What I'm Reading

While everyone else is busy reading The Hunger Games, I've been mucking around with other dystopian-esque texts.

Last month I slammed through all 500+ pages of Michael Korda's memorable memoir, Another Life: A Memoir of Other People, which I lugged home in hardcover from The Book Thing. It's a page-turner account of Korda's decades in the publishing industry that includes great dish (is that slang still used?) about high maintenance authors. His chapter about Jacqueline Susann is scary-funny-juicy.

What makes this romp a dystopian text? For years I've been comparing the imploding mess known as traditional trade publishing with what has (deservedly) happened to the financial services industry. Korda's memoir affirms my every suspicion by revealing how the publishing industry sowed the seeds of its self-destruction during the 1960s and by the 1980s, had created a living hell for authors and real editors.

From there, I segued into reading A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church by Rembert G. Weakland, OSB, a frank memoir that spans nearly 60 years of his involvement with the Roman Catholic Church. Weakland's writing isn't nearly as engaging as Korda's, but that almost doesn't matter. The content is jaw-dropping enough without literary embellishment.

I've only read as far as chapter 10, "Ministering in the Last Years of Pope Paul VI (Rome 1973-1977), but that's far enough along to see how quickly and insidiously the Curia scrambled to regain autocratic dominance after the Second Vatican Council adjourned. Weakland's memoir affirms my worst suspicious about the institutional church.

Does this make me an Educated Seeker or a Glutton for Punishment? Or is that a distinction without a difference?

The Book Thing in Baltimore

What do writers do to relax? This one looks for books to read. And although I love my Kindle, I'm still smitten by the feel and heft of books. Plus, there will always be a special place in my heart for previously owned books and the places that give them another chance to end up on someone's bookshelf.

 The Book Thing* in Baltimore is one of those places. It's a dusty, dim bit of paradise for book lovers a short drive from my apartment that has taken in and redistributed books for over a decade. Nothing is shelved in any discernible order, which makes for some entertaining juxtapositions. Best of all, the books are free for the taking and schlepping.

Visitors may take as many books as they want. It's not unusual to see bibliophiles carrying out more than one carton piled high and overflowing with books. The last time I was there, I overheard one guy muttering, "My wife is going to kill me" as he staggered out under quite the haul. I generously offered to follow him home to help her. Like I should talk.

I've been known to bring home battered books like people bring home birds with broken wings, which is why I've been careful to limit my visits to The Book Thing. I've been there only three times since moving to Baltimore in 2010.

On my first trip, I dropped off three cartons of books and brought home nothing but a sinus headache.

The second time, I dropped off nothing and brought home two books, hardbound copies of  A New Pentecost? by Cardinal Suenens and The Secular City by Harvey Cox.

This past Sunday I returned one book unread (The Secular City) and spent over an hour reading titles, occasionally pulling out a book to look at more closely. This generated a mash-up of emotions -- nostalgia while wandering through stacks of novels; less-than-pleasant feelings in the Sociology and Women's Studies sections upon seeing ditched copies of books I was assigned during graduate school and ones I assigned during my decade in academia.

I brought home six book, including Michael Korda's 530-page memoir of his time in the publishing industry, Another Life: A Memoir of Other People and a copy of the hymnal and service book, Worship that was probably pilfered from a parish.

Only six books!  Remarkable restraint, I thought. Thank God The Book Thing is only open on weekends.


*The pictures on The Book Thing website do not accurately convey the dusty dimness of it all, nor the dizzying aroma of old books.

Blogalogue with Paul Brian Campbell: Day Three

Intrigued by Paul's job title beyond the "SJ," I asked him to tell us more about being the Vice President for Mission and Identity for Loyola Press. I tossed a bunch of dimensions at him: "Philosophically/theologically/practically speaking, what does that mean?" Here's his answer and I want to highlight Other6.com. Paul calls it a "ministerial website." I view it as yet another opportunity to deepen faith and more consciously live out our baptismal call.


Meredith,

I’d love to give a smart-aleck response to your rather complicated question, but it deserves a (fairly) serious answer. Very few companies have “Mission & Identity” officers but, then, we’re not like most other companies because we are a not-for-profit Jesuit ministry.

It drives our Sales & Marketing folks slightly crazy when I remind them that our Jesuit owners prefer to see people draw closer to God than for us to bring in millions of dollars. (Of course, they prefer it if we can do both!)

About 90 people are employed at the Press and that includes two Jesuits. Having said that, it is the most thorough and intentional Jesuit work I have ever encountered because our (lay) leadership has drunk endless gallons of Ignatian Kool Aid and is totally committed to our mission.

A member of the managerial team, my formal brief calls for me to work on our “ministerial websites” (IgnatianSpirituality.com and Other6.com). I am responsible for New Employee Orientations, arrange for on-going formation of our staff on Ignatian topics, help lead a small group through the 19^th Annotation of the Spiritual Exercises, and am local coordinator of those participating in a national Ignatian formation program. I am also asked to represent the “Jesuit face” of Loyola Press in various settings.

A good deal of my work, however, goes on behind the scenes – I respond to customers who are upset by something an author has said or written, I persuade authors that their carefully-chosen titles will doom their books’ sales potential, and I visit diocesan offices to learn how the Press might better serve its customers.

Loyola Press wants to help people develop a deeper friendship with God. I love that mission and am thrilled to work here. I’m not at all sure that my response has been sufficiently philosophical or theological, but I hope it has been practical enough.

Paul

____________________

Today, you can find what I have to say about using social media to build faith and community at People for Others.

Now in Print: Why Is There a Menorah on the Altar? Jewish Roots of Christian Worship

In print at last! In print at last!
Thank God Almighty,
my new book is in print at last!

For a while, I thought I'd have a much better chance of seeing Jesus come again in glory, but a carton filled with printed copies of Why Is There a Menorah on the Altar? was at long last delivered by UPS earlier this week.

Of course, the snafus continue, latest one being Amazon.com's persistent belief that "this title has not yet been released." I've asked the publisher to look into it, as well as authorize (note ironic word use) the "Look in the Book" function. We'll see how long that takes, meanwhile I hope you will:

• order my book by clicking through to amazon.com from the Shelfari widget on this blog.

• post a favorable review directly on the amazon.com page for this book.

• encourage adult faith formation folks in your church to use my book as foundation for discussions about Judaism's enduring legacy. I wrote this book for Christians who worship at "high liturgy" churches.
  

• contact me directly (as someone already has) with your personal concerns about the ecumenical turn my work and life seem to be taking.
  

And now, I think I'll go sit on my front stoop to wait for Jesus and Elijah.

An Author's Life: The Publishing Industry (XI)

I subscribe to Publishers Weekly online to receive updates about what's going on in and around publishing. Being a published author, I've found that reading PW has come in handy over the years. The online version certainly speeds the spread of bad tidings.

For a while now, publishing has been looking like the banking industry before it imploded. Where do authors fit in this metaphor? Are we bank tellers? More significant? Less? Find out by taking Publishers Weekly's Annual Publishing Industry Salary/Job Satisfaction Survey. It opens up to Q1 right away. Click on "freelance writer/author" and then click on "next."

An Author's Life: Reviewers (X)

Only an uber-fool would stumble forward without having her book manuscript read in draft by several "first readers." Only an uber-fool would attempt publishing in the dangerous domain of interfaith anything without rigorous review.

Being a regular fool (read: author), I had eight first readers -- Christians and Jews -- checking all or parts of Why Is There a Menorah on the Altar?

I asked everyone to review my work for factual errors and too-weird-to-be-credible thinking. I discussed Jewish "family [spiritual] purity" laws and practices with someone who observes them. I consulted with a Roman Catholic canon lawyer after a first reader expressed concerns about the way I explained transubstantiation. I welcomed counsel and counted ninety-eight percent of it joy.

And then, my editor sent the final draft of my trade book for regular folks to a Famous Scholar in Biblical Studies who went vituperatively berserk. No joke, I'm talking about personal attacks bloated with sarcasm and disdain. Famous Scholar dissed my Jewish upbringing, my academic training, and my scholarship; took umbrage at my humor.

My editor was slightly freaked out, especially after I described the level of incivility that seems to come with this writing territory. Oddly enough, I found Famous Scholar's vitriol affirming because, as anyone who writes in controversial areas knows, whenever we write one of these:
Reviewers see this:

An Author's Life: Whoa-Oh-Oh Feelings (VIII)

Let's see, today is...what? Thursday?

On Sunday night I printed out the manuscript for Why Is There a Menorah on the Altar? Jewish Roots of Christian Worship. On Monday morning, I hauled it to the post office. After I announced this blessed event via email, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, more than one person wrote back, "You must be feeling so relieved."

Relieved? That's not the adverb that springs to mind when I review my postpartum reaction.

On Sunday night, I sorted the research I'd gathered while writing this book. Some stuff got tossed, some got refiled in another active file, and still other stuff got packed into a storage box. I then vacuumed and dusted my office, re-shelved books, rearranged the office supplies closet, and made a label for the storage box before hauling it down to the basement.

After the post office trip on Monday, I came home and stripped the linens off my bed, started a load of laundry, and made a list of all the crap I'd ignored for the past 7-9 months. Did I take a a nap? I don't remember.

I do remember removing hardware from every kitchen cabinet and drawer. While the hardware soaked in a super duper brass cleaner solution, I polished all the cabinets and drawers with a super duper cleaning creme which, as promised, did make everything gleam. I rinsed and shined all the hardware and reinstalled it. I had to take a cold shower to manage the raw pleasure generated by this frenzy. Never did get clean linens onto the bed.

On Tuesday, I redid my Outlook address book and reconfigured passwords for everything in my cyber-life, watched "Brothers & Sisters" online, and two DVDs (so memorable that I can't remember what they were) and read an Alice Hoffman novel -- before deep cleaning the basement/exercise room/bomb shelter and doing more laundry. At 9:30 PM, I went to the supermarket for canned goods and bottled water to restock the bomb shelter section of my stunningly clean basement. Never did get clean linens onto the bed.

I was scheduled to read at the noon Mass on Wednesday, so I had to leave the hermitage. Midway through the homily, I realized my book manuscript was finished and I was exhausted. I started quietly weeping, came home, and crashed out before going back to church for the Lenten Reconciliation service.

Let's see, today is...Thursday? I'm just now getting around to realizing I have feelings about this phase of my life as an author. The word "relieved" still does not spring to mind. Not yet, anyway, but maybe clean linens will make it onto my bed.

An Author's Life: Current So-Called Reality (VII)

Hard to say which awful part of writing a book is the best awful part. My friends would probably be best qualified to comment. I'm at the point in the process that tries even the best friend's soul and patience.

I'm generally unavailable. When I'm available, all I can talk about is me, my, mine -- even more so than usual.

Anyone who doesn't think the Jewish roots of Christian worship is the most fascinating subject on the planet is S.O.L. when interacting with me. I am, however, capable of talking about cooking, cats, and cleaning. I have big plans to remove and clean all the brass hardware on my kitchen cabinets.

Food issues come to the fore, which should be obvious to anyone reading my blog. Two nights ago I received this email message from Ruth, "did you eat?" I'm held temporarily captive by strange random thoughts like, "Why does fish food smell like fish? Isn't that cruel? People food doesn't smell like people."

And so it goes. This is my current so-called reality, one that I know is experienced by other authors at this point in the book writing process. Very comforting. So, why does fish food smell like fish?

An Author's Life: Beginning Again (VI)

This is me, extending the pregnancy metaphor to announce that I'm expecting [to publish] another book in July 2009 while still recuperating from publishing [birthing] one in July 2008.

For years I've been thinking, researching, and giving public talks about how Judaism's legacy is revealed in the structure and substance of worship at liturgical churches. And for years I've been revising the book proposal. Morehouse, which just released The Word Made Fresh: Communicating Church and Faith Today, is publishing my next baby.

I received this happy news on Wednesday from my beloved editor [midwife] who called to say, "Congratulations, you get to work with me again." Indeed. We have a major mutual admiration thing going on.

Next order of authorial business: the Nail Clipping Ritual whereby my longish, well-shaped natural fingernails get cut down to sports length -- the sport being typing, of course.

ArmaDei.com

Monica McConkey arrived at the Catholic Writers Guild booth as I was packing up to leave last week's Catholic Marketing Network Conference.

Thanks to the concrete floor and brutal lighting of the convention center, I was a bit cranky and not at my loving Christian best when she suggested exchanging books. She, however, was so lovely and loving that I did stroll over to her booth for The Arma Dei Publishing Company. Wow! Double wow!!

Does anyone not know how fiercely I advocate high quality in content and design and print production, especially for self-published materials? After seeing way too much junk in the world of print-on-demand and self-publishing, I am fierce to the point of rude about the need for quality control.

Monica's materials? Impeccable on all levels. The visual posted here doesn't begin to do justice to the richness of her products which include a book, flash cards that double as playing cards, crafts projects, and more. The Cathletics Key cards are brilliant in every sense of the word.

Arma Dei materials are great for parish-based as well as home-based catechisis, also gifts -- think RCIA, for example. She says these products are primarily for kids and, gee, I guess so. Many if not all of these items would work for adult faith formation as well. Order direct and while you're at it, demand that your parish, your diocese, and your local Catholic bookstore keep Arma Dei stuff in stock.

I gave her a copy of my book, The Catholic Home in exchange for a deck of Reverence & Awe Collector Cards. I also wanted a set of the key cards but didn't want to descend into gluttony.

An Author's Life: Dedications (V)

Some women, upon first learning they're pregnant, will immediately conjure up names for the baby; others will wait until they're further along, at least past the vomiting and desperate need for sleep; others will hold off until the baby is actually born. I've heard mothers in this last category say, "I needed to meet my baby before I could name her."

For me, dedicating a book is like all the above. Looking back, I can see how every book I've gotten published has fallen into one of these three categories.

It was clear from the beginning that my first book about working productively from a home office would be dedicated to my parents who both "made me constitutionally incapable of working in anyone else's office." It was equally obvious that my book about Twelve Step recovery would be dedicated to "those who have the guts and grace to do the work of recovery."

After those first books, I'd need to get pretty far into the writing process, at least past the vomiting and desperate need for sleep before I knew whose book it was, but at some point I'd be able to name that person without equivocation. Sometimes that point in time was long after the manuscript had been sent to the copy editor.

All other guardian angels get mentioned by name in my book's acknowledgments. That cloud of witnesses seems to change from book-to-book, as do I, which I believe is part of the Almighty's grand plan for my corporeal existence.

An Author's Life: Author's Copies (IV)

And then, dear readers, comes the great and glorious day when the sound of the doorbell is followed the thud of a box of books landing on the front stoop. Author's copies! I negotiated for 20. They arrived earlier this week.

Believe it or not, the carton sat unopened in my home office for a few hours. I was busy earning my mortgage payment and their cat food. I also wanted to sacralize the event. No unceremonious slicing through packing tape for me.

I pray many types of prayers during the course of writing a book. The arrival of a newly published one calls for prayers of thanksgiving -- for the gift of being able to write, the blessed support of friends, and the wise counsel of "first readers." With this book I also thanked God and St. Michael the Archangel that the production team didn't hire a thug to stem the riptide of my unrelenting input during the design process.

So I said my prayers and took a few deep breaths while removing packing material. And then, I held a printed copy of The Word Made Fresh. Pretty thrilling. Also a bit scary, but that's an entirely different post.

An Author's Life: Book Production (II)

In my previous post titled, "An Author's Life," I revealed the sorry truth about what authors must commit to doing if they want their books to receive any recognition. In that post, I wrote about making the necessary transition from author to marketing pro.

This post is about maintaining one's psycho-spiritual stability throughout the publishing process, having descended into madness circa 4:00 this morning. The trigger? Finding a major blooper hiding in plain sight, an error that escaped the notice of an editor, a copy editor, a proofreader, a book designer, and an author with OCD. The book has already gone to the printer, so who knows if this morning's frantic fax to Morehouse will lead to correction?

"Well, at least it's not obscene," said Ruth when I carped to her about the situation. To that I not-so-silently added, "for a change."

The first (hardcover) edition of The Catholic Home has a typo that manages to render a passage stunningly and somewhat hilariously obscene. I'm not thrilled this happened, but I have derived some sick satisfaction from the fact that it went undetected by all the Super Sanctimonious Catholics who smacked me around for screwing up some liturgical color designations.

So how do I maintain my psycho-spiritual stability? I make every effort to return to my spiritual practices whenever this stuff starts making me psycho. Today's prayer: Dear Heavenly Father thanks, I guess, for providing so many Kiss It All Up to You opportunities. Please help me to receive them with grace and good humor. I ask this in the name you said you would never refuse, Jesus who is Lord forever and ever. Amen.

Take a Peek!

The cover design that has made everyone happy --
me, my editor, my friends, my mother...

Pub. date: July
Pre-orders through Morehouse/Church Publishing

An Author's Life

Last Friday I told a first-time author that the effort of writing is nothing compared to the work authors have to do once the thing is published. The economics of publishing are such that authors must get involved with their book's promotion -- or hire someone to do it for them.

These efforts generally include cleaning existing mailing lists, building new mailing lists, writing/rewriting promotional copy, tracking down cover endorsements, mailing out comp copies, researching and booking speaking gigs...the list goes on and on.

In reality, waiting until after publication to do most of this is too late, so now that I've signed off on 2nd pages, said yes to great cover art, and tweaked some cover copy, I'm morphing from author to marketing communications pro on my book's behalf.

According to my calculations, I've already plowed 10-12 hours into reviewing and revising and significantly expanding my publisher's media list. It's slow going even though I know what I'm doing. Could be worse, I could be stuck with dial-up instead of DSL. And to think I once built media lists by flipping through pages in Bacon's. Yipes!

Ah the human capacity to forget pain. This is what enables women to have more than one child, more than one marriage and, in my case, more than one published book.

First Pages

Elephant gestation. That's how I've always characterized the book writing and publishing process. It generally takes years from the time an author first comes up with an idea and the published book is shelved. The time it takes for a book to move from shelf to remainder bin is, alas, much shorter. Interesting life cycle, books.

Yesterday, the good humored production manager at Morehouse called to say "first pages" for The Word Made Fresh: Communicating Church and Faith Today are ready. How did I want them? PDF? Hard copy? I'm the first author he has worked with who'd rather mark up PDF files.

The dear man conveyed this info without groaning or gagging. I wondered out loud if, after working with me, he'll demand future authors be banned from using Adobe Acrobat. Apparently not, because used properly, Adobe Acrobat speeds production. That's the theory.

Still, I asked to receive this evidence of progress electronically and on paper. Different "issues" pop out in each medium. I want to make sure that what looked like an unreadable font size on my screen at 1:30 AM, is more readable during normal working hours. I'm also ready for some tangible evidence that this book is going to be printed before Jesus comes again in glory, or I get to see him seated at the right hand of the Father. Amen.

Meanwhile, on the Earth plane...

Not only has production begun on The Word Made Fresh: Communicating Church and Faith Today, but I'm actively involved in making this book look like something anyone would want to read. I spent part of yesterday reviewing the interior page design, tweaked as per my requests. I'm still waiting to see yet another revision of the cover.

Other authors gasp with shock and awe whenever I reveal how much the team at Morehouse Publishing has allowed me to authentically participate in the publishing process.

Normally, authors lose all power, authority, and influence once their manuscript is flowed into design. Never mind that a good literary agent will write "cover consultation" into the book contract. It's the rare author who gets to say much more than, "love it" or "hate it." Rarely, if ever, are authors allowed to preview the page design.

I happen to be one of those rare authors. In part this is because I've been blessed with editors who share my vision. In fact, I've been blessed with editors who've had an even bigger vision than I for what I was writing. But I also happen to know enough about graphic design to provide input at a level of detail that includes grousing about line spacing and kerning. And I own a copy of Adobe Acrobat.

My editor and the production team at Morehouse knew all this about me from the get-go and so far my participation seems to be working for everyone involved. Their designer gets direction from me that's more specific than, "it looks funky." I end up with a design that visually supports the book's text. Occasions of sin are avoided all around. Thanks be to God.

My New Interview at Blog Village

Happy to report that yours truly is the featured Blog Villager at Blog Village. The interviewer, whose nom de web is The Gatekeeper, sent lots of questions about writing and publishing. And I am never at a loss for words about words.

I'm touched that she characterizes me as "funny, witty and very gracious." Good thing we never talked or corresponded before my morning tea, especially because Blog Village (click on sidebar widget to troll BV) includes only family friendly blogs.