Meet Joseph Kaufman, New Author with French Creek Press

September 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment

It feels great to offer a good fiction book that looks at who we are: post baby boom, post 60′s, post rebound, post lots of growth. It doesn’t surprise me that our readers, many of a like age, connect with “The Legend of Cosmo and the Archangel”. We all question who we are today, 40 years hence. Do we hold by the ideology that drove us when we were young and on fire? Can we identify that young piece of ourselves in our middle-aged lives? The surprise came from our young readers, the teens and twenties, the immortals, the invincibles. They are the ones on fire! They are grappling with passions that yank them across a spectrum of experiences and emotions. And yet, they identify with the terrible events and choices Cosmo and Nick face in “The Legend of Cosmo and the Archangel”.

A group of tight-knit friends grow up together through high school in a world twisted inside out by a terrible war, accessible, affordable  drugs, great opportunities for education and tremendous drive to change. While all ages have some need to throw off authority, our group comes of age in a time when all authority must be destroyed because it is authority. What happens to someone young and unworldly as he or she steps out into that maelstrom? Who do they become if they survive?

Cosmo leaves the group first as he heads off to Viet Nam, burning with American patriotism. He returns wounded and broken, his best buddy dead, himself a user. Then Woodstock explodes on the scene amidst the rain. For many it is the identifiable point-time of change. College, not-college, travel, poverty and fame follow the young adults. It seems as though everyone is diving off a cliff into the unknown. Cosmo makes his first mistake when he goes AWOL from his hospital bed in search of oblivion from memories of his stay in Viet Nam. Joey’s life turns secretive. Frankie dreams of being Dr. Schweitzer. Dave dreams of the starting lineup on a professional football team and Nick makes his first irreparable mistake that forces him into years of global travel.

From Viet Nam, and terrorism through out the 70s and 80s, through Ireland, France, Asia, and the Middle East, Cosmo and Nick run from themselves and from each other. It ends in Jerusalem, to where all roads lead.

Filed Under: new author Tagged With: ,

First Books Published

September 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

My first ever publishing experience was in grade school. I learned how to make paper. Then I learned how to bind it into a book using thread and glue. Only after the book insides were ready was I allowed to draw, color, paste, and print my story. It was kind of backwards, creating the book and then filling it in. The priority was on making the book, not creating content. Fast forward to high school where I, as a very frustrated, fluent writer, had no outlet for my creativity. My school was so small that there were only 17 girls in my class. The other classes were slightly bigger, but no class had over 25 girls. Due to lack of demand or perhaps lack of energy and guidance, we did not have a newspaper nor a literary magazine. The yearbook was the only creative outlet.

In my Junior year, at age 16, I decided to publish a literary magazine. Of course, I decided this after all funds were allocated to other extra curricular activities, so there was no money even to seed this venture. Over five months I learned how to put together a team of editors, con teachers into sitting on an advisory panel, and how to judge poetry, short fiction, and artwork. I also learned how to beg, I mean, raise the money needed to print the book. I had many encounters with printers and learned a great deal about paper, ink, and size of books.

By May of that year our magazine, Ginko Lines, published its first edition. After I submitted the book to the printer I went back to the dormitory, collapsed on my bed and started to cry. One of the teachers came in to my room and explained the emotional upheaval I was experiencing. She even said, “It’s like having a baby. You just had a baby.” Well – that’s not a good thing to say to a teenage girl in an all girls school.

The next year, my senior year, I went through the process again. The difference in planning ahead financially and emotional was tremendous. I made it through the process to publishing and distribution without crying or breaking. That was the end of my budding publishing career – until now.

I have in front of me the proof copy of the first book published by French Creek Press Ltd. All my experience as a project manager, engineer, editor, book doctor, and layout artist came into play along with the extraordinary talents of the French Creek Press staff. This time I felt like jumping up and down, running down to the street and stopping everyone there to come and look at this baby, book. Excitement replaced tears of exhaustion. Age tells. Experience tells.

Keep looking in this space for the announcement of our newest book.

Filed Under: new author, Print On Demand Tagged With: , ,

Publishers are Movie Producers

September 7, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Publishing, not being restricted to the printed page, delves into eBooks, eLearning modules, video promotions, audio books, and even video shorts. (How much time will go by before Random House or Macmillan become movie producers. Can you see O’Reilly producing the full length feature, “The Ultimate Agile Environment”?) Since a major part of French Creek Press is the creation of eLearning modules, I decided to read the book, The Lean Forward Moment: Create Compelling Stories for Film, TV, and the Web by Norman Hollyn. As the book blurb says, “Whether you are an editor, producer, director, cinematographer or visual effects pro, this book will provide the essential techniques you need to create engaging content that emotionally connects with your audience.”

To read this book as a producer, director, editor, cinematographer for video promotions is obvious. Yes, read the book. Find out how to tell the story, the logline, in a small time frame. Is this for people who creating learning modules? I argue that anyone who creates a “story”, whether it is how to use a product or pure entertainment, anyone who is in front of an audience can benefit from this book. This book is about how to tell a story.

Someone who creates eLearning modules must be aware of the elements that go into a good production: creating the logline, the purpose of the module, writing, design, directing, cinematography, editing, optical and visual effects, music, and special sounds. When you create a module, you are telling a story. You are engaging the viewer in your world, giving over to him or her the essential information. You are telling a story.

We don’t compete with books anymore. Online learning, electronic learning are not competing against tutorials in a book. Nor are these modules competing against a classroom setting where the speaker can physically dominate the talk; where the speaker can cause change and excitement through bodily movement. Online and eLearning are competing against movies, web series, and television shows. The viewer expects to learn, but has been so conditioned to passively watching that any module must be, at some level, a form of entertainment.

How many people out there have sat through an online tutorial only to wake up and find that they missed a half-hour of the module because they fell asleep? I have. And I’m fairly focused. eLearning, online learning must capture the audience the way movies capture the audience. There must be those moments where the viewer almost “leans” forward in suspense.

Now lest you think I’m cracked, I actually have experience with some very good trainers. The people at Lynda.com such as Tim Plumer and Sven-Erik Seaholm, or the guys at Layers Magazine like Corey Barker, Rafeal Concepcion, or Kelby Training really understand how to tell over their stories. And one of my favorite instructors is RJ Jacquez with his Adobe Connect learning modules for the Adobe Technical Suite 2 and the Adobe Learning Suite.

There’s some great training out there. Unfortunately, there’s also a lot of poor training. If you are in the business of story telling, which is what publishers are, you need to read The Lean Forward Moment.

Filed Under: eLearning, online learning, online training Tagged With: , , , , , , ,