Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
Location: Books & Such main office, Santa Rosa, Calif.
The last few days I’ve been exploring trends in our culture that can inform what we write about or how we reach readers. One idea that’s been around for awhile but seems to be experiencing a renaissance is taking your hobby to new heights by attending a crafting retreat. It’s adults meet camp!
The idea is that you not only get away to enjoy fresh air and a new locale, but you also make something while surrounded by other enthusiasts. (more…)
By Janet Grant on Jan 6, 2012 in Blog, Life, Reading, Writing Life | 5 Comments
Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
Location: Books & Such main office, Santa Rosa, Calif.
In many ways, our society feeds a sense of being part of the milieu rather than being uniquely you or me. As a result, individuals are looking for others with whom they can connect and share their passions. One of the ways that need is being expressed is through book clubs. (more…)
By Janet Grant on Jan 5, 2012 in Blog, Publishing News, Reading | 10 Comments
Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
Location: Books & Such main office, Santa Rosa, Calif.
I like to take the first few days of each year to get my grounding, to stabilize my feet under me, and to consider what the new year might hold. We’re all moving in a jet stream, propelled from behind by so many changes in society and in publishing that it’s hard to keep up with what’s new. But I think it’s instructive to consider what people are thinking about, how they’re reacting to life, and what that means to those of us who, ultimately, are either responders to society’s direction or movers of that direction. Either way, if we don’t know where our culture is going, we can neither write about it meaningfully nor influence its direction.
One thing I’ve noted is an uptick in the domestic arts. I’m not just talking people who like to cook, sew, knit, or build a bookshelf. I’m talking about people who are taking their activities to a new level. (more…)
By Janet Grant on Jan 4, 2012 in Blog, Life, Publishing News, Writing Life | 14 Comments
Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
Location: Books & Such main office, Santa Rosa, Calif.
Everyone at Books & Such is bubbling over with excitement. We have the joy of beginning 2012 with a major boost to our agent roster. Rachelle Gardner joins our agency, bringing with her a significant client base as well as her reputation among publishers as an able agent.
Our press release, which was sent out today, in part reads,
Gardner has been involved in publishing since 1995, joining WordServe Literary Group in 2007. Before becoming an agent, she was senior editor at NavPress, where she developed and launched the NavPress fiction line that included three Christy Award finalists and an ECPA Award finalist in its first year. She acquired and edited numerous nonfiction books as well.
Prior to that, Gardner worked at General Publishing Group in Santa Monica, California, where she was director of rights and marketing, managing departments of special sales, subsidiary rights, international rights, international sales and domestic marketing. Among other things, she built and managed a team of international sales agents and represented the company in Frankfurt, London, Tokyo, Chicago and New York.
Gardner is recognized as one of the important online publishing voices. Her blog, RachelleGardner.com, has been named a Writer’s Digest 101 Best Sites every year that her site has been in existence. Last year she logged more than half a million visits to the blog. Both writers and industry professionals follow her. She has become known for her encouragement and grace in an all-too-often merciless industry….
Founder and president Janet Kobobel Grant said, “I’ve long thought that Rachelle’s style of agenting is the same sort of collegial approach that I’ve espoused since the beginning days of Books & Such. When she mentioned her interest in joining our agency, I knew immediately that this was going to be a proverbial match made in heaven. To say I’m pleased is an understatement of the first order.”
With that background, I’d now like to introduce our blog readers to Rachelle by posting her entry for today from her blog. Feel free to welcome Rachelle to Books & Such in the comments section below. (more…)
By Janet Grant on Jan 3, 2012 in Agents, Blog, Publishing News | 30 Comments
Blogger: Michelle Ule
Location: Santa Rosa, Calif.
We didn’t raise our children to believe in Santa Claus. It wasn’t that we told them there wasn’t a Santa Claus; we just didn’t discuss him as a present-provider. We sort of punted on the subject, especially when we hung Christmas stockings.
My mother was shocked. “I can’t believe they won’t have Santa. Who will they think brings the presents?”
Me: “The people they can honestly thank.” (more…)
By Michelle Ule on Dec 30, 2011 in Blog, Christmas, Life | 6 Comments
Blogger: Mary Keeley
Location: Books & Such Midwest Office, IL
In my child’s view, the family Christmas Eve celebration never really began until Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle George arrived. They lit up the house with cheer and laughter. That was a special gift they shared. They made me feel as if I were the only person in the room as I told them about achievements or failures in school or outside activities, and their praise and encouragement felt genuine and personal to my young heart. (more…)
By Mary Keeley on Dec 29, 2011 in Blog, Christmas, Life | 3 Comments
Blogger: Rachel Kent
Location: Home in Santa Rosa
A couple of months ago my Great Aunt Irene passed away. She was a twin and her twin sister, Eileen, passed away almost ten years ago. I remember seeing them every year at Christmas. They would come to our huge family gathering and sit next to each other on a couch and talk to whomever happened by. They were very caring and sweet, but were quiet and would hardly ever initiate conversation–at least not with us kids. I never could tell them apart because they were always together! (more…)
By Rachel Kent on Dec 28, 2011 in Blog, Christmas, Life | 8 Comments
Blogger: Wendy Lawton
Location: Books & Such Central Valley Office, Calif.
This week we are sharing one of our unforgettable Christmas people. My mind goes immediately to my family. That would be the easy choice. I grew up in a happy, happy family.
My father wasn’t so blessed, however. His family was. . . well, odd. He was an only child with a composer/musician father and a mother who never quite grew out of her speakeasy days. To say they were interesting would be an understatement. My grandfather played the piano at the Cliff House in San Francisco between gigs on the radio. My grandmother’s three sisters–Cora, Electa and Grace–lived in a downtown San Francisco hotel for as long as I knew them. I remember their clean laundry being delivered every week from the Chinese laundry, wrapped in slick blue paper and tied in string. The aunts had long red fingernails and wore ropes of jewelry–the antithesis of my mother’s solid farm stock. When the aunts laughed, it came out as a trio of cackles. I have to admit, we were mostly scared of them.
At Christmastime my father would collect his whole family and bring them to the house for dinner. As he extracted the aunts from the car, he would always wink at us kids and whisper, “Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble. . .”
But writing about those characters is too easy, isn’t it? (more…)
By Wendy Lawton on Dec 27, 2011 in Blog, Christmas | 6 Comments
Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
Location: Santa Rosa, Calif., home of Books & Such’s main office
Even though yesterday was the official celebration of Christ’s birth, Christmas memories still flow for most of us, as we spend time with family and friends in this final week of the year. It’s a natural time to recall the special people in our lives who have loved us well. This week each Books & Such staff person will post about someone who comes to mind for her during this season.
For me, I think about my godparents, Henry and Leona Held. But especially my godmother. She was one of my mother’s older sisters (in a family with six daughters and three sons). As was probably common among large families, the older girls ended up pretty much raising the younger chicks. My mother, one of the last children born into the family, considered Leona to be her surrogate mom.
So my brother was named Leon in Leona’s honor, and I was her godchild. I adored Aunt Leona, whom I always called Aunt Onie because, as a toddler, I couldn’t make it through the thick hedge of a name like Leona. But “Onie” slipped easily out of my little pink lips. (more…)
By Janet Grant on Dec 26, 2011 in Blog, Christmas, Life | 4 Comments
Blogger: Michelle Ule
Location: Mainland, USA
Thanks to you, American taxpayers, my family spent four years sunning ourselves on the shores of Pearl Harbor while my husband rode his bike to work at the Navy base to repair submarines.
Christmas in Hawaii means finding a Yule-oriented T-shirt to wear with your shorts and trying to keep the tree alive until December 25. (All Christmas trees arrive in the islands by ship the day after Thanksgiving. Since they’re the only ones coming, you might as well get your tree while it still has pine needles).
All our friends in Navy housing were considered haoles, no matter their skin color, because they were not originally from Hawaii. That meant we were all in a foreign place together at Christmas.
Which brings me to the Christmas ornaments and other trinkets.
Our first Christmas in the islands, we sent home Hawaiian objects that reflected the holidays: a nativity in a coconut shell, shell leis, Hawaiian-fabric Santa hats, and a personal favorite: Waikiki Beach sand (spread sand on a cookie sheet, heat oven to 400 degrees. Bake five minutes. Run your fingers through the sand, and you can say you played in the sands of Waikiki at Christmas).
And of course, the Christmas ornaments.
I’ll give you a sample of what we have. Some were gifts from other haoles, some we purchased ourselves. They all bring a smile to our lips as we remember the aloha spirit always bidding us, and you today, “Mele Kalikimaka.“
By Michelle Ule on Dec 23, 2011 in Blog | 3 Comments
