Uncategorized

Visiting relatives. 

That’s what I told people. 

Quite literally, visiting relatives who live in Vegas.

This was my first time to Vegas.  The overblown, the understated and the cutting edge.

I’m still processing all that I saw.  And all that I heard.  The heart pounding rhythms of Cirque de Soleil shows.  The sun drenching heat of desert lands.

Vegas is bigger than life.  A tower, or two or five or ten reaching far into the sky.  Death defying trapeze acts.  Casino bells and whistles amidst studious faces attempting to defy the odds.

My thoughts are summed up in a phrase that I heard constantly playing in my ears – “This is Vegas.”

Vegas is a core, a strip of urban property literally called the Vegas Strip.  That property is surrounded by the normal, the hum drum, the sub-urb.  The daily life of the suburbs seldom touches the Strip.  But the Strip seems to flow underneath the floating connections of each day. 

I wonder. . .

Is this desert oasis a crafted mirage or a portent of the future?

Book publishing is changing.

We used to enjoy the feel of paper, the smell of ink and the portability of the printed page. 

Now we feel the plastic, smell the electronics and carry our page on a screen.

With the advent of new technology and a new perspective on reading, more and more books are being distributed free.

With that reality in front of authors, a number of writers are going to patronage or sponsorship in writing books.

Patronage – an  investor chooses to pay you to write on a topic of their choice, or allows you to write on topics you suggest with which they agree.

Sponsorship – an investor receives a prospectus of what you will write and decides this is a worthwhile venture.

Both models dispense with royalties.  You receive your payment upfront.  Then the book is released free of charge.

Advantage – if you self publish, you are not stuck with bills and books when your work of art does not sell. 

Disadvantage – if you have a run away best-seller, you don’t get additional monies after the act of publication.

A new model? 

In one sense, this has been around for centuries.  Patrons of the arts allowed artists to freely create art.  They would be commissioned for a work of art, paid on salary, or convinced by an artist of the worth of their art.

With “gofundme” campaigns and other avenues of fundraising, we may be headed back to the future.

The new angle? 

The works of art are freely distributed for the widest public – using ebook formats as well as printed copies (although these are optional).  Once they leave the artist’s hands they are gone, not to the retailer, or the publisher, or to the patron, or to the sponsor, but to the public.

Just a few days ago I was about to venture out.

Out to Calgary and Saskatoon, with the elbow of the trip being Kindersley.

First I headed to Calgary for a meeting.  Then back to Kindersley.  The next day to Saskatoon and back to Kindersley.

I realize some sales people and world travellers move across that much dirt in mere hours. 

I’m not one to do a lot of travelling.  Most days I head out just a few kilometers to the Post Office.  Not much more to the grocery store.  And coffee breaks  happen in between those two destinations.

So, with more than a few kilometers covered in the last three days, I was pleasantly surprized with the cost of the trip.

Oil prices have gone down substantially. 

But, the downturn in oil prices means our town is affected adversely.  Belts have been tightened and spending is slowing. 

At the same time, with gas prices going down, I could afford to hit the road.

While our belts are being tightened, our gas tanks are being filled.

I’m not sure if I should laugh or cry.

In grade school, I remember reading a story.

I’m not sure why the title stayed in my mind.  Perhaps it was the words of the title that were a little bigger than the usual “Tom, Dick and Harry” story.

“CIRCUMSTANCES ALTER CARLA”

After many decades the title is as fresh as ever.  However, the story is not.

So I headed out on a search for the story. 

I’m so thankful for the age of technology.  In a search engine I typed in the title of the story.  After scrolling through a number of irrelevant search items, I came to the words I was looking for.

The story was contained in a book called “All Sails Set.”  The description of the book mentioned that “All Sails Set” was a Grade Six reader written in 1948 and used throughout the 1950’s and into the 1960’s.  The content of the book was said to contain “higher moral values”.

Supposedly there are very few original copies available, although I would think with all the schools that used the reader, there would be more.  One enterprising book seller listed the volume at $5,000 for a pristine copy.

I was not about to pay $5,000.  All I wanted was the text to the story I had read as a kid. 

I checked out information on the publisher. 

Copp Clark is now a financial firm – their publishing now deals with their current concerns and they are no longer a general book publisher. 

In the midst of my search I did find that the old archives of Copp Clark  (when they were a general book publisher) are housed at McMaster University.  I contacted the archives and am now, hopefully, in the last part of my search.

Stay tuned.