Mag Tags

Stages of life have been chronicled in objects ad infinitum, from the wheels on your carriage to the hearse, from diapers to Depends. But what do those say about your growth, or lack thereof? If you would like to chronicle the changes in your interests during the stages of life, it’s as easy as observing the magazines you gravitated to. This is an abbreviated list of mine. Does any of it look familiar to you? I’d like to know what your “mag tags” are if you’d like to play along.

Weekly Reader

Highlights

______

Comics

Mad Magazine

______

True Romance

Seventeen

______

Mademoiselle

Readers Digest

Redbook

McCall’s

Playgirl

Family Circle

Better Homes & Gardens

Southern Living

_____

Oxford American (sadly out of print)

Smithsonian

AARP Magazine

First Line

Writers Digest

Wired

First Line

Garden & Gun

_____

I am in the last section now. As I look back, the only magazine that still interests me above that line is Mad Magazine. Go figure. And here I insert a plug alert. No I’m not paid to say this, I jut want to increase the circulation of magazines I’d like to see stay in print in this tough environment.

The first is Garden & Gun. If you are Southern, or love any part of the South, this publication will blow you away. I found one of the first issues in the dentist’s office, ripped out the card and ordered it the minute I got home. Several visitors to my home have gone home and ordered it for themselves and friends. Garden & Gun is published in Charlston, S.C., not New York City, like a certain other “Southern” magazine. If nothing  else it is fun to see guests run screaming from your bathroom with the publication in hand, yelling, “Garden & Gun????”

The second one that has more relevance in my life that most on the newsstand is Wired. Never one to enjoy science class, I am shocked at the scientific articles that pull me right in. And then there are the technology articles, and what is more relevant to our lives today? All these years later, after scraping through science class, I discovered, thanks to Wired, that I am more than a little nerdy—and that’s just fine with me.

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Get Read. Get Noticed. Get Published.

HarperCollins has created an unbelievable opportunity for writers to get their work before a respected publisher. In their words, “We want to flush out the brightest, freshest new literature around.” That means YOU. This is your chance to post chapters of that novel languishing in your drawer or the one you will write for NaNoWriMo (after a lot of cleaning up and rewriting). Your novel may be chosen for further review and even publication.  HarperCollins main page issues the invitation below.  The publishing world is changing, sometimes for the better. This is an exciting new opportunity for you writers out there. From HarperCollins website:

 

 

Get Read. Get Noticed. Get Published.

authonomy^TM is a brand new community site for writers, readers and publishers, conceived and developed by book editors at HarperCollins. We want to flush out the brightest, freshest new literature around – we’re glad you stopped by.

If you’re a writer, authonomy is the place to show your face – and show off your work on the web. Whether you’re unpublished, self-published or just getting started, all you need is a few chapters to start building your profile online, and start connecting with the authonomy community.

And if you’re a reader, blogger publisher or agent, authonomy is for you too. The book world is kept alive by those who search out, digest and spread the word about the best new books – authonomy invites you to join our community, champion the best new writing and build a personal profile that really reflects your tastes, opinions and talent-spotting skills.

The publishing world is changing. One thing’s for sure: whether you’re a reader, writer, agent or publisher, this is an exciting time for books. In our corner of HarperCollins we’ve been given a chance to do something a little different.

We’d really love your help.

Read more at http://www.authonomy.com/about.aspx.

 

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Before You Were a Computerholic

What did you do before with the time you now spend on the computer? My husband sprang that question on me the other day and now I’m springing it on you. I do spend hours at this screen every day. I’d never thought about what I was doing before with my time. So here is my list of things I have given up or spend less time on:

 

• TV—That’s the activity that has suffered the most and I don’t miss it at all. As a matter of fact, when I try to find something to watch while relaxing I wear my thumb out channel surfing. TV has gotten worse. My time is better spent on the computer for sure.
• Shopping—I had to dig to come up with this one. Surely I did more than watch TV before, and I did. This revelation surprised me. Shopping used to be an enjoyable sport to me. Now what I don’t order online I save up to buy in one trip as quickly as I can. When did that happen and why? Who knows, but I see the UPS man more than a store clerk now no doubt.
• Finances—I wrote checks by hand, balanced my checkbook (sometimes) and subtracted until the money was gone. Now Quicken shows my finances at a glance, bills are paid online, bank accounts handled the same way. I’ve saved money and time in this instance, and best of all kicked the little voice from the FUKOWEE Indian tribe. If you read Kurt Vonnegut I won’t have to explain that last one.
• Writing fiction—This is the one downer. I realize my writing urges are being too satisfied with this blog, leaving my serious writing over in a corner somewhere.  

 

That is it as far as I can tell. I still exercise (biking, walking and yoga) though no longer at a club. I certainly read as much as ever, if not more. And photography? I take way more pictures now. The instant gratification of seeing them on screen or printed immediately enhances that activity. Now that I have pinpointed the one area I need to attend to, I plan to do just that. Of course, that will mean more time here on the computer. It all comes back to Big Hal, doesn’t it? 

 

What have YOU thrown aside or slighted for your relationship with the computer? How has it affected your life? Perhaps you have thought about it; I hadn’t. If computer is as big a part of your life as mine I think you should. I would really like to hear your views.

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Illegible Leftovers

Something special is disappearing before our eyes—used book stores. Jerry and I rely on Legible Leftovers, a wonderful little bookstore with bibliocats, and mysterious rooms of books. This afternoon we run over for our fix. The door is locked, books shelves are partially empty. It has the look of abandonment. We feel abandoned. How will we feed our habit now? It’s not just the prices; it’s the books you don’t see at Barnes & Nobles. That wonderful book review you read six years ago, but never got the book until you saw it here, the new writer you found along with a stash of her other books, classics you wish you had read, the little book of Haiku found in a tiny poetry room—all in the past.

 

We hop in the car and drive to a strip center where we once see a bookstore sign. It is a bookstore, but for school books. We go on to the adjacent town. We knew of three bookstores there at one time and think one might be still open. It is, with a parking spot right in front. Our luck seems to be changing. There is even the requisite cat, and a dog for good measure, old books in every space. But search as we do, not one book fits our tastes. Frankly my nose burns from the past-due-for-a-change litter box. It is not a pleasant place to browse.

 

We can order online, and do, but it’s not the same as wandering through the aisles till something strikes your fancy and reading a little to be sure. At Legible Leftovers one particular kitty would often help in my search, stopping at the shelf where I’d find the perfect book. My friend says a small, new store will open soon in another adjacent town. Dare we hope?

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I Think Too Much

Multi-generational epics bore me. Just give me a good read about an important slice in someone’s life and I can be swept away. So I find myself verging on vertigo in my real life. Epics are difficult to avoid when you have lived through a few decades. You can’t say, “No, just highlight this part or that.” The parts string along like toilet paper on your shoe until you find yourself tangled in a true-life multi-generational epic. Well, if not epic then situation.

This is what brought that on. We are planning a few upgrades on the home we have lived in for almost thirty-two years. One son re-roofed for us a few years ago, his friend installed new windows, and another re-habbed the master bath. Our son-in-law (an electrician) upgraded the power box. Strangers installed carpet. How did that happen? Now for a second stage the same friend will tile the other bath, the neighbor kid, now all grown up, will do the plumbing. The son of our son’s best man will do exterior painting.

In that mix of characters are a father fighting for custody of a child, another denying his child until DNA evidence turned him into a real father. That son is being a real father to his new child. A couple of young fathers being fathers with or without marriage, a worker with great promise ending back in jail.

Do you need a scorecard? The point is almost all these very competent workers we knew as children or knew their parents before they were born (except the jailed one). We are aware of many of their most private struggles and successes, many poignant slices of their lives. Those slices now strung together form the ingredients of an epic.

Okay, it’s just a house that needs work and has no other significance. I’ll just curl up with a book of short stories until it is finished. Sometimes I think too much.

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Read’n, Writ’n & Arithmetic?

The Jenkins Group released these survey results recently.

-33% of high school graduates never read a book after graduation
-42% of college graduates never read a book after graduation
-80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year
-70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years
-57% of new books are not read to the last page

Yet, 80% of American adults want to write a book.

The math doesn’t add up.

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To Be Continued

To be continued——— three of the most dreaded words in the English language. Just as the elevator begins dropping and the walls slowly inch closer to our hero the screen freezes —- TO BE CONTINUED. That’s what kept us coming back to the good ole Saturday serial, but remember how frustrating it was to have the story yanked away from you? Sure you think, they could get away taunting kids with those games, but now I’m adult. Ha! They were just warming your inner adult up for the newspapers. When is the last time you saw a complete story on the front page? It’s been a while, I’ll bet. So how do you deal with the interruption?

My daughter Amy asked the other day whether I went immediately to A-4 and finished the story or just caught the ending when I progressed to that page. Well, unless the story is of great interest I just wait until I get to the continuation and pick it up again.

“Aha! I knew it,” Amy said, “Anyone who reads five books at the same time would do it that way.”

I had never thought of that. She may be right or perhaps I’m just conditioned by the old serials to have that space between sections of narrative. How do others handle them — you, for instance? I’d like to hear.

Note: Of course you know when this post goes into archives it will be whacked in half with a link to “read full post.” Maybe I should rename the piece “Irony.”

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