Small Press Story #31: Publish or Farm

Located near Walla Walla, Washington, Detour Farm is devoted to wildlife and habitat conservation as well as Rocky Mountain horses and alpacas. It's also the name of owner and author Sam Macleod's publishing venture, a business move that got him out of day-to-day farming chores assigned by his wife Annie.

"I love living on the farm, but leave the farming to Annie. When we first moved to Walla Walla, the concept of getting back to nature, appealed to me. I’d read about it in books. Seemed inviting, free-range, maybe even heart-healthy," writes Sam on his website. "But the concept took on new meaning when Annie asked me to turn the manure pile with a big shovel, help her move six tons of hay from one place to another, and climb up on the barn roof."

So Sam has moved onto the porch with his laptop, turning out books and a blog about life in eastern Washington while Annie runs the farm. If you buy a book from Sam, Annie will plant another tree or two. Or you can just drop into his blog and check out what he's cooking for dinner. He even shares his recipes, like how to make Aunt Wiese's Strawberry Pie.

Small Press Story #30: Rose Alley Named For Dryden's Mugging

Rose Alley Press was founded by David D. Horowitz in November 1995. It was named for the London street where, on December 18th, 1679, poet and playwright John Dryden was brutally beaten by three thugs. Evidence suggests that an aristocrat who mistakenly attributed a satire's authorship to Dryden hired the assailants. Undaunted, Dryden continued writing, even more boldly than before the assault. Inspired by such perseverance, David established Rose Alley Press, which publishes rhymed and metered poetry, cultural commentary, and an annually updated booklet about writing and publication.

Rose Alley's authors appear at a variety of public events including the following for April:

Parkplace Books
Wednesday, April 8, 2009, 7 p.m.
Take a Poem From Your Heart
Joannie Kervran Stangeland, Nancy Dahlberg, Murray Gordon, & open mic
348 Parkplace Center, Kirkland

Green Lake Branch Library
Saturday, April 11, 2009, 4 p.m.
Donald Kentop, Lyn Coffin, Priscilla Long, & open mic
7364 East Green Lake Drive North, Seattle

Edmonds Bookshop
Thursday, April 16, 2009, 6:30 p.m.
David Ash, Amanda Laughtland, Jack McCarthy, & David D. Horowitz
111 Fifth Avenue South, Edmonds, WA

Green Lake Branch Library
Saturday, April 18, 2009, 4 p.m.
David D. Horowitz, Larry Coffin, one other TBA, & open mic
7364 East Green Lake Drive North, Seattle

Small Press Story #29: Examining a Guitar Legend's Circuits

Northwest publisher Pentode Press specializes in academic and technical titles. Publisher and author Richard Kuehnel's first book about a guitar legend began with the desire to build his own amplifier.

"My goal was to design my own guitar amp. When I discovered that so many amplifiers are based on the 5F6A circuit, I decided that what worked for Jim Marshall and other legendary amp builders might work for me," he writes on his website. "So armed with the Radiotron Designer's Handbook, the works of Frederick Terman, and many other great references from the tube era, I began to study Leo Fender's famous schematic. I wanted to completely understand how the original circuit worked before attempting to modify it. The results literally filled a book."

Circuit Analysis of a Legendary Tube Amplifier: The Fender Bassman 5F6-A has now gone through two editions. Pentode Press has grown to include two more books on guitar amplifiers as well as a translation of Frederich Mann's work on Georg Simon Ohm.

The publisher's website also includes numerous articles on technical and academic subjects.

Small Press Story #28: Playing Cards and Wine

When Raconteurs Press publisher Tom Parker wanted to reuse his illustrations for his guide to Washington wineries, his answer was playing cards. Following the success of the "Washington Wine Playing Cards," Raconteurs has added "Vineyard Traditions Classic Wine Playing Cards."

The "Vineyard Traditions" cards celebrate the classic wine grape varieties prized from ancient times through today. Every face card in this two deck Bridge-size set features a beautiful illustration depicting grape varieties, winemaking scenes, historical wine subjects, wine facts and trivia, and much more relevant to all wineries and wine regions.

Small Press Story #27: Publisher and Activist Gary Worthington

Timebridges publisher and author Gary Worthington helped develop the new Cama Beach State Park on a historic waterfront resort site formerly operated by his wife Sandra's family on Camano Island, Washington. The story of the area is the subject of Worthington's most recent book, Cama Beach: A Guide and a History.

The couple are also involved in planning and developing The Cooper Point Wildlife Preserve, with several green-built houses and a large natural area on a 38-acre site by their home.

Following their travels in India, Gary and Sandra established a private foundation which funds primary schools in India and other projects to help people become economically self-reliant.

Small Press Story #26: Oguneye's Story Featured on KOMO

Sikulu and Harambe are becoming radio stars. If you're in Seattle tune in to KOMO 1000 Radio. The story first broadcast between 7:15 am and 7:45 am and will be repeateded throughout today (March 26). Previously they were featured in story broadcast by Sound Focus on KUOW.

If you're not in Seattle, you can listen online at http://www.komonews.com/aboutradio.

BPNW member and author Kunle Oguneye was born and raised in Nigeria. He graduated from Valparaiso University in Indiana with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. He left the world of computers and technology to focus on his passion for story-telling.

His first book is based on a folktale from his childhood, and the great story reinforces the beauty of kindness to young children. The book also offers a glossary of terms and weaves information about Zambian culture into the story.

Small Press Story #25: How I Came To Write A Self-Help Book With Mom

It all started because we were in the same profession. Doing similar things.

Ruth (a.k.a. “Mom”), and I were both clinical social workers. In our practices, we both ran support groups for the widowed and other bereaved.

One day I mentioned to Mom that I’d noticed group members bringing in small articles or pamphlets on how to cope with loss. They seemed drawn to these because when grieving, it’s difficult to concentrate on lengthier forms of advice such as typical bereavement books. Mom had also noticed this in her own groups.

Then it hit me: why not create a self-help book for the widowed that was easy to use? Having been widowed herself at 45, Mom’s personal experiences would also add a “been there” quality to our professional insights.

We agreed to title the book, Lost My Partner – What’ll I Do? A Clear, Practical Guide for Coping and Finding Strength When Your Spouse Dies.

First, we outlined the contents.

Then started writing. We soon discovered that my strengths lay in envisioning the “big picture” and doing the actual writing. Mom’s strengths were providing the most authentic “voice” for the narrative and editing.

Eventually we created a working process:

1. We would agree on a chapter topic.
2. Mom would dictate. I would add my three cents worth.
3. I would draft the words into chapter form.
4. Mom would edit.
5. I would rewrite.
6. Mom would edit.
7. Then on to the next chapter.
8. Repeating the above.

The writing and publishing processes were definitely challenges to our relationship. Family gatherings became punctuated by my sister’s protestations of “No talking about the book!” whenever Mom and I became engrossed in shop talk.

But Mom and I persevered, eventually publishing a book that has been praised by widowed readers as “the only bereavement book I’ve been able to actually use.”

We’ve recently launched the "Revised and Expanded Edition of Lost My Partner."

And fortunately, my sister hasn’t disowned us. Yet.

submitted by Laurie Spector, McCormick Press

Small Press #24: The Cutest Personal Finance Book

Money Sucks! Money Strategies for Real Life, the cutest personal finance book you’ve ever seen, has recently released the 2nd Edition, chock full of updated information and adding an information glossary. 1st Edition created a stir among adults who immediately bought numerous copies to give to children, nieces, nephews, new high school grads, and college kids off to school.

Published in 2006, Money Sucks! Money Strategies for Real Life quickly made a name for itself as an easy way of transmitting basic financial information on how to manage money to young adults. Each chapter includes a light-hearted one-panel cartoon that gives a little lift of humor. The overall feeling of the book is that financial information isn’t that scary, and you really can manage your money successfully. But, yup, it takes some work to do it (and that sucks).

Topics include areas such as: how to create a budget, how to fill out a W-4 IRS form, how to balance a checkbook, how to successfully manage credit cards, and techniques to keep your identity as safe as reasonably possible.

Whether your child was lucky enough to learn these tasks at school or not, Money Sucks! Money Strategies for Real Life is available to give basic instruction in this most important life skill. Accessible, easy-to-read, and fun for young adults, the large font, white space between paragraphs, and short chapters entice the reader to give it a try. While there are many thick volumes on this topic with wonderful information, Money Sucks! Money Strategies for Real Life boils down to these essential elements. For more information on this outstanding book, visit the publisher’s web site at www.greenelmspress.com.

Small Press Story #23: Big River Press

Big River Press is the brain child of editor and author R. J. Brown, an avid reader and writer since childhood who knows what she likes in a book. The mission statement of Big River Press is to bring unusual and engaging fiction and creative non-fiction to the reading public.

From 1998-2006, R. J. Brown, with her husband, created and ran the award-winning book review site RebeccasReads.com, preferring to highlight lesser-known authors who published themselves via POD - Print On Demand. Using her 40 years of editing experience, R. J. Brown also worked with writers on their manuscripts.

After caring for her husband's father, Lincoln Brown, in the last years of his long life, R. J. Brown wrote a creative non-fiction memoir of that experience; Standing the Watch: Memories of a Home Death, and set out to find a literary agent. With her rejection folder bulging at the seams, she asked the many authors she had interviewed while reviewing their books about going the POD route. In 2002 she published with iUniverse and was not impressed by the final product nor the then customer service.

By winter 2005, she was burnt out managing the weekly updates to her book review site and felt the call to write her own books, and in July 2006, she closed RebeccasReads.com to tend to personal health. It was revived in 2008, under new management in a different format by Irene Watson of ReaderViews.com.

In the Fall of 2006, while D. H. Brown recovered from multiple bypass surgery, he completed his first military thriller, Honor Due, assisted by his wife's editing. After more than 200 rejections from literary agents and major publishing houses, R. J. Brown formed Big River Press to publish Honor Due in 2007, to critical acclaim. It has since been awarded the 2008 Silver Medal for Literary Fiction from the MWSA - Military Writers Society of America, and also received an Honorable Mention from the American Authors Association.

In 2008, Big River Press published the expanded second edition of R. J. Brown's memoir Standing the Watch: The Greatest Gift. It has been awarded First Place in the 2009 Memoir/Autobiography Category by ReaderViews.com.

Also in 2008 Big River Press published Honor Defended, D. H. Brown's second book in his Citizen Warrior Series. Big River Press's newest book (2009) is Epitaph, the second submariner thriller by Veteran and author D. Clayton Meadows. The next addition to the Big River Press catalogue will be R. J. Brown's first fiction, The Dead Husband: A Sally Sees Cozy Mystery due to be launched April 2009, and the third book in the Citizen Warrior Series, Honor Redeemed due by late Fall.

Big River Press works hard at presenting its books to the highest of publishing industry standards. Books are available to retail outlets through Ingram, Baker and Taylor, and most online booksellers/distributors.

Media Contact:
Big River Press
P. O. Box 371, Clallam Bay WA 98326-0371
360-963-3112
business@bigriverpress.com
http://www.bigriverpress.com

Small Press Story #22: Dispatch Travels

Founded by globetrotter, Beth Whitman, Dispatch Travels publishes the popular Wanderlust and Lipstick guides for women travelers. This currently includes The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo (Whitman), For Women Traveling to India (Whitman) and Traveling with Kids (Leslie Forsberg & Michelle Duffy).

The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo was first released in March 2007 and has sold nearly 6,000 copies. A second edition of the book is due out in April, 2009.

After spending nearly 20 years traveling and 17 years teaching travel-related workshops in the Seattle area, Whitman had wanted to extend her reach farther than the Northwest. She created the Wanderlust and Lipstick guides and website (www.WanderlustAndLipstick.com) in order to do just that. The catchy series title has helped propel the brand into the international market and she regularly receives orders through her website from women in Asia and Australia.

The authors of Traveling with Kids will be appearing at a half dozen bookstores in the Pacific Northwest from April through June.

An anthology of women’s stories is expected to be released in early 2010.

Small Press #20: Pun & Oink Graphics

Dawn Kravagna's Cattle Capers mystery series follows the adventures of master detective Adam Steer.

"It is possibly the first cartoon mystery novel in existence," writes Kravagna in her Amazon.com blog. "I was inspired by my lifetime love of the classic Warner Bros. cartoons, particularly a great fondness for Tweety and Sylvester."

Small Press #18: Impassio, home of fragmentary writing

Impassio is a literary press publishing a variety of fragmentary writings and a mix of genres, including journals, diaries, notebooks; letters; aphorisms; and short prose pieces.

Olivia Dresher, Impassio’s founder, editor and publisher, has been reading, writing, and collecting fragmentary writing for more than 30 years. She founded the Diaries, Journals, and Notebooks Collection for the library at the Richard Hugo House literary center in Seattle, and is editor of two anthologies: In Pieces: An Anthology of Fragmentary Writing and (with Victor Muñoz) Darkness and Light: Private Writing as Art. She is also director of the Life Writing Connection and the founder and editor of an online magazine of fragmentary writing, FragLit.

Small Press Story #17: Shakespeare, Poetry, and NW Authors

Established in 1996, 74th Street Productions in Seattle started out publishing picture books for children and adults based on the works of William Shakespeare. Since then, this small press located "just north of the Center of the Universe" has issued a book by acclaimed poet Marvin Bell, a popular guide to public speaking for writers, and an anthology of Northwest writers to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association.

The company's mission remains to develop books of high literary and artistic quality which encourage interest in Shakespeare, the theatre, other performing arts, literature and art among children and adults.

Small Press Story #16: Thin Threads

I live with an idea about human potential, the common ability to create reality. So I pulled a story from the Akashic Records and wrote a novel, transforming those seeds of human potential into a stream of consciousness on paper that I can present for sale. Now, those seeds are alive, sprouting in someone else’s mind – someone I’ve never even met. That’s incredible.

Thin Threads, the first novel in a series, introduces a handful of ordinary people – just like you and me. They hail from all walks of life in Tibet, England, Tasmania, Canada, Brazil, the US and France. From across the globe, only this handful of people can potentially save humanity. For tools, they have their intent and the need to survive – and they’d better hurry. The fabric of the Universe is unraveling.

Can they reweave the fiber of reality? Could you? We’re going to face things no one has ever faced before. Can you feel it coming? I can.

I formed a publishing company, Denim Books, to present Thin Threads. Now, how do you sell books?

GayLinda Gardner, Denim Books

Small Press Story #14: Books that rock!

"We publish books written by or about music and musicians. Books that rock!" writes Gary McKinney about Bellingham's Kearney Street Books.

McKinney joined his first rock-and-roll band at age sixteen, and worked professionally as a musician for two decades. These days, he continues to play acoustic rock-and-roll with Fritz & the Freeloaders.

Kearney Street's books include Tribute to Orpheus, an anthology of short fiction, poetry, and non-fiction prose by or about music or musicians, as well as McKinney's mystery, Slipknot, about a Deadhead turned sheriff investigating a murder in southwestern Washington.

Small Press Story #13: Builder Boards and Other Hands-On Projects

Jack McKee is a builder/designer who started volunteering in the schools when his kids were in school.

"Much to my surprise kids were appreciative of the hands on activities I did (many copied from old science books) and I went on to teach woodworking and science for the city Parks Department. Parents and teachers kept asking about both woodworking and my set of Builder Boards so I wrote two books: Woodshop for Kids and Builder Boards," writes McKee on his website www.woodshop4kids.com.

McKee's YouTube page also includes videos on builder boards and other projects.

Small Press Story #12: Dogwise

Dogwise Publishing was established in 2001 as a subsidiary of Direct Book Service Inc. and Dogwise.com to produce and market high quality books on dogs.

Dogwise is committed to publishing books that improve upon the information available, use humane training methods, cutting edge science, and proven solutions to make living with a dog more fun and enjoyable. Their audience includes dog owners, trainers, breeders, dog sports competitors, veterinarians, shelters, and dog-related professionals.

Over the years Dog Writers Association of America, DWAA, has selected several Dogwise books for their highest honor, the Maxwell Award, and book industry insiders recognize that Dogwise Publishing titles give readers well-written, sound educational information on dogs.

Small Story #5: Margaret Doyle starts Orcas news site

BPNW member and publisher Margaret Doyle has a background as a newspaperwoman and recently launched a new website devoted to telling the news for the residents of Orcas Island.

Margie, as she calls herself on Bullwings, been an Orcas Island resident since 2001 and the editor of the Islands Sounder from 2006 to 2008. She hopes to make Bullwings " a new model of journalistic notice, debate and depth" where "citizen journalists and contributors are monitored by editors."

Small Story #4: Following Marco Polo Across Asia

BPNW member Harry Rutstein was the first person to accurately follow the route of Marco Polo over land and sea from Venice, Italy to Beijing, China, making his own journeys from 1975 to 1985.

The author of In the Footsteps of Marco Polo: A 20th Century Odyssey, originally published by The Viking Press, Rutstein currently heads The Marco Polo Foundation, Inc. This non-profit foundation is dedicated to providing a better understanding between the East and the West by means of international research.

Rutstein worked with Bennett & Hastings in Seattle to publish The Marco Polo Odyssey in September 2008. An interview with Rutstein about his adventures was broadcast on February 9 on Sound Focus and can be heard at KUOW's website.

Extra: The February 9 Sound Focus broadcast also includes an interview with BPNW member Kunle Oguneye on the publication of his first book Sikulu and Harambe By the Zambezi River

Join BPNW and Save $30 From IBPA!

A 2009 membership in Book Publishers Northwest costs $50. But upon receipt of your payment, we will send you a $30 coupon for the Independent Book Publishers Association. This coupon can be used for an IBPA membership or selected services.

BPNW members can attend regular meetings at the Good Shepherd Center in Seattle for free. They can also bring members of their company for free. They receive listings in directory. Special offers for publishers as available. And a network of like-minded people to ask about the business!

To join Book Publishers Northwest for 2009, mail $50 to:
Book Publishers Northwest
Attn: 2009 Membership
PO Box 9535
Seattle WA 98109

Please include the following information with payment:
Business Name
Type of business: Publisher or Service for Publishers
Contact Name
Mailing address
Website
Contact e-mail

Please indicate if this information can be published in the membership directory and include a one-paragraph description of the business.

Checks should be made out to Book Publishers Northwest.