Weekly Wilson

Reverse the Trend: Buy and Read It Came from the ’70s: From The Godfather to Apocalypse Now

Is reading in America a dying pursuit?  The NEA suggests it is, after conducting an in-depth study of the situation (read entire report at www.nea.gov.). “Reading at Risk” surveyed over 17,000 adults ages 18 or older, asking them about their reading habits in regards to novels, short stories, poetry or plays.  The focus was mainly on literary reading trends and  reading not associated with work or school.

To Read or Not to Read: That Is the Question

In a separate study entitled “To Read or Not to Read,” statistics were gathered from more than 40 national studies on reading habits of children, teenagers and adults.  This study dealt with all kinds of reading:  books, magazines, newspapers, and online reading.

According to the NEA, less than 1/3 of 13-year-olds read for pleasure every day, a 14$ decline from 20 years ago.  The percentage of 17-year-old non-readers doubled in that same twenty-year span.  If you’re an American between the ages of 15 and 24, you spend 2 hours a day watching television, but only 7 minutes a day reading. (Nov., 2007)

In an earlier study done in July of 2004, “Reading at Risk:  A Survey of Literary Reading in America” conducted by the census bureau in 2002 at NEA request,  adults were asked if they had read anything for pleasure in the previous 12 months.  One-half of 18 to 24-year-olds read no books for pleasure.  Between 1992 and 2002, the % dropped by 7%.

The Internet Also Rises

Between 1997 and 2003, Internet use was up 53%, however, for 18 to 24-year-olds.  The connection for 18 to 29-year-olds (broadband) was up 25points between 2005 and 2007, but the spending on books was down by 14% between 1985 and 2005.

Timothy Shanahan, a professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago and past president of the International Reading Association, says that many young people say they don’t read because it’s lonely.  When they are online or text messaging, they feel involved with others, but they do not feel this sense of community when reading by themselves.  “What kids like about IM-ing and text messaging is that it’s playful and interactive and connects them to their friends,” said Shanahan in an article entitled “The Grim Reader” in the March/April, 2008 issue of Poets & Writers magazine. (pp. 10-13)

Shanahan continued, “The Harry Potter books were popular not mainly because of this wonderful story and the language, I don’t think, but because it was this huge phenomenon that allowed young people to participate in it. What was exciting was reading what your friends were reading and talking to them about it.  People of all ages are hungry for that kind of community.”

The article continues discussing the need for community and how the Internet seems to fill that void for many disconnected individuals.  It is not difficult to see that reading a book, as opposed to going online, might suffer, if the desire for feedback and community, lacking in today’s anonymous society, is satisfied most by online substitutes for actual human interaction.

An English Teacher’s Lament

One only has to go online to any blog to see the decline and fall of the English language.  A young friend with degrees in computer science tells me, “They didn’t teach us that stuff,” when I ask him about his spelling, grammar, and syntax errors.  By “they” he means, of course, his English teachers, and I have heard this refrain from my students at 6 colleges in my day.   I “taught this stuff” for almost 20 years to 12 and 13-year-olds.  In my classes, we labored long and hard learning proper grammar, spelling, syntax, subject/verb agreement, etc.

I moved into the private sector in 1985 and, apparently, the attempts to teach “that stuff” went with me.

When and why did English teachers stop trying to teach the correct use of our native, which has a direct bearing on reading?  The two subjects are inter-related, like a cat chasing its tail.  I used to tell my customers at the Sylvan Learning Center that for every $10 spent on reading improvement, only about $1 was spent on writing improvement, however, and that, too shows up everywhere today.

This very bright young man cited earlier now finds himself completely qualified to do the technical side of  web-design, but handicapped in doing it by a lack of proficiency in the areas mentioned.

I remember when I began teaching at the junior high school level in 1969.  My students routinely wrote short stories, which were then taken to the high school Creative Writing classes for judging.  By the time I left my public school post in 1985 to found a Sylvan Learning Center, the students coming up could no longer write a coherent sentence, let alone a paragraph, let alone a story.  We had to discontinue the short story contest, and the Creative Writing class at the high school level similarly withered and died on the vine.

Sometimes, veteran teachers of English feel like the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dike.  We know that the dike will give way if we remove our finger, what are we to do?  Language is constantly changing, yes.  It is not set in stone and there are new words and terms and techno-speak being added very day.  I am much more likely to use a “sentence fragment” in stories I write today, because I have changed with the times.

But some appreciation for following the rules handed down by great writers seems wise.  Poet e.e. cummings was the exception that proves the rule, not a groundbreaker who made new ones, and Cormac McCarthy’s disdain for the apostrophe in The Road may lead nowhere good.

In Conclusion

It is a proven fact that poor reading skills lead to lower financial and job success (Dana Gioie, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts) and academic success can be predicted by the number of books in a house.

Let’s reverse the trend and keep on reading, especially It Came from the ’70s: From The Godfather to Apocalypse Now. (www.ItCamefromtheSeventies.com) [Available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or www.merryblacksmith.com].

The Kindle

I just concluded teaching “Blogging for Bucks” at the Midwest Writing Conference at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, and sat in on a presentation from an e-book publisher. The same gentleman now setting up to publish in e-book formats was an agent when I sat next to him at lunch in Chicago at “Love Is Murder” a few years ago. Now, he and his wife—and me—are pioneers packing our wagon train and heading for the New Frontier of Kindles and Nooks.

David Morrell thinks that agents, in the future, will take over most of the functions  of print publishers. I have an agent. I would rather not use her and take care of business myself, but, then, I founded and functioned as CEO of 2 previous businesses  (Sylvan Learning Center #3301 and Prometric Testing Center #3301), so I don’t mind it that “the buck stops here.” In fact, I prefer it that way.

I  just attended the BEA (Book Expo America) in New York City for the 8th time, BlogWorld, WorldCon (in Austin, TX) and the Book Blogger conference at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. All the talks and presentations and panels eventually talked about  e-book publishing and what to make of it. Here’s what I make of e-book publishing and I will echo J.A. Konrath, one of the leaders of the charge.

Why not?

“Writers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains! Give me your hungry-to-publish, your poor struggling authors, your wretched masses yearning to write free. I lift my E-Lamp beside the golden door.”

The “tipping point” for e-books versus print books has already been reached. By Christmas, the deluge will be unleashed as waves of Kindles and BookNooks and Sony Readers are gifted. The new generation (Millennials) are growing up playing with complex technology and hungry for it. My two-year-old granddaughters see anything electronic (camera, cell phone, Ipad) and immediately want to glom onto it.

There is no turning back.

The new frontier is upon us. The print publishing industry is circling the wagons. [They're humming Cher's song, "If I Could Turn Back Time."] In reading David Morrell’s blog, I saw that he had revised his opinion on when e-books would overtake print books downward from 5 years to 2 years. Reading the new E-book “How I Sold 1 Million Copies of My E-Book in 5 Months” by John Locke, I learned that GBL (Guaranteed Buy Lists) and OOU (One of Us) and blogging to spread the word are all going to be part of the Author-of-the-Future’s repertoire.

In my own case, my paperback books are not self-published. Small, independent publishers thought enough of my work to put out the print copies.  I paid Pattishall, McAuliffe, Newbury, Hilliard & Geraldson LLP (Chicago) to retain all e-book rights. I publish the same book as an e-book under the imprimatur Quad City Press. I make more money from virtual book sales and I know I’m being paid what I’m owed.
What are the advantages? Control, for one thing.

I had one publisher who slapped a cheap cover on a good book and nearly ruined it. (One reviewer even said, “You can’t judge this book by its cover.”) This would never have happened if I had published it as an e-book title and developed the cover myself. That same publisher kept my book a year, never paid me one cent of royalties (despite being contractually obligated to do so) and then, after I protested, sent me a check for $32. I knew, for a fact, that the book had sold that much in one book signing at a Barnes & Noble store, but how would I prove that I had been cheated? I licked my wounds and moved on, got a new (better) cover (Amish men don’t wear blue jeans, shirts with rick-rack and pork pie hats!) and published it as a Kindle title myself. It’s new and improved, and it stays up until I say it comes down. Plus, I don’t have to worry about being cheated out of my royalties or not getting paid when the company goes under, as is happening now with Leisure book authors.

If you price your book under $9.99, the author retains 70% of the money paid directly to his or her bank account. I was recently offered 35% royalties by an e-book publisher to publish my 80,000 word novel The Color of Evil. The company wanted extensive rewrites of one section. There was no upfront money, so promotion would still be all on my dime, as has been the case with the small independent publishers with whom I’ve worked. Why not publish this myself as Quad City Press, not have to rewrite in a different voice, and reap two times the royalties? (70% versus 35%). Also, you can do creative things with pricing books in a series, which is my plan with The Color of Evil, Red Is for Rage and the third book in the series, (which I am at work writing now.)

E-book publishing is both a godsend and opening the floodgates. True, some drek will be published, but if you have a person who has been writing for pay for 55 years (as I have) and has won national awards for his or her writing (as I have), your odds are pretty good that, if you like one title by this proficient author, you’ll like the others.

Pricing is key. Perseverance is key, but watch out, world. Here we come: the E-book authors are on the move! Get ready!

I copied the column below from the archives of www.blogforiowa.com. It will appear within a new Kindle offering that will go up very soon on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The title of the book is Laughing through Life, and it chronicles funny stories from my first years as a young wife, mother and teacher, on through the following of the presidential candidates in 2004 and 2008 and up to the present. When it appears for sale, I’ll be sure to let you know. For now, enjoy this “sneak preview” of one of the offerings within it. (And if you want to see the original picture of Al Franken and me, check the archives of www.blogforIowa.com.

Keynote Speaker – Al Franken

AND YOU ARE THERE!

Or

”A Mush Mute, a Big Hat and a Plum”

Just a few comments about the October 16th Jefferson/Jackson (2004) annual Democratic dinner at Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines.

1)    The acoustics at Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium suck.

2)    Because the acoustics suck, the large TV screens have captioning. The captioning must be done by a machine. This can lead to much merriment. Especially if you have made it your goal, after at least three hours of waiting, to obtain and consume a minimum of three glasses of white zinfandel prior to Al Franken’s appearance.

3)    “Ed is the Governor of Pencil.” I think the machine MEANT to say that Ed is or was the Governor of Pennsylvania.

4)    The word “Dear” is listed as “Deer.”

5)    The machine cannot make up its mind whether the choir of Gospel Singers is from the Maple or Elm Street Missionary Baptist Church Choir. At this point, the machine is introducing various tree types. Things are very confused.

6)    We are asked to join hands with the person next to us. The person next to me, on my right, is Thomas Fischermann, Economic Correspondent for the German weekly “Die Zeit.” I tell Tom that holding hands in this fashion in America means that we are now legally married. Tom tells me that he knows this isn’t true, as he was raised Catholic. I admit that I lied (which is more than I can say for George W. Bush). Tom turns out to be a delightful seat-mate for the dinner, which we are not eating.

7)    At one point, after the droning of fully two dozen would-be Democratic candidates, none of whom any of us knows, Tom says he might have to go back to his hotel room and watch Al (Franken) on TV. (He doesn’t.) He is disappointed that Sharon Stone isn’t going to appear (aren’t we all?) I ask Tom whether he thinks Vanessa Kerry is wearing nylons. He is too much of a gentleman to comment. Oh, those European men. Especially those who had English teachers from Wisconsin.

8)    After about 2 hours of the droning and bellowing (the sound system is REALLY bad), I say that it is going to be my goal to drink three glasses of white zinfandel before Franken takes the stage. I am actually doubting that Franken will EVER take the stage. This turns out to be a really bad plan. Why? I have taken my college roommate as photographer-in-residence, and, when I put my camera and the wine glasses (small plastic cups at $5 a pop) on the floor, she accidentally kicks a glass of white zinfandel over my camera and it completely soaks it. Thomas rescues the camera from the ever-widening pool of wine. The strap is soaked and the lens is “cloudy.” I do not get one single usable picture from my trusty Canon after the unfortunate wine incident, henceforth known as “Zinfandel-gate.” As I did manage to secure two glasses of zinfandel prior to Zinfandel-gate, I don’t care. Later, I will rue the day. Or night.

9)    To my extreme left is “Jane,” correspondent for “People” magazine. She is covering the candidate’s children for a story. Jane is very nice. She is dressed in black. She would like some food. We do not get any food. We would not get anything to drink, either, if I hadn’t made the infamous “Zinfandel-gate” run. (*Kids: Take note! Do NOT try this at home!)

10)    Other errors on the sub-title machine that amuse me:  “Fill” for a candidate whose first name is “Phil.” “He is a man of grass.” (This may actually be accurate; we don’t know. Perhaps he meant that “W” is an *ss? Or a man of *ss? Very confusing. Don’t know; can’t tell you.)

11)    When someone says, “The future of this country is at stake. The future of the world is at stake,” Thomas leans over and says, “The sky is falling.” I laugh. Perhaps I should write this down? Again, don’t know; can’t tell you.

12)    More machine sub-title errors: for “pirate suit,” (which is connected to Al Franken’s remarks about George W. Bush wearing a ridiculous flight suit with a huge cod-piece on his now-infamous “Mission Accomplished” battleship appearance). The machine spells out: “pie rat.” Perhaps this machine is smarter than anyone realizes.

13)    Other errors that I cannot explain, from the sub-titling machine: “sash and acute” (?) “A mush mute, a big hat and a plum.”

14)    I enjoyed Al Franken’s remark that, after 9/11, the country was very united. “My college roommate even got out an old T-shirt to wear that touted America. Of course, it took him four hours to white-out ‘sucks.’”

15)    What have I learned from this experience? Never trust sub-titling machines. Always trust the German correspondent for “Die Zeit.” He is very knowledgable, very handsome, and we chat at great length about the Diebolt voting machines and the potential for voter fraud in the upcoming election. Please give Thomas a raise; I think he likes Vanessa Kerry, and he will need it to win her heart.

16)    Never try to drink three glasses of white zinfandel while simultaneously shooting film and taking notes. But it’s ok to laugh. A lot.

Three local authors will be signing books in Long Grove during the annual Strawberry Festival, on Sunday, June 12, 2011. The trio will be 2 blocks from the fire station, selling a total of 10 different titles, which range from self-help nonfiction to science fiction to ghost stories set along Route 66.

The 3 local authors taking part in the event are debut author Pauline Marquez, head of last year’s Quad City Book Fair David Dorris, and Connie (Corcoran) Wilson.

Mr. Dorris’ second book, “LIfe Is Too Short” will be on sale, as will titles ranging from “It Came from the 70s: From The Godfather to Apocalypse Now,” “Hellfire & Damnation,” “Out of Time,” “Ghostly Tales of Route 66″ (Volumes I, II and III), and “Both Sides Now.” The authors will also be present at the RME (River Music Experience) on July 30 from noon to 8 p.m. Time frame for tomorrow’s signing is noon to 4 p.m.

On May 21 at the Union Club, the Chicago branch of  the Illinois Women’s Press Association awarded its Silver Feather awards for writing excellence to several of Connie’s projects, including both of her most recent books, It Came from the ’70s: From The Godfather to Apocalypse Now and Hellfire & Damnation.  Both books have already scored (first-ever) E-Lit awards for their Kindle versions ($8.50 and $2.99, respectively, on Amazon and Barnes & Noble). Hellfire & Damnation, which is organized around Dante’s Inferno and its 9 Circles of Hell, also placed 7th (of 46 nominees) on the Preliminary Stoker Ballot. (Stephen King placed 10th on that ballot) from the HWA (Horror Writers’ Association. A sneak preview of one of the stories from the sequel to follow went up (for 99 cents) as a Kindle short story (6,500 words) on May 17th, entitled “The Bureau.”

A third book Ghostly Tales of Route 66 in Kindle format also was named a Gold Medal winner in the E-Lit awards in the travel category earlier this year. ($9.50 on Amazon and Barnes & Noble). It has only recently been made available in other than print format, although the Kindle format contains several new stories never before published, but has no pictures as the print versions do.

Other categories awarded Silver Feather awards for excellence in writing by the IWPA were:

     Photo on the Web for “The Tall Ships in Chicago at Navy Pier” on www.WeeklyWilson website.

     Writing for the Web:  “Obama in Iowa for Health Care Initiatie:  Tea Partiers Rally Outside Iowa City Fieldhouse.”

     Writing for the Web, Column or Commentary:  “Opinion:  Phil Hare Is Better Choice than Bobby Schilling in Illinois’ 17th District Race,” Yahoo! News.

     Videos for the Website, Special Interest Site:  Hellfire & Damnation, Quad Cities’ Learning, dba Quad City Press

     Writing for the Web, Feature Article:  “What Did General Stanley McChrystal Really Say in the ‘Rolling Stone’ Article that Got Him Fired?”, Yahoo Contributor Network

     Website Development, Special Interest Sites:  www.ConnieCWilson.com, Quad Cities’ Learning, Inc.

     Blogs, Webcontent, Special Interest Sites, “Weekly Wilson:  Chicago Film Festival:  Encounters of the Famous Kind,” WeeklyWilson website.

          Connie signed copies of her newest book, It Came from the ’70s: From The Godfather to Apocalypse Now at the BEA (Book Expo America) on Wednesday, May 25 from 2 to 3 p.m. and she will be selling and signing copies of all of her books at Printers’ Row on Saturday, June 5 and Sunday, June 6, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

   If you miss her there, try the RME (River Music Experience) on July 30th in Davenport, Iowa, during the Bix Road Race weekend which coincides with the RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Bike Race Across Iowa) race finale. She will also be heading out for appearances at an assortment of Family Video stores with the movie book and delivering a lecture at the Moline Club in the near future. (Stay tuned for further developments.)

It’s been quite a while since I’ve been here, writing about anything going on in my world. That is because I was in Chicago covering the Chicago Film Festival for nearly all of October, at Bishop Hill with other authors, and am now getting ready to launch promotional things for my newest nonfiction book, “It Came From the ’70s: From The Godfather to Apocalypse Now.”

But, first, a look at the signing on October 30th, the day before Halloween, for the final “Ghostly Tales of Route 66″ book in the trilogy of “Ghostly Tales of Route 66.”

Find me next on December 4th at Barnes & Noble at Northpark with my nonfcition movie book and stay tuned for news of some other local signings, with the possibility of winning movie passes if you purchase a book.

The young duckling doing the signing is granddaughter Ava, whose twin sister, Elise was off on an “enjoy and destroy” mission of Barnes & Noble at Northpark Mall in Davenport on October 30th.

Fifty-nine year old Jim Ridings has self-published a new book (342 pp.) about a corrupt governor of Illinois, which includes statements like these:

• “He is so unscrupulous that his lack of principle gives him the appearance of audacity.”
• “Insufferable”
• “Small-minded”
• “Unprincipled”
• “Maybe his bad record is a help to him…It is so bad, it is unbelievable.  When the truth is told, people say it cannot be so, and that there must be a vicious reason behind the telling of it.” (Chicago Tribune editorial about this governor.)
• “The great game of politics is played everywhere, but nowhere with greater zest than in the state of Illinois.” (“Time” magazine article about this governor).
• First Governor of Illinois to be arrested while in office.
• “Is the worst governor the state ever had.  We believe he is the worst governor any state ever had.  He has contaminated everything with which he has come in contact in politics.” (Editorial from the Chicago Tribune)

So, who are we talking about here?

The question is valid, because, at this point, the book begins to outline how the governor of Jim Ridings’ book “did wickedly, willfully, unlawfully and feloniously embezzle and fraudulently convert to his own use” more than a million dollars in state money when he was Illinois treasurer in 1904, prior to becoming Governor of Illinois, a post he held from 1921 to 1929.

When arrested, this Governor refused to surrender to authorities for nearly 3 weeks, claiming that the doctrine of separation of powers protected him from arrest. He threatened to use the National Guard to place Springfield under martial law to protect him.

Prosecutors said the accused Governor had deposited millions into a fictitious bank to defraud the state out of interest payments, and that he had operated a money-laundering scheme. The defense maintained that the governor didn’t really know what was being done in his name and was the victim of his mean-spirited political foes. This Governor considered the Chicago Tribune to be chief among his “political foes,” as a current website about the governor and his family says, “The Chicago Tribune championed a cause against the Governor which impressed upon him the importance of hometown newspaper(s).”

I know you have all been reading this and thinking that the scoundrel’s name was Rod Blagojevich.

In reality, Rod Blagojevich was the second Governor of Illinois to be arrested while in office. The first was Lennington Small, a Republican from Kankakee whose offspring went on to found the Small Newspaper Group, and the SNG website says, “He established the integrity of the business through personal example.”

[After the list of charges above, I’m almost afraid to consider what that might have meant.]

Lennington Small, when brought to trial, was acquitted, but a juror and two Chicago mobsters were later indicted on charges that the jury had been bribed. Small, upon his acquittal and subsequent re-election bid (!), commuted the sentences of two other mobsters who had been jailed for refusing to cooperate with the grand jury investigating the circumstances of Lennington Small’s acquittal. It should be noted that Lennington Small lost a civil lawsuit and was forced to repay the state of Illinois $650,000. But he wasn’t impeached and—will wonders never cease—even won that second term in office.

Lennington Small died in 1936. His name was largely forgotten until his great grandson, Stephen Small, then 40, died after being buried alive in a botched kidnapping attempt in 1987.

The Small Newspaper Group began in 1913 with “The Daily Republican” in Kankakee (one of three newspapers in the town) and went on to acquire The Daily Times in Ottawa (1955); the LaPorte Herald-Argus (LaPorte, Indiana, 1964); the Daily Dispatch in Moline (1969); The Leader (Iowa Quad Cities) in 1978, (which has now ceased operations, although the SMG website does not note this); Star Publication weeklies in the south Chicago suburbs (1975-1995); SNG group prints 80,000 to 105,000 copies of “USA Today” in Kankakee (1983 to the present); “Family Weekly” magazine, which later became “USA Weekend”,  was sold to CBS in 1980; Rochester “Post-Bulletin” (1977), the largest afternoon daily in the state of Minnesota; “Times-Press” in Streator, IL (1980; current Daily Dispatch publisher Roger Ruthhart came to Moline from Streator); Palisadian Post in California (1981); The Rock Island Argus from the Potter family, “one of the state’s oldest continuously published newspapers” in Rock Island, IL (1995), which also ceased operations in the recent past; and, in 1969, brothers Len and Burrell divided the family’s holdings in print and broadcast properties, with Len taking the newspapers and Burrell inheriting such properties as WKAN,  in existence since 1947.

The SNG (Small Newspaper Group) website says of Governor Lennington Small, “The Governor is best-known for the 7,000 miles of hard roads he built in Illinois and for his support of the State Fair.”

Perhaps author Jim Ridings, who has written Len Small- Governors and Gangsters, a 342-page book about the “worst governor ever” would suggest other things for which Governor Small might be remembered, such as setting the bar so low that it took 90 years for someone (Rod Blagojevich) to lower it further.

SOURCES:  SNG (Small Newspaper Group) official website; “The Worst Illinois Governor?” by Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune, Wed., July 21, p. 21; “Len Small: Governors and Gangsters,” self-published by Jim Ridings (342 pp., 2009).

Drury Design, Glen Ellyn, Illinois

On June 19th, the community of Glen Ellyn had its first book fair. I signed up to participate ($25) and was told (eventually) that my signing spot was the Santa Fe Cafe. I both called and sent literature to Olga Jimenez, the charming owner of the Santa Fe Cafe, a downtown eating establishment that has been written up in “Chicago magazine.

I then set about having myself put on the free “Daily Herald” calendar, saying I would be at the Santa Fe Cafe and I sent some hand-outs to Olga, asking her to post same. She did so on her front door.

Less then a week before the June 19th event, I learned that I was being moved to Drury Designs, a kitchen and bath remodel store on the outskirts of the town. I was to share time/space with a writer of romance novels. I mentioned that Olga and I had already agreed that, since she doesn’t open till 11:00 a.m., I would sign from 11 to 2, rather than 10 to 1, and I was told that I couldn’ t do this because it “wouuldn’t be uniform.”

Actually, many other writers were signing at places around town in connection with the book fair at times other than 10 to 1, including J.A. Konrath, who signed at the downtown pub at night, and John O’Donnell, who had Randy Hundley of the Chicago Cubs come in as a celebrity to help him sell his baseball book.

I also learned that the “keynote” speaker was going to be speaking at a gym, which is not near the downtown, and that tickets were being sold for the speaker. However, none of we less-well-known writers were invited to have a table at the back of this gym while the “keynote” speaker did her thing.

I protested that, having just helped run a book fair in Davenport, Iowa, not having the rank-and-file of writers near the keynote speaker (who is, let’s face it, supposed to be the one who will draw a crowd for the smaller fry) seemed somewhat unfair to those of us stuck in the boonies. And, since I had already made some small efforts to advertise my presence at the Santa Fe Restaurant, moving me at the last minute to a place much further away from the action didn’t seem wise. The response was that the committee wanted to “draw people into the downtown stores.”

I certainly have no argument with drawing people into the downtown stores and I, personally, did my part, buying $80 of dresses for the 17-month old grand daughters, but I do think it (the notice that I must move to a different location than the one I had just told the newspaper) came sort of late in the day, and the reason given (“wouldn’t be uniform”) was bogus.

The romance writer and I saw exactly one woman who was not a committee member, during our 4 hours at the Drury Design, which is a lovely award-winning store. There were 3 other people who came in during the 4 hours, but they had appointments about their kitchen or bathroom remodeling jobs. Jim Drury, the owner of the establishment, was kind enough to buy one thing from each of his 2 authors, which was very nice of him, and I, in turn, said I would post an article about this lovely shop.

I also noted that all 35 to 40 authors could have been fit inside the Drury Design, and the downstairs has a place (separate room) where the keynote speaker could have spoken, although admittedly it is not the size of a school gymnasium. I hope you enjoy the pictures of my set-up inside a kitchen display. The lonely ghost welcomes the readers who did not come to the “Ghostly Tales of Route 66.”

Printers’ Row for the second day (Sunday, June 13th). For the second day, intermittent rain.

My tablemate (Chris Bell) did yeoman’s work, covering for us this morning from 10 to 2. (Yesterday, we did the A.M. shift). Today, we did the afternoon shift, 2 to 6 p.m. 6 p.m.

Stil more rain forced us into Bar Louie twice during the days, which was a small sacrifice. (Great spinach dip).

The ghost books sold well and my roommate and fellow tablemate expressed the opinion that the large wooden thing that says, “Ghostly Greetings” was a good eye-catching prop. (I use it to proop one book up.) If anyone knows where you can buy a more slanted plastic book holder thing, like bookstores use for signings, let me know where to purchase one.

So, next week (June 19th, Saturday), Glen Ellyn Book Fair. I’ll be at Drury Designs (kitchen remodels) from 10 to 1 and then I’m going over to Santa Fe restaurnat at 1:00 p.m. and (hopfully) signing until 2:00 p.m. if Olga Jimenez will allow me o do so.

See you there!

Author  to Sign Books in Drury Design  June 19^th from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. During First Glen Ellyn Book Fair

Author Connie (Corcoran) Wilson will be signing 6 of her most recent book releases within Drury Design from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 19^th, as part of the first Glen Ellyn Book Fair. Nearly all of Mrs. Wilson’s books are priced at (approximately) $10, (with the exception of her 80,000 word novel.)  Three  form a trilogy of true ghost stories, including pictures taken during a 2,800 mile journey along Route 66 in November of 2008 that took the author on the Fort El Reno (Oklahoma) Ghost Tour, the last tour of the Fort’s season.

Connie will also be at Table #164 (Quadrant #2) on Saturday, June 12, from 10 to 2, and on Sunday, June 13th, from 2 to 6 p.m., at Printers Row in Chicago, downtown on Dearborn Street.

Wilson is a long-time writer (54 years) of both nonfiction and fiction, with a teaching career spanning 41 years  spent as adjunct faculty at 6 IA/IL colleges. She has published 8 books covering many genres. There’s literally “something for everyone” in her books published by 6  small independent publishers since 2002.

She began writing at age 10 for her hometown (Independence, Iowa) newspaper and continued writing in high school, college and beyond, while studying at Iowa, Berkeley, Northern Illinois University and the University of Chicago..

Connie attended the University of Iowa on a Ferner-Hearst Journalism Scholarship and graduated as an English major with a Journalism minor. She taught writing both to junior high school students and  to college students  in  writing classes at every college in the Illinois/Iowa Quad Cities. She has also interviewed many famous writers for publication, including Kurt Vonnegut,  John Irving, David Morrell, Anne Perry, William F. Nolan, Frederik Pohl and Joe Hill. Recently, she attended the Hawaii Writers’ Conference and she will be at Table 164 at Printers Row on June 12 and June 13. On May 8^th she helped head up the First Annual Quad City Book Fair in Davenport, Iowa.

Wilson’s early writing was primarily for 7 newspapers, including 15 years (1970-1985) spent serving as the film and book critic for the Quad City Times (Davenport, IA) while employed full-time as a teacher at Silvis (IL) Junior High School. In 1987 Connie founded the second Sylvan Learning Center in the state of Iowa (Bettendorf, Iowa) and in 1995, she founded a Prometric Testing Center. She served as CEO of both businesses while also writing humor columns for the Moline (Illinois) Dispatch and raising 2 children with her husband of 43 years, Craig.

Today, she writes regularly for 7 blogs, including Associated Content, which named her its Content Producer of the Year for her political coverage during the 2008 presidential campaign (AC is a Top 50 blog and was recently bought by Yahoo). She also has her own blog, www.WeeklyWilson.com. You can find more information about the author at www.ConnieCWilson.com.

Today, Connie continues to  review film and television for www.GetYourGoodNews.com , an online newspaper in the Quad Cities, and she has written for www.blogforiowa.com (archived); www.speakaboutit.com (archived); www.JollyJo.com (second coming stories); and www.helium.com (archived). On March 20th of this year, Connie was named the Writer of the Year by the (Davenport, Iowa) Midwest Writing Center, receiving its David R. Collins Memorial Award.

With the sale of both her businesses in 2002, Connie (Corcoran) Wilson has turned her attention to writing longer works. She has published 6 books since 2002 and 8, total (none of them self-published).

Her most recent release is the third book (Volume III) in a trilogy of true ghost stories set along Route 66, entitled Ghostly Tales of Route 66. (www.GhostlyTalesofRoute66.com). The books are PG-rated, small and amply illustrated, beginning in Chicago with Volume I and moving along the Mother Road as far as Oklahoma. Volume II picks up in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, site of an earlier version of the route, and takes the reader to Arizona. The final volume (Vol. III) goes from Arizona to California and was just released on June 4th.

On May 27^th, Connie was at  BookExpo America signing copies of her short story collection Hellfire & Damnation (www.HellfireandDamnationtheBook.com), a collection of short stories with the unifying theme of  the sins punished at each of the 9 circles of Hell in Dante’s Inferno. With an introduction by William F. Nolan, the 15-story collection has been widely praised and is nominated for the Horror Writers’ Association Bram Stoker Award this year.

In 2004, Connie collected her previously published Dispatch humor columns to produce Both Sides Now, a collection of David Sedaris-like humorous essays. In December of 2008 Lachesis Published her first collaborative novel, a romantic sci-fi thriller entitled Out of Time (www.OutofTimetheNovel.com), which was pitched to the producer of the Transformers movies in Burbank, California in June.

By August, ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) of It Came from the ‘70s: From ‘The Godfather’ to ‘Apocalypse Now’ will be released from a small Rhode Island publisher (The Merry Blacksmith). The book is a 250 page nonfiction compilation of 50 movie reviews Connie wrote for the Quad City Times between 1970 to 1979, with an illustration every 3 pages, major cast, and interactive trivia (“Who did the studio really want to play Rocky in the movie of the same name?” Answers are upside down on the page; no fair cheating.)

As she said of the book, “Each review is like a tiny time capsule; the book could never be written this way today, as the reviews were written when  movie classics like The Godfather, Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Alien were new. It might mention that Sally Field was on Johnny Carson that night, talking about Alien, for instance.”

Stop by Drury Designs and get a signed copy of Connie’s books. The ghost book trilogy, if purchased as a set of 3m receives a $5 discount from the individual price of $9.95. Check the blogs above, as video trailers appear there for  Hellfire & Damnation and Out of Time.

Since 2004, Connie has also been the owner of a condo in the Central Station District of Chicago (Lakeside on the Park), keeping her in touch with her 14-month old twin granddaughters, who live with her son, Scott and his wife, Jessica, in Bridgeport.