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	In The News & Media Links Author Spotlight For Aspiring Writers - Screenwriting Brand Awareness For Authors

Author Spotlight

Title of Book: Curiosity Author: Gerald Allen Wunsch Drawings by Irene Joslin ISBN #: 1-4107-3699-7 Publisher: 1st Books Library Genre/Market: Children's Fiction Publication Date: 2003 Book Length: 108 pages Price: Paperback Rating: Recommended CURIOSITY: A LEARNING ADVENTURE A familiar element of many children's books involves placing children into a new environment, showing they aren't exactly thrilled to be there, and then watching them find the value of their new surroundings. In Curiosity, Ginger and Irene are sent to Ginger's grandparents, George and Abby, for a month in southern Indiana while Ginger's parents are away on an extended vacation. George and Abby live out in the country along with Laird, their wire fox terrier. The young girls are looking for adventure in a place where there seems to be nothing much to do, but adventure is exactly what they find during their month in the country. George takes the girls to visit the home of his friends, the Browns. Their house holds many hidden surprises. Mrs. Brown talks to the girls about the Civil War and the history of the Underground Railroad. She then shows them the secret hiding places in the house which were used by the slaves on their quest for freedom via the Underground Railroad. The girls imagine how the slaves must have felt when they were hiding, awaiting their journey to the North and to freedom. Several days after this visit, the girls are bored, trying to find something interesting to do. When Laird disappears, they find that he has fallen into a hole. After Laird is rescued, it is discovered that the hole leads to an underground storage cellar. The girls are curious about what they might find in the cellar. What they find leads to their own adventure, which ties in, once again, to the Underground Railroad. Their exciting discovery lands the girls on the front page of the local newspaper. This is a book that teaches children about an important part of our history in an interesting way. After each chapter are questions which are answered in the Learning More section at the end of the book. This section provides information, photographs and drawings which expand upon the story. I felt this was a nice touch since the author provides answers to questions that might be cropping up as inquiring young minds read this book . The illustrations throughout the book are well done and add to the story. Having said this, I must mention that there were drawbacks in the mechanics of the book which I feel could have been avoided by a good editing job. Since I feel this was a nice story, I wish that these editing concerns, particularly the page formatting, could have been addressed before the book was published. In spite of these reservations, I would still recommend this book. It is an interesting and informative story about the Underground Railroad. I like how the author provokes thought about slavery and the desperation that would make slaves risk everything for freedom. I also appreciate how the author wants the readers to stop and think about what life was like for the slaves, what it must have been like to be in hiding, and what the Underground Railroad physically consisted of. And I enjoyed the warm relationship between Ginger and her grandparents, emphasizing that grandparents have much to offer their grandchildren. Curiosity is a children's book and from that vantage point, I feel that it has much to offer young readers. Reviewed by Nancy Machlis Rechtman Read the Interview with Gerald Allen Wunsch »

For Aspiring Writers - Screenwriting

Scene It's relatively common to hear screenwriting instructors note that one should enter a scene at the last possible moment and exit at the earliest. This is a concept that I agree with; however there is a whole secondary opportunity to capitalize on this technique besides the obvious. For the new screenwriter, let's first review the reason for this general rule of entering as late as possible and exiting as early as possible. It's quite simply to trim the fat. Except in rare circumstances, a screenplay shouldn't exceed one hundred and twenty pages. In fact, if you are an unsold writer trying to break in, I would advise you to never write a screenplay that exceeds this. As a matter of fact, most of the time, the screenplay should be less than that. For comedies 90-105 pages is probably about right. What this means is that you have very limited space to tell your story, so you don't want any waste. Don't show a character doing mundane things like cracking eggs and tossing them in a frying pan unless it's going to reveal character and push the plot forward. If your protagonist was a man that ran around saying only gay men cooked and then you showed him cooking it might be important to show. But, if all he's going to do is eat the eggs and then have a fight with his wife, don't show him cooking the eggs. Pick up the scene as he eats the eggs and his wife enters the room and finds the frying pan uncleaned in the sink. Today's style of movies is usually very fast paced. Scenes are rarely longer than a couple of minutes. Get in. Get out. Okay, so that's the basics of it. Now, let's talk about how you can use scene exits and entrances in comedy. The temptation when writing comedy is to show the audience all the funny stuff that happens to a character in a particular situation, but many times it can be a lot funnier if you leave it to the audience's imagination by having an early exit of one scene and a fast entrance into another. The simplest example which I'm sure you've seen a hundred times is where you have a character swearing that he won't do something. There's absolutely no way he will wear a dress! Never! - Fast Cut - There he is walking down the street in a dress. The audience delights in imagining what events took place that ended up with him in that dress. Usually, you'll never come up with something as funny as what they are imagining must have happened. The movie PAYBACK with Mel Gibson has a good example of this. It's already been established that Gibson's character is one angry, dangerous guy. So, when Gibson encounters a big tough underling of the bad guy who tells Gibson that there's no way he's going to see the boss and then there's a quick cut to the underling entering the bad guy's office with considerable physical damage and Gibson right behind him, you can't help but laugh at what must've happened. And how sorry this underling must be that he took the position that he did. The temptation would have been to write a scene where you witness Gibson's character beat the crap out of the guy. Sure, it would have been okay, but what you need to get producers to note your writing is material that is simply terrific. So, next time you're thinking about writing your funny scene, think about quick ins and outs that leave the humor to the audience's imagination. Often times, this will be the more hilarious route.

Brand Awareness For Authors

Brand awareness is the top influence on consumers when purchasing online, according to the first of a series of "eSpending Reports" for the holiday season. Findings from the first study revealed that 63 percent of shoppers surveyed in the past week relied on brand awareness as the leading factor in purchasing online. But in this Internet- and mass-media-driven world, brand awareness has become an integral -- and somewhat necessary. Therefore, it has never been more vital for authors to understand how brand awareness relates to their businesses and how they can use branding techniques to create better bonds with consumers and, ultimately increase sales. Like other aspects of business, good advertising is the result of hard work and careful planning. Creating good advertising is an enormous challenge. Imaginative and refreshingly honest. More evidence is coming out in support of Web advertising as a branding medium -- rather than a tool for driving immediate sales. Begin branding your own individual name. You can become successfully branded through the internet. Select/design your caricature/signature and put it on everything! Banners Logos Graphic ads Text ads E-Mail. The Internet's most powerful application is the dominant application for interactive marketing. It's immediate, inexpensive and in-your-face. E-Mail has changed business communication forever. It sells, promotes, brands, informs, reminds, creates buzz and best of all, it's cost effective.