Only Constant Is Change

Quote for the Week

My favorite musical Jekyll and Hyde, (the version that premiered in Houston, not the Broadway version) has a song I love. The lyric goes: "The only constant is change."

There's been a lot of change in Casa Reeves in the last 6 months with much of it now causing a drastic change in our lives. Our youngest decided she wants to get her Master's, but she doesn't want to incur debt in doing so. She figured it all out and presented us with a financial presentation that shows how she can fund everything herself without loans.

Of course, the first step in her grand plan involves giving up her apartment, moving home, and saving what she spent in living separately. Sure, we said it was okay. But the second step, actually moving her home, has been a sweaty, tiring process. That's what we started last week and will finish next week.

Now, my darling husband and I have to adjust to having our adult offspring at home again, and she must adjust to having parents around 24/7. Hopefully, we're all loving and mature enough to make the transition. She's been accepted to grad school and starts in the second summer session.

There's a new and different challenge ahead, but I'll blather more on that later. For now, I just want a cold drink and a warm shower and some time to do nothing. I'm exhausted. Did I say I hate moving?

Takeaway Truth

American historian Henry Steele Commager: "Change does not necessarily assure progress, but progress implacably requires change. Education is essential to change, for education creates both new wants and the ability to satisfy them."

Inspired By Nancy Drew

What do you think about the new Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor? I told my husband that any woman inspired by Nancy Drew to do good couldn't be all bad.

Of course, time will tell whether she'll be approved. I like what she had to say in 1997: "I don't believe we should bend the Constitution under any circumstances. It says what it says. We should do honor to it." I like it because that's what I believe. I guess I would be a strict constructionist if I were on the judiciary.

Unfortunately, in later years, she seemed to speak in counterpoint to the above statement. Of course, everything I know about her is what I've read in the various media since her nomination, and we all know how that can be. I'll be following the nomination hearings with interest.

Takeaway Truth

Sometimes fiction inspires reality for the better.

Beware Autograph Seekers

There are a lot of benefits to hanging online with other writers, not the least of which is that you get a heads up when the scammers are at work. Like most authors, I get emails from people purporting to be fans who love my work. What they would also love is an autographed photograph of moi. Apparently, these folks are enamored of a lot of us writers because we all get the same letters.

Delete Key Works

Normally, I hit delete. The only time I feel bad is when the letter writer asserts that they are disabled or they're married to a disabled fan of mine and can't afford to buy books. There's always a little voice in my head that says: "Maybe they're telling the truth."

The other voice in my head that says they just want to scan my signature and somehow empty my bank accounts. So I hit the old delete key, but I feel bad about it. However, in today's world, you have to take everything with several grains of salt.

All of this is a long way of directing you to Leigh Purtill's blog about this issue, more specifically, about the 4 fans in Germany who have been sending letters.

Takeaway Truth

If I knew Latin, I'd say: Let the writer beware. Always check out letters with other writers. Chances are they're received them too.

Face Lift For SlingWords

A couple of weeks ago I announced on my other blog that I planned to change the template. I wanted something with darker text for the body of blog posts as well as something with more space above the fold.

Research & Analyze

Naturally, I did some research first to see if it was a good idea to change from something that has proven successful. I didn't want to upset the PageRank applecart. Sure enough, I discovered that conventional wisdom says don't change your template if you're successful. Okay. Not a good move. So I left that template alone. I'll just learn more about customizing Wordpress templates so I can tweek it to meet my esthetic needs.

Nip/Tuck For Oldest Blog

So I turned my attention and desire for change to dear old SlingWords, my oldest blog which is primarily a personal journal and teaching tool for those interested in writing. I'd had the same template since I'd started blogging about four years ago. There was definitely room for improvement here.

I spent the better part of my Sunday in changing the template here. I'd already selected one I liked. That was a process that took about a week. I must have looked at hundreds of templates. Of course, uploading the new template was easy. The rest was a time suck of enormous proportions because I had so many widgets and personalizations on this blog, all of which had to be manually input again.

Kudos To Falcon Hive

The time was worth it though because I adore the template I used. It's Coffee Desk, originally a Wordpress template. It was "Bloggerized" by Falcon Hive. I think the end result is fabulous. Hope you'll agree. So please explore and tell me what you think.

Takeaway Truth

Anything worth doing is worth doing well. If it involves the Internet or computers, then the doing well takes at least a day of your life if not more.

Men And Women Who Serve

Quote For The Week

Here in the U. S. of A., we're celebrating Memorial Day this weekend. Tomorrow, at 3:00 PM everyone is asked to take a moment of silence to remember those who gave their lives for this country.

As I placed my flags in the brackets so they'll wave in the morning breeze, I think about my Dad who fought on D Day, a high school friend who died in Vietnam, friends who served in the armed forces, and those who are deployed today.

T.R.

The wise words I've selected today are from our 26th President Theodore Roosevelt who knew something about war. You may remember him as the leader of the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War, but you may not know that he is still the youngest President we've had: only 42 years old when he succeeded President William McKinley after McKinley's assassination.

What He Did

He fought corrupt business practices and had a rep as a trust buster, eventually dissolving 40 monopolistic corporations. His platform was the Square Deal in which he promised a fair shake for private citizens and business. Health care was one of his hot button issues. He called for national health insurance during his term. An active outdoorsman, he was one of the first who called for conservation of our national resources.

He was also a prolific writer with 35 books to his credit. Here are some of his words of wisdom.

"...the man who really counts in the world is the doer, not the mere critic, the man who actually does the work, even if roughly and imperfectly, not the man who only talks or writes about how it ought to be done."

Takeaway Truth

Thank you to all who have served. I appreciate your sacrifices.

Books: Good News & Bad News

Recently, I read some updated statistics offered by the Making Information Pay Conference sponsored by the Book Industry Study Group. Like most stats about book writing, reading, and publishing, I found them interesting in light of our down economy. (I think I'm going to find another phrase to describe our sagging economy since the one I used is such a cliche.)

The Good News

In the last five years, according to Nielsen BookScan, the bible for some authors looking for sales figures and trends, over the previous 5 year period, sales of adult nonfiction were up overall 11.1% .

Travel Books: Increased sales in the previous five years by 516%.

Biography and Autobiography: Rose 34.1% with sales of personal memoirs up 567%, cultural heritage up 175%, and political biographies up 56%.

Business: Increased by 19.4%. In the business category during the previous five years, personal finance had increased by 122%, economics and general business by 351%, finance by 103%, and investments and securities by 117%.

Self Help: Over the last five years, spiritual books were up 224%, books about mood disorders rose 108%, general personal growth books increased 183%, and motivational and inspirational books increased 51%.

Adult Fiction: Overall, books sales of adult fiction increased by 8.9% during the past five years. (In case you didn't know, fiction is always a harder sell than nonfiction.)

General Fiction: up 23.3%. Graphic novels: up 52.7%. Mystery and detective genre declined 12.7%. Literary fiction increased 86.1%. Historical fiction up 24.1%. Political fiction (I sometimes think anything about politics and politicians is fiction.) up 157.7%.

The Bad News

In the current year, adult nonfiction sales are down 8%, but books on cooking still rose 4.8%, humor rose 8.9%, and biography rose 7.5%. The drops were in travel books, 18.7%; business and economics, 10.1%; and autobiography 3.4%.

In adult fiction, romance is up 1.5%, but Mystery/Detective fell by 19.8%.

Children's book sales increased by nearly 9% in the 1Q 2009 with Children's Fiction up 10.4% and nonfiction up 2.5%.

My Spin

So what does all this mean? It means that some books are selling increased numbers and other sales are decreasing. You can put your own spin on the facts. Here's my spin. We're in a melancholy economy. (That's my new phrase for our sagging situation.) Consumers are being more cautious in how they spend their money in all areas. That's why some nonfiction books like travel books aren't selling as well. People aren't traveling as much.

On the other hand, books on cooking are selling because more people are cooking at home instead of ordering take out or eating out. Humor books are up because people feel a need to laugh when times can seem grim.

The power house of romance fiction showed increased sales because not only is it perennially popular but also more people tend to want happy ever after stories when times are tough. Mystery and Detective novels may be down because people don't want to read about crime when their pension plans have been hijacked by greedy corporations. Unless maybe it's a greedy corporate mogul who gets his just desserts.

Children's book sales increased a lot though part of that is fueled by the paranormal books of Stephanie Meyer, or so I've read. I don't actually consider her books for children though the publishing business does because they are about high school kids. In today's world, a high school kid is far more sophisticated than I and my peers were in high school I suppose.

Takeaway Truth

Look to other depressions and recessions, and you'll see that people actually read more than in previous "up" economies. Get a book. Try it. Bet you like it.

Cultural Pulse

I'm a bit late on this, but I wanted to call your attention to the 2009 Pulitzer Prize winners. They were announced back in April by Columbia University. In any given year, I manage to read a couple of books that end up being nominated. This past year I only read one of the nominees.

Actually, I just now finished, and the book was Strout's novel Olive Kitterridge. I really must find more time to read. From the time I started her book to now, I read other books so it's not that I'm the slowest reader in the world. Some books just take more time and thought.

Pulitzer Prize in Letters

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout for Fiction

American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham for Biography

The Shadow of Sirius by W.S. Merwin for Poetry

Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon for General Nonfiction

Ruined by Lynn Nottage for Drama.

Takeaway Truth

A quick way to take the cultural pulse is to see what is being nominated for literary prizes.