En Route - Layover at Heathrow

Miami Book Fair 2009

Now in it's 26th year, The Miami Book Fair is taking place this weekend in downtown Miami. Mitchell Kaplan, owner and founder of the renowned Books & Books in Coral Gables, and co-founder of the Miami Book Fair, credits the growth of Miami's literary community to this annual event.

I attended the Fair on Friday, and as always there was the sense of carnival in the air. However, it was clear to me that there were far fewer exhibitors this year, and most of the exhibitors seemed to be bookstores or used bookstores. Many of the publishers I'd seen in the past were missing.

However, I had a nice chat with the folks at Pineapple Press and I am ever hopeful that one day I will get to work with them. As I usually do each year, I walked away from their stand with a STACK of books - Birds of Florida, The Storm Gourmet (so we can figure out what to eat in a hurricane), and River of Grass by Florida author and environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas.

When I discovered that Ms. Douglas went to Wellesley, as I did, and apparently lived to be 108, I also bought her autobiography Voice of the River. How does someone live to be 108? Having a consuming passion helps - Douglas was a committed environmentalist and passionate about the Florida Everglades. She also appears to have been somewhat of a crank, was single most of her life, refused to learn to drive, and lived with a passel of cats!

I enjoyed chatting with the publisher of Akashic Books about their motto "reverse gentrification of the literary world" which to me sounded like just another way of saying everyone in publishing is losing their jobs. We also discussed their Noir series and I ended up with copies of Miami Noir and New York Noir. I got the low down on the latest styles in bible design from one of the several Christian publishers/distributors at the fair.

Today I am packing, and then it's off to Barcelona, where Imago's European printing partner is located, for a press check with designer David Skolkin.

The Power of Color

I've been writing about texture and design lately. This past week, I was also thinking about the significance of color.

Working in the visual arts, I am keenly aware of the impact that color has on my moods, my state of mind.

I was recently reading Lee Eiseman's blog (Pantone's color guru), and found this interesting exercise involving color to help reduce stress, and even the pain of more serious illness. With the unemployment rate now over 10% (just reading that in the Times today stressed me out), its hard not feel some measure of anxiety these days - and we might use our enjoyment of the power of color to take things down a notch.

Try this out when it looks like stress and anxiety are threatening to take over your day (or week):

Find a quiet place where you can close your eyes for 10 minutes. Then, breath slowly and deeply into the belly while focusing attention about two inches below the belly button. Be sure to exhale deeply and completely. Ask yourself about your stress, your discomfort:

What color is it?

What shape is it?

How heavy is it?

Take another deep breath and ask yourself those questions again.

Dark, sharp, and heavy is often how we will experience stress. By repeating this breathing exercise, and the questions, we can often begin to imagine the answers changing to "light in color, round in shape, light in weight". By imagining lighter colors - or colors that we associated more with calmness (such as blue) or love (such as pink) we can actually let go of the stress and find ourselves in a more calm, relaxed, optimistic mood.

Now that's a much better way to start off the week, isn't it?

Paintings by Melissa Moss, the artist who introduced me to Lee Eiseman's work on color psychology.

Melissa's paintings are shown in galleries throughout the country; her work is also reproduced as prints and pillows and sold through Urban Outfitters.

Gladness, top.

Isn't it Beautiful?, bottom.

Vampire Dreams

According to an informal survey, Vampires were one of the top three preferred disguises for Halloween this year.

And what better way for a vampire to record his or her dreams and midnight musings than with this set of four Twilight Journals, complete with their own ornately decorated case (casket?).

Produced by Imago, and under top secret security until they hit the market just two weeks before Halloween, these journals and their accompanying tin were produced in co-edition, in 10 different languages.

Over a million copies were produced, and publisher Little, Brown is back for more reprints, in several languages.

Admittedly, the set is beautiful, but what about some of these for future reprints .....?

And Now For Something Completely Different

Back home in Florida after several whirlwind weeks of travel and client meetings. It's always a challenge to transition from that state of talking, running around, talking, seeing people, talking ... to ... back at the office, organizing all the notes and materials, trying to follow up on all the projects discussed in a logical, thorough manner. And not forget anything.

One thing's for sure, I am glad to take a break from lugging around that 40 pound suitcase of samples!

So - Now for Something Completely Different.

Imago has become so adept at sourcing and developing creative ideas that the company has started a new initiative: Imago Create. In development for the past 12 months, this venture was officially launched by UK Headquarters last week.

The site has a wealth of interesting ideas: Here are a few worth touting:

Visionaire 54 Sport. In collaboration with Lacoste. Carrying case with embroidered detail, housing special edition Lacoste polo shirt.

Rubber, by Thames & Hudson. Detail from cover.

Tank Books, by Tank. Literary classics in cigarette-style packaging.

Motion Blur 2, by Laurence King Publishers. Felt cover with embroidered detail. Cover incorporates housing for CD. Plastic slipcase with lit edge effect.


Object, by Three Star Books. Punch Molding through book block, case cover.

Rrraaaaarr! Pop ups, paper engineering, paper moulding, vacuum forming



The Florence Collection. A combination of varnishing, lamination, spot UV.


Visit ImagoCreate.com to see more. Let me know if you like what you see.

SIBA Trade Show - Books, Books, Books (and authors!)

I am back from the SIBA Trade Show in Greenville South Carolina, and I must say I am exhausted.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but one difference I certainly noticed from, say The BEA, is that these Southern Publishers are just so darned nice! There were no foiled attempts to make eye contact, no conversations cut short - I mean, people were walking up TO ME, handing me donuts, asking if I wanted some chocolates, and then getting down to the business of discussing books and printing.

This unrelenting friendliness was actually so unexpected and exhausting, that I had to take a break outside on the deck of the Carolina Center every hour or so, just to catch my breath!

I met a bunch of new promising leads, and ran into some old friends - Marti Healy and Barry Doss - who had long ago given up on Italian printing, but now that I am with Imago, may want to discuss business again. Also had a nice chat with authors Rusty McClure (a plot to rig golf tournaments involving a secret society of admirers of the Roman general Cincinnatus) and Lin Stepp (A Smokey Mountain Romance).

After the show, I decided to figure out: Is there an actual "Town" of Greenville? Or is it just this highway with strip malls and this weird scary windowless night club across the street from where my hotel is? In fact I did discover an actual Main Street, which residence say they are fighting hard to revive, to bring back to life after the highways and chain restaurants have destroyed people's daily need or desire to "go into town" to shop, run errands, buy groceries - all the things that small towns used to be there for. That used to make people's lives more interesting, more sociable - that made them get out of their cars and walk around a little bit.

Not surprisingly, I went in search of something to eat, and found a cute little Italian joint where I had a portobello pizza and a glass of wine.

SIBA Trade Show: Southern Publishers - and Poets

I'm in Greenville South Carolina, here to attend the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Trade Show (SIBA) which begins tomorrow.

The first order of business is to grab some dinner, though amazingly (well, not so amazingly) I am still full from that Smothered Pork Chop of yesterday. Nonetheless, I have no problem polishing off an order of crab cakes.

Sitting next to me is a table full of women poets and poetry editors, which I say with certainty because I am an expert eaves-dropper. Initially, the group seems rather demure. One woman is an "inspirational poet", another discusses writing poetry for military wives. After the first round of cocktails, the conversation loosens up: one of the group confesses, then all agree, that anytime they are in a bookstore they look for copies of their books and re-arrange them so that they face outward. Some women re-catalogue the books in different sections of the store that seem more appropriate, or in multiple sections. Interestingly, they all agree that, when reading poetry, the one word that will instantly turn them off is "loins". This comment provokes hoots of laughter from several of the women, one of whom adds that even worse is when loins is combined with love, as in "the love of my loins". At this point the entire table erupts in uncontrolled hilarity.

Other topics of immediate dismissal are Patriotism (too hard to get right) and Dogs (too much Marley out there already).