Gold Man Review

Monday, April 23, 2012

Myth of the Golden Woman

Chances are you’ve heard of the elusive Golden Woman. Or, perhaps you have not. Either way, questions remain. Who was she? A pioneer? The fashionista of her day? Maybe a goddess? The fact is there is little known about the urban legend that is Golden Woman.

There is one who claims to “know” her. This person, who wishes to remain anonymous to the point that even sex cannot be revealed, will be referred to henceforth as Terry. Terry claims to be an ancestor of an ancestor who was extremely close to the family of the neighbor to the legendary Golden Woman. You can imagine the excitement of the Gold Man Review team…a window to her soul?

GMR: Who was she?

Terry: She lived, she breathed, she existed.

Okay, so that’s a bit ambiguous.

GMR: Why the mysterious answer? Do you know who she was or don’t you? Do you have photos? When did she live? How did she die?

Terry: I’m afraid I can only answer one question at a time. And if you knew the story behind her existence and death, you would understand why she still haunts Salem and why my answers lack clarity.

Okay. So this guy… or gal… could be a politician.

GMR: What is the story of her existence and death?

Terry: I’m not at liberty to say.

GMR: You called me. How can you not be at liberty to say?

Terry: The truth must come with understanding.

GMR: Right. You could tell me but then you’d have to kill me, is that it?

Terry: I’m afraid I don’t understand the reference.

Of course not. Perhaps politician isn’t the right description. Can you say loner, misfit… ahh, serial killer?

GMR: Let’s step back. Why did you call me?

Terry: You had questions. I called. <Long pause>

GMR: But you’ve yet to answer any questions.

Terry: I’m sorry you feel that way.

Okay, a different approach…

GMR: What question should I ask to gain truth and understanding?

Terry: <Nods> Now you’re asking the right questions.

GMR: Thank you. <Again, long pause> You haven’t answered the question.

Terry: Haven’t I?

GMR: No, not at all.

Terry: I answered the question you were really asking.

GMR: Which was what?

Terry: <Head shake>

GMR: What can you openly tell me about Golden Woman?

Terry: She existed, she still exists, and you have to open the eyes of your mind to truly see her.

That pretty much concluded the interview.

Learn more about Marilyn Ebbs at Marilyn Ebbs's Page.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Breaking into a Gallop (a.k.a. manipulating dialogue.)

I write a story. It has a great plot, complex characters, punchy dialogue, and a captivating setting and it puts my critique group to sleep. It plods. After they awaken, between the sounds of deep sighs and stifled yawns, I hear their comments, “it’s coming along,” or “keep up the good work,” or “interesting” (ha. Interesting. A euphemism for I’m trying to think of something positive to say). Red-flag words for “boring.”

No matter how well one writes or how engaging their characters and plot, if it plods, it fails to engage the reader, and leaves the writer wondering why.

The question becomes, I believe, how to write in a way that pulls the reader in and incites the reader to relate to the characters conflict and plot in such a way that she not only wants to finish the story, but is also satisfied with the read.

Part of my writing MFA program involves reading a variety of fiction and analyzing the various techniques writers have used to make their stories “work.” My initial reaction to this aspect of the program was why? And, so what? And what does that have to do with me? The answer is that reading good literature and studying what works and why, is a proven way of improving one’s own writing.

Sandy McDow is a new Editor to the Gold Man Team. Keep checking back for more from Sandy and the rest of the GMR team. Also, check out goldmanpublishing.com to learn more about Sandy McDow and the mission of GMR.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Self-publishing

Self-publishing is not new. After several companies who made print-on-demand substantially cheaper, self-publishing has seen an increase in popularity since the 1990’s. In addition, the popularity of the Kindle, Nook, and iPad, has made eBooks more desirable and also decreased the price for a self-publisher to distribute his or her product. For the next several weeks, I will provide several important factors for readers interested in self-publishing.

Editing: With a little bit of willpower and forward thinking anyone can complete the tasks of a publishing company. Primarily, proper editing is fundamental to be taken seriously. This doesn’t mean having your mom read your work; she will not give you the critical aspects you will need to make your work perfect. Unfortunately, this service is not free. However, there are hundreds of companies and independent contractors who can provide the independent and unbiased opinion and editing of your work.

Critique groups: There are a number of critique groups in most towns and cities. Just show up with sections of your work and have the group edit your work for free. Most groups are free and open to the public.

Distribution and sales: Remember that the companies that will help you edit, print, and distribute your book will have their fees upfront, before you even sell your first copy. Unlike the traditional publishing company, that pays the costs upfront for you to later collect through book sales. You are paying to set up your own print distribution, which is surprisingly cheaper than would be expected.

Monday, April 2, 2012

The Perspective of Distance by Sam Hall

I recently finished The Help by Kathryn Stockett, her best-selling novel about three women whose lives are intertwined on both sides of the racial divide during the 1960s. Perhaps you’ve seen the movie or read the book.

The author, who grew up in Jackson, MS tells us in an afterword that she wrote the story while living in New York. She said it was probably “easier than writing it in Mississippi, staring in the face of it all.” She said “the distance added perspective.”

Ms. Stockett’s departure from her home to better see the story was probably a good move. That idea made me reflect on the concepts of connection, of family, of belonging. I believe connection—to places and persons—is a universal need, almost as essential as the air we breathe. Without some kind of relationship, we lack the ability to understand and measure the worth of our efforts, our goals, or even ourselves. This is the talk of a country boy and that is what I am.

I’ve probably made 50 or more trips from my home in Oregon to go back to western Oklahoma to visit my family. Each time, my pulse quickens when I spread the strands of a barbed wire pasture fence and wiggle through to meander across the rolling prairie. Memories, compelling and almost sacred, stir at the call of a meadow lark. The smell of sagebrush tells me I belong there. I am at peace. I feel an immediate connection. Wordless, my brothers and I are bonded anew by our common appreciation for place—the place of wind and temperature extremes beneath the cloudless bowl of heaven.

As a writer, I gain perspective by having gone away and then returning.
There are many things that might stimulate human connection and sense of belonging. Certainly, family and friends are the most common sources for relationship. For you, it might be culture. One website I ran across appeals to Arizona retirees of Dutch ancestry.

Besides economic strata, worldview, a shared faith, similar positions on hot-button topics (think NRA or social issues), your elementary school or college, hobbies, and meshing personalities, which of the following might define the deepest connections of your protagonist—or even of yourself?

--shared hardships
--fighting for the same cause
--a shared history
--mutual accountability
--a common enemy
--a common savior
--mutual recognition of each other’s value to the other’s wellbeing
--relationship between rescuer and the rescued
--survivors of a collective oppression
--sharing the same roots
--shared secrets
--intellectual equality/challenge
--membership in an exclusive organization or social group
--mutual trust and/or admiration
--shared life objectives
--acceptance by a group
--steadfast support from writing group, neighbors, church or family
--you’ve sacrificed for one another
--or perhaps even been partners in a risky or illegal activity...

We are all different, yet so alike. Let us remove our masks and pause to look fully into one another’s souls.

Samuel Hall is an editor for Gold Man Review. To read more about Samuel Hall go to Samuel Hall's Page.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Golden Woman Sighted at Lancaster Mall

Last night a local security guard thought he heard the clicking of a woman’s heels while on his rounds.

“I mean I could hear my own shoes, yeah, but then there was this other sound…of shoes, heels. I was like, what?”

Rumors of a woman in heels walking the mall at night have circulated among the security staff since the mall first opened in 1971. When asked why this particular guard has decided to come forward he said he had to.

“I saw her. She came around the corner, by the theater, then turned toward Sears and the Burlington Coat Factory. At first I thought she just got done tanning—you know, her skin was all bronze, at first. But then she sort of turned her head back at me, taking these long strides with her golden heels on. Her clothes were all gold; her face; her hair. What the hell?”

When asked how this golden woman didn’t see him, the security guard (who wishes to remain nameless) said that he hid behind a kiosk. The woman vanished as the guard tried to take out his camera phone.

“Yeah, the other guard at the monitors didn’t see anything…just me couching behind some kiosk and fumbling with something. He got a kick out of it.”

The security guard further added that the mall cameras do not have audio.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

The Willamette Bubble by Mary-Gray Mahoney

Being at senior at Willamette University, I have a good grasp on something students call the “Willamette Bubble.” This is a strange phenomenon where we feel as though we are our own community entirely separate from Salem. We aren’t usually engaged with events within Salem, and tend to stick to a very small area around campus.

While this can lead to a bit of “cabin fever” for a lot of students, it also allows us to foster a great sense of student community. Like many colleges, we have a school newspaper, a literary journal, and there has been a movement this year towards starting a peer-reviewed academic journal. Being able to read my peers’ work constantly allows me to expand my own ways of thinking and shape my own writing. While it is not a formal critique group, immersing myself in the literary culture on campus is similar to meeting with a group of community members to discuss what we’re writing. I reflect on my peers’ news pieces and the creative work being produced.

The prospect of an academic journal becoming available for students is particularly exciting for me, since I do not write fiction or poetry. I focus my attention on academic analysis of literature, but am not offered many opportunities to actually publish and get my thoughts out there. Working for Gold Man Publishing has given me a head start towards getting this project started and being a major component in making a Willamette University peer reviewed journal a major part of campus life. There are many other students on campus who are not engaged in creative writing and the thought of having a forum for students to engage critically with one another is extremely exciting. Sometimes the literary life on campus can become focused on the same few people. Since this is a liberal arts school, this focus can be very limiting. By publishing an academic journal, more disciplines can be represented. For instance, I would have loved to take more Anthropology classes during my time at Willamette, but it was simply not possible. If I had been able to turn to a database of student work, I could have gained a huge knowledge of these subjects through my peer’s eyes. It is often easier to engage with material written by a peer than a person of higher academic standing or expertise. While these materials are indeed helpful, the peer engagement fosters the community within Willamette even further.

Though the development of an academic journal will not help the “Willamette Bubble,” it does allow students to expand their education beyond a specific discipline, which is truly the goal of a liberal arts education. Once students graduate, this sense of community may disappear, but students will leave Willamette with an idea of how to engage with a literary/academic community and foster the smaller journals like the Gold Man Review.

Mary-Gray Mahoney is an assistant editor for Gold Man Review. To read more about Mary-Gray go to http://www.goldmanpublishing.com/marygray.html

Sunday, February 26, 2012

The End of the (Publishing) World As We Know It by Darren Howard

A recent NY Times article, “The Bookstore’s Last Stand," sounded yet another alarm about the death of publishing. Apparently Barnes & Noble is the last hope of bookstores, and therefore of publishers and even of printed books. (January 29, 2012; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/business/barnes-noble-taking-on-amazon-in-the-fight-of-its-life.html

This is part of a larger trend I’ve seen that confuses the online
buying of books with the emergence of e-books. The one persuasive part
of the article mentions that publishers don’t need bookstores to sell
books, but rather to attract authors: “Without Barnes & Noble, the
publishers’ marketing proposition crumbles. The idea that publishers
can spot, mold and publicize new talent, then get someone to buy books
at prices that actually makes economic sense, suddenly seems a reach.
Marketing books via Twitter, and relying on reviews, advertising and
perhaps an appearance on the “Today” show doesn’t sound like a winning
plan.”

But the model of Big Publishing was never really a winning plan. They
ended up primarily looking for just a few big mega-hits to promote,
and as time went on, the only authors they felt they could really rely
on were their existing authors. The only authors who could earn a
living from their work were those who had already written their best
works, regardless of the quality of their future work. Is that good
for anyone?

Clearly it’s not good for readers, and not for new writers, and at
last we are seeing why it was not even good for the publishers. Just
like the music industry, they have brought their destruction onto
themselves.

The implications of this, however, are not that publishing, or books,
are dead. Only that the farce of big corporations controlling what
people read and write is coming to an end. With the rise of
high-quality, fast, and cheap printing, who needs a
publisher—especially a publisher who will take away the author’s say
in the cover, layout, and price of the book? With the co-ordination of
online-purchasing with print-on-demand distributors, who needs a
publisher—especially a publisher who inflates the price of a book to
pay for their bureacracy? With the increasing pressure on authors to
promote and market their own books, who needs a publisher?

Be your own publisher! That’s what we are doing here at Gold Man.
That’s what all these claims about the end of publishing don’t
understand. The change in publishing is not from print to electronic
media. That’s just a small, irrelevant part of it. The main change is
from corporate publishing to self-publishing.

So what does the future hold? My prediction is that for a while
longer, there will be this sense of chaos, uncertainty, wailing the
loss of the Old Way. But the next step is already beginning: the
emergence of printers, marketers, distributors, and even investors for
authors who are self-publishing. We are already seeing the rise of
printers who cater to authors, rather than corporations, like
Lightning Source. The other fields have yet to develop: Professional
marketers, distributors, and investors who cater specifically to
self-published authors. Just as with literary agents, there will
probably be different tiers available to different folks—those who are
good enough, or just connnected enough, will have access to the best
marketers and distributors.

As for the argument that publishers weeded out the bad books for us,
as a sort of filter of crappy writing, all I have to say is, look at
what the publishers have been publishing over the last ten years. How
much of it has struck you as particularly good? Sometimes
entertaining, yes, but really, deeply good? Personally, I can count
them on my fingers. How many books have you read lately that you can
read again several times, with pleasure each time, and each time
seeing something new? My guess is that most examples you can think of
were published a good long while ago.

So while yes, there are aspects of the old way that are nice
(scrolling through a book is very different from flipping through it),
but think of all the room you will have once you have gotten rid of
all those musty, dusty, heavy books (yes, Shteyngart, I know you have
already mocked this, but I know that you know that I know you were
half-serious).

Darren Howard is an editor for Gold Man Review. To read more about Darren go to http://www.goldmanpublishing.com/darrenhoward.html