THE CANADIAN WRITERS' MANIFESTO

Every book writer, whatever his or her nationality, should have this pinned to his or her wall


 After consulting dozens of authors, the Writers' Union of Canada composed a 12-point Bill of Rights for writers.

1. Copyright legislation shall ensure the protection of intellectual property and appropriate compensation for rights holders

2. Exceptions to copyright should be minimalized

3. The publisher shall split the net proceeds of eBook sales equally with the author

4. The author shall retain all electronic rights not specifically granted to the publisher or producer and shall have approval of any modifications made to the work

5. The publisher shall not exercise or sublicense eBook publishing rights without the express authorization of the author

6. When a book is out of print in print form, continuing sales in electronic form shall not prevent a rights reversion to the author

7. For eBooks, the publisher in its contract shall replace the tradional "out of print" clause that triggers a rights reversion with a sales volume clause (eg. less than a specified quantity of eBooks sold in a specified number of royalty periods and/or a finite term of licence, eg. five years)

8. When rights revert, the publisher shall provide the author with the digital file of the book

9. The Public Lending Right Commission shall provide author payments for electronic books and allot additional monies to this end

10. Libraries shall acquire digital copies of works in their collections only from rights holders or their licensing agencies

11. Ebook retailers shall require the rights holder's permission for any free preview or download of an electronic work, and the rights holder shall specify the maximum amount to be made available

 12. Agents, publishers, aggregators, retailers and libraries shall ensure that works in digital form will be well protected and will not be shared, traded or sold outside the boundaries authorized by the contract.

From New Zealand Author Feb/March 2012
The Canadian Bill of Rights is also available on the Advocacy page of the New Zealand Society of Authors website.

Economic giants at the Met Museum of Art

The Global Economy: Crisis Without End—From Europe to Beijing to Washington, Can the World's Economic System Cope?

February 17, 2012 at 6 p.m.

Paul Krugman* | Edmund Phelps* | Jeffrey D. Sachs | George Soros
*Winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics

A panel discussion co-sponsored by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The New York Review of Books Foundation, and the Fritt Ord Foundation of Oslo.

The New York Review of Books brings together contributors Paul Krugman, Edmund Phelps, Jeffrey D. Sachs, and George Soros to discuss the number one issue of the day: the financial crisis facing the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art Director Thomas P. Campbell introduces the evening and Robert Silvers, editor of The New York Review of Books, will moderate.

$25 general admission, and all tickets also allow for museum entry.

Each ticket holder will receive a FREE copy of George Soros’ book Financial Turmoil in Europe and the United States.

The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street)
New York City

To purchase tickets phone: 212-570-3949 | or visit: The Great Hall Box Office in the museum

Due to unprecedented demand, tickets cannot be bought over the internet.

Inquiry into library closures

British MPs have begun hearing evidence at a Select Committee inquiry on library closures.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has been requesting views on the service since November.

Witnesses giving evidence on Tuesday said closures would have a negative impact on local communities.

"We're not saying library services should be immune but local needs haven't been taken into account," said campaigner Abigail Barker.

Ms Barker, who represents Voices For The Library, said libraries were not just about lending books.

She argued they were a place where local communities could get together for a number of reasons, including craft and homework groups and a meeting place for over-65s.

Residents and users had not been consulted about cuts, she told MPs.

From the BBC

FULL STORY

Brian Easton and Tupaia

The New Zealand Listener publishes regular columns by this well-known economist, which are pungent as well as well-informed and entertaining.

To my surprise, in the January 7 issue, Dr Easton discussed the impact of Captain Cook's Polynesian fellow-traveller, Tupaia, on the history of trade in New Zealand.  With, I may add, much reference to my biography of the great Tahitian, Tupaia, The Remarkable Story of Captain Cook's Polynesian Navigator.

The column (published January 7) is called Value In Goods Exchange

"Perceptions of value in an exchange of goods can be clouded by cultural assumptions," he begins:

My marginal contribution to maritime historian Joan Druett’s book Tupaia: Captain Cook’s Polynesian Navigator was to comment at a dinner table that the Tahitian chief’s considerable part in the development of New Zealand was hardly acknowledged. The observation was made as I talked about how often, in the course of a history of New Zealand I am writing, I had to think in a different cultural context from my own.

Histories of Pacific exploration focus on Cook, relegating Tupaia to a minor role. Yet without him, Cook’s visit to New Zealand would have been much less enlightening, for despite the Maori’s ancestors having left central Polynesia 500 years earlier, Tupaia was able to engage with them in language and cultural terms.

Much of what Cook tells us was learnt from Tupaia. Yet whereas Cook rightly appears in The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, there is no entry for Tupaia. The dictionary records the exploration of the Pacific through European eyes.

MORE

As you can see from the image reproduced above, it was illustrated with what appears to be a quick sketch in imitation of Tupaia's famous caricature of Joseph Banks swapping a piece of tapa cloth for a crayfish.  This lively version seems to be inspired more by the film "Master and Commander" than Tupaia's actual artwork.

Something which a discerning Christchurch reader noticed, leading to this amusing letter:

CLAWS FOR THOUGHT

The picture illustrating Brian Easton’s excellent Economy (January 7) shows a previously unknown European encounter with Maori, who presented the men with a creature new to them – a lobster. Either that or the Maori are showing the visitors a local crustacean, a giant freshwater crayfish (now apparently extinct; current species do not exceed 16cm in length).

Or perhaps the artist did not realise New Zealand saltwater crayfish do not have the spectacular claws of the lobsters found off the northeast and northwest coasts of the Atlantic. He or she should have taken more notice of the eyewitness drawing by Tupaia, who saw such an exchange and got it right.

As the Listener has a reputation for accuracy, it may like to add to its checking processes a requirement that all pictures of New Zealand saltwater crayfish show them without claws. As a motivator to accuracy, providers of faulty illustrations could be required to buy a large crayfish, draw it from life, then have it sent, in edible condition, to the writer. I can provide my address on request for such delivery.

Bruce Tulloch
(Bishopdale, Christchurch)

RJ Julia up for sale

Facing the changes

Years ago -- maybe the year 2000 -- I went to Madison, Connecticut, to promote one of my books (She Captains)  at the wonderful RJ Julia bookstore.

The staff were friendly and very efficient; I was most impressed with how well they knew their customers and their tastes in literature.  The bookstore itself was gorgeous.  It has remained a very good memory.         

Now I read in Publishers Lunch that RJ Julia is up for sale.  I hope they find the right loving owner.  And I agree with Roxanne Coady that the future looks brighter for indie bookstores; figures indicate that it is the shareholders in chain bookstores who should be doing the worrying.

Bookselling: RJ Julia Seeks New Owner

Owner Roxanne Coady announced in an email to customers Monday morning that RJ Julia Booksellers, the Madison, CT-based store she founded and has owned since 1990, is looking for a buyer. Coady explained it's time for the store "to grow in new ways, in the care of new hands that will guide the store to take its proper place in a new world; a changing of the guard in a time of change." Founder of the Bookstore Training Group of Paz & Associates Donna Paz Kaufman will handle the sale process.

Coady assured customers that the store won't close and "this is not an end for R.J. Julia, but simply a new beginning....We are determined to see R.J. Julia survive and thrive into the future. And there is good reason to think it can. The last few months have shown a resurgence of support and sales for independents across the country. There is even talk of this being the beginning of a renaissance for independent bookselling." But to take advantage of this "renaissance," RJ Julia "needs a new steward" along the lines of recent ownership transfers at the Harvard Bookstore and Politics & Prose.

Coady said she plans to devote more time to her literacy foundation Read to Grow and that combating low literacy rates in the US "feels like an ideal next step in my career."
Coady letter

Graffiti and Captain Cook

Tjibaou Cultural Centre, Noumea

There is an eloquent example of graffiti carved into the centrepost of a thatched, steeple-roofed meeting house in the Tjibaou Cultural Centre in Noumea.  It's a Kanak depiction of HMS Resolution, the ship that was commanded by Captain James Cook when he "discovered" the island on September 5, 1774.  Up until that day, the island's citizens had called their home Balade.  Now, because of the necromancy of European mapmakers, it is known as New Caledonia

A Kanak elder showed us the centrepost, and the carved image of the ship.  Then he said in his careful French, "Captain Cook came with nothing, and took everything away."

Wise words.   The cultural centre (pictured below) that arcs around the ceremonial village was designed by a famous Italian architect with the musical name of Piano.

What is "graffiti," anyway?

Graffiti artist David Choe set for Facebook windfall

David Choe painted the first Facebook offices in 2005

From the BBC

A US graffiti artist who painted Facebook's offices is set to become a multi-millionaire when the social network begins trading as a public company.

David Choe, who first spray-painted the walls of Facebook HQ in 2005, accepted shares in payment for his work.

Now the site is planning to float on the stock market, its thought his share could be worth around $200m (£126m).

Well, that's a nice windfall, and the best of luck to him.  It caused me to wonder about the origins of graffiti.  It seems a very modern sort of vandalism-decoration.  Did it start with Kilroy was here?

No, indeed.  It is very ancient, or so my encyclopedias tell me.  The word "graffito" or "sgraffito" means "scratched," and is a technique in art where a design is scratched through a layer to expose the undercoat.  Potters used it to create decorative designs.  Other people used it to write rude or flowery sentiments, memorialize their own names, or advertise the charms and addresses of certain courtesans and prostitutes. 

The ancient Greeks and Romans went in for it a lot.  Looking for graffiti on the stones of the ancient Egyptian Temple of Dendur, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, is an interesting experience, as passing Roman soldiers scratched their own equivalent of "Kilroy was here."  There is also a lot of graffiti in Pompei (example pictured above).

But none of those old taggers expected to make a fortune out of it.  That is a modern development.

PARAPROSDOKIANS

OK, so I had to look up "paraprosdokian"

Here is the definition : "Figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; frequently used in a humorous situation."

"Where there's a will, I want to be in it," is a type of paraprosdokian.

But guess what, I found the definition on the internet, because it exists in no dictionaries.  Not even Greek ones.

For a discussion of the word that is even more amusing than the examples BELOW, see HERE.

But nonetheless, it can be useful, especially if you want to look amazingly intelligent

More:


1. Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on my list.

3. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

4. If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.

5. We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.

6. War does not determine who is right - only who is left.

7. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

8. Evening news is where they begin with 'Good Evening,' and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.

9. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.

10. A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station.

11. I thought I wanted a career. Turns out I just wanted paychecks.

12. Whenever I fill out an application, in the part that says, 'In case of emergency, notify:' I put 'DOCTOR.'

13. I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.

14. Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.

15. Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman.

16. A clear conscience is the sign of a fuzzy memory.

17. I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.

18. You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.

19. Money can't buy happiness, but it sure makes misery easier to live with.

20. There's a fine line between cuddling and holding someone down so they can't get away.

21. I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not so sure.

22. You're never too old to learn something stupid.

23. To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.

24. Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

25. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

26. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

27. A diplomat is someone who tells you to go to hell in such a way that you look forward to the trip.

28. Hospitality is making your guests feel at home even when you wish they were.

29. I always take life with a grain of salt. Plus a slice of lemon, and a shot of tequila.

30. When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the Fire Department usually uses water.


Words of Wisdom
"The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese."

The time-honored sport of "show-boating"

It dates all the way back to the wedding-cake-like paddle-steamers that plied America's rivers


It's called "show-boating" -- putting on a show for spectators on shore.

And that, it seems conclusive now, was exactly what the captain of the ill-fated cruise ship Costa Concordia was doing -- he was show-boating, to the detriment of both his ship and his career.

Additionally, it seems there might have been a contest between ships and captains involved.

I don't know if he is going to find it a comfort, but this kind of sport has been a tradition since steamships first began, as attested by a racy news item in the Otago Daily Times (28 February 1884), which provides a couple of paragraphs of light entertainment in my next book.

On 26 February 1884, the Union Steamship Company crack steamer Wairarapa steamed into Port Chalmers (port of Dunedin, New Zealand) with her port quarter badly dented, and her poop deck awry, creating a storm of gossip. 

Apparently the steamer had left Melbourne with all her lights blazing, belting along at top speed.  Steamship captains were a flamboyant lot, and Captain Chatfield was no exception, but he was not just “show-boating” for the edification of watchers on shore.  According to what a passenger related to the press, the local steamship Adelaide was coming close behind, travelling at such a headlong speed that “flames fully six feet high” billowed from her smoke-stack.  Chatfield hung back so that the Adelaide could catch up, and then the two steamers pelted down the harbour past Williamstown, “coaling up at a great rate” — as the passenger phrased it.  In a word, they were racing.

“It was fully known on board that a race was intended,” he said.  Everyone was most animated, “holloaing and making all sorts of noises,” and bets were being placed.  Then the race came to a sudden end, as the captain of the Adelaide altered course, steering straight at the port quarter of the Wairarapa. Apparently, he meant “to jockey the Wairarapa out of her running” by forcing her toward the starboard side of the channel, but unfortunately, there was a miscalculation, and the Adelaide ran right into the rear end of the New Zealand steamship, “making a most dreadful noise as she blew off her superfluous steam.” 

The crash was terrific. For a moment or two the steamers were so closely locked together that one athletic (or terrified) passenger jumped from one ship to the other. Then a sudden fog had come down. Losing sight of each other, the two steamers had come to a stop, and had sent boats across the water, asking if everything was all right.Neither ship, as it turned out, was badly damaged. Though her beauty was marred, the Wairarapa was still perfectly seaworthy, as her speedy passage from Melbourne to New Zealand had demonstrated.

There was an inquiry, held at the Dunedin Custom House, but it ended inconclusively, as none of the passagers had been willing to testify against such a popular man as Captain Chatfield.  And anyway, as the Otago Daily Times remarked, there was nothing in the law about steamboat racing, and so the board could do nothing about it.

I somehow doubt that the Costa Concordia trial will come to such a happy conclusion ...

A Day for Readers at Book Expo America

A brilliant idea

Not set in stone, but hopefully it will come off

From Publishers Lunch

BEA Looks To Open Show To Public For A Day in 2013

After years of resisting suggestions to incorporate the reading public into Book Expo America, fair organizers "are looking at 2013 to shift" the show to straddle the weekend, running from Thursday through Saturday, with that third day open to public. The Saturday consumer focus would be "built around author events, but [will] also allow them onto the show floor to look behind the curtain, see what new works from their favorite writers will be coming out like ComicCon does." BEA show director Steve Rosato argues in a blog post that maintaining a third day of regular exhibits outside of the regular work week, by itself still controversial among exhibitors, "will also give a day of exhibits on the weekend that small but vocal portion of librarians and booksellers miss."