Let the reading public decide which titles are worth reading

           This came in the email tonight and I welcome it as a further sign that indie writers are coming together to further the goal of their organization www.indiePENdents.org 
          After barely eight months in existence, we number 200 plus members all over the globe, have issued Seals of Good Writing to five self published books and 21 titles are in the process of being evaluated. Where we haven't succeeded yet is in persuading booksellers to carry titles which do not have a traditional publisher behind them. It is as if they are saying to authors: "If you are not known as yet, we won't bring you to light". It will be up to their customers to demand the right to decide which books they want to read. If books are not offered to the readers, the booksellers are willy-nilly exercising censorship.  August 12, 2012, 8:46 pm (EST)

Hello Jasha,

            My name is Cindy Smith, and we have a friend in common—Jenny Milchman (see email below).  I don’t know if you know her personally or not; we became friends via our mutual authors’ group (Author Central).  She is such a lovely girl—so caring and helpful.  In fact, she was the one who told me about IndiePENdents, and I immediately went to your website, filled out the forms, and started communicating with Julia (also a wonderful lady!)  I sent her a copy of my book, entitled Nettie Parker’s Backyard, and it is now in the process of being reviewed by your group.

            When Jenny told me of your IndiePENdents, I, of course, submitted my novel to have it approved and put on your coveted list; however, even beyond that was the joy of finding an organization such as yours.  The home page of your site with its mission statement had me literally jumping for joy!!  Jenny and I have had many discussions about the very real need for a group that does just what IndiePENdents does:  to rate books for readers, without bias, and based on strict standards of grammar, acceptable writing style and content, etc.  In fact, when Jenny asked me to contribute to one of her blog’s “Made It Moments”, I at first declined, saying that I didn’t think I’d “made it” at all.  I was resentful that just because I was self-published, I couldn’t get into bookstores, large or small, and that since anyone could self-publish (and did!), there were thousands and thousands of new books on the internet marketplace monthly that were of very poor quality for one reason or another.  Yet, all of these books comprised my stiff competition.  Jenny and I agreed that some kind of body was needed to rank books fairly, which would not only be a boon to readers, but also to good self-published authors such as myself.  I told her that she had the intelligence and personality to create a body with this goal; she replied with a chuckle and declined.  It wasn’t long after that she emailed me about your group.

            To tell you briefly about my children’s WWII historical-fiction mystery, I must first tell you that the book’s themes are the very timely and important ones of anti-bullying and tolerance for all.  The story is about how my African-American heroine from South Carolina comes to care for eight, Jewish refugee children of the Holocaust in war-torn London.  It is both multi-cultural and multi-religious, and has had wonderful reviews by both children and adults alike.  After having worked as an educator in the Los Angeles Unified School District for almost thirty years, I saw first-hand the bullying, prejudice and hatred that children show each other.  The inspiration for my story actually came from a very vivid dream, and I decided to expand upon that dream and write a story for all children, regardless of their race, religion or physical challenges.  Hence, there’s quite a mixture of these topics going on in the story, but they all work and come together in the end proving love really does conquer all.

            I wrote my novel 6 ½ years ago, and I launched a massive, second promotional attempt 1 ½ years ago.  I have done many author presentations/book signings at schools.  This has resulted in the book being currently shelved in 2 public libraries (in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills), and it is also in a dozen private/public/synagogue school libraries.  I spoke about “’Oh, the Places I’ve Been’ on the Rocky Road to Self-Publishing” at the annual national AJL convention in Pasadena in June.  Of course, along with the other 1.5 million new books that are self-published yearly, I am listed on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

            I have worked almost full-time this past 1 ½ years to promote and market my book.  Unfortunately, although it does not seem destined to be a “commercial success”, I feel that I have achieved some measure of success in other ways.  I know that children who have read it, loved it, and that hopefully they have learned from the valuable lessons interwoven in the plot, and have tucked those ideals into their hearts for future reference.  I have met wonderful people like Jenny along my “rocky road”—people who loved the book and tried to help draw attention to it in any way they could because they believed in it, too.  I feel privileged to be in contact with you, Jasha, because I truly respect you—for what you have had to endure because of your religion and homeland, that you are a survivor who now writes books to educate others about this horrendous time in history, that you have conceived and brought to fruition the IndiePENdents, such a needed organization especially in today’s crazy world of publishing, and lastly, the fortitude and mental awareness you still possess at age ninety.  What accomplishments you have reached! 

            If you have any ideas you can suggest to help me further the acknowledgement of my book, I would greatly appreciate hearing from you.  If my story has stopped just one child from becoming a bully or from hating another merely because of race, religion, or outward appearance, then I, too, have accomplished a great deal.  Just think how many more children I could potentially reach, help and change for the better via further distribution!  The book’s website is www.nettieparkersbackyard.com, and Julia already has the paperback copy.  I hope to be hearing from you in the near future. You could reach me by email at nettie.halley@gmail.com

            Again, many, many thanks for all that you are doing for us writers in today’s uncertain and upside-down world of publishing.

            Best regards,

            Cindy (CV) Smith

Hi Jasha,

I wanted to write and see how you are doing. I hope your summer is going well?

I'm copying an independent writer named Cindy Smith on this email because Cindy has learned about IndiePENdents and I was telling her what a noble and intriguing area you're delving into.

I think you two may have a lot to say to each other!

My best,
Jenny

--
COVER OF SNOW, forthcoming from Ballantine
http://www.suspenseyourdisbelief.com
http://www.takeyourchildtoabookstore.org

Returning home

Yugoslavia is dead as a state structure, but not forgotten as an idea. 


In the forthcoming Serbo-Croatian translation of The Last Exile, I write this epitaph as its Prologue:


“It was a lamentable fact that virtually no supplies had been conveyed by sea to the 222,000 followers of Tito. (...) These stalwarts were holding as many Germans in Yugoslavia as the combined Anglo-American forces were holding in Italy south of Rome. The Germans had been thrown into some confusion after the collapse of Italy and the Patriots had gained control of large stretches of the coast. We had not, however, seized the opportunity. The Germans had recovered and were driving the Partisans out bit by bit. The main reason for this was the artificial line of responsibility which ran through the Balkans. (...) Considering that the Partisans had given us such a generous measure of assistance at almost no cost to ourselves, it was of high importance to ensure that their resistance was maintained and not allowed to flag”.
—Winston Churchill, 24 November 1943

It seems only fitting to start the introduction to this edition with this quotation from the leader of Western European resistance to Hitler.

Its date coincides with the time Mussolini fell in Italy, and I was fleeing Asolo, where we were confined as enemy civilians since November 1941. By the time I reached Rome, to hide in it for another 9 months from the Nazi’s and Black Shirts, the Allies have established a beachhead at Anzio and were  fighting to break through the Gustav Line at Monte Cassino.

Thanks to Churchill’s change of heart and his decision to finally acknowledge the realities on the Yugoslav battleground, Tito’s recruiting station was established in Rome as soon as the Allies liberated it. I joined to restore the opportunity which, in Churchill’s own words, they missed in Dalmatia. 

Thus, this most apt of quotations marks the two crucial parts of my life: survival as a Jew in WWII Italy, and my journey into the building of the new Yugoslavia. My new, optimistic life, lasted 10 years before -- disillusioned in false promises of democracy -- I disassociated myself with the country of my dreams.

I wanted to be a writer since the early days of my youth in Sarajevo in the ‘salon” we held on banks of the Miljacka. I studied architecture in Belgrade because, as a Jew in Hitler’s Europe, I had to make a compromise between my love of art and a more practical way of making a living. 

I never became an architect. The Germans make sure of that when they attacked Yugoslavia in April 1941. As to writing, I experienced a meteoric rise as a newsman in Borba, where they had no openings, but admitted me in bookkeeping. I started free-lancing and became famous as a newsman, in good part owing to my knowledge of languages.

In 1944-45, I had participated in the ground thrust for Trieste when I fell to typhoid fever at its doors, and my first journalistic passion was the diplomatic fight for that city. This led to my being blacklisted by Her Majesty’s postwar Government, which, for reasons of their own, championed the cause of a war-enemy against their war-ally. So much for the Paris Peace conference in 1946, where I was further shocked to hear that my mother died at 46. I barely made it to her funeral in Sarajevo, the last time I set foot in it.

I had other passions: the fight against Stalin’s attempts at Soviet supremacy, rejected by Tito and championed by a special center spread in Borba which I edited. Here is where I had daily meetings with Milovan Djilas, who was the government pinpoint person in charge of Cominform relations. Both he and I got labeled by Moscow as “well-known Great Serbian Supremacists”. A badge of honor at the time.

Traveling the world as far as Panmunjom Peace Talks in Korea, most of Asia and the UN, I wrote mostly polemic reportage and several books on foreign policy. After staying in America in 1956, I retired from preaching politics and, once happily “defrocked” took two jobs leading national non-profit volunteer organizations; retiring thirty years later, I finally took to writing again, but this time in English.

The books, The Last Exile - Tapestry of a life, and Requiem for a Country - A history lesson, are both n print and on digital platforms. Translated editions are available in Italy and Belgrade, and will also appear on Amazon and other international listings.

In addition to all the credits I give to people who helped me with writing, editing and improving my books, I want to add special thanks to my Serbo-Croatian translator, Nada Donati. I know I am opening myself to criticism for using this designation of our language, ignoring all attempts at splitting it apart the way the country was split by the inept and corrupt lilliputan heirs to Tito. But language lives in books, and our literature speaks for itself, in spite of attempts at nationalistic distinctions. Let it be known that, in the world of our diaspora, the Jews seem to be the only ones carrying the torch of Yugoslav unity, not so fashionable today, but perhaps a nod to the saner future of the South Slavs.

"IF YOU DONT HAVE AN ENEMY, YOUR MOTHER WILL GIVE BIRTH TO ONE"

The Bosnian conflict of the 1990s was only the latest of the barbaric fratricidal wars which have plagued my beloved hometown in my former homeland. 

After finally uniting in 1918, following the assassination of Crown Prince Ferdinand in Sarajevo which served as a pretext for WWI, the South Slavs were torn  apart by the German invasion in 1940s, which inflamed a religion-driven genocide. The country was made whole again, thanks to the Partisan war of liberation and the strong hand of Tito’s “fraternity and unity” movement, but after his death the country disintegrated.  The sons and daughters of Yugoslavia fought In the 1990s against each other and divorced in the flames of a cruel genocide. Their marriage had lasted less than three quarters of a century.

The irrationality of the atavistic Balkan conflicts makes them hard to explain. The recent movie The Land of Blood and Honey tried to do so and in the eyes of Sarajevo witnesses of the infamous three-year siege failed. 

A native son, uprooted by the first Bosnian genocide in WWII, witnessing the second from abroad, I tried to make sense of it all in my two books, The Last Exile and Requiem for a Country. To further help me explain the inexplicable, Blood Without Honey now brings in the witness of my newly “found” niece, Inga Geko, a mother of a young child, herself a victim who endured the infamous three-year siege by sectarian forces in the once most tolerant of the cities in Europe.

(From the preface to “Blood Without Honey”, © 2012 by Jasha M. Levi. On Kindle, $4.99. Free five-day downloads every 90 days starting July 27 until further notice. Soon in paperback. Royalties will be used for the education of children of the Bosnian genocide)

A guest blog from Australia

Like two ham radio operators, Clancy Tucker Down Under and I on the Eastern Seaboard found each other on the same frequency and playing the same ballad seeking recognition for indie writers. Here is his daily blog, set to appear July 17 (which is tonight at Midnight in Australia) in cyberspace. Note his plug for indiePENdents.org: 

Quote of the day:

'The real essence of work is
concentrated energy."

Walter Begehot

Writing tip of the day:

G'day guys,

All writers have different approaches to writing, but generally there are three methods of attack:

1. Dream up an idea and shoot from the hip. That's me. Most of the time I have no idea where the story will head or finish up. Fortunately I find it an adrenalin rush and the story becomes self generating. It's exciting and normally takes me three months to write manuscripts 85,000 to 100,000 words. A few years back I went overseas two weeks after completing a manuscript and wondered why I was so tired. Mm ... any wonder?

2. Plan everything out before you start writing. I have been to an author's home and found entire walls covered in A3 sheets of white paper. Each sheet contained personality traits of the characters, chapter points and other issues relevant to their manuscript. I found it gob smacking, but that's the way she approaches a novel.

3. Write everything by hand, then type it up. Many authors do this. I certainly do. Why? Good question, but I think it relates to the fact that many of us started writing early in life; well before computers. Our mind was trained to write on paper. It's an odd connection between the hand and the mind. However, as with most things, do whatever you find best. There is no right or wrong way. Experiment until you find a happy and creative space. Once you have typed it on your laptop you can go back at anytime and add or delete any part.

Just do it. Many people over the years have told me they'd always wanted to write a book. My stock answer is, 'Do it!'. However, they usually cringe and give some excuse for not having started. My simple advice is this: writing a manuscript or short story is a draft in the first instance, so just let it out, let it rip. You can sort things out in the many revisions you will do; especially the first read when you've finished it. Revision of your work is vital.

Be brave. Try to be brave in each story, play or manuscript you write. Step out of your comfort zone. Maybe use a different gender as your main character, or write a story about something you have to research. It can be an enriching experience. I wrote three manuscripts in what I call the 'Kick Ass' series and the main protagonist is a girl. She is 14 in the first manuscript, 18 in the next and 32 in the third. That surprised some of my feminist friends. On the other hand, 'Mister Rainbow' has a boy and girl as the chief protagonists. Why? It allows you as a writer to give a male and female perspective to whatever disasters or events occur in your story. Also, it makes the book appealing to boys and girls.

f. Retain your own voice. Retain your own voice at all times. Never try to emulate another writer's style. Find your own and present it well. It's great therapy.

A message for all self-published authors:

Self published authors! Looking for exposure? We think that to reach readers, they should be able to see your titles in the first place. The do-it-yourself marketing and social media publicity may pave a way to some, but where most readers could see them is on display in bookstores. We are trying to open the doors of independent booksellers to indie authors. How? Look up The indiePENdents.org -- a non profit, volunteer membership organization, set to level the playing field. It is non commercial and free, with just one item on the agenda: the interests of new literary talent, neglected by the publishing industry.

Keep writing!

Don't be shy ... leave a comment or send me an email: clancy_tucker@hotmail.com

Thanks for listening.

I'm Clancy Tucker

www.clancytucker.com.au

Bragging rights?

Today's mail brought a large manila envelope with a copy of Publishers Weekly Select for July 2012. It is A quarterly guide to what's new in self-publishing.

I was surprised as I never subscribed to PW. The explanation was inside, on page 19, where, under non-fiction, I spotted this item:

Requiem for a Country
A History Lesson
Jasha M. Levi, Editions JML HIBOU, $15
paper (166p), ISBN 978-1-105-22956-6
Amazon; www.jashalevi.com
The birth and death of Yugoslavia twice
between 1918 and 1994 and the world
events of the century that found its author
"waterboarded by history."

I am glad they found me. I am even more delighted that -- like The New York Times, they have started taking notice of independent authors. Indies are on their way to the days when the gates will be open to them, ending the bookstores' boycott, giving access to  the libraries, and leveling the playing field.  

Judging a book by personal taste or literacy?

This past week brought up an interesting question from a member of The indiePENdents who had signed up as a reviewer and took exception to one particular title: Do we judge a book by our personal tastes or by its literacy. My response, for obvious reasons omitting mention of the title, follows:

 All I can say is that your letter made me read excerpts of not just the title in question but several others under the same name. There are so many of identical titles, one could call it a genre, as they all suck blood (and other things), pierce each other in many ways and pulverize a confusing array of ill-defined enemies or friends, it don’t matter. I now have a better idea what the current movies of this kind are all about, movies that I am told are the delight of teenagers and hits at the box office.

To each his own.

Some of the titles I checked out of curiosity seemed better written than others; I am sure it was my sheer luck I didn’t come across any that wouldn’t pass a literacy test. As you yourself said, the one [you got to review] can be faulted for formatting: I don’t know about that aspect of the book, so what I am left with is that you fault our standards for somehow not aiming at excluding content you and I may not like. The answer is that we can reject a book if it confuses its characters or for a fault in formatting, but not on the basis of personal reading preferences.

But friend, can we arrogate for ourselves the rights to be arbiters of the literary tastes and access of others to them? I remember how, back in 1985,  I grossed out a lady lunching with me at a Greek restaurant on 9th Avenue, while they were still serving roasted lamb’s head on a platter, soft cheeks, succulent eyeballs, tongue et all. Age and lack of availability had since made my barbaric yen for innards disappear, but I will not agree with anyone picketing a restaurant offering such fare.

Similar to that was a dilemma we faced at In Touch Networks, a national 24/7 radio reading newsstand for the blind (and otherwise print-handicapped people) over whether or not we should read Playboy on the air. Some donors questioned our broadcasting such disgusting material and Indiana authorities banned it. A blind lady client of ours objected to our reading The Daily News, and thought that we should stick to The New York Times. 

My answer was that as long as sighted people have the right to pick up anything they fancy from a newsstand, who are we to deny such right to those among us who are blind. The venerable newspapers and magazines, all of which gave us copyright permission, didn’t object to be in the same program with The National Inquirer sold on the street or read in our scheduled broadcasts.

Similarly, our Seal does not tell people what genre they should read: Our only intention is to distinguish, within each genre, those who don't do damage to the English language. 

Our Seal should not be construed as a card of identicality (my coinage) of its recipients. It is a given that they are diverse. Neither do the Seals mean that we recommend the political or any other orientation of the authors or that any of us approve each other’s company; they do attest that the titles carrying them have earned the right to a level playing field in public spaces. The final arbiters are the readers.

...., I hear your concern about the company you keep. But, please, did you take a look at the three awardees so far? They are all different. [The book you got for review] happens to be about vampires, with 13 more in all kinds of genres now in the pipeline. We cannot determine who will submit what work to us in the future. An objective reviewer shouldn’t ask for an assignment to his/her taste. This is not what we evaluate. We are not censors of the public taste. Let the readers buy what they want. We just tell them if the author passes muster as a writer.

I have come to respect your knowledge, judgment and persona.  It would pain me to see you separate from our goals on the basis of a misunderstanding. I am sure we can find a joint ground. 

Please reconsider. Don't leave. Give me your suggestions as to where you think we might change, improve and clarify. 

Most cordially, and reciprocating your affection,

What is the qualification of a book reviewer?

The indiePENdents being an international group, my email rings around the clock. At many a time in the middle of the night, I answer.

Last night, it was about the qualification of reviewers, ours, those on indiePENdents.org. I answered by asking about the qualifications of mainstream reviewers, who anoints them and why. Ours are professional writers and editors, probably at least as good, I said. 

In the morning, letters to The Sunday New York Times Book Review made me take the compliment back. Four out of six letters addressed reviewer’s inaccuracies, misrepresentations, or lack of understanding of the books they were writing about.

One of them pointed how the reviewer of A Difficult Woman -- a history book about Lillian Helman by Alice Kessler-Harris -- made the review a polemic against Hellman’s character and took the opportunity to express agreement “with McCarthyite purges that Hellman abhorred.”  The reviewer also referred to the work as an “unsparing psychological examination of Hellman and [Dashiel] Hammett”, to which the author responded that “there are no psychoanalytical categories involved in my biography.”

Another reader speaks of a “scathing and unwarranted” review of Anna Quindlen’s Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake.  “I defy anyone" -- the letter goes on to say -- "to read the book and not find it uplifting, humorous and personal on some level. The reviewer  definitely sounded churlish, negative and sarcastic ... The book isn’t just an honest and thoughtful look at the good things that age and experience bring most people. I think I am in good company in having eased into my older age with a lovely sense of wisdom, humor and comfort -- exactly what the reviewer does not have”.

As one letter says: “The Times should have assigned this book to someone prepared to evaluate a historian’s attempt to interpret Hellman both as a creature and defier of her world."

The author of the novel Miss Fuller,” April Bernard, says of another Times review: “The reviewer’s assertion ... is belied  by Fuller’s  sentiments in her actual letters ... That the  reviewer could mischaracterize these urgent personal and political matters ... amazes and confounds."

To which I would add that an author could trust even everyday book readers with the ability to make a sensible evaluation better than some mainstream critics.