Activities, National Parks, News

June 30, 1864 – Yosemite Grant

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

 

On this day in 1864 President Lincoln signed a bill drafted by both houses of the 38th Congress of the United States officially creating the Yosemite Grant.  While Yellowstone ultimately became the first National Park, this was the first instance of park land being set aside for preservation and public use by the federal government.  The grant was the result of citizens like Galen Clark and Senator John Conness advocating heavily for protection of the area.  John Muir later led a successful movement to establish a larger national park encompassing not just the Yosemite Valley, but surrounding mountains and forests as well.

Yosemite presented a series of firsts for the national park system we enjoy today; first to have land set aside, paving the way for other parks like Yellowstone to carve out protected areas for future generations to enjoy; and first to build on the national park idea, and put in place a system for the future United States National Park Service.

Today marks the 149th year since the Yosemite Grant was signed.  2014 promises to be a banner year at Yosemite, as the park celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Yosemite Grant.  You can find out more about the events celebrating the 150th anniversary HERE.

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Dead Tree Books, eBook, Self Publishing, Success Stories, Writing

From ALLi: Commonwealth Book Prize Regional Award Winner Ezekel Alan tells all

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

ALLi is the Alliance of Independent Authors, the professional association for self-publishing writers.  They host an EXCELLENT self-publishing advice blog HERE.

Award-winning Jamaican indie author Ezekel Alan pens an article for ALLi’s ‘Top Tips from Top Indie Authors’ series.  From the article:

“My novel Disposable People became the first self-published book to win a major prize.” Jamaican indie author Ezekel Alan shares the story of his groundbreaking achievement.

What’s the secret of your success?

I wouldn’t as yet consider myself successful, but I hope I am getting there. Winning the Commonwealth Book Prize Regional Award gave my novel a major boost and drew a lot of attention not only from readers but also publishers and agents. I hope this will not only propel the existing novel to greater success, but also future novels.

In terms of what I think worked well for me it is the voice in my writing. Readers say they enjoy the uniqueness of the voice, it is compelling and refreshingly different. It is also very blunt and real. I try to push boundaries a bit, and I combine different forms of story-telling into a novel. I think this helps to set my work apart and creates interest. Some writers write with the reader in mind and it works for them; I come at it from the point of view of what I would like to read. I read a lot, and much of what I read, while good, is generally conventional. I aim to do something innovative. Continue reading →

Conservation, News

Who Watches the Watchers at Mono Lake?

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

With their usual regard for conservation and the environment, the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP)continues to display their professional ineptitude and scandalous behavior.  All efforts to protect and restore Mono Lake have been undermined by the DWP since they made a unilateral power-grab of lake monitoring operations and started diverting $10,000,000 in water per year.    Everything the DWP is doing is directly in violation of the rules set in 1998 by the State Water Board.

Guess the DWP had to find SOME way to pay all those ridiculously high salaries, right?

From the post:

A May 13, 2013 report to the State Water Board revealed that the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP) failed to keep its promise to monitor the health of Mono Lake. DWP unilaterally took over operations of the lake monitoring program in August 2012, displacing the independent expert scientists who had run the program for 30 years. Since then a litany of issues has ensued. As a result, critical data—such as the salinity of Mono Lake—are not being collected, and key portions of the data that are being gathered are not usable. These failures are violations of the rules set in 1998 by the State Water Board.

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Dead Tree Books, eBook, Self Publishing, Success Stories, Writing

From Alli: How Indie Authors Can Get Their Books Stocked in Bookshops

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

ALLi is the Alliance of Independent Authors, the professional association for self-publishing writers.  They host an EXCELLENT self-publishing advice blog HERE.

Roz Morris has posted an article about how she got her book into brick-and-mortar bookstores.  From the article:

Indie author Roz Morris explains how she got her novel stocked by bricks-and-mortar bookstores – and how self-published books meet independent booksellers’ needs.

Like many indie authors, I wasn’t sure I’d ever get my books into shops. I made print editions because it was unthinkable not to, and I did what I could to get widespread distribution. So I was all ready to be stocked… if bookshops knew to look for me. Always the hardest part.

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Dead Tree Books, eBook

Literary Agents Reaching Out to Self-Published Authors

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

Self-publishing can be an uphill battle. If you’re an author – not a publisher – you’ve had to either develop a whole new set of skills, or settle for only selling your work to relatives. That is, until now.

Dystel & Goderich Literary Management has announced that they’re now working with self-published authors to get their work digitally published. According to D&GLM, “we have been following developments in e-publishing with great interest. As an agency that has prided itself on being a bit of a maverick among the stodgy old guard, we have always been more intrigued than scared about this new world of e-books. The consensus among us, even after listening to the doomsayers, has been that e-publishing will re-energize our business and create more readers.”

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