The Red Wheel/Weiser/Conari Blog

Thunder and Lightning

info@redwheelweiser.com (Jan Johnson) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:16:23 EST

I grew up in the midwest and, depending on my age and circumstances, was variously scared to death, awed, or brave about thunder storms. When my two-years older and tres, tres glamorous cousin from California came for a visit and clung to me and cowered under the covers during an averagely loud storm I felt brave. “It’s nothing,” I said. When I was afraid, my mother told me that thunder was just angels moving furniture around. Not exactly true—scientifically or theologically—but whimsical enough to interest me in making up a story of what they were moving where and why.

I’ve lived in a few river cities where the storms rolling in down the river are particularly spectacular—Minneapolis, St. Louis, Boston. In Boston I lived very close to the river and there were times, adult that I was, when the whole brick building I lived in shook, that I was more afraid than my California cousin. Now I live in a city where we so rarely have thunder storms (especially in summer) that when I hear thunder I first think fire cracker. But this afternoon I’m visiting our Massachusetts’ office and enjoying a particularly wonderful storm. Plenty of thunder, a really, really dark afternoon sky, and flashes of lightning.

And when the storm stops I know—or hope—the air will have that charged feeling. Crisp and electric, enlivening. And that’s fun to think about too—what else will crisp up our lives, enliven them.

Related Titles

Lemons to Lemonade Little Ways to Sweeten Up Life's Sour Moments Addie Johnson	The Courage to Be Free Discover Your Original Fearless Self Guy Finley	Peace in the Present Moment Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie, Michele Penn, Stephen Mitchell
Stick-to-it-iveness Inspirations to Get You Where You Want to Go Addie Johnson	I'm Spiritual, Dammit! How to Keep Your Feet on the Ground and Your Head in the Stars Jenniffer Weigel	The Secret History of Consciousness Ancient Keys to Our Future Survival Meg Blackburn Losey, Ph.D.

What’s time to a pig?

info@redwheelweiser.com (Jan Johnson) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 09:03:11 EST

That question is the punch line to one of my favorite jokes of all time. (Hah!) And I confess to being really bad at telling jokes. It goes something like this. A man drives by an orchard one day and is taken by the sight of a farmer holding a pig in his arms so that the pig could eat the apples hanging from a tree. He watches a minute, goes on his way, and drives back in the other direction about an hour later. The farmer is still standing there, feeding the pig. The guy can’t stand it. He stops his car and accosts the farmer. “Wouldn’t it save time if you just knocked some apples off the tree and let the pig eat?”

“Time,” the farmer laconically drawled. “What’s time to a pig?” Indeed. The pig wasn’t interested in the passing of time. Nor was the farmer.

On the other hand, in this century, in this country—when we are trying to multi-task while we think the end of time may be near—we seem to think (a) we know what time is, (b) we have too little of it, (c) except when we’re lonely or bored and have too much of it, (d) we can live in a different part of it—future especially, (e) all of the above.

We’ve published a few books about what is happening with our understanding of time and the coming to the end of the Mayan calendar. They’re speculative because, really and truly (d) above is NOT TRUE. And they’re interesting because their main message is to look at our lives and what we do with our time. Where do we live? And how?
I think it’s time to live more like the pig. Or the farmer.

P.S. And, while my sales and marketing fold would say it’s way too early to be talking about books that are coming out in 2011—that would be the future—we’re publishing some really interesting books that deal with how we live in time (and space). Look for Joseph Felser’s The Myth of the Great Ending in March from Hampton Roads and David Ian Cowan’s Navigating the Collapse of Time: A Peacful Path through the End of Illusions in May from Weiser Books.

Related Titles

Serpent of Light Beyond 2012: The Movement of the Earth's Kundalini and the Rise of the Female Light, 1949-2013 Drunvalo Melchizedek	Transition Now Redefining Duality, 2012 and Beyond Lee Carroll (Kryon), Patricia Cori, Pepper Lewis, Martine Vallee	The Great Shift Co-Creating a New World for 2012 and Beyond Lee Carroll (Kryon), Tom Kenyon, Patricia Cori, Martine Vallee
The Astrology of 2012 and Beyond Cal Garrison, Drunvalo Melchizedek	Live Boldly Cultivate the Qualities That Can Change Your Life Mary Anne Radmacher	When Fear Falls Away The Story of a Sudden Awakening Jan Frazier

“God is too big to fit into one religion.” –Bumper Sticker in Rye, New Hampshire

info@redwheelweiser.com (Jan Johnson) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 08:46:05 EST

Our marketing and publicity director, Bonni Hamilton, noticed this bumper sticker and sent it along to me. This is the same woman who got sent home in the fifth grade for dressing like a peacenik hippy. Her mother came back to school with her, gave the teacher a little lecture on free expression of thought, and insisted that she be reinstated.

Now this is not the way I was raised. In my family there was one true God and one true religion. That was my story and I was taught it and sticking to it. So much so that I told my best friend Jane, when we were playing on the steps of St. John’s Lutheran Church that we couldn’t read the Gospel, which wasn’t a part of the Bible (as she insisted) and was a Catholic book. (It would be some kind of sacrilege for a girl to read it on Lutheran church steps.)

As I got older, my horizons expanded. I took some comparative religion classes. I read about the history of religion (and the story of the often bloody things done in the name of religion). And I began to wonder and read more and trust my own experience. My answers were no longer catechism answers. They no longer condemned those who were different—Protestant, Jewish, gay, Buddhists, Muslims. The word “other” as it is used in philosophy, literary criticism, and other academic pursuits is complicated and complex, especially as it applies to daily lives.

But the bumper sticker is not complicated. It has the ring of truth. It doesn’t aim to condemn or malign any given religion. It just asks us to remember that God — prime mover, Creator, pure energy, part of all of us as we are part of God — God however we understand God — doesn’t fit into any one box or any one book or any one religion. And that’s really good news.

Related Titles

The God Theory Universes, Zero-Point Fileds, and What's Behind It All Bernard Haisch	Sun of gOd Discover the Self-Organizing Consciousness That Underlies Everything Gregory Sams, Graham Hancock	Blackfoot Physics A Journey into the Native American Universe F. David Peat
We Are Not Alone A Guidebook to Interdimensional Cooperation Atala Dorothy Toy	The Weiser Field Guide to Ascension The Meaning of Miracles and Shifts in Consciousness Past and Present Cal Garrison	Why I Am a Buddhist No-Nonsense Buddhism with Red Meat and Whiskey Stephen T. Asma, Ph.D.
Gay Witchcraft Empowering the Tribe Christopher Penczak	The Shamanic Witch Spiritual Practice Rooted in the Earth and Other Realms Gail Wood	The Druidry Handbook Spiritual Practice Rooted in the Living Earth John Michael Greer, Philip Carr-Gomm
A Book of Pagan Prayer Ceisiwr Serith	Learning the Tarot A Tarot Book for Beginners Joan Bunning	Cosmic Navigator Design Your Destiny with Astrology and Kabbalah Gahl Eden Sasson

Where Did You Find Your Last Life-Changing Book?

info@redwheelweiser.com (Jan Johnson) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:11:17 EST

There’s a story in one of Shirley Maclaine’s books about a book that fell off a shelf in the Bodhi Tree Bookstore. (I don’t remember the details of this story, or even which book she recounted it in. If anyone does, please let me know.) I have a friend and freelance editor and writer, Gary Leon Hill, who found a book at Green Apple in San Francisco this way. The book was Nothing in this Book Is True but It’s Exactly How Things Are by Bob Frissell. That book led to him finding Drunvalo Melchizedek’s first two books and to Weiser eventually publishing The Serpent of Light.

One thing leads to another. That’s how books are found. And, yet, I’ve been lamenting lately that there are fewer places to search shelves, put a hand on a book, open it up, discover it’s for me! I’m a person of a certain age, and that’s how I’ve found a lot of books that have given me a great deal of pleasure, not to mention information I needed, insight, comfort, and direction.

So where and how did you find your last life-changing book? Comment here and let us know where you found the book and what it was and we’ll recommend a book to you—maybe one of ours, or one we think you’ll like because of the story you tell.

Related Titles

People Who Don't Know They're Dead
How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It.
Gary Leon Hill

Serpent of Light
Beyond 2012: The Movement of the Earth's Kundalini and the Rise of the Female Light, 1949-2013
Drunvalo Melchizedek

The Little Books That Should and Could and Do

info@redwheelweiser.com (Jan Johnson) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:00:57 EST

I don’t remember not loving books. That is to say I remember books from as early in my life as I remember anything. Small children’s books in the 1950s, at least the ones I remember and maybe it was my family’s preference, tended toward the moral of the story—the Little Engine. We all know what she did. The steam shovel that dug a hole for a skyscraper, and then became the boiler for the building. Adaptability. At least that was my takeaway when a friend recently found his childhood copy of that book and sent it off to his grandson.

I confess to wanting to be a book publisher from the time I was, oh, maybe in my late teens or early twenties. I believe I had a romantic notion. I would be some happier version of Virginia Woolf. I knew I couldn’t know all those great British writers. But I would get to choose books and lovingly and carefully see them through publication. The reality, with nearly 75 new books a year now, is quite a bit different from that. And, truth to tell, I’m a horrible proofreader.

There are twenty of us, give or take, on staff, plus a handful of committed freelancers. It begins as we choose the books we will publish. They have to fit into our categories. They have to have something new to say, and, really, fit the criterion “books to live by.” We have to see how we can publish and sell the book. The initial review falls to the three or four of us who regularly acquire books. Once a book is signed there are copy editors, proofreaders, designers, typesetters—all of whom touch the book and make it better in some way. More accessible to readers. Then there are publicity and marketing folks, the people who write the catalog, the people who make sure our books are listed with on-line sellers, and on our own website, sales reps who sell the book to stores across the country.

It takes a village to make a book. It’s a village I’m grateful for.

Related Titles

Lemons to Lemonade Little Ways to Sweeten Up Life's Sour Moments Addie Johnson	Kids Who See Ghosts How to Guide Them Through Fear Caron B. Goode, Ed.D., NCC	A Little Book of Thank Yous Letters, Notes & Quotes Addie Johnson
Let Go Now Embracing Detachment Karen Casey	The Courage to Be Free Discover Your Original Fearless Self Guy Finley

Weiser Books, Something Old, Something New

info@redwheelweiser.com (Jan Johnson) — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 12:26:34 EST

The office is all abuzz this morning on account of a blog we've read from Moontides who describes herself as a 63-year-young crone. I can relate! Looking something up in a Samuel Weiser astrology book spurred the entry. And she includes a great picture of the Weiser's Bookstore that I've never seen before.

I was in Minneapolis in those years. And we didn't have Weiser's Bookstore, although we had some great independent bookstores. I belonged to a women's group, where I learned about Tarot from a woman who was writing a series of poems on the Major Arcana. Patricia Monaghan, a pioneer in both the Celtic pagan and goddess religions, was in that group, and she introduced me to the Triple Goddess. Those were heady times, at times we were sure the world was going to end. And here we are in heady times again.

Sadly, we no longer have the Weiser Bookstore. But we do have Weiser Books. Some of them old--Dion Fortune, Aleister Crowley,Liz Greene. Some of them new--Judika Illes, Eileen Holland, Cal Garrison, John Michael Greer. Oh, yes, and Jean Bolen, Crones Don't Whine (they change the world!).

One of the things we're talking about a lot lately is how to replicate the communities that have gone missing with the demise of the bookstore gathering places, where a book could jump off the shelf and change your life. I'll write more about that in other blogs. For today it's enough to know that people out there are looking at their old books, remembering a time the world was changing, and maybe thinking about how to create peace and love in this present moment.

Related Titles

Applied Magic Dion Fortune, Gareth Knight	777 and Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley, Israel Regardie	Astrology for Lovers Liz Greene
Magic When You Need It 150 Spells You Can't Live Without Judika Illes	The Wicca Handbook Eileen Holland, Raymond Buckland	The Weiser Field Guide to Ascension The Meaning of Miracles and Shifts in Consciousness Past and Present Cal Garrison
The Art and Practice of Geomancy Divination, Magic, and Earth Wisdom of the Renaissance John Michael Greer, Lon Milo DuQuette	Crones Don't Whine Concentrated Wisdom for Juicy Women Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D.

Books to Live By, the Book Expo Edition

info@redwheelweiser.com (Jan Johnson) — Mon, 24 May 2010 08:27:55 EST

I recently talked to a friend who is contemplating leaving a place he's lived off and on for almost four decades. To that end he's begun sorting through his books. I've seen them. Floor to ceiling. An amazing array reflecting his varied interests as a writer, editor, and just plain curious person. Books that reflect, he says, where he was and what he was doing--in his 20s, 30s, 50s and beyond.

I think about that as I set out for this year's Book Expo, which was known as ABA when I first attended decades ago. Different and the same--longer, more bookstores attending, more parties (or so it seems). Higher heels and fancy dress for dinners. And "everybody" talking about the "one big book."

For me, it was never and is still not about the one big book. It's about the excitement of all those books. All those people who write, edit, sell, and read books. All those people who love books--whether they're "p-books" or "e-books" or fill-in-the-latest blank.

It's about being transported to different worlds, it's about learning new ways of being.

And, this year, it's also about remembering. Last year at this time, my friend Wayne Stier had just finished the manuscript for Stars When the Sun Shines . I knew he was sick. I was at BEA when I got the message that he had died. I feel privileged to have been able to publish his last book.

And I feel privileged to be setting out to another BEA to see what I see. We publish under the motto "books to live by," and I believe books are a good way to live.

Related Titles

Stars When the Sun Shines
A Memoir
Wayne Stier

Living in the Present Moment

info@redwheelweiser.com (Jan Johnson) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:27:22 EST

The other day I was talking to my niece on the phone. She’d called earlier with the happy news that she’d found cheap flights, and their whole branch of the family would be flying from Minnesota to California for a long January weekend. When I called her, she’d just got her three-year-old and baby bathed and was having a little bit of early evening quiet time. “Put Charlie on,” I said. His hello was a bit tentative. He only sees me every few months.

“Are you coming to visit me in a big jet plane?” I asked.

“Hmm,” he said. “What?”

“Are you going to get in a plane with baby Alice and come to visit?”

“It is dark outside,” he said. “It is late. I am tired. I don’t think so.”

No, in that moment, the only one he was in, he was not getting on an airplane. He was not even getting his jacket on to drive to the airport. He was not even packing a suitcase. He was in his ‘jammies, tired, ready to go to sleep.

How many people have said it, in how many spiritual vernaculars—live in the present moment. Be like a little child.

Peace.

Related Titles

Quiet Mind
One-Minute Retreats from a Busy World
David J. Kundtz

Moments In Between
The Art of the Quiet Mind
David J. Kundtz

Good for What Ails You

info@redwheelweiser.com (Jan Johnson) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:59:07 EST

I have a childhood memory—Grandma Schuneman with a brown bottle of cod liver oil in one hand and a tablespoon in the other—chasing the cousins down one by one. “It’s good for what ails you,” she declared. Anticipating someone’s smart reply, “And if nothing ails you, it’s good for you anyway.” I don’t exactly know what cod liver oil is.

I do know that omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish oil among other things, are probably good for a number of things. And because I have in my hand a copy of Deanna Minich, Ph.D., C.N.’s latest book, Quantum Supplements, A Total Health and Wellness Makeover with Vitamins, Minerals, and Herbs, I know more than I did a few days ago.

I have a friend who’s been ordering supplements online for more than twenty years. He’s a retired psychologist and an indefatigable researcher. Internet, magazines, books, recommendations from practitioners—he has a great knack for figuring out what he needs and why. For those of us who have neither the patience or the skills, Deanna Minich has done pretty much the same thing. It’s a great tool to help you figure out what might benefit you and why.

Please note, though, that this book is meant to be an introductory, informational guide. It’s not meant to diagnose, treat, or prescribe

Related Titles

Quantum Supplements
A Total Health and Wellness Makeover with Vitamins, Minerals, and Herbs
Deanna Minich, Ph.D., C.N.

Insomnia

info@redwheelweiser.com (Jan Johnson) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:45:22 EST

Here’s something boring. I slept about three hours last night. Now it’s 3:00 p.m. And I’m drooping. I don’t even want to know the statistics—especially for women of a euphemistically so-called certain age. And it comes in different kinds—the can’t go to sleep, the can’t stay asleep. And there are about as many “cures” for it as Carter has little liver pills, as my grandma used to say. I’m not going to recommend any of them—neither the non-invasive old chestnuts such as drink a glass of warm milk, go to bed at the same time, avoid spicy foods—nor the made-for-TV butterflies and ask your doctor about other pills solution. I’m sure all these suggestions are suggestions because they work for some of the people at least some of the time.

So, okay, no suggestions for how to get to sleep or stay asleep, but I would like to draw your attention to Sandra Kornblatt’s new book, Restful Insomnia. Restful? Insomnia? Really? Really. Say you’ve given up the idea of going to sleep or back to sleep. What could you do instead?

Not start to work! Not get up and make coffee or tea! This book is full of ideas—and, yes, you’ve probably heard some of them before. But a lot you haven’t. And the very best thing is having them all in one place, a bedside book.

The idea that is appealing to me these days is to “focus on your spiritual center.” Getting back to basics.

Related Titles

Restful Insomnia
How to Get the Benefits of Sleep Even When You Can't
Sondra Kornblatt, Teresa E. Jacobs, M.D.

Random Thoughts on DIY For Body, Mind & Soul

info@redwheelweiser.com (Jan Johnson) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:39:04 EST

When people don’t necessarily have the resources for or confidence in “traditional” solutions—they’re more likely to buy a book than seek therapy. Or they might try alternative medicine for problems rather than expensive western medical solutions—whether they have insurance or not.

Times like these and it seems a good time for the “one of us” school of author experts. I think of Karen Casey, who has written nearly 20 books over a span of many years and helped, conservatively, something north of a million readers be more comfortable, hopeful, and sober in their daily lives. A few years ago we published This Is Not the Life I Ordered, written by four women, who among them had logged a lot of “not ordered”—divorce, death, kid problems, and, through hanging out with each other, a whole cupboard of tools to deal with the daily stuff. People are looking for “community” for someone who has been there, understands, has some real-life solution/ideas to offer.

My generation, dubbed Baby Boomers, a moniker that will never go away I guess, continue to search for meaning. Something like twenty years ago I remember some wag writing we’ve “never had an unpublished thought.” And, yeah, for a while we wanted to get rich, get a house, get a better job. Lately I’m seeing renewed interest in non-material, what really matters. People are not looking for top down authoritative answers necessarily. But they are looking for simple, focused information. And I find myself, sometimes regretfully, declining to publish manuscripts that are too complicated, try to cover three bases at once, seem like they would complicate rather than simplify a person’s life.

We is the new me. Books on helping. Books on connecting. Books on taking care of the earth—as self-help. AKA what’s good for the planet is good for me. For all of us. The Food Revolution>/i> by John Robbins, Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows by Melanie Joy, The Green Devotional, Active Prayers for a Healthy Planet collected by Karen Speerstra. These are books you might want to check out. DIY for a healthier, happier self and planet.
Related Titles

Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows
An Introduction to Carnism
Melanie Joy, Ph.D.

This is Not The Life I Ordered
50 Ways to Keep Your Head Above Water When Life Keeps Dragging You Down
Jackie Speier, Deborah Collins Stephens, Jan Yanehiro, Michealene Cristini Risley

The Green Devotional
Active Prayers for a Healthy Planet
Karen Speerstra

Codependence and the Power of Detachment
How to Set Boundaries and Make Your Life Your Own
Karen Casey

Change Your Mind and Your Life Will Follow
12 Simple Principles
Karen Casey

Books Are Dead, Long Live Books . . .

info@redwheelweiser.com (Jan Johnson) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:05:29 EST
Okay, I admit to appropriating, make that misappropriating, quotes for my own purposes. Far, far, perhaps, from what the original author intended. Out of context, for example, T. S. Eliot’s line from Prufrock about minutes and decisions and revisions and reversing—well it can go to any kind of waffling or changing of mind prerogative.

But I digress. I’ve been looking at sales reports and print quantities and spreadsheets and budgets this weekend. Somewhere on the internet I’m sure there is information about exactly how many books were published last year, what their average print run (skewed by the odd million-copy bestseller) was, and how many more or less that was than last year and might be than next year. The accompanying commentary would tell you that we read more, or less, or about the same number of books than we did a generation ago. Okay, probably fewer per capita. Maybe.

I’m fond of saying that books are objects—and thinking of them that way. But what they are really is information, theories, stories. What our books attempt to do is help readers figure things out, make some sense of the world. Shared language. Shared explorations. Shared meaning. That happens to be printed on paper, between two covers. And could just as well be downloaded to your cell phone as a morning meditation. Or pop up on a reader on a cross country flight. Or be listened to while you lie in bed at night or ride home from work.

I’ve been wanting to make a distinction between books and those other ways of taking in content (for want of a better word). I have said, okay those things are something, but they’re not books. I have for this moment changed my mind. I don’t have a better word, I’m sticking with books—paper books, audio books, electronic books, interactive books. Long live books!

Living in the Moment Is Not Just for Special Occasions

info@redwheelweiser.com (Jan Johnson) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:46:23 EST
I spent some time on the phone with Mary Anne Radmacher, who’s written several books for us. Courage Doesn’t Always Roar and May Your Walls Know Joy, among others. She’s swamped with deadlines right now, and we were talking about how over busy most everybody we know feels. After I hung up I thought about the many aphorisms Mary Anne’s written and created inspirational art from.

“Create a day you will long remember,” is one that sticks with me. “Be present to your own spirit, listen.” And as I listen and talk with her about projects she’s working on, projects I’m working on, I realize that we are creating a day I will long remember—perhaps not in and of itself. Perhaps not all the moments in it.

When I first read that bit in Mary Anne’s book Live Boldly, I thought I knew what she meant. I thought she meant a day like I had with college friends 15 years ago. It was my friend’s birthday and he and his wife were visiting in San Francisco. We started with bagels at the beach, went for a sail, a hike, a dinner to be remembered, and ended at a jazz club. Ooh dah, that was a jam packed day. And it surely is one kind of day to be remembered.

After talking with Mary Anne about her most recent projects and what other ways she wants to touch people’s lives, I thought about that quote again. And it meant something different to me than marking an occasion. I confess I was pretty old before I figured out that “being in the present moment” is not a capital P project. It’s simpler than that. A way of being. So creating a day to remember is simply living a day So now I think a day to remember is a day in which I am in the present and listening and creating. And I am grateful to remember.

Jan Johnson
Publisher
Related Titles

Simply an Inspired Life
Consciously Choosing Unbounded Happiness in Good Times & Bad
Mary Anne Radmacher, Jonathan Lockwood Huie

May Your Walls Know Joy
Mary Anne Radmacher

Live Boldly
Cultivate the Qualities That Can Change Your Life
Mary Anne Radmacher

Lean Forward Into Your Life
Begin Each Day as If It Were on Purpose
Mary Anne Radmacher

Courage Doesn't Always Roar
Mary Anne Radmacher

Question Authority

info@redwheelweiser.com (Jan Johnson) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:45:52 EST
“Question authority” and “reality isn’t what it used to be” are abroad in the land. Not just leftover political slogans or metaphysical cultural crit. Questioning authority is, as near as I can tell, almost always a good thing to do. At the very least, ask “Why?” And maybe “Why not?”

Next question: what’s next? What do I want my life to be? What mark do I want to leave? How can I be part of the solution, not the problem, create a different way for things to be.

What I love about the kinds of books I’ve been privileged to work on and the people I’ve met in so doing is the questions they ask. People who write books are looking for answers, and, when I’m looking at manuscripts for books we might publish I’m looking at the answers they found, the story they have to tell, but even more I’m looking at how their answers, their story helps me create my own authority, my own answers, my own reality.

The Ledge of Quetzal is a book that questions authority, proposes answers, and besides, it’s a good story. Check it out. Why not?

From Friday afternoon,

Jan Johnson

Publisher
Related Titles

The Ledge of Quetzal: Beyond 2012
A Magical Adventure to Discover the Real Promise of the Mayan Prophecy
Jock Whitehouse, Tom Knapp

Following All Things New, Well Not Exactly...

info@redwheelweiser.com (Jan Johnson) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 07:09:49 EST

Jan Johnson, Publisher

Hooray! A new website. Wait. Not everything on our new website works. Sometimes none of it seems to work. Sometimes it all seems to be going smoothly. We’re doing a “soft launch.”

I’m thinking that could also be called a slow launch, or a transition. We started this project almost a year ago. I ran into an old friend/colleague at a conference. His company makes websites. We were in desperate need of one. Handshake. Deal. Done. Oh, but not, by a long stretch. . .

And here I’d like to sing the praises of those who stretched. Who put in long hours figuring out how to transfer such a big and complicated bunch of data—books with titles, authors, subjects, ISBNs—the mind boggles. The bytes add up. Who designed and redesigned. Who thought about how readers, browsers, customers, media folks, and casual visitors would best be served by the site. Who thought about placement and front ends and back ends. Who undoubtedly said some swear words and ate some extra chocolate.

I started writing this post at the beginning of a long day, got distracted by meetings and manuscripts and contracts, oh my. When I started the site wasn’t live. Now I think it is.

So to the staff at Red Wheel/Weiser and the folks at Lantern Media
who are making it possible for you to read these words a huge and resounding “Thank you!” All of us together have done and continue to do what no one of us by ourselves could have hoped to accomplish.

Jan Johnson

Publisher

Less Is More, Let Me Count the Ways

info@redwheelweiser.com (Jan Johnson) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:54:17 EST

Jan Johnson, Publisher

I love looking at clich�s upside down and inside out. They’re clich�s for a reason—they make GOOD sense. Very often they offer life advice that we’d do well to listen to. Not to mention some comfort in hard times—we’re in this together, there are ways to get through tough times, find the silver lining, learn something, grow from the experience.

Really? Really. And I even left my rose-colored glasses at home today.

Anyway, this is just a little blog to bring your attention to a new book called, you guessed it, Less Is More by Mina Parker with original photographs by Daniel Talbott. It’s third in a series—the other two being Half Full and Silver Linings—of take-a-clich�-and-really-look-at-it books. They’re lovely and scrumptious gift books for just about any occasion—and especially to cheer someone up. The photos offer beauty, tranquility, and a certain say-whatness? The essays offer ways to look at life that your grandma might offer and then other ways that a hip Brooklyn mama with an impossibly busy life might offer, which is exactly what Mina Parker is.

They’re hip and down home. But don’t take my word for it. Take a look today.

And, while you’re at it, leave your own favorite clich�s that could get a person to look at the world in a new way here. Who knows, maybe they’ll make their way into a book?

I leave you with a Swedish Proverb from the book:
“Fear less, hope more; Eat less, chew more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less, say more; Love more, and all good things will be yours.”

May it be so,
Publisher, Red Wheel/Weiser Books/Conari Press
Related Titles

Silver Linings
Meditations on Finding Joy and Beauty in Unexpected Places
Mina Parker, Daniel Talbott

Less Is More
Meditations on Simplicity, Balance, and Real Abundance
Mina Parker, Daniel Talbott

Half Full
Meditations on Hope, Optimism, and the Things That Matter
Mina Parker, Daniel Talbott

All Things New, Well Not Exactly...

info@redwheelweiser.com (Jan Johnson) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST

Jan Johnson, Publisher

Here we are at the end of the first decade of the 21st century. Sometime around the middle of the last century, when I was in grammar school, learning four-digit addition and subtraction, and the town I grew up in was celebrating its 100th anniversary, I became obsessed with what it was going to be like to live to the year 2000. I’m pretty sure I was (and am) not unique in my musings about what the world would be like “out there.” I had a keen interest in the goings-on of the Cold War, the space program—how could there not be life out there somewhere I thought, God and infinity—all from a child’s perspective. I had an even keener interest in books—with stories that transported me out there, back there, up there, almost anywhere away from the dull boring now. I didn’t have a name for it—I’d never met anyone who’d written or published a book—but I knew I wanted to grow up to do pretty much exactly what I do. Publish books to live by.

I love the internet. I love looking things up online. Just the other day I went looking for a quote I thought I remembered the gist of about seeing with new eyes. I found, "The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes,” attributed to Unknown, and I suspect said by many in slightly different ways.

I hope to be on that voyage of discovery for the rest of my life. And reading books is, for me, and I suspect you, if you’re reading this—even though it is on line—one of the primary ways I venture out into the middle of the now, looking with new eyes.

Here at Red Wheel/Weiser, llc, we publish books that we call “books to live by.” There are many of them, and whether they’re from old traditions or brand new thought, or a combination of both, we hope they provide ways of looking at the world with brand new eyes.

And now we’re celebrating a new website. Whether you’re a bookstore, a reader, a seeker, a journalist, a writer—or some combination of those—and you’re here, I’d like to invite you to explore this site.

� You’ll find Weiser Books, our oldest imprint, begun more than 50 years ago, by Donald Weiser, to unveil the esoteric secrets of the ages for post-war readers with big questions. Astrology, tarot, Western mystery tradition, occult, new age/new consciousness, received wisdom, 2012. And more.

� You’ll find Conari Press books—health, well-being, inspiration, 12-steps. Books that invite readers to live in the here and now. Beautiful gift books—inspiring photos and words to celebrate the glass half full, the life well-lived, the gratitude that can enrich our lives beyond measure.

� And you’ll find books from Hampton Roads Publishing, our new distribution client. Hampton publishes some authors whose names are well-known to spiritual seekers—Neale Donald Walsch, Eckhart Tolle, Lynn Grabhorn, among them. Hampton Roads has always been on the cutting edge for seekers. We’re more than pleased to showcase their books along with our own.

Books. Books. Books. You I’m really happy that I live in a time when we still have books—hardcover, paperback, audio, electronic—in all their forms. I watch my four-year-old grandson. He reads on the computer, solves word puzzles, and plays games. He also is highly attached to reading books everyday—to sounding out words, to busting the reader who might be tempted to skip a section, to stopping to talk about the story with whoever is reading to him.

Here’s to looking at books and what they bring into our lives with new eyes!

And welcome to our site.

Jan Johnson
Publisher, Red Wheel/Weiser Books/Conari Press

Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows An Introduction to Carnism Melanie Joy, Ph.D.	This is Not The Life I Ordered 50 Ways to Keep Your Head Above Water When Life Keeps Dragging You Down Jackie Speier, Deborah Collins Stephens, Jan Yanehiro, Michealene Cristini Risley	The Green Devotional Active Prayers for a Healthy Planet Karen Speerstra
Codependence and the Power of Detachment How to Set Boundaries and Make Your Life Your Own Karen Casey	Change Your Mind and Your Life Will Follow 12 Simple Principles Karen Casey

Simply an Inspired Life Consciously Choosing Unbounded Happiness in Good Times & Bad Mary Anne Radmacher, Jonathan Lockwood Huie	May Your Walls Know Joy Mary Anne Radmacher	Live Boldly Cultivate the Qualities That Can Change Your Life Mary Anne Radmacher
Lean Forward Into Your Life Begin Each Day as If It Were on Purpose Mary Anne Radmacher	Courage Doesn't Always Roar Mary Anne Radmacher