Blog: Jeri's Organizing & Decluttering News
Post: The Little Things: Colorful Staples
Link: http://jdorganizer.blogspot.com/2010/09/little-things-colorful-staples.html

]]> http://www.dianaglyer.com/2010/09/colored-staples/feed/ 0 http://www.dianaglyer.com/2010/08/should-you-give-lulu-com-a-try/ http://www.dianaglyer.com/2010/08/should-you-give-lulu-com-a-try/#comments Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:41:22 +0000 Diana http://www.dianaglyer.com/?p=550

I recently completed several projects on Lulu.com, and overall, I am very pleased with them. The books look very good and the turn-around time is fast. They do a brilliant job of boxing your books: the packaging is very sturdy. I especially like the flexibility of their service: you can place your early orders conservatively and then simply order more books in small batches as you have need. Still, there are a few things I wish I had known:

1. The website is slow and complicated. Everything you need is there. Somewhere. But it can really take a  l-o-n-g time to find out a piece of information or to figure out how to make something work. The company is designed to be user-friendly, and, in general, they succeed. But the website itself can be a trial.

2. Customer assistance is essentially non-existent. I appreciate that they want to keep costs down, but if you have a serious difficulty, it can be tough to resolve it. I had a batch of books that was defective (the print was pale and grainy and the cover was askew). The good news: they resolved it by replacing all of the defective books at no charge. The bad news: it took hours of emailing and explaining and uploading photos, and more than a month of waiting, to make it all happen.

3. The production times expand depending on the number of copies you buy. When I made my first few purchases, they printed and shipped books within one weeks’ time. So I underestimated the time needed for larger orders: it will take two or three weeks, depending on the size of the order. It makes sense that it takes longer to print and ship more books, but I didn’t know that, and it tripped me upat first when I was scheduling orders and events.

4. They have lots of special promotions. It is great to get emails with various specials on printing and shipping. Beware: sometimes their deals are complicated to apply: they have limits or restrictions that can take a while to sort out. But overall, this was a real strength. It is good to get regular price breaks.

Overall, I am very satisfied with my Lulu.com experience, and I’d recommend them to others. How do they compare with other print-on-demand companies? Bottom line: they cost more, but have more resources for rank beginners.

Good poetry begins with
the lightest touch,
a breeze arriving from nowhere,
a whispered healing arrival,
a word in your ear,
a settling into things,
then like a hand in the dark
it arrests the whole body,
steeling you for revelation.

In the silence that follows
a great line
you can feel Lazarus
deep inside
even the laziest, most deathly afraid
part of you,
lifts up his hands and walk toward the light.

-David Whyte

from Everything is Waiting for You

©2003 Many Rivers Press

http://www.davidwhyte.com/home.html

Sierra lends a hand to Steve Denyes of Hullabaloo.

Better than Barney. More creative than Raffi. As much fun as that Peter, Paul, and Mary’s classic “Peter, Paul, and Mommy.”  Sierra and I just discovered Hullabaloo. http://www.hullabalooband.com/

As part of its summer reading program, the Glendora Public Library sponsored a folk concert during its regularly scheduled story time. I hadn’t heard of the group, but I was intrigued by their description as “farm-fresh free-range organic kid-folk in a genre filled with ding-dongs and twinkies.” We found their website, sampled their videos, and in flash, “Dinosaur in my Backyard,” “Polite Pete the Pirate” and “Blah Blah Blah” became daily fare in the Glyer household.

The concert was even better. It takes a special talent to be cheerful and energetic enough to capture the attention of 5, 6, and 7 year olds for a full 45 minutes. Hullabaloo managed it, with room to spare.

Hey, coffee addicts: don’t miss the instant classic “Grown-up Sippy Cup.” It’s addictive.

Oh, BTW. We had a friend visiting from out of town, a man who reviews classical music concerts for a living. He was tapping his toes and belting out “Run, Bunny, Run” with the best of them.

Last week, I was invited to give a talk in my daugher's a second grade class. The students were doing a unit on careers, and I was invited to talk about  being an author. Here are some of their questions, and my answers:

How do you prepare for your career?

Get a little notebook. Start writing every day: describe the things you see, write down your most interesting conversations, copy down great passages from things that you read or wonderful quotes that you hear. Pay attention: look, listen, slow down. Pay attention to what is going on all around you; pay attention to the dreams that God gives you and the ideas that bubble up in your imagination. Don't go anywhere without your little notebook. Pay attention. Write it down.

Would you recommend your career to others?

Yes, I would. I also would say that being a writer is a great second career. Your daytime job might be being a teacher or a mom or a pilot or a lawyer. But you could still be a person who writes great stories.

What is the best thing about your career?

I get to use my imagination, and I get to read and write all day. [Looks around at all the little kids in the class]  I also get to travel a lot and talk to interesting people.

Wow, did you ever get to talk to Eric Carle?

No.

Did you ever get to talk to the President of the United States?

No.

Did you ever get to talk to Oprah?

No. But I published something in her magazine.

At this point, the teacher jumped up to take a picture of me holding a copy of O Magazine,

and absolute mayhem ensued.

*SIGH*

http://www.matchstickmarvels.com/MinasTirith.htm

PW:  The theme of what it means to be/to have a dad in Cosmic is wonderful. Did that emerge on its own, or was it deliberate?

FCB:  No it emerged on its own, rather late in the day. People think that inspiration comes at the beginning but one of the joys of writing is the late moment of inspiration that comes after months of slog. Cosmic was just about cars and laughs and then I woke up one morning and thought, "Oh, THAT's what it's about" and started all over again.