The Red Wheel/Weiser/Conari Blog

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

The Food Revolution
How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and the World
John Robbins

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
The Food Revolution How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and the World John Robbins	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