GPP

Nick Knack's NY Adventure: How to Create the Perfect Slideshow

In the last post, I mentioned my recent visit to Mediapedia author Kit Laybourne's NY apartment, where I videotaped Bret Kerr playing with his camera on Kit's balcony overlooking Central Park. Lest you think that's the only video we filmed there--oh, no. There's more. Much more.

For example, we also shot the first in a new video series I'm creating for Knack Books. This "show" will feature Nick Knack (yours truly) as he shares various step-by-step, do-it-yourself tips drawn from Knack Books. I like to think of Nick as GPP's entertaining answer to the Complete Idiots and Dummies guides--if severely mechanically challenged Nick can figure out how to get the job done quickly and easily, then so can you, dear reader, believe me. Without further ado, here's "How to Create a Perfect Slideshow":  
 

Three Questions for "Haunted" Author Mary Beth Crain

Halloween is just days away, and there's nothing like a good spine-tingling tale to help you get your spook on. GPP's new book, Haunted U.S. Battlefields: Ghosts, Hauntings, and Eerie Events from America's Fields of Honor, has 25 stories that will leave you and the kiddos shivering. Recently, I sat down with author Mary Beth Crain to discuss her fascinating look at the spirits and otherworldly entities believed to inhabit America's legendary fields of war.

Why do so many soldiers seem to hang around battlefields after death?

According to paranormal research, ghosts seem to be more prevalent at sites involving a sudden and/or violent death. There are a number of proposed reasons for this. The spirit may be disoriented, especially if it belonged to a young person who was very attached to life. It may not realize that it’s dead. It would undoubtedly have unfinished business—messages to get to the living, or loved ones it wanted to see again. A battlefield ghost may be seeking revenge, one more chance to get back at the enemy. And let’s not forget that battles were also high points in men’s lives, and many ghosts seem to want to relive them, over and over.

What's your favorite haunted battlefield story?

Wow. I have a lot of them, but I guess my favorite concerns the dapper Confederate General from Louisiana, Pierre Gustave Toutant de Beauregard, who lost the Battle of Shiloh due to a dumb miscalculation, and never forgave himself. His ghost has reportedly been seen and heard by many people at his old New Orleans home, now the historic Beauregard-Keyes House, moaning “Shiloh! Shiloh!” and wandering the halls. But the wildest part of the Beauregard haunting is the fact that since the General’s death in 1893, the home’s residents—and others—have reported witnessing a phantom midnight re-enactment of the Battle of Shiloh, complete with misty landscape, horses, soldiers, booming cannons, the whole nine yards—in the ballroom!

Did you have any brushes with ghosts while working on the book?

I don’t know if this counts as a ghostly encounter, but it occurred at around 2 a.m., when I was writing the chapter on my favorite Civil War personage, General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, who won the critical Battle of Little Round Top and was supposedly aided by the ghost of George Washington. As I was working at my computer, the chapter suddenly started printing out by itself. Swear to God! And then, a few minutes later, my Chihuahua, Truman, started growling in the bedroom and backing up, like something or someone was coming toward him. He kept barking at thin air, and I had a suspicion that old Chamberlain was paying me a courtly visit, in appreciation, maybe?
 

Four Questions for Bill Berloni.

Over the past 30 years, Bill Berloni has trained countless animals—including cats and dogs, pigs and rats—to perform in Broadway productions and Hollywood films, starting with the original Sandy in the musical Annie in the late 70s. Incredibly, all the animals Berloni has worked with came from shelters.

In his book, Broadway Tails, Berloni recounts the stories of these “throw-away” animals who went on to become showbiz superstars. Recently, Berloni stopped by the GPP offices, where we got a chance to sit down and discuss his book, his career, and some of the fascinating furry creatures who've graced the Broadway stage (no, I'm not talking about George Wendt):

Bill Berloni will talk about Broadway Tails at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, CT, on October 16, at 7 PM.

The Boston Popouts

Step aside, Boston Pops:

A Chat with Hans Florine

Hans Florine leads some life. He's a successful author, he's married to a former supermodel, and--perhaps most enviably--he lives in the Bay Area. Oh, he's also a legendary climber who set the world's record this summer for scrambling up El Capitan in Yosemite National Park faster than anyone before--3,000 feet, straight up, in just over 2 1/2 hours. Hans stopped by the booth at OR and told me about his historic ascent, as well as his recent, aptly titled book, Speed Climbing!: How to Climb Faster and Better:

Author Stewart Green

Writer, photographer, and outdoor adventurer Stewart Green is the author of, count 'em, 18 books--most for GPP and FalconGuides. Since March, he has run About.com's climbing site. I got a chance to sit down with Stewart at OR to discuss his blog, the K2 tragedy, and his latest book for Falcon, Rocky Mountain National Park Pocket Guide, complete with nifty PopOut maps.

Eric Horst's Book Signing

Falcon author Eric Horst met fans and signed copies of Conditioning for Climbers:

Wicked Good Party for "Cuisines of the Axis of Evil"

The premise of Chris Fair's book Cuisines of the Axis of Evil is simple: If you want to understand why some of the world's most troublesome nations are the way they are, sample their food. A country's cuisine offers a window into what its people think and how its leaders rule. Thus, Fair's "dinner party approach to international relations."

How to launch such a book? Why, a dinner party, of course! But it couldn't be just anywhere. It would have to be in Washington D.C., and it couldn't be at a restaurant. Too predictable. It would have to be at a private home--and not just any home... Long story short, I approached lobbyist and D.C. hostess extraordinaire, Juleanna Glover, whom Washingtonian magazine lists as of the "most influential women in Washington," and she agreed to host the party at her spectacular Kalorama townhouse.

Held on July 23, the event's more than 120 guest included: CBS senior correspondent Rita Braver, super agent Robert Barnett, Atlantic Monthly publisher Elizabeth Baker Keffer, Congressman Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), and bestselling author Sally Bedell Smith. Other media big wigs included Newsweek's Jeff Bartholet, The Hill's Hugo Gurdon, CNN's Sam Feist and Amy Holmes. The Washington Post was amply represented by Amy Argetsinger, Roxanne Roberts, Juliet Eilperin, Richard Leiby, and Warren Bass.

But the media weren't all there simply to nosh on kabob and sip red wine--NPR's "Weekend All Things Considered" interviewed Chris and guests for an upcoming segment; Jayne Clarke covered the event for USA Today; and Michael Hirsh took notes for Newsweek. Mediabistro's Fishbowl DC snapped photos, which they published here. Publishers Weekly also ran a party photo as their "Picture of the Day."

Here are some photos taken by Liz Gorman. Click this pic for a slideshow:

The New Blog on the Block

Welcome to “As the Globe Spins,” a blog chronicling life at Globe Pequot Press—a small publishing house with big ideas and goals. “Small,” of course, is a relative term. A 130-plus staff company that publishes more than 500 titles a year, GPP has been a big player in regional and outdoor rec publishing for decades. But over the past couple years we’ve taken our program to a whole new level—competing against the major trade houses with new and revitalized imprints focused on: politics and current events (Lyons Press), women’s issues (Skirt!, GPP Life), do-it-yourself (Knack), and PopOut maps. And, while we’re stepping up our game, we’re also proactively adapting to challenges of publishing in the digital age.
 
How are we doing all this? How do we compete against bigger houses for shelf space at bookstores? How can we cover a larger house’s expense on—for now, at least—a smaller house’s numbers? These are great questions—and we’re working on answers, keeping our eyes open, our thinking fresh, and our reflexes quick.
 
And so it is in these heady, parlous times that “As the Globe Spins” will offer one employee’s glimpse into the ever-changing, and never boring, world of GPP. The blog will feature random reflections, book news, author interviews, event photos, video clips, quotes, and as much water-cooler gossip as the higher-ups will allow.