This is how it goes every break. I tell myself that I want to read, what I want to read and when I want to read, but I fail to get around to the reading itself. Old friends return, new friends stay and newer friends appear and the summer or winter or spring break disappears in a flurry of movies, parks and hot chocolate.

Not that I’m particularly disappointed; I’ve never been one to criticize a good mug of hot chocolate, and I find that the company of real people can be just as fulfilling as that of fictitious ones, if not more so. But I’m getting tired of explaining away the fact that I’m sadly behind in my dystopian fiction, and I’m ashamed to admit to my fellow Nerdfighters the number of John Green books I’ve read: 2.

But maybe this winter will be different. Maybe I’ll set aside some time to consume some delicious fiction. But even if I don’t read a single paragraph, there’s always three in the morning on any given night next semester.

-JM

We decided that we would do our Thanksgiving blog today instead of Wednesday because let’s face it, we aren’t going to be very motivated to work on a blog the day before Thanksgiving. So we took the easy way out and asked the denizens of the Bright Sky offices what they’re thankful for and transcribed, word-for-word, the first couple of sentences that came out.

“My mind is on a contract right now, so I’m thankful for focus. I’ll be right back.”

-Kathleen, COO

“It’s hard to narrow it down to one thing… Oh, really? You’re going to write that? Okay, I’m thankful for my family and my boyfriend.”

-Sage, Intern

“I’m thankful that I get to do what I love; write. Sometimes I even get paid for it. I’m also thankful for the fact that I live with real people who happen to be able to cook.”

-Josh, Intern

“I’m thankful for all of the wonderful people who allow us to do what we do, and I’m thankful for all the wonderful people in my life, personally and professionally.”

-Tina, Managing Editor

“I’m thankful that Cision works on my laptop. And I’m thankful for my new Macbook Air.”

-Laura, PR Director

“Oh my goodness, I hate these things. I’m thankful for my daughter. That sounds lame, but that’s it.”

-Fiona, Financial Manager

“I’m thankful for the opportunity to be creative with nice, funny people.”

-Lucy, Editorial Director

-Josh Mann and Sage Reitzammer

Because my car is not equipped with a freezer, and I didn’t feel like driving back to school with two pounds of ground beef and chicken thawing in my lap, I tossed the delicious but perishable foodstuff in my laundry basket for ease of carrying.

By the time I had arrived back at my apartment, I was less than an hour away from deadline on an article I was writing and had to toss my laundry basket, meat and all, next to the kitchen counter and promptly forgot about it.

The next morning (this morning, for those of you keeping score), when I attempted to grab clean clothes from my laundry basket, I found that I could not, as there was packaged raw meat in my way. The meat had thawed overnight, and was now thoroughly room temperature.

I tossed the meat on my unmade bed, clothed myself, brushed my teeth and did my hair. It was at this moment, looking at my reflection and regretting the choice not to get a haircut over the weekend, that I remembered the meat on my bed. By the time I moved it to the freezer, it had already leaked red juice all over my white sheets.

I’m not certain as to what the juice is; it could be blood, but I was never clear on whether the blood was removed or left in during the meat creation process. All I know is that I have now likely ruined my sheets and have possibly done the same to the laundry that was in the basket (I was too nervous to check).

I lied when I said the story couldn’t have started with this morning; it very well could have. I’ve told that story two other times since waking up, and both times I started with the leaky beef and worked my way backwards from there. I could have also started with my parents’ decision to go vegan, which is what led them to give me the meat in the first place.

That’s what writers do, essentially. They take a story, whether it’s one that they invented or one that they heard, and they decide where it will start and how to tell it. Writers turn what was once a series of events (that may or may not have actually happened) into a narrative.

This is absolutely an oversimplification of the process – simplification that underplays the importance of selecting or inventing the story itself – but I think the writer’s role in the invention of narrative is often considered less important when compared to the initial creative burst of ideas.

I don’t know if you can tell, but I have writing on the brain. It’s because tomorrow is the first day of NaNoWriMo, and I am so totally stoked. You should be too. I hope you’ve created your story, because tomorrow you start constructing narrative.

-JM

These days, though, I can see the benefits of reading non-fiction that I overlooked as a kid. Non-fiction has the unique ability to offer insight through other creative individual’s opinions and life experiences, which then can inspire you to view your own experiences in a different light, alter your opinions and enhance your views. Non-fiction, unlike other mediums, is a snapshot of the author’s abstract thoughts and ideas. This gives the reader and the writer, a more concrete way to compare their opinions than speech or thought alone.

Now that I’m working with non-fiction books at Bright Sky, I find that reading non-fiction is always a worthwhile experience. Even when I don’t agree completely with everything the author has to say there is always something valuable to gain.

-SR

I’ve been trying really hard (or at least sort of hard) to update the blog on a weekly basis, if only to maintain the illusion that I have a huge number of dedicated readers who wait with bated breath every Wednesday for me to post the latest blog.

Unfortunately, I’ve spent the past week preparing for midterms instead of writing, and the lack of emails in my inbox demanding that I update the blog is indicative of either the actual number of readers or the fact that I have yet to update with any kind of regularity.

On the subject of midterms, there are very few kinds of books that I dislike. Textbooks are are at the top of that list. In my opinion, they tend to deliver information in an incredibly inefficient and boring fashion. I’m really not a fan of textbooks is what I’m saying.

So tomorrow, if you’re a University of Houston student burned out on textbooks, take a break from all the dry reading and come to the Fall CLASSic. We’ll have a table outside the bookstore in the UC, and I’ll be there between 10-ish and noon-ish. You should come and say hello, because I would be pleased as punch if someone were to casually mention that they found out about this through the blog. I might even give out high-fives.

In other event news, we’re going to have a booth at the Texas Book Festival in Austin. And not just any booth. A DOUBLE BOOTH.

If you’re in the area, drop by and visit. If you aren’t, you can follow us on twitter, and I’ll be posting updates from the BSPeeps running the booth. So if you’re weekend plans fall through and you want to read the aimless ramblings of the Bright Sky staff (Which, I would like to point out, is exactly what you’re doing right now), check out the blog. I’ve asked them to try their hardest to include clever witticisms and puns, so we’ll see what happens.

One last thing before I go; NaNoWriMo is coming up. If you don’t know what that is, you are sorely under informed for someone who reads a blog about books and publishing, so I’ll enlighten you.

National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for those of us trendy and hip enough to call it that, is that time of the year when a bunch of people who love fiction spend November trying to write a 50,000 word novel. That’s 1500 words a day. Last year, my mystery novel (Which was set on a blimp. A BLIMP you guys.) made it to a little over 3000 words, because 1500 words a day is super hard. I’ll try harder this year.

So start thinking of ideas, writers, because the ink hits the page in less than two weeks. I expect to see a flood of hastily written novels in the submissions box after this is over, and I will be extremely disappointed if I don’t.

-JM

Oh, and here’s the link to the NaNoWriMo website.

Each year Bright Sky Press is fortunate to have interns from local Colleges and Universities who are interested in publishing.  The following was written by Joshua Mann, a Houston native who is attending the University of Houston where he is studying journalism.

October 2011

This morning, I woke up without my alarm. After a brief moment of peace, I realized that that should absolutely never have happened. A quick look at the clock only confirmed my fears; I should have been in the Bright Sky offices 20 minutes ago.

Had this happened with anything else, like a class or a lunch date, I would have rolled over and gone back to sleep upon finding how late I already was. But something motivates me to get up on Mondays and Wednesdays and go into work. It isn’t money, because I don’t get any of that, and it certainly isn’t that I have nothing else to do. It’s that I just love being here.

As a writer, there’s something energizing about spending the morning around a group of people who have a passion for good books and the skill to bring them into the world. Being here is better than coffee. I leave with a spring in my step and go through the rest of the day with a feeling of having contributed to something larger than myself.

As I rolled into the parking lot an hour late, I felt as though I were right where I was supposed to be, if not exactly when I was supposed to be there.

-JM

“When your extraordinary dream matches your giftedness,

its required work energizes you more than it drains you.”

-A TALE OF THREE SHIPS: SETTING SAIL FOR YOUR EXTRAORDINARY DREAM

September 2011

I used to read books. I used to read a lot of books, back before I got the laptop that I’m typing this up on right now. I would get in bed at around 10 o’clock, flip on the desk lamp I kept on the night-stand, open up whatever work of fiction I was interested in at the moment, and I would read. For a few hours, I could cross warm oceans or the cold void of space, I could wander about lands unknown or foil the nefarious plans of a sinister villain.

But then something interesting happened; I went to college. Suddenly I found myself reading a more intellectual kind of book. Sure, I was still seeking adventure all across vast oceans, but now I was doing it with Odysseus (Or Ulysses if you happen to be an ancient Roman), or else I would be watching Socrates trounce one of his many straw-man opponents in a verbal duel.

But the main difference between the reading I did in high school and the reading I’m doing now isn’t that I’m reading Camus where I would have read Orson Scott Card, it’s that I have to read Camus. Until college, reading had always been a choice I made. I suppose it’s still a choice, but if I don’t read Camus, I have to watch my favorite professor’s heart break from disappointment (Which, incidentally, is one of my bottom 5 situations to be in, right after “pit of spiders”).

So I find myself reading only what I’m told, only when I’m told and only how much I’m told. I’ll tell myself that I’ll read in the summer, maybe I’ll even go so far as to compile a list of fiction to consume over the summer, but a flurry of sun and beaches and bikes and heat and the summer is over. And now I’ve realized, reading is still a choice, it’s just a harder one to make.

We’re busy. We live in a busy world, where we go to work or class or both. We go to parties, we go on dates and we go home and sleep, and that isn’t going to change any time soon. But time has a funny way of hiding in the nooks and crannies of your life, and if you can grab a few minutes here, and maybe an hour there, pretty soon you’ll end up with a stack of books that you can finally take triumphantly back to the library.

So here’s to reading. It might not be 750 pages at a time anymore. It might not even be 75 pages at a time. But it’s because I want to. It’s because I’ve decided that, however hard it may be, it’s important.

-JM

Starting June 7th please consider blogging, tweeting and shouting your thoughts from the rooftops on the following question:

As the Suffragist movement took shape, one of the more frequently articulated issues was the concern that once women got the vote and became political active it would disrupt the delicate balance of power between men and women in their households. How have YOUR Households been affected by your public political involvement?

P.S. The photo above depicts a Suffragist rally in the early part of the 20th century. I’m willing to bet that you’d definitely kick up some dust on the home front if you came home wearing that outfit.

“Despite the belief in many quarters that the growth of e-books will mean the death of the printed book, the number of books produced by traditional publishers rose 5% in 2010, to a projected 316,480, according to preliminary figures released Wednesday morning from R. R. Bowker… Based on the preliminary figures, the combination of traditional and nontraditional books totaled a projected 3,092,740 in 2010, up 132% from 2010…Since 2002, the production of traditional books has increased 47%, while nontraditional titles rose 8,460%.”

So how about that them apples! Traditional, fold-the corner- of- the page, crack-the-spine, place-it -in a-bookcase books have not expired, nor are they drawing their last breath.  Apparently people like a good old-fashioned book, and there are growing numbers of people who want to write and publish these books. I wonder why this is? Personally, I think ebooks are great for certain genres and others seem to lose something in translation. But in general we act as if the only thing that constitutes a book is the words but a real book is so much more.  So many hands, talents and plain old workmanship that go into a book, and some of that handiwork evaporates as soon as you eviscerate the words and slap them onto a screen. You may have illustrations but they don’t look the same.  You may have some graphic design but it does not play the same role in conveying the message and meaning of the book.

Most importantly, a hard copy has permanence to it. It stakes its claim, plants itself on your bookshelf or beside your bed. It roots itself in your consciousness and makes the world just a little bit bigger, your vision just a little bit wider. Of course you can be as moved by a story conveyed in an eBook as you are when it is conveyed on a hard copy.  But with certain books, it just seems right that they should live on in a book. A book that sticks around seems like the most appropriate antidote to this ephemeral world.  Sometimes I look at my bookcase and it whispers to me, taking me back to who I was when I read the books that line the shelves and who have I become since. A book that has moved you should be permitted to stake its claim to your bookshelf.

Fortunately, I have a pretty good memory and “to hell with it” attitude in the kitchen. For the most part my kids get fed and I can pull off a holiday or two, but my repertoire is pretty limited. I have all the standard Eastern European Jewish recipes down, but after a decade down here, Texas has started to creep into my kitchen.

There is barbecue once in a while, pecans and, after discovering those peaches in the hill country one year. I cannot live without at least one descent cobbler a year. I do not have a Southern Mom to call and walk me though these recipes. But soon I will have Lone Star Chefs and so will you.

I’m excited about this cookbook because its going to be sumptuous visually and astronomically. Photographer Julie Soefer has done a remarkable job of capturing the spirit of our cuisine which makes Lone Star Chefs more than a resource: it’s an experience. It’s also an ideal gift that celebrates Texas in a unique and loving way. Food and the culinary arts in particular seems like a fitting way to celebrate the diversity of this state. We like to gather down here and we like to eat—two things I have always appreciated about my adopted home. And because of writer John DeMers’s extensive culinary and literary experience the book is an authoritative overview of some of our best chefs.

Wish I could get them on the phone, but I guess the book will do.