The Square Root of an Ash Tree

I have two books I am writing still in rough draft form. One book is done, but I need to go through another draft because it is missing something. I wonder how many more drafts it will take to find that missing thread. Hopefully it will be found before I get so sick and tired of the book that I just toss it in the trash. The other book is only about a third completed and I hate to admit it, but I have sat it on the shelf so many times due to other demands that I have gone through several drafts warming myself back up to the story. That is not (for me) the best way to get a story down on paper. I like to get a very rough sketch of the entire thing completed and then go through the drafting process. I experience the rare sparks of creativity in starts and stops. I don’t know about you, but it always surprises me. Great ideas, well, ideas that inspire me, tend to hide behind the bushes and pop out at the least expected times. And when it happens, I have to go with it, or wait for the next unplanned moment, which can be a very long wait. That doesn’t work well in my “planned and scheduled” world. I need to be independently wealthy, with a small cottage at the beach, where the incoming ocean waves, made higher by morning off-shore breezes from the cold land to the warm water offer the promise of newness and fresh ideas and where the afternoon on-shore breezes actually hold me up. Then, when creativity strikes, I can jump on it and hold it until it eventually slips out of my hands. That would work for me because the wind and the waves would still be there.

I just finished a book on media and meaning, so I suppose I should have some answers to how meaning is created and why it happens. I have some ideas, some tested hypotheses, and some interesting theories, but the actual spark is an awesome and mysterious thing and I think it will always remain so. As Miguel de Unamuno warned, when we dissect something to understand it, we kill it. We cannot know the square root of the ash tree.

So I will continue to write when I can and be surprised when I write something that is really good. It is always worth the wait.

A picture is worth a thousand words

Napolean suggested,

"Un bon croquis vaut mieux qu'un long discours,"

or "A good sketch is better than a long speech".

Some years ago I was entering into a entrepreneurial partnership with a person on the other side of the country. We knew each other fairly well, but needed to give this professional relationship a better chance of survival. He suggested we select a picture that best described our self-image as a business person. He saw himself as a fire fighter. His passion was stepping into the chaos of a company on fire (meaning a company going down in flames, or so hot it would implode of its own heat)and putting its house in order, and then leaving. Below is part of my response to him, plus some additional information and pictorial thoughts that I have added to this exercise since then. I have also used this as a reality check, running it by trusted friends, family and associates. Someone asked me this very question the other day, so I thought i would post some of this info--not so much to know me, but to highlight the value of the exercise.

I suppose if I had to use a one-word description of myself, my passion, it would be “builder.” I love building companies or any organization—maturation of processes, culture, climate, finding potential, creating catalytic mechanisms that avoid having to call firefighters... I want people to go to work excited and go home fulfilled—armed and ready to be a better person in all their stewardships. I am goal oriented, but reaching the goal is only part of the fun. It is like the Nietzsche thought: Not every end is a goal. The end of a melody is not its goal, but nonetheless, if the melody had not reached its end it would not have reached its goal... The following box I clipped from something I had the executive staff in a previous organization accomplish. We did one of those “personality tests”—this one from the book, Now Discover Your Strengths which provided the one word descriptives. We then described ourselves in a paragraph that we bounced off the group for a reality check.

Mike:
Achiever
Intellection
Learner
Input
Belief
I don’t like surprises, but I love a good risky adventure. I don’t like to rock the boat, but I do like to push for understanding—which can rock the boat sometimes. I need to improve my empathy, but I love diversity. I like to learn new skills and become a master at things, but the process is as important as the result. From that growth new vistas are created, new ideas are incubated, questions arise, introspection goes deeper. That intellectual introspection is checked by my values, ethics, and especially spiritual guidance. That guidance demands that I find work that meshes with my values. My actions must be meaningful and make a difference. I need to live out my values or find the job where I can. My actions require new research, study, writing, understanding and clarity; so I read, collect input and seek diversity. From that new input I learn and grow and the cycle continues for another turn. Sometimes I write and seek input too much from others. I think and do and then adjust. I can bend pretty far, but then I am decisive—sometimes to a fault.

Disappointed with Congress

So I am not going to get political here, just talk about manners. I was very disappointed with Congress tonight. It doesn't matter what party someone supports, but when the President comes to Congress and presents his case for an action, he is a guest in your house. You do not yell on live international TV "You Lie!" as Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina did. He not only went out on a limb--he cut it off. I was embarrassed for Congress and disappointed in our elected officials. Although shouts are a practice in the House of Commons of many Parliaments around the world, especially during Question Time, it is not the norm of acceptable behavior in Joint Sessions of Congress with a guest. That the guest in this case represents all Americans (no matter who voted for him--and to hopefully highlight my credibility that this post is not another political rant like so many out there I will admit I didn't vote for President Obama. But he is my President)it is doubly reprehensible. There is a movement to donate money to Congressman Wilson's opponent's election campaign. I'm not going there, but if anyone knows where an upset American can write in, let me know. It is times like this that I wish I had more than two people that read my blog. Am I the only one that also is to the bone tired of happy chuckles by Democrats that seem to say "in your ear!" to the other side of the isle and the Republicans that sit there with stern faces and arms folded no matter what the subject is(or with roles reversed some years ago)? Majority Party does not equate to Majesty Party and the Loyal Opposition does not equate to Log Jam Opposition. It is time to be bigger than politics and bigger than getting elected.

eBook Design and Usability

I was reading a blog post by Emily Watts, an editor at Deseret Book (http://emilywatts.com/) about the importance of your book having a hook. A hook being something that grabs the reader and separates it from the rest of the noise on the shelf. As she mentions, sometimes that is simply the author’s name. I will read anything from Gerald Lund or Dean Hughes, or Dostoevsky—but he isn’t writing much these days. My daughter will wait in line all night to buy a Stephenie Meyer book. Watts suggests that sometime the hook is the book title. And admit it—how many of us really do judge a book by its cover?

Then two friends on Facebook, sisters actually, began discussions about favorite books and the Kindle. That got me thinking about e-books. eBooks have a unique potential to create a hook. They also have to guard against the temptation to go too far. Bruce Barton suggests:

"If you have anything really valuable to contribute to the world, it will come through the expression of your own personality, that single spark of divinity that sets you off and makes you different from every other living creature.”

There is much discussion about websites having personality and how that attracts or detracts readership. Books also have personalities and quickly bond with some readers and repel others. With e-books, personality goes beyond titles and content and into the realm of visual design, dynamic graphic art, and usability, not just readability.

Sometimes the problem is that the author or publisher does it because they can. But they really can’t. Just because someone owns PageMaker, or FrontPage or even Quark or DreamWeaver doesn’t make the amateur a professional. Putting a bunch of great graphics in an e-book may detract more than help. In a 2006 interview with Luke Wroblewski , he quotes Curt Cloninger as saying, “usability experts are from Mars and graphic designers are from Venus. They are simply different animals and it takes great talent to bring the two together.

Without picking on some terrible designs, I will use an example from an ebook designer, Steven Schneiderman (http://www.designingebookcovers.com/). So which cover do you like? How do the fonts and layout and colors work together or against each other?



I have read several ebooks that have had potential but the design was terrible and the eye strain finally caused me to close the book. Navigation, download, and construction are important elements for any book, but especially an ebook.

Instead of providing some bad designs, I will offer one well done e-book design that tells the story and leverages the strengths of design and usability, while not creating a monster. Alex Dukal is a n illustrator of children’s books. You can see some of his work at http://www.circografico.com.ar/. I will admit I am a little partial because he is Argentine and I spent three wonderful years there, including Patagonia where he lives (although I don’t know him and only discovered his work recently). His design is rich, interesting and appealing. He uses a range of visual techniques to draw your attention, make you interested and to give you a warm feeling about the quality of the work. “But it's also simple, because it uses its pixels/ink/busyness with care and sensitivity. It's not gratuitous, it's economical and rich,” according to author Ben Hunt.

If ebooks are going to carve a significant portion of the market space we are going to need more than 3G Kindles. I look forward to the progress, even though I will still be buying physical books.

When Less is More

I just got back from a long two-week trip helping a daughter and son-in-law move from Provo, Utah to Atlanta, Georgia. It was a great trip, but with some long hours on the road. I mostly drove the moving truck, so the mph rarely broke 65. There was only a radio in the truck, so no books on tape to help pass the time. That gave me plenty of time to think, but little time to write. I have two books that I think about every day that are partially written and screaming for my attention. They seem to take turns at being the loudest. Meanwhile, quietly lurking in a dark corner, never screaming for my attention, but with an confident and sinister muahahaha, my dissertation reminds me of my responsibility, not necessarily my desire. Of course I want to complete my PhD in International Business, and I have promised my wife Vicky to take her to Paris with me to defend my dissertation when that time finally comes. The planned date is mid November. My son leaves for Mexico for a two-year mission in early November and we want to be home for Thanksgiving at the end of the month, so that leaves little flexibility.

I originally drew up a plan where I could work on a book (the one closest to completion got the nod) and still work on my dissertation. What I have discovered is, I can’t write a quality academic paper of this magnitude (somewhere around 350 pages) and the Great American Novel simultaneously. I suppose some of you great writers are mentally ambidextrous and can switch from precise academic style to rich and dynamic novelistic style (or so I like to think at least). On my long drive I finally decided that the quickest way to a quality completion of any of these projects was to focus on one and work in series instead of parallel.

I seem to remember from my one and only electrical engineering class (1976 in think) that the resistance (my challenges) through a series circuit is higher than through a parallel circuit (assuming the same resistors). Thus for the same amount of volts (energy) you get more amps (work) through a parallel circuit. Hmmm... That doesn’t seem to work for my present metaphor. Then I realized, (you can tell I had a lot of time to think on the drive) that for resistors in series, the current (amps) is the same for each resistor, and for resistors in parallel, the voltage is the same for each one. In other words, I could exchange the same energy working on multiple projects simultaneously, but the work would go down—that is the output, the quality would diminish. It will possibly be less efficient to complete one project and go on to the next, but the quality is what I am looking for, not efficient volume.

That got me thinking about the present generation of youth who do everything in parallel. I was waiting at a restaurant in Atlanta with my family and a young married couple came in and waited near us for a table. Both pulled out their i-phones and began doing multiple things while also holding something I assume they thought was a conversation. It was punctuated by a lot of single syllable sounds and I am not sure, if given a test whether either would really know what the other had said—perhaps they wouldn’t even had passed a test on they themselves had said. I love parallel operations, but give me quality anytime. When it comes to communications, I think less can actually be more and more can be less.

The Rising Matt Powers

Byblos Press and Byblos Media Author and Recording Artist, Matt Powers, is headlining at Dfest in Tulsa Oklahoma. He was recently interviewed by Tulsa Today (see the article here: The Rising Matt Powers)With 160 bands scheduled to appear, Matt garnered front page coverage with a lengthy article to boot.

Matt's Dfest Performance Dates:

Matt will perform Friday, July 24, at 6p.m. on the PAC Williams Stage. Then, he takes the stage with PEOPLE, July 25 at 6:15p.m at The Flytrap.

Here are some of Matt's other performance dates:

Jul 29 2009 9:00P
Silvie’s Lounge with PEOPLE Chicago, Illinois
Aug 1 2009 9:00P
Pete’s Candy Store Brooklyn, New York
Aug 4 2009 9:00P
The Annex New York, New York
Aug 8 2009 9:00P
All Call In with PEOPLE Ewing, New Jersey
Sep 6 2009 7:00P
Underground SS San Francisco, California
Sep 8 2009 10:00P
Element Lounge San Francisco, California
Sep 19 2009 9:00P
The Key Club with PEOPLE California, California
Oct 2 2009 7:30P
FOX KMPH Fresno Ch. 26 - GREAT DAY Fresno, California
Oct 2 2009 10:00P
Lucky 13 Fresno, California
Oct 4 2009 7:00P
Underground SS San Francisco, California
Oct 6 2009 10:00P
Element Lounge San Francisco, California
Oct 9 2009 7:30A
FOX KMPH Fresno Ch. 26 - GREAT DAY with PEOPLE Fresno/Visalia/Clovis/Coarsegold/YLP/Yosemite, California
Oct 9 2009 9:45P
Lucky 13 With PEOPLE Fresno, California

New Book On Line for Free

One of our Byblos Press authors, Matt Powers is providing for free a chapter a week of his new book Square One: A Tale of New New York on a public blog: http://squareonenny.blogspot.com/

Matt may be known to Byblos followers as a well known recording artist. Byblos Media was happy to be his first label. He has gone on the bigger things and is on tour this summer in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and the D-Fest in Tulsa in July. You can check out some of his new music at http://www.reverbnation.com/mattpowers/

Besides his creativity with music, Matt has a B.A. in English from NYU and has written several books, articles, and short stories. You should check out his new book for yourself, but here are the first few lines:

Chapter 1
“For the past month most of Africa had been out of power and their respective governments incommunicado. The latest reports seem to confirm rumors that the most recent strain of the NP has become airborne in several parts of Africa. All diplomatic and military probes fail to return. Satellite reports confirm, Egypt has been dark and silent for over a week now and Nigeria is victim to the largest oil fire in human history. It can be seen from space with the naked eye. Team members of the American spaceship Valiant have even been able to capture the image through the space stations windows using disposable cameras. In South Africa, large bands of men roam the streets after weeks of riots. Medicine meant for the sick has been auctioned off at gunpoint in marketplaces through out sub-Saharan Africa. What can be seen shows no signs that the Unification Accord was anything more than a brief dream.”
“I’ve just been handed an urgent bulletin: Missing American Submarine Porter Vance was found beached on the shores of Greenland. All 110 of her crew died from what experts are calling the greatest single threat to existence of man, the NP. Discovered-”
“China maintains its Defcon 6 status for the second week and seems reluctant to back down. Many of their more desirable people have been moved to government complexes buried deep in the heart of the Himalayas. Like the age old saying-”
“A silo explosion yesterday outside Beijing....