Growing Beyond, From the Diary of Joseph Kaufman

After Mr. Benson, my 9th grade Marine writing teacher, I had no writing teacher for the rest of high school—there simply were no creative writing classes at Pittsfield High School from 1970-1973. Rather, in English class, we read Dickens and Twain and Hawthorne and wrote ten page papers about their significance—I don’t even think I [...]

Memories of Mr. Benson

My first writing teacher was Mr. Benson, a former Marine, at Theodore Herbert Middle School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Mr. Benson had a high forehead and crew-cut hair, plus a good selection of striped, club ties. He wore starched, button-down shirts of various yuppie shades, West Point-creased trousers, and wing-tip shoes. [...]

Life Cycle of a Book: Understanding the Basic Book

Books on a Shelf

So many book models exist today. From the traditional write-and-publish to the eBook, with everything in between, the variations are staggering. This post is about the basic book model. Once the book life cycle is described I can then talk about the variations on the model. By enumerating the book models I [...]

Meet Joseph Kaufman, New Author with French Creek Press

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 [...]

First Books Published

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 [...]

Information Brokers

Chris Brogan in his three hour talk at the Tools of Change 2009 Conference made several thought provoking statements. Aside from being a very funny guy Chris pointed out the obvious. It is so obvious that it escaped my attention. And if he had to remind everyone in the room of the same fact, it [...]

French Creek Press and its name

It has been said that where you live influences you, like an angel that sits over the land and guides the happenings of mortal men. Perhaps being born in a territory fusing East and West, and later spending most of my childhood in a place governed by a true innovator, formed my foundation.
Hawaii at the [...]