Western Regional Roundup
Staff -- 08/28/2000
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Western RoundupWestern booksellers celebrate
on board the RMS Queen Mary


Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
Trade show meets Fri., Sept. 15-Sun., Sept. 17, at the Oregon Convention Center, Portland, Ore.

Activities start on Friday at 8 a.m. with two 45-minute panels on how to work the trade show; one is designed for first-time booksellers, the other is an introduction organized for authors and publishers. In the latter, Cynthia Frank of Cypress House shares her secrets for a successful show. Educational programming starts at 9 a.m. with a series of panels and workshops divided into five categories: national issues, bookselling/booksellers, children's bookselling, authors and publishing. First is a panel on the changing role of the sales rep, moderated by Jennifer McCord, with Steve Black of CDS, Jim Harris of Graphic Arts Center Publishing, Marlene Howard of Media Weavers Inc., Kathi Kirby of Powell's Books and Christopher Kerr of Parson-Weems Publishers' Services, followed by a workshop on the Book Sense program at 10:30 a.m. conducted by ABA CEO Avin Domnitz. In two other workshops, booksellers receive a financial review from book industry consultant Willard Dickerson, then get a glimpse at reps' "picks of the lists." This session ends at 11:45 a.m. A children's bookselling panel with Sylvie Hossack, Kirby Larson and David Patneaude takes a look inside the workings of a writers' critique group, after which a workshop on "the kid connection" is led by author Kathleen Duey. Writers lead two hands-on workshops on "writing down to the funny bone" and grassroots marketing. Leigh Anne Jasheway (I'm Not Getting Older, I'm Getting Better at Denial) and June Cotner (Animal Blessings) do the honors.
Between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., box lunches are available at the registration desk. Booksellers are encouraged to attend the many roundtable discussions taking place during the noontime break--the focus is "sharing strategies." In the afternoon, booksellers can go one of two ways--either they can continue sessions in the panel/workshop format starting at 1:15 p.m., or sign up for private conferences with Willard Dickerson (advance registration). For those opting for the panels and workshops, the ABA returns with two sessions on Book Sense and BookSense.com. Hut Landon, Chuck Robinson and Diana Wells manage the former; Len Vlahos conducts the latter. At the same time, sales reps take center stage with a sequel to the morning's "picks," followed by a bookselling presentation listed in the program as "Northwest Wild," with authors Art Wolfe, Gary Ferguson and Carlos Arnaldo Schwantes. Speakers at a children's bookselling panel--authors and illustrators Nina Laden, Petra Mathers, David Shannon and Janet Wong--talk about hands-on activities. In a related session, savvy children's book buyers Rene Kirkpatrick, Patricia Johnson, Holly Myers, Christy McDanold and Diane Smith-Hill turn their attention to fall's lists. Publishers get the last word at a series of workshops on publicity and media use presented by Joanne McCall of McCall Public Relations, and on marketing techniques conducted by Robert McCullough of Whitecap Books. Autographings are scheduled from 4:15-5:45 p.m. In the evening, it's a celebration of authors at Powell's Bookstore's downtown location with Michael Drannen as emcee.

Saturday's 8 a.m. book and author breakfast features Molly Gloss (Wild Life), Jannell Cannon (Crickwing) and Larry Colton (Counting Coup). The Northwest Book Travelers Association meeting at the convention center starts at 8:15 a.m. Exhibit hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Autographing hours: 9:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m. and 2:15-4:15 p.m. PNBA's Book Awards Committee meets at 10 a.m., its Education Committee convenes at 12:15 p.m., its Literacy Committee meets at 2 p.m. and its Membership Benefits Committee gathers at 3:30 p.m. With the general meeting at 5:15 p.m., booksellers can call it a day. The evening's hoopla begins with a 7 p.m. cocktail party, followed by a banquet at 8 p.m. Russ Lawrence of Chapter One Book Store emcees the event, with Lemony Snicket (The Austere Academy), Susan Vreeland (Girl in Hyacinth Blue) and Mary Clearman Blew (Sister Coyote:Montana Stories) in attendance.

The Sunday book and author breakfast features Myla Goldberg (Bee Season), Jack Prelutsky (It's Raining Pigs & Noodles) and Phillip Margolin (Wild Justice).

Exhibit hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Autographing hours: 9:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m. and 2:15-4:15 p.m. At noon, the children's book group holds a two-hour meeting, which wraps up the formal-meeting segment of the show.

Contact:Thom Chambliss, 317 W. Broadway, Suite 214, Eugene, Ore. 97401; (541) 683-4363; info@pnba.org; www.pnba.org.


Southern California Children's Booksellers Association
Annual Fall Dinner and Golden Dolphin Award Presentation to be held on Sat., Sept. 16, on the RMS Queen Mary, Long Beach, Calif.
Step aboard the RMS Queen Mary and step into history. Known as the "gray ghost" during wartime, this stately liner is now docked in the Port of Long Beach, where she serves as a sightseeing destination, a first-class hotel, and a meeting and banquet center. It is here--in the art deco salons of the 1930s--that the SCCBA will host its annual dinner and awards presentation. A 6 p.m. cocktail hour and reception offers booksellers an opportunity to meet the many author-guests. Drinks, canapés and publishers' "picks of the lists" will be served for the crowd's enjoyment. And vocalist David Kinnon plans to sing a medley of his favorite tunes. At 7:30 p.m., the doors open to the Grand Salon Ballroom, where guests will dine in luxury. Authors Rosemary Wells, T.A. Barron and Don and Audrey Wood plan to attend. After dinner is the presentation of the Golden Dolphin Award, a lifetime achievement award given to a regional author or illustrator. Last year's recipient was Bill Peet; this year's will remain a secret until the sealed envelope is opened on this magical evening.

Contact:Leslie Kessel, Little Professor Book Co., 27468 Ynez Rd., A-1, Temecula, Calif. 92591; (909) 694-6531.


Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
Trade show meets Fri., Oct. 6-Sun., Oct. 8, at the Oakland Marriott, Oakland, Calif.

The Friday morning program starts at 9 a.m. with a bottom-line training program for bookstore employees by Ari Weinzweig, CEO of Zingerman's deli and bakery. This intensive mini-course is limited to 30 people, so sign up early. Unable to attend? Choose from two concurrent sessions starting at 10 a.m. A veteran bookseller guides a roundtable discussion on "One Good Thing I Did in My Store with Book Sense," while local sales reps Roz Hilden of Scholastic, Susan McConnell of Simon & Schuster and Dandy Sommer of Random House give presentations on "How to Sell More Children's Books." The Friday box lunch features Richard Lederer (The Bride of Anguished English) and Rita Ciresi (Sometimes I Dream in Italian). Educational programming continues in the afternoon. At 1:45 p.m., business notables Hans Peter Brondmo (The Eng@ged Customer), Paul H. Ray (The Cultural Creatives) and Roger Scholl (The Anatomy of Buzz) offer some expert advice in a panel. Then, at 3:30 p.m., ABA's Len Vlahos steps in and demonstrates the up-and-running BookSense.com. The day closes with a welcome reception at 5 p.m., featuring speakers Alfredo Vea Jr. (Gods Go Begging) and Manil Suri (The Death of Vishnu).
On Saturday morning, authors Lynda Barry (The Greatest of Marlys), Anne Perry (Slaves of Obsession) and Jane Hamilton (Disobedience) are the featured breakfast speakers. Exhibit hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Autographing hours: 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m. NCIBA holds its hour-long annual meeting at 4 p.m. After long hours on the show floor, walk across the street to Café Centre for drinks and hors d' uvres at the cocktail reception.

The Sunday morning children's author breakfast headlines author-illustrator team Shannon Lanier and Jane Feldman (Jefferson's Children), Jack Prelutsky (It's Raining Pigs & Noodles) and Jules Feiffer (Some Things Are Scary). Exhibit and autographing hours are the same as the previous day. If the standard lunch fare of overpriced, well-done burgers and soggy fries d sn't appeal, then stroll over to the "cookbook celebration," where everyone is invited to sample choice morsels prepared from recipes found in this season's crop of new cookbooks. Bon appètit!

Contact:Hut Landon, 5643 Paradise Dr., Suite 12, Corte Madera, Calif. 94925; (415) 927-3937; office@nciba.com; www.nciba.com.


Southern California Booksellers Association
Educational programming scheduled on Fri., Nov. 3 and Sat., Nov. 4; Annual Authors Feast held on Sat., Nov. 4, on the RMS Queen Mary, Long Beach, Calif.
Independent booksellers are hot in southern California! New bookstores are sprouting up; established bookstores are flourishing. SCBA membership is growing by leaps and bounds. More than 250 booksellers are expected to participate in the weekend activities, including two days of educational programming and the eighth annual authors feast. Baker & Taylor is the premiere sponsor this year, while Ingram, Random House Inc., HarperCollins Publishers, S&S, Penguin Putnam Inc., BookPage and Sasquatch Books are giving their support to the various activities.

Friday is chock-full of workshops, including two sessions conducted by Donna Paz of Paz & Associates--9 a.m.-noon and 1-4 p.m. That evening at 6:30 p.m., sales reps have a chance to acquaint booksellers with a "pick of the list" presentation, followed by a cocktail party.

On Saturday morning, the day begins with a children's author breakfast featuring Laura Numeroff (If You Take a Mouse to the Movies), T.A. Barron (The Fires of Merlin) and Denise Fleming (The Everything Book). Workshops are scheduled throughout the day. Sales reps return to give part two of their "pick of the list" presentation--this time focusing on children's books. And Suzanne Welsh offers a session on holiday catalogue merchandising. At midday, booksellers are invited to have lunch with Mark Salzman (Lying Awake). At 3:30 p.m., SCBA holds a brief general meeting; all are welcome. As the evening draws near, expectant booksellers and authors gather for the annual Authors Feast on the RMS Queen Mary. Invitations are in the mail, and the guest list includes such literary names as Joanna Catherine Scott, Kathleen Alcala, Nomi Eve, Barbara Isenberg, Diana Wagman, Adeline Yen Mah, Joan Anderson, F.X. Toole, Raymond E. Feist and Lillian Hammer Ross.

Contact:Jennifer Bigelow, 540 S. Marengo Ave., Pasadena, Calif. 91101; (626) 792-6157; scba@earthlink.net; www.scbabooksellers.com




West Coast -- What's Cookin'

Graphically SpeakingOn December 4, 1850, the first issue of The Oregonian rolled off the press. Oregon was only a territory then, and Portland just a raw frontier lumber village (population about 700) affectionately known as "Stumptown." To help celebrate the sesquicentennial of the Northwest's largest newspaper, Graphic Arts Center Publishing is offering The Oregon Story: 1850-2000, a collection of engaging stories and historical photographs by the Oregonian staff that spans the paper's existence and traces the state's past and present. The book will be featured at PNBA, NCIBA, and CBA. Another Graphic Arts title, this one being featured at PNBA, is Bears of Katmai by wildlife photographer and biologist Matthias Breiter, who traveled to Alaska to get up close and personal with the residents of the largest sanctuary for brown and grizzly bears in the U.S. His book includes the first successful underwater photographs of brown bears diving for fish.
In This Article:

A Wildlands DebutMore wildlife can be spotted in Art Wolfe's The Living Wild, the first title from Seattle-based publisher Wildlands Press. Set to debut at PNBA, the book features essays from five of the world's leading naturalists, including Jane Goodall, along with Wolfe's images of the world's rarest and most spectacular animals, from the never-before-photographed Bornean bay cat to an endangered Florida panther, great white sharks in South Africa, Andean condors, Siberian tigers and more. To capture these images, renowned wildlife photographer Wolfe circled the globe four times, logged over one million kilometers by every means imaginable (from camel to kayak, fins and scuba tank to helicopter) and shot over 7,000 rolls of film. He'll be at PNBA on Friday afternoon to share his experiences in the field via a multimedia audiovisual presentation.

The Eyes Have ItAt Powell's "Celebration of Authors" will be Colin Chisholm, whose unusual memoir Through Yup'ik Eyes will be published by Alaska Northwest Books. In it, Chisholm traces the complicated threads of his life and that of his adoptive mother, the daughter of a Yup'ik Eskimo woman and a Scandinavian trader. After her parents died, his mother left the small Alaskan fishing village where she was born and raised, and was adopted by a family in Washington. Growing up in the Seattle area in the '40s, she encountered racism (her driver's license was stamped "half-breed") and lost all contact with her roots. After her death, Chisholm returned to Alaska to find her birth family, who welcomed him with open arms, and also traveled to Yugoslavia to search for his own beginnings.

Waste NotAnother memoir sure to spark interest at the Powell's event is Fulcrum Publishing's Atomic Farmgirl by Teri Hein, who explores a childhood filled with horseback riding, haying and the Cold War duck-and-cover drills of the '50s. The great-granddaughter of homesteaders, Hein grew up in the Paulouse Hills in eastern Washington, a region of golden wheat fields in the shadow of the Hanford Atomic Plant, whose dispersal of nuclear waste--both accidental and intentional--forever changed the people and the landscape.

Ladies of the CourtJournalist Larry Colton, author of the critically acclaimed Goat Brothers, will also be featured at the Powell's celebration. In Counting Coup, he chronicles a season with the girls' varsity basketball team of Hardin High School in Crow, Mont., a hardscrabble town beset by racism, alcoholism and domestic violence. In Native American tradition, "counting coup" meant literally touching one's enemy in battle and living to tell about it. Colton puts a new twist on the term as he uses it to describe how this team, comprised of both Native American and Caucasian girls and led by a talented Crow athlete who hopes to be the first female from her school to earn a basketball scholarship to college, plays winning hoops and aims to dominate their opponents.

Communal Living, Montana-StyleSlightly farther west lies another intriguing community, which Yale University Press spotlights in Hutterites of Montana by Laura Wilson, to be featured at PNBA. Through words and photographs, Wilson documents the lives of this close-knit and little-known religious society that shuns the modern world, shares ownership of all property and income, and practices communal living. What emerges, according to David McCullough, is a "a surpassing portrait" illuminated by themes of "religious freedom, the right of privacy, independence, community, and steadfastness in the face of adversity set in the immense open spaces of the West."

A Place by Any Other Name...Heading south to the Golden State, Word Dancer Press helps California wind up its three-year sesquicentennial celebration with Durham's California Place Names, a 14-book series that will be unveiled at NCIBA. A spin-off from its pricier ($195) California's Geographic Names, these attractively priced ($11.95-$15.95) tomes cover the state by region (Wine Country, Central Coast, Eastern Sierra, etc.), defining each area's geographical, topographical and cultural features and supplying longitude and latitude as well, a nifty addition that can help hikers keep on track via GPS devices.

Shedding Light on the PacificAnother book of keen interest to travelers will be in the spotlight at both NCIBA and PNBA--Voyageur Press's Lighthouses of the Pacific Coast by Randy Leffingwell and Pamela Welty. Through photographs and text, the authors trace the development of the region's lighthouses and their
Nature, sports and the great outdoors
(Wildlands, Warner, Voyageur).
technological evolution, offer a peek at what life was like for lighthouse keepers, and examine the current movement to preserve and restore these fascinating structures.
It's only a short hop--albeit a wet one--from lighthouses to the ocean, and a book sure to make waves at these shows is Maverick's: The Story of Big-Wave Surfing, one of Chronicle's lead titles for fall. Located just south of San Francisco, Maverick's offers a unique challenge to surfers, from 50-degree murky waters and 60-foot faces to shifting currents and a punishing rock bottom. Matt Warshaw, former editor of Surfer magazine, takes on this Everest of the ocean as he documents the five most dangerous days in the history of this mecca for extreme sports enthusiasts, including big-wave celebrity Mark Woo, who died on the morning of his very first visit.

California CreativeArtists of a different stripe are in the limelight in State of the Arts by Barbara Isenberg, a Morrow title that will also debut at NCIBA. Drawn from a series of interviews that the former chief arts writer for the Los Angeles Times conducted with nationally known California artists of all kinds--folks such as Dave Brubeck, Randy Newman, David Hockney and Clint Eastwood--the book features more than 50 composers, writers, architects, performers, fine artists and more reflecting on the influence that California has had on their creativity. Its publication is slated to coincide with the largest art exhibition ever staged by the L.A. County Museum of Art, its millennial show "Made in California."

Screen SceneAlso premiering at NCIBA, SCBA and PNBA are a pair of books about the movies. From A Capella Books comes Movie Wars: How Hollywood and the Media Conspire to Limit What Films We Can See by Jonathan Rosenbaum, and from New York University Press Hollywood v. Hard Core: How the Struggle over Censorship Created the Modern Film Industry by Jon Lewis. In his book, Rosenbaum, film critic for the Chicago Reader, examines what he calls "the media-industrial complex" and shows how movies are packaged and promoted, exposing industry secrets regarding distribution rights and corporate ownership of movie theaters that he contends defies antitrust laws. Lewis, a professor of English at Oregon State University, spans the 20th century with a history of censorship and regulation in the film industry, exploring the origins of Hollywood's industry-wide film rating system.
--Heather Vogel Frederick


The First Fiction Scene
Life in the fast lane:
Holt, Little, Brown).
Eden Robinson, a First Nations woman who grew up in Haisla territory 500 miles north of Vancouver in the Canadian Pacific northwest, will be on hand at PNBA for her first novel, Monkey Beach (Houghton Mifflin, Dec.). Set in the Haisla homeland, the book concerns 20-year-old Lisa Hill, who receives visits from otherworldly friends as she searches for her drowned brother. Robinson lives in Vancouver.
Pale Truth (MaxIt Publishing, Oct.) by Daniel Alef is the first entry in the Niantic Chronicles, an historical trilogy about California during the turbulent times of gold discovery. Alef, who lives in California's Santa Ynez Valley, bolsters his fictional account with illustrations of background events, a timeline and a bibliography.

Riches of a different kind are the contemporary focus of Silicon Follies (Pocket Books, Jan.) by Thomas Scoville, where the fast-paced and highly remunerative tech world offers opportunity, loss and sometimes love in the valley serving as today's promised land. Scoville lives in Providence, R.I. California's San Fernando Valley is where the dysfunctional Kelbow family makes its home, and Leslie Brenner's satirical first novel, Greetings from the Golden State (Holt, Feb.), follows their misadventures for over three decades. Brenner lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The five stories and novella collected in Rope Burns (Ecco Press, Sept.) by 69-year-old F.X. Toole portray the gritty underworld of professional boxing in East L.A. Toole himself trains fighters and has worked as a cut man (the person who stanches a boxer's wounds in the ring) for 20 years. "This book is very hard to describe," admits Dan Halpern, Ecco's v-p and editorial director. "It's not like anything else. The writing style is not noir so much as it's in your face." The novella is particularly charged by its setting: East L.A. during the Rodney King riots. Toole lives in Hermosa Beach, Calif.

Moving from boxing to football, Neil Garvin is a popular Las Vegas high school quarterback in Diamond Dogs (Little, Brown, Sept.) by L.A. resident Alan Watt. When Neil accidentally commits a terrible crime, his abusive sheriff father covers for him--and then the FBI closes in.

The Dying Ground (Jan.) by Nichelle Tramble launches Villard's new African-American trade paperback line christened Strivers Row. Tramble's debut is an African-American mystery set in Oakland during the drug wars of the late 1980s, as a young man is drawn into that dangerous realm while solving the murder of a friend. Tramble lives in Berkeley, Calif. Jenoyne Adams deals with interracial marriage, biracial children and infidelity in Resurrecting Mingus (S&S, Feb.), as lawyer Mingus Browning defends her white mother in divorce proceedings when her black father leaves his 35-year-old marriage for a black woman. L.A. is Adams's home and its suburbs are the setting.

On a lighter note, The Last Hollywood Romance (Bridge Works, Sept.) by Beverly Bloomberg is a behind-the-scenes satire of the world of TV sitcoms. "It's a very contemporary story about two writers working on sitcoms," says editorial director Barbara Phillips. "Beverly is an insider and she zaps a lot of Hollywood characters, a lot of scrambling people without morals." Bloomberg, who wrote for Welcome Back, Kotter in the 70s, now lives in Worcester, Mass.

Alev Lytle Croutier divides her time between San Francisco and Paris. The latter in 1868 sets the scene for The Palace of Tears (Delacorte, Nov.), wherein a vintner becomes obsessed with a woman in a miniature portrait, pursues her and finds her in the sultan's palace in Istanbul. The Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco takes center stage as the 1960s' "summer of love" is recalled by James Fadiman in The Other Side of Haight (Celestial Arts, Jan.). The other side is the darker side when a government experiment involving LSD spins out of control, impacting lives with tragic results.
--Robert Dahlin


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