by Dean Unger

A truth neglected is a truth betrayed.

It had been a long day and I still had a late-night, after-show interview scheduled with Three Days Grace lead singer, Adam Gontier, aboard the band’s tour bus. I was tired and found myself inclined ...

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At the right time and the right place, a good sentence can run for miles.

Some time ago I made a comment on Twitter about how language and editorial – even when delivered within the context of promotions and marketing, is noticeably declining. Running an ...

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  Placing a good book into a book lover's hands reaches them in a way no other gift can. Gifting books, if done with a little thought and preparation, can be a rewarding mutual experience. But short of asking the person you are buying for what the most important books in their lives are, or what subjects interest them, buying books for someone else can be a complex undertaking, especially when talking about non-fiction and special interest subjects.

There are some general guidelines that will make your book gifting experience everything it should be. By putting some thought into it, you are not just giving a book, but contributing to the literary experience of another. Determine whether you are buying a book intended strictly for entertainment or enjoyment value, whether more for educational purposes, to introduce an important literary experience or to add to the existing collection of friend or family. Depending on what objective you aspire to, the necessary legwork goes up in ascending order.

The real secret to successfully gifting a book is in taking the time to get to know something about the person you are buying for. What are their interests? What line of work are they in? Do they have any hobbies?

Buying for those closest to you is likely already in hand, but with patient observation and good conversation it’s not difficult to buy successfully for an acquaintance or workmate in your gift pool. Almost everyone has a favourite title from childhood - that quintessential book that opened up a magical world through which they escaped for a short time, and upon their return, left them with an indelible impression. Find that book and you’ve got a friend for life.

It would be impossible to present an exhaustive list here. This would include childrens' literature from the late nineteenth century, specialty non-fiction books written over the last century and a half that are still available at a reasonable price, or for that matter, fiction authors who have withstood the acid test and will likely, in a hundred or so years, be looked upon with the same favour we now admire Robert Louis Stevenson, Victor Hugo, and Arthur Conan Doyle. Any of these make a good choice. But ultimately, as already mentioned, the book you buy should be determined by the tastes and interests of the person you are buying for. (check my other blogs for lists of suggested titled for children, youth and adults.

  Several years ago, I was out looking for the quintessential book for an historian friend of mine who was fascinated by the art and science of lock and key. I happened upon a copy of F.J. Butter’s On Locks and Locksmithing, published by Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons in 1926. The author was a good writer who possessed a unique flair for storytelling. Among the great technical information not found in any of the modern works, he related many vivid anecdotes and tales that fired the imagination, not the least of which was an entertaining account of impassioned feuds among lockmakers who would finance lock-picking contests pitting their own wares against those of their competitors. Each respective interest would hire the best ‘picks’ in the business to try and solve the others’ locks in the least amount of time. The gift had the desired effect, so much so that I had to entertain myself for the remainder of the visit while my compatriot lost himself in the book.

On another occasion I happened to overhear a friend talking about a book he had read as a child, called, Ranger, Sea Dog of the Royal Mounted, a young adult novel written by Charles S. Strong. He was so taken by the story that he was inspired there and then, closed book still in hand, to become a member of the RCMP. A young man true to his ambition, he went on to have a prolific career not only as a policeman, but in the Canadian military as a champion marksman; a volunteer in the U.S. Marines, where he was one of few Canadians to do several tours in Vietnam; an extended career with an intelligence agency, and a groundbreaking career with the RCMP - all because he had been inspired as a child by a book.

What is my favourite? I was in grade one. We were taking our weekly trip to the school library, single file down the vast hallways of elementary institution. Of the thousands of available titles for the taking, I reached up and pulled a majestic copy of Howard Pyle’s, King Stork, illustrated by Trina Hyman, in her signature style - flowing, feathery strokes, well-defined lines, in slightly washed but still vibrant colours. The book transformed me. I remember being shaken to the core by some of the pictures and perhaps wondering what on earth a book like this was doing in an elementary school library. But it wasn’t the pictures alone that impacted me, it was the story - a parable similar in vein to the original Aesop’s Fables which are said to be evolved from ancient oral history.  These tales were told in caves and around fires through history, before the invention of censure and perhaps, in some cases, better judgement. As an aside though, I’ve since accumulated what are now some of my fondest bookish memories of reading scary stories late at night while tucked in bed, and loosing my page for dropping the book to get the covers up around my head.

Most every book published leaves an indelible impression in respect of relative subject matter, prose style and tradition, and thus takes its place in the written works of humanity. To an artist friend I once gave a coveted copy of Secret Formulas and Techniques of the Masters , by Jacques Maroger , originally published by Studio Publications, in 1948. At present, this is not an easy title to find, but hopefully some publisher with admirable foresight will see fit to bring it to light again. Maroger was the former technical director of the laboratory of the Louvre Museum, Paris, and President of the Restorers of France.

Born in Paris in 1884, Maroger later studied under artists Louis Anquetin and Jacques Blanche. Largely influenced by Anquetin, who worked with the likes of Degas, Renoir, Lautrec and Van Gogh , Maroger devoted his life to the research and study of the Old Masters' artistic principles, techniques and materials. He focused primarily on the reconstruction of their oil painting mediums - his book was the result of those years of research and experimentation. In it he reveals recipes and methods of extracting true color as devised by Theophilus, Van Eyck, Antonello da Messina , Leonardo da Vinci, Velasquez , and a few others. Maroger himself writes that since the knowledge of great painting techniques of the Renaissance was so mysteriously lost to the world during the seventeenth century, artists have toiled desperately to rediscover the methods used by these artists and their progeny.

To Maroger, it seemed that to look upon the canon of the work done since, there was something lacking “in the material on their palates”, robbing artists of the same eminence, qualities of color, brilliance of surface and modeling that the masters had achieved. Maroger’s book was written for the modern artist still haunted by this “apparently unattainable perfection”, to aid them in their search for the aesthetic holy grail. Only one legitimate printing of this great work has been done to date, a true sleeping giant of the art world.

Placing a good book into a booklover’s hands reaches them in a way no other gift can. But buying for another can be daunting, especially when talking about non-fiction and special interest subjects; individual tastes in books are as vast and varied as books themselves. With a little thought and preparation, gifting a book can be a rewarding mutual experience. Here are some pointers to make the job easier. Whether the office gift pool or buying for relatives or friends, a well chosen book can carry value that goes well beyond the sticker price.

• Buying for those closest to you is likely already in hand, but with patient observation and a few well-placed un-obvious inquiries it’s not difficult to get a handle on what direction you should be heading with your prospective recipient.

• So where to start? Almost everyone has a favourite read from childhood - that quintessential book that opened a magical world through which they escaped for a short time and left them with an indelible lasting impression. Find that book and you’ve got a friend for life.

• Determine whether you are buying a book strictly for entertainment value, whether the book is for educational purposes, to introduce an important literary experience, or to add to an existing collection.

• Get to know something about the person you are buying for. What are their interests? What line of work are they in? Do they have any hobbies?

• Determine what you are willing to spend. A modern reprint in a nicely done trade edition will cost around $10.00. A first edition of Interview with a Vampire can run you several hundred.

• Old vs. Valuable? – Old does not necessarily mean valuable. Generally speaking value depends on author, subject matter, availability, condition and edition.

• Old or New? - It’s a matter of taste and utility. A run of old bindings looks great on the living room shelf. A new reprint can be handled without worrying about damage.

• Where to Buy? You are more likely to find a mid-nineteenth century edition of Enoch Arden at a good used shop than at a chain store – just the opposite for shiny new reprints.
  

Take time to read-up on, and think deeply about, your assignment. Where is the value proposition? Is there a deeper story? What is the human element? Were/are there trials and tribulations? Contrast? Contradictions?

A couple of broad subjects or "big" questions we could look to try and answer:

• Why the recent wide-spread interest in independent film-making over the last decade?
• How has independent film-making changed over the last fifty years?
• In what ways is independent film different from feature film making? How is it distinct?
• Is independent film more about Art in its pure form than feature film-making? If so, then 
  how and why?
• Who were some of the pioneers in early independent film-making?
• How many different genres of indie film-making are there? What is or which are the most popular?

Use the answers you get (which may also come from supplementary research you do before or after the event/s) to start to inform the more refined subjects you'd like to cover: are there elements that turn up in the larger body of your research to the "big" questions above, that make sense when you start to develop your story? If there are, use them to add context and depth.

Don't self-edit during your first draft. Go sit in a coffee shop somewhere when you've got all your material and interviews done but they're still fresh, and then brainstorm, free-write, and spitball your creative notions and ideas. Free-write two or four pages, then use this to pull main ideas and cool wordage or phrases to build the architecture of your main article.

Also, do a little background research yourself on some of these topics and some of the people you plan to try and catch up with, and concerning some of the films you plan to see, to help inform your questions. If there's one thing I've learned in my years of interviewing, it's that people who are good at what they do love a well-thought and/or intriguing question. Even people who are hardened to the interview process after years of inane and thoughtless interview experiences, can be seduced with a few insidious intrigues.

Just be yourself. Develop a natural, casual style that sets people at ease. Dress sharp, and play your devilish good charm.

Above all, develop a moral compass and stay true.

Plotting a novel and living life are completely different.
Plotting a novel and living life are totally the same thing.
Of this I am certain.

In life there are windows of opportunity. So too in the life of your characters; there are decisions to be made which, if taken, will open new vistas of experience – all the more valuable should one of those vistas be the appearance of a single door in an otherwise door-less hallway occupied by a hungry, narrow-minded grizzly.

Rarely do you see a character “not” making a decision – more to the point, it is whether they will make the right or the wrong decision, not whether they will fail to make any decision at all; this seems to be an ailment unique to human-kind.

I digress.

In our novels, we get to play god. We create worlds and characters and push our characters all over the page on the tip of a pen. WE create those circumstances for opportunities to take place, via decisions made, via situational architecture. Every decision a character makes leavens the right set of circumstances for the story to grow and flourish, like an elucidative mycelium, which, given the right conditions, adds to the subjective fabric and framework, and provides texture and momentum.

In our story, with our character, we are the super-consciousness behind the juggernaut of evolution, the subtle inspiration behind divine synchronicity; we are the foot on the ass of territorial imperative into which we throw our clever characters to thrash about and make sense of our chaotic microcosm; where we assign them to sorting the white thread from the eggshell thread.

There are some writers who profess to working without an outline or synopsis - even a loose plot line for that matter. John Fowles (French Lieutenants Woman, The Magus, etc..) is one of them. When we let our characters make decisions that are not directed, but more a knee-jerk reaction to their environment, we may find ourselves deep in the heart of Daedalus' labyrinth. Fait accompli is a viable approach to fiction, as evidenced by Fowles and others like him, but be aware, it is advisable to at least fasten a ball of string to your waist before you head into this dark abyss. Choose to let your characters be reactionary, but within certain confines to ensure that the promise you make to you readers – that something worth reading about is happening here – will be fulfilled.

In life, we can leave ourselves open to what may come, but can only take ownership of the results when we make directed, reasonably planned decisions. In much the same way, we create opportunity for our characters – doors for them to walk through – which, in and of themselves, create outcomes which become the fabric of their existence.

Meanwhile, we, in our contemptible reality, are required to think it through, to believe or disbelieve, to feel champions or feel the clown in our own one-act play, and to second-guess divine inspiration. Live your life like your plotting a novel.

As for your characters, try cutting them loose. You may feel as though you're losing control, but rest assured they'll still come around with their hand-out when they need you.

Most major book publishers in 2008 made drastic cuts and underwent downsizing to trim budgets in the face of declining sales, with fingers pointing at the horizon. An ambitious marketing campaign equivalent to the throngs of Sauran descending upon Middle Earth, had been launched by the purveyors at Apple (Ipad), Sony (E-Book Reader), Amazon's Kindle, and so on, the marketing effort was essentially an onslaught. Heck, they even decided to make their publisher's list equalling millions of titles, free in a futile attempt to infiltrate the insatiable E-book consumer that is chomping at the bit. << MORE >>

Before the internet, before downloads, before CDs, there were 33’s, 45’s, eight tracks, cassettes, and albums. They were all controlled by major labels and their major distribution channels. Today there are four major label groups: The Universal Group, EMI, Warner, and Sony BMG Music Entertainment. Market share for these companies has traditionally been defined by hard copy products – CDs and in some cases records, plus revenue from marketing and promotion of their signed acts. The problem for these companies is that new and emerging technology has undermined this traditional marketing model, and peer-to-peer file sharing - an innovation that had its roots in the early 1980s - is at the root of it. Each year, hard copy album sales continue to diminish while downloads continue to increase. Market share has become vastly diversified, with radio and television spots, ring tones, and digital downloads now providing dominant, viable peripheral revenue streams . Apple (Mac Computers) is leading this technology and continues to distance itself from its competitors.

So where does this leave the major labels? With CD sales on the decline and artists jumping ship opting to run their own affairs, major labels are scrambling to try and make up lost ground. To meet the tide of artists going it alone, independent labels have been popping up all over North America. Indie labels are thriving as musicians and would-be promoters quickly learn that it doesn’t take immense amounts of capital to capture market share and that technology is now the mainstay in accessing audiences in the new age of music.

There are currently 32 different sites on the internet that allow artists to release music worldwide. Itunes, CD baby, and Rhapsody are just a few that readily enable inexpensive, world-wide distribution. Independent Labels can focus on a limited amount of artists and contribute the support necessary to help drive their signed musicians into the main stream.

Whereas talented musicians once considered obscure and falling to the right or the left of the target market are now potentially on the same playing field as mainstream bands. My Space, Youtube, GarageBand, Reverbnation, and Facebook are all sites that contribute to a bands ability to promote themselves with a minimal output of cash.

As a result, many musicians maintain that the only use for a major label is for its distribution channels; though some consumers still maintain that if an artist or band has a major label attached, it must be good music.