The Espresso Book Machine network is growing

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In a world where e-books are the new wave, many of us still like reading printed books. However, as any small press or self-published author will tell you, his/her books are not as likely to be found in bookstores and libraries as those from large publishers. The Espresso Book Machine from Xerox can help.

The unit, which prints and collates books on demand that look and feel just like those from Amazon and Barnes &  Noble, is now in 70 locations. Projections call for it to be in 150 locations by the end of 2012. In addition, many EBM locations take orders by phone or Internet and will ship the books to you. While that's not as much fun as watching your book printed in five to seven minutes at the store, it's very handy for those without an EBM in their town.

According to Xerox, the EBM "is intended to distribute virtually every book ever published, in any language, anywhere on Earth, as easily, quickly and cheaply as email."
You can find a list of EBM locations by clicking here. To see a demo, click here.

If you're a writer, you can search for your books in the EBM network and then tell your readers they can now have a paperback copy faster than it takes to make and drink a cup of espresso at the nearest Starbucks.

--Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of the contemporary fantasies, Sarabande and The Sun Singer, both of which are available via Espresso Book Machines.

"Sarabande is a satisfying read. We are given a heroine we can understand and with whom we can sympathize. We travel alongside her through conflict and challenge, cheering her on. She suffers and endures, and finally rises above. How she does this ... you'll have to read for yourself." - Zinta Aistars, "The Smoking Poet"

Aurora: "Why is this gun legal?" is just one of the questions we can ask



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During the last several days, the 24-hour news stations have camped on the doorstep of Aurora, Colorado with a barrage of talking-head experts, continual replays of bulletins and camera footage from earlier news reports, much of it under the heading of "breaking news" though little of it was, at any moment, new.

While they waited for briefings and other announcements, most news anchors filled the long hours asking experts "how could this happen?" In this, they were human and in this they were doing what news anchors do.

We ask the unanswerable question, I think, because we want to set our world back on its axis with some measure of assurance that the seasons will continue to come and go without random and senseless acts of madness and chaos. The closer we are to Aurora, the street, the theater, the apartment building, the emergency rooms and the victims, the more urgent that question becomes.

We Bring our Own Views into the Potential Answers to That Question

I heard one "expert" say that being there for the victims and the victims' families is more important than trying to answer the "how could this happen?" question if an when they ask it. And, they will. He suggested that it's much better to say something, almost anything displaying compassion, than to remain mute (or absent) because we have not yet found the perfect words to match their grief and anger.

I agree with this "expert" even though our religious beliefs are very different.

Other "experts" thought the answers to "how could this happen?" question should be based on asking why violent movies, books and  video games are out there. Some said that as long as it's possible for such crimes to occur, we must make access to every theater as difficult to accomplish as bording a plane with--I suppose--as miniature version of the TSA outside every door. Personally, I don't think pointing a finger of blame at violent movies will bring us the answer any more than I think a militarized police force and Fort Knox security systems will make us safe even if we want to live in a country that sounds more like the USSR of the cold war days than the USA of our dreams.

My agenda clashes with book and movie banning (or censorship); it also clashes with many of the police and security measures put into place after 9/11. My agenda, as a conscientious objector always involves asking this: "Why is it legal for a civilian to buy a weapon intended for military use?"

Why is this Gun Legal?

The AR15 is more or less the civilian version of the military's M16 rifle. While some say this weapon should be legal only at special shooting ranges (if anywhere), it is generally legal for almost an anyone to purchase this and similar weapons throughout the United States. As a pacificist, I ask, "to what end?"

While one might argue that shooting ranges and collectors might have a reason for such a weapon, nobody can construe it as rational or necessary for either hunters or those who believe owning a gun is a reasonable personal self-defense option. Others have always argued that if such guns are banned, the criminals will have them while everyone else is "stuck with" primitive firepower. To me, that's a lame argument.

I also know that if the AR15 and similar weapons were banned and couldn't even be purchased on the black market, we would not see an end to violence, nor would we have an answer (in response to massive crimes of  violence) to "how could this happen?"

I don't have an answer. If I lived in Aurora, I hope I would have the courage to be there for the victims. If one were to ask me, "how could this happen?" I could honestly say, "I don't know." While it might not have happened if the suspect had not been able to purchase an AR15, my wont to ban such guns is my agenda, not a compassionate response to anyone in need.

I ask "why is this gun legal" and perhaps you ask "what school or health system failed ths suspect so that he ended up doing what he did?" or "Why aren't there armed police officers standing by the doors to all public places?" or "Why are violent movies legal?" or "Why don't our schools and parents focus on bringing up kids NOT to like violent movies?"

Each of us tries to understand violence by asking such questions. Sooner or later, such questions may be part of the means of finding answers. For the moment, they are more rhetorical in nature as a means of our trying to cope. It's human to ask them. It's also human to be there for the rather large group of direct and indirect victims as agenda free as we possibly an be.

--Malcolm

Fifty Shades of Green (with envy)

I haven't read Fifty Shades of Grey and don't intend to.

Most writers and most novels don't really come out of nowhere, but when they appear to beam into the national consciousness from another galaxy, there's always a lot of talk. No matter how much they dance around their comments in blogs, Twitter, Facebook and interviews, some writers approach all that talk with a "fairness quotient."

If writer ABC and writer XYZ write equally wonderful books, yet ABC's next door neighbor just happens to be an influential agent or publisher who gives ABC's book a lot of attention it normally wouldn't get, writers are likely to think "unfair" even though they won't say it. Saying it sounds like sour grapes.

Since most writers aren't quite sure why everyone seems to be reading Fifty Shades of Grey, there are a lot of sour grapes being stomped into bad wine behind the scenes. Why? Well, because those who know erotica say there's nothing new here. Those who know romance, say many mainstream romance novels are more explicit. And those who know writing, say the book isn't well written. All that leads to "unfair" in many writer's minds.

True or Not?

I don't know if these contentions are true or not. I don't have an opinion because I don't read or write either erotica or romance. What interests me is the number of people who are making a lot of bland comments about the book that have a lot of overt subtext lurking between the lines.

It looks bad to be envious in public even though many of our Hollywood stars remain well-loved even when they tell secrets out of school and make nasty comments about their co-stars. So far, writers are expected to be better than that, and frankly, while we're human, I hope we are.

So, what's the difference between choosing to read, say, The Tiger's Wife and choosing not to read Fifty Shades of Grey when both books seemed to come out of nowhere, vaulting (to use a sports term here) writers out of sandlot baseball straight into the major leagues? Goodness knows, more people will probably ready Fifty Shades of Grey than The Tiger's Wife. I liked what I read in blurbs, interviews and reviews for Téa Obreht's novel and not what I read about James' novel. That's not a value judgement. It's simply a matter of reading preferences and personal tastes in fiction.

If I wrote erotica, I would probably make some bland comments about James' novel while quietly speculating in print about just how it sold so well and my novel, say, Lust in a Red Barn, sold only a few hundred copies. I would probably be, very carefully, fifty shades of green with envy about Fifty Shades of Grey.

Nobody seems to know why certain books become "Black Swan Events" that sell better and capture reader and media attention better than anyone could have predicted before hand or can even understand after the fact. It's fair to say Fifty Shades of Grey is a black swan. But after reading the blogs and Facebook comments, I know that for a fair number of writers, the subject is also a green and envious swan.

What about you?

• Have you read it?
• What influenced you to buy it?
• Did you like it?
• If so, was it poorly written, well written, or very well written?
• After reading it, do you better understand how and why the book became such mega-hit?

--Malcolm

Finding stories in your ten defining moments

In his book Self Matters, Dr. Phil (Phillip C. McGraw) writes that each of us has ten defining moments in our lives that have greatly influenced who we are and what we think about ourselves.* While his book guides readers toward valuable self-discoveries, my muse encourages me to use my recollection of defining moments--along with other strong memories--as writing prompts.

All of us can recall moments that brought us great joy, pain, embarrassment, excitement, love, humiliation, and, perhaps, an epiphany or two. While Dr. Phil urges us to find and acknowledge these moments so that they no longer control or bias our lives outside of our conscious control, I like going a step further and exploring them through story.

Even after acknowledging these moments for what they were (and are) I find that there is still a lot of energy attached to them. When I go back in time, I feel what I felt when the moments happened; these feelings can bring great passion and strength to a short story or novel. The point is not necessarily a factually true rendition of your life's best and worst moments, but rather a harnessing of their energy.

Memories as Catalysts

I have come to terms with those moments by using them as springboards to fiction that may, when all is said and done, look nothing like the actual events. The sense of the moment is what I'm looking for, and because my feelings years later are still very strong, I have within my history the components for writing stories where the angst, wonder and essential truth shine through.

Even our less volatile memories can become the stuff of fiction. I'm currently writing a series of short stories set in the Florida Panhandle. Few of them match anything in my parents' Christmas letters or what I might say if I were hypnotized and ask to relate what happened on a family cookout, day trip, or memorable afternoon in the back yard.

To some extent, my love of nature is "ramped up" when I combine the memories of a childhood trip with the adventures of my fictional characters on the same beach, river or piney woods trail. Sometimes "first loves" play a role; or, perhaps its the crazy antics of others during a high school band trip or my memories of my grandparents funerals or a fishing trip with a friend that, while not funny at the time, becomes a charming tall tale years later.

My novel The Sun Singer arose out of a family vacation to Allerton Park in Illinois when I was in grade school. Garden of Heaven leans heavily on my experiences in the Navy. Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire relies on stories I heard as a child from reporters who were friends of my father..

Perhaps your past is a gold mine of writing prompts waiting to become stories. The stories are likely to have a lot of spunk and grit in them because at one level of reality, parts of them will be true. Happy or sad, they will flood you with memories that will infuse your stories with the well-defined characters and compelling plots readers like best.

--Malcolm

* You may also like: Discovering your deepest story through writing, my review of Riting Myth Mythic Writing, by Dennis Patrick Slattery