4 The Clackamas Print
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Arts^ultun
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PUDDLETOWN PUBLISHING
Praises sung
for ‘Home’
By Mandie Gavitt
Associate Arts & Culture EditJ
I Renee LaChance and Susan Landis-Steward, members of Clackamas Community College’s club, Chrysalis Women
Writers, started the locally based Puddletown Publishing Company earlier this year.
By Mandie Gavitt
Associate Arts & Culture Editor
Those wishing to publish an e-book may have a new avenue
to do so thanks to members of Clackamas Community College’s
Chrysalis writing chib. Renee LaChance and Susan Landis-Steward
started Puddletown Publishing Company with the first set of books
published on March 21 of this year. The company is local and based in
Beavercreek.
According to Lisa Nowak, who is involved with the Chrysalis chib,
the idea to start a publishing company came out during a party the club
was hosting on Jan 2. After the idea was formed those wanting to be
involved hurried to get started. Landis-Steward had previous publishing
experience which helped to get the company going.
Nowak said that there is no initial charge for writers wishing to pub
lish through Puddletown, though Puddletown does keep a percentage
of royalties.
The first books to be published were from four Chrysalis writers:
Landis-Steward, Alice Lynn, Roxanna Mathews and Pat Lichen.
Lynn’s novel, “Volunteer For Glory” is a Civil War romance story.
For Lynn, it was interesting time to have her novel published as the
150th anniversary of the Civil War’s beginning is on April 14. She cur
rently runs a blog that is counting down to the anniversary.
“It’s been a fest ride,” said Lynn. “They hit the ground running.”
Lichen, who writes about nature in the Pacific Northwest, said that
Puddletown opened up an opportunity for her that she may not have
otherwise had. “Most of my life I’ve been told that I need to get a pub
lisher in New York City, and they don’t have much interest in fee Pacific
Northwest,” she said.
Lichen was asked to publish through Puddletown, as she had an
already finished novel (“Kidnapping fee Lorax”) feat she hadn’t pub
lished. “It wasn’t hard to say yes. I wasn’t doing anything else wife fee
book,” she said.
Since publishing through Puddletown, Lichen has heard from read
ers in Ohio and New York City. “That’s pretty exciting and vindicating,”
she said. Although Lichen has heard back from readers in New York she
claims she no longer has interest in traditional publishing and wants to
stick to publishing through Puddletown.
“Right now is such an interesting time for publishers and writers.
Everything is up in fee air and changing. It is an interesting time to be
in fee industry,” she said.
The books publ i shed through Puddletown and fee topics and genres
covered are varied. The authors have written about a number of topics
including magic, nature and history. Puddletown does not stick to one
genre or idea.
Just like wife any other publishing company, there is a process
before any novels are published through Puddletown. Novels submitted
to be published through Puddletown go through various readers before
they are published. Readers check for market value. Also, anything that
needs to be fact-checked, such as historical information, is verified.
Novels are also checked for proper grammar.
For more information on Puddletown you can visit their website:
puddletowngroup.com.
Are you ready to graduate? Well, are ya, punk?
By Joshua Baird
Arts & Culture Editor
College is a time for experimentation;
a place to discover who you are and what,
you will be when you “grow up.” It isn’t,
however, a time for reinventing that per
fectly shaped thing called the wheel.
In this case that means that ydu should
be focusing on studying for your tests
and exams, not studying the school’s
program trying to decide which classes
you are going to take in hopes that you
will end up choosing the correct areas of
academia for when you transfer off to a
four-year university.
As a . way to determine whether you
are actually ready to graduate with your
associates degree or move on to a four-
year degree, you can go to myClackamas
and do an academic evaluation.
“We always encourage students to
turn in a petition for graduation two
terms prior to their anticipated term of
completion,” said Lori Eckhout, on© of
the academic evaluators at Clackamas
Community College.
As far as most students are concerned,
applying for graduation isn’t something
that is required, in fact it isn’t even
something that crosses most students’
minds.
“What happens sometimes is a stu
dent thinks they are close to graduating
and maybe a class they thought would
count is not going to count. ... So that
gives them a good chance to get credits
or get some substitutions if needed,” said
Eckhout.
Many students wonder if they are tak
ing the right courses and all of the links
to determine if your classes will transfer
are all available on myClackamas.
“We’ve put the links together so it’s
easier to find,” said Jessica Walters, a
CCC counselor.
If you know for sure where you are
going, go to that school and talk to them
and see what other classes you can take
here at Clackamas that will apply toward
your degree. It is a good idea to check
into the program at your future school.
“What I encourage students to do is
go to the school where they are want
ing to transfer to and check with them
to make sure the classes they (have) are
needed for that degree,” said Eckhout.
Many students also are unclear on
how to transfer credits.
“You can just, print it out (from
myClackamas), or you can talk to one
of the counselors and they can help you
out Vwith) transferring it to your new
college,” said Karina Dzhyga, a cur
rent CCC student planning to transfer to
Indiana.
This is only partially accurate; if you
are going to use myClackamas you need
to fill out a form to request an official
transcript, as simply printing out a copy
of your unofficial transcript generally
is not accepted by institutions of higher
learning.
One thing that may leave you wonder
ing is the case with challenging classes.
These count towards a degree but only
second-year courses.
“If you challenge Spanish 201 it
would show up on you transcript as that
class on your transcript,” said Eckhout.
Most of the time students don’t know
what they need to do in order to gradu
ate. “Students think ... that we do it
automatically. And we don’t; we encour
age you two terms prior to thinking you
are graduating to put in that petition
for graduation. Don’t strictly rely on
the academic evaluation because many
times we have to make some adjustments
there,” said Eckhout.
You need to have at least a 2.0 GPA
and a 24-credit residency to get yoùr
degree from CCC. No fee is associated
with petitioning to graduate and it is
vital that you fill out and turn in the form
for petitioning, available under “forms”
in your myClackamas account. It takes
eight weeks to receive the diploma t in
the mail.
If you are looking for information on
transferring your credits and how they
will appear at youi* next school, go to
depts.clackamas.edu/advising/Transferto
-yearSchools.aspx.
Jodi Picoult is well known for ent®
taining readers while dealing w ith he®
ed topics through her novels. In fa®
that’s exactly what her readers exp^fl
from her. Picoult, never one to disa®
point, wooed readers, once again w®
her newest novel “Sing You I lome.”®
In this new book, Picoult inti®
duces Zoe and Max Baxter, a coup®
desperately trying to conceive. Th®
seemed to have finally gotten th®
wish, but their hopes are dashed wh®
Zoe miscarries. Their marriage is th®
tom apart by their loss. Max finds ho®
by joining an Evangelical chin wh®
Zoe deals with the miscarriage a®
divorce by throwing herself into 1®
work as a music therapist.
Zoe begins working with a I
cidal teen at a local high school whi
she meets Vanessa. Vanessa is a H
school counselor that happens to I
homosexual. Zoe is surprised to fl
herself falling in love with Vanessa!
discovers she can’t help herself. 1
and Vanessa wed in Massachusef
After the wedding, Zoe and Vana
discuss the possibility of using
embryos Zoe and Max had previou
stored in their attempts to have a ba)
However, to use the embryos ffl
must ask for Max’s permission. M
responds with a lawsuit.
“Sing You Home” moves mi
more slowly than past Picoult novi
but this is not necessarily a negafl
thing. It allows for more time to]
to know the characters involved I
their distinct voices. The presentan
of realistic characters is accomplish
largely in part by Picoult’s amaa
amount of research.
During a recent public reading®
Portland, Picoult explained that w^®
researching for the book she sp®
to the company Focus on the Fan®j
to get a better understanding of®
Christian perspective on gay marri®
and later took things that were sai®
the interview to create fee dialogue®
some of her religious characters. ®
devotion to better research shows®1
her writing as fee characters are gi®
a clear voice and fee opinions of th®o
represented are accurately show n. ®
The story Picoult tells in “Sing®_
Home” is engaging. Many time®"
found myself unable to put it do®
However, one of the most interest®
things about the novel is feat it co®
wife a soundtrack.
®.
According to Picoult, this new i®
stemmed from fee fact that she wai®r
to give Zoe a more tangible vo®
outside of the text Because the cm®
acter was a music therapist she thoi®
music would be the best way to do ®
Picoult enlisted Ellen Wilber to ^®
her in making the soundtrack. Pic®
wrote the lyrics to songs which v®
then set to music and sung by Wilb®
Each chapter is represented b®
track on the CD. The music is sim;®
tic but beautiful, with Wilber sin^H
and playing guitar. Possibly my f^®
ite song is “Ordinary Life” in which ®
reader hears Zoe asking poignant q®,
tions about what makes being a ho®1'
sexual “wrong.” She describes how®
life is actually simple and ordinary, t®
only thing that makes it out of the n®j
is people’s reactions to her se.\ualit®f
The idea of a book coming w^®
soundtrack is rather interesting, ara®
believe Picoult did an excellent jo®
utilizing this idea. As someone^®
loves both books and music, I ^®
having the CD along with the be®
Having a character wife a voice yod®
physically hear adds a special touch ■
the story and I wish more books <^®
wife music accompanying it.
fl®
I highly recommend everyone g®
a copy .of “Sing You Home.” Pic®®1
ability to tackle hard issues with®
enlightening story makes the book®
good read.
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