in the form of gift cards and Amazon.com comes in the form of gift certificates and school money so that I can expand my collection of, and knowledge on, books about writing and etc. However, in the days of b.E. I spent a considerable amount of money that would lead one to believe I have a considerable number of books – and yes, I have some; but at the same time I also cull the books I buy, selling some online, taking others to used bookstores and selling them there, and still others I give away to people I think will like (and cherish) them more than me.

The outcome to all of this is another one of those grand plans: I would love to have a house with a room that is a couple or three stories tall, with a special observation area at the very top, with books from floor to ceiling and round cast iron stair cases and my desk in the very middle of the room. With windows that could darken at the touch of a button, a large flat screen television for movies or television, and a place where I can retreat to be alone or spend time with people who are invited into my private sanctuary (like Erin or CAMPER or close friends and some family), but more a place that is dedicated to books and my writing and ideas and dreams and adventure and imagination in a way that no other room or place can exist for me because those places really don’t exist.

One result in all of this is a notion of: SOMEDAY; and a notion of: WHAT IF? in both cases, I enjoy the fantasy, and in both cases I realize that it is just fantasy and that I get to continue to work and develop and hope that someday Erin and CAMPER and I will find ourselves in a slightly better position where, maybe – just maybe, our lives will allow us to explore some of the dreams I have for our future.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

Real Heroes Fly

Searching for a State of Equilibrium

smokingpen — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:07:48 +0000

I’ve found that some of the things I want to be doing compared to many of the things I need to be doing have kept me out of a state of equilibrium for some time. Months. I like the idea of writing blog entries and have noted that the number of hits I receive a month is directly proportional to the number of posts I publish. On top of which, my search rankings are lower when I don’t update as frequently. I would imagine, when I get to a state of popularity from publishing or some such that the direct outcome will be a lot of people intentionally searching for me and clicking through my website which will result in the ability to be lazier and still have traffic; however, at the moment, if I want traffic I have to do what is required to get that traffic.

Since I am not doing what is necessary I am writing about the why not.

In this case I find I have several things that sit, in some stage or another, on my metaphorical plate (I actually dislike the analogy). I have family, professional, educational, and obligations to self that all require a piece of my time. My family, and by that I am defining family as Erin and CAMPER, require individual attention and time. I cannot just assume that by spending time with CAMPER while Erin is in proximity that I have sufficiently spent time with her. As a result, I find myself making time for both my wife and child and making sure I spend time with them.

Along with family resposibilities I have work responsibilities. To some extent these overlap in that I am the provider and have to work to make money so that we can afford to pay bills and buy food. Previously to my current job I was working at Wal-Mart (formerly “this place“) on the graveyard shift. Because of that, I slept during the day, didn’t really care to be awake on the weekends though I chose to alter my sleeping habits to, again, spend time with my family. As a result of not being awake when Erin and CAMPER were, I looked for and found another position where I work during the day and can now sleep at night. This is better but at the same time I have to give away some of my day to a commute that equals about three hours of time. I am in a better position than I was with Wal-Mart, but still searching for a state of equilibrium.

Along with family and work I have responsibilities to my degree – specifically a Master’s of Fine Arts in Writing. This program requires me to spend quite a few hours a day writing and reading and revising and writing and revising and reading and etc. and etc. with the outcome. Granted, everything gets to be set aside in about twenty-five days for ten days where I will be nicely sequestered on an island at a Franciscan Retreat Center talking about writing. After the retreat and residency I will have to find time (that may not exist) to write and read and revise and make sure that my novel actually does get written and revised and made ready for publication.

Finally, I have responsibilities to myself. I think this is the least defined as I want to spend time with Erin and CAMPER and I want to go to school and I need to (and to some extent want to) go to work. Along with all of that I need to start taking care of my body so that my IBS doesn’t get worse. The doctor think Yoga and meditation will help and Erin is currently looking for a Yoga class on a Saturday that I can start attend and that we can afford.

The outcome to all of this is not that I don’t realize what is needed or wanted or necessary, but that I haven’t found the magic combination of time and management and energy that will allow me to find the state of equilibrium that will also allow me to spend a few minutes (or more) updating the blog and making sure I expand my readership rather than have people who get here from Erin’s website or by spending some time searching for something like Assateague Island or Roommate Etiquette or the White Screen of Death on my Macbook.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

Real Heroes Fly

The Fall from Grace

smokingpen — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 20:51:09 +0000

Which, interestingly, might be the title of a book I write at some point. However, not really the point in all of this.

Some years ago I discovered an author (I will not be sharing any names) and the author’s work. I became quickly enamored of the writing and found myself following the individual both online and reading whatever was published. Heck, even before I discovered the author I’d been to a book signing for one of my (many) brothers because he didn’t want to go and stand in line for hours. I think for the four or five hours I was there I made about $20.00 got a couple of books signed, dropped them off in the opposite direction of where I lived, and found myself less than pleased with the quality of person that is this authors primary fan base

It took me a couple of years to start reading any of the books. In fact, I was living in New Hampshire and had developed a new group of acquaintances (eventually this group would fall apart and I would move, meet this hot chick, and get married to her) and as a result of the group started reading this author. One of the things that appealed to me, early one, was the amount of time that was spent on talking about his children. I was impressed and continued to follow. Admittedly, I do like the written works of this author but as I’ve followed the blog and personal life I’ve discovered I don’t want to be that involved or that interested in another person’s personal life.

What was impressive to me was the silence about the spouse. The spouse had asked to remain out of the internet life and (most likely) the public appearances life and as a result the author agreed. Until not too long ago when it was announced, by the author, that they were separated, had been for about five years, and that a divorce was imminent or filed for or recently completed. At that point I realized I’d gotten too familiar with someone and I’ve only briefly, and once I might add (against my better judgement), met the individual. For me, this was too much. Website, books, media appearances, Web2.0 applications and all of that have made it difficult for me to no longer enjoy the simplicity and wit and sarcasm that comes from somene who has been where I want to be, done what I want to do, been successful at it, and, for all intents and purposes, still was able to maintain a family.

The piece of straw that finally broke me? The author announced that a new love interest had entered the picture and as a result of that and a broken home and feeling like I’d breached some imaginary wall of confidentiality (something I wouldn’t want anyone to breach), I am no longer interested in the webspace or news and have found that I am less interested in the books.

With all of that out of the way, familiarity does bread contempt and at the moment I feel contempt. I feel it toward a large group of authors who all seem to rotate in the same circles and reinforce each other as “exceptional” authors when, as I work my way through individual works or even examples of individual work, I find that many lack in ways that make the group as a whole less in my eyes.

I think that the closer I get to achieving what I want, the harder it is to look at people who have been there and done that and not see the flaws. And that means the flaw is probably as much in me as them. I don’t know the entire story. I don’t know these people personally. I just know that I am reticent to want to be successful if success then leads to failures in other places.

Now that that is off my chest, it is time to move forward. 43 days to MFA residency. YAY!!!

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

Real Heroes Fly

Can’t Be Done

smokingpen — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:32:14 +0000

I think one of my biggest pet peeves, right behind people who don’t drive the speed limit and right in front of a highly reviewed and praised work of fiction that ends up being a pile of crap are people who are such big fans of a book or series of books that they immediately take the stance that said book-slash-series-slash-author is impossible to adapt. This was the case with The Lord of the Rings series of movies and, admittedly, it required the inclusion of CGI and the advancement of that technology as well as digital film capture to make it a reality. However, even with The Lord of the Ring movies, which I am only sort of a fan of, Peter Jackson had to take a lot of liberties in translating the narrative texture of the stories into a visual medium. As that is true of any book turned movie, and as most science fiction and fantasy movies are not actually any good (case in point Star Wars) even if they become fan favorites and, to some extent, cultural icons, the outcome is a hurdle that is man-made rather than one that is real.

A series of books turned movies that, as they are read, seemed like an impossible transition from page to screen is the Harry Potter movies and yet, Warner Bros. and the various screenwriters have successfully taken the plot of the books and adapted the story into a visual medium. This is also true of other books that didn’t seem like they could be translated such as Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers and (to a much lesser extent) Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot. Granted, in order to express the message of the books and the core themes the production had to take liberties and expand upon the ideas of the stories, but that is how a book is made into a movie. Someone reads it, understands the core elements of the book that are transferable to the big screen, acquires the rights, and then makes a movie.

Not every aspect or element of a book will be translatable. What is worse is when a book comes out at 700 pages and the studio suggests that it should be two movies because it is simply too long to fit into one movie. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows suffers from this. In reality, most of the book is trash exposition that is unnecessary in the actual telling of the story and as a result the decision to split the book into two movies is more about money than it is about the density or quality of the story.

In the case of books that are specific to a genre, science fiction and/or fantasy, the narrative of the book is actually one of the smallest factors in determining whether or not it can be translated. Much larger are fan appeal, general appeal, and budget. If there is no general appeal and only fans of the genre know about the book(s) than a budget for a movie would be miniscule and, “Yes,” a crap movie would result. Just because fans like something doesn’t mean it translates into movies either. More, just because fans have a high regard for the narrative and elements of a story doesn’t mean they are actually necessasry to the story or the translation and as a result, neither the screen adaption nor a specific director, producer, or writer are key to that adaptation.

Believe it or not, books, in general, aren’t all that hard to adapt in a lot of ways. The question isn’t one of adaptation in any circumstance, that is the easy part, but rather of ability to market the genre book to a wide enough audience that will, in turn, offer a return on investment. In short, studios and everyone associated with them are in the business to make money and even though it is nice in theory to suggest that art for arts sake will eventually result in money, a movie that loses money, and a series of movies that lose money, will ultimately cause the studio to go out of business and results in other studios lack of willingness to touch a project.

No, there is not real skill in adapting even a multi-volume graphic novel series to the big screen whether live action or CGI or a combination of both. There is a lot of skill in selling the necessary budget to a studio so that the movie and actors and production are properly funded so the movie will actually do something and go somewhere.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

Real Heroes Fly

The White Screen or what happens when hard drives go to heaven

smokingpen — Sat, 16 May 2009 03:57:48 +0000

So, I got home from work this morning, did my thing-a-tee-thing and then sat down for some brief, but good, computer time. Yesterday was, in part, spent moving my desk around in the office, inserting large window A/C into small window, and making sure I was set-up and comfortable. On top of which, the thoughts and just missing wife and child who are in Utah for a few days was enough to cause me to not get good sleep. Anyway, was sitting at my computer, minding my own business, when all of the sudden everything locks up, I get the weird rainbow thinking logo Apple uses these days, and then nothing. After quite a few minutes of attempting to get the computer to force quit the application that appeared to be locked up I shut the system down. When I restarted I got what is called (online) the white screen of death.

The white screen of death, I am sure aptly named by ex-Microsoft detractors, is what happens when the hard drive on the computer won’t mount. I did the reasonably sane thing, pulled out the iPhone, and started searching for possible fixes for the problem. Allow another hour of elapsed time and I realize there really is no way of getting around packing the computer up and taking it to the closest, or one of the closest, Apple store so their well advertised Geniuses at the Genius Bar could look at it. For those who are in the need to know, you can actually schedule a time from home to visit one of these geniuses. In my case, I got there, had to set up an appointment, and then waited about an hour and a half before they saw me.

The genius determined the same thing I did: the hard drive is dead.

They checked to see if there was any way of getting my data off the now dead hard drive – they couldn’t; with the outcome that I’ve lost all of the data and documents created (more or less) since I bought the computer. There are some items that were uploaded to different places, my writing samples are all on my website and an external hard drive, and I have some things in email, but for the most part, I get to start over on all of the fiction writing I’ve done since I started working in this environment.

The outcome, a bit more than a hundred dollar’s for a new hard drive and a stand so that air gets all around the laptop and I am back up and running.

What I did notice was that I had to configure the OSX 10.5 install the Apple Store put on the computer (I do have Leopard and took the disks in case they needed them . . . dumb me) then told it to check for updates. If this had been Microsoft, those updates would’ve been downloading and installing for about twelve hours. I was done in under an hour.

At this time, I reinstalled iWork and Firefox, made sure iTunes is up-to-date and am hoping when I sync my iPhone and the iPod Classic and (maybe) get the paid for music not backed up on Erin’s computer or the external hard drive.

The outcome, my computer is back to being alive and well. I lost everything. And I am happy.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

Real Heroes Fly

I Should be Asleep

smokingpen — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:45:30 +0000

I worked all last night and about midway through the night took some stimulant (legal) to get through the rest of the night. As a result, I am a little wired, as happens whenever I do this, and am having trouble fathoming going to bed. Before I even thought about going to sleep, though, I decided it was time to make the loft-slash-lair-slash-office a bit more hospitable in the sleeping realm and ended up moving my desk, the printers, the DVD’s, and other things around so that an A/C could go in the window and wouldn’t interfere with my computer, monitor, and etc. As a result, I’ve been working on stuff for the last few hours, the office is far more neat and orderly than it was when I started, the stuff Erin put into bags and sucked the air out of are now hiding behind bookshelves, and I am sitting here listening to Brandi Carlile’s album The Story and want to purchase it because of her melodic singing and haunting voice. I mean, wow! if you haven’t encountered her yet go, encounter, listen…. The last time I had this experience was listening to some of Sting’s more recent work and realizing that the man is more than just a dude with a guitar, he’s a musician. Unfortunately, Brandi Carlile is considered country music (yes, I’ve started listening to country again), but I don’t think that can be held against her as she is just that good. Better than the Beatles.

I sent off an email this morning to a professor at BYU asking for a reading list he referenced during the class I took from him during that last semester of the undergrad. I was hoping he would (at least) respond saying something by now… but I have to allow for the notion that he either isn’t at work (summer) or retired or just not interested in sharing the reading list with me. The list was produced by the author Annie Dillard who wrote the partially untrue and partially true book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Anyway, I want her reading list to see how it compares to some other reading lists I’ve come across and because I can’t be expected to write great things if I don’t read what is considered great. That professor considers her great and I do have to admit there is a compelling tone to her writing . . . I am just not sure what I will do with a reading list that will, invariably, exist on top of other reading lists.

As an aside (and somewhat related) I started getting emails from the MFA-Writing program which implies (to me) one of a few things. First, that all of the “jumping through hoops” material finally arrived; or second, that paying $1000.00 toward tuition means they are taking me seriously; or third, that they are tired of waiting and are gearing up for the summer residency and have just started sending me email. In any case, I get to introduce a lady at a faculty reading who has two books, a bunch of short stories, and some essays and columns under her belt at the residency.

Anyway, I think I am going to attempt sleep. I’ve sent emails, looked up authors, checked on books and book lists, asked for assistance in some areas, and spoke to Erin who tells me CAMPER handled the flights, late nights, and early mornings like a trooper. Is it bad I am glad it is now about six days until they come home AND I missed my CAMPER time this morning?

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

Real Heroes Fly