Thursday, January 05, 2006

dollar cinema, carp, growlers, SantaCam, and Big Jack Earl.

Played around with some different designs for the blog yesterday.

When The Movies at Meadville opened, I wrote that I feared for the survival of Meadville's downtown theatre, the Meadville Cinemas. I think that a theatre presence in the downtown area of small cities is vital. So it was with mixed feelings that I saw this article detailing the Cinemas' shift to a "dollar theatre" format. While I'm pleased that a long term lease has been signed, I'm hoping they won't let this almost 40 year old theatre fall into further disrepair. One of Epic Theatre's other properties, the Butler (PA) Drive-In has the worst bathroom I've ever seen, outside of India...




Erieblogs.com has a short note about Erie author James Stumpo. It looks like a self-published book, not that there's anything wrong with that, but what really interested me was the title that erieblogs compared it to, The Mad Cook of Pymatuning : A Novel Has anyone read this? How did a Brooklyn boy end up writing about the place where ducks walk on the backs of carp?









Area performers may want to strike while the iron's hot and line up a spot in Clarion's inagural First Night celebration.

I stopped reading the Pittsburgh Post Gazette with any regularity when they stopped buying freelance articles, but I stopped by their web site today, only to find an article on brewpub takeouts that quotes both the Titusville area Four Sons Brewery owner Thom Sauber and Slippery Rock's North Country Brewing Co. co-owner Bob McCafferty.

Speaking of North Country, Big Jack Earl will be playing there on Monday, January 23 at 7 pm.


Finally, without a doubt, the scariest thing I've seen lately is the Erie Art Museum's webcam, focused on a Santa display (via The Film Chair). Check it out, but I warned you...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Erie author James Stumpo's novel, The Ambassador's Agenda is a trade paperback published through a traditional publisher. Just view the link in this blog. It isn't self published. I think the significance was that it was doing so well on Buy.com ranked in order of bestselling suspense and included were all of the other publishing houses.

Anonymous said...

Pertaining to author James Stumpo, his website indicated his novel is published through Publish America, a nationally recognized and large publisher. So, he appears to be a traditionally published author. Good for Erie!

Dittman said...

Have to disagree with you there. PublishAmerica is POD business with mixed reviews:
http://www.badbusinessbureau.com/reports/ripoff104646.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A25187-2005Jan20

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10211

But, I don't think it matters, the lines between POD and traditional publishing are growing thinner and thinner. A good deal of my editorial consulting business comes from people who want to get manuscripts whipped into shape before going with a POD since editorial input is one thing POD places don't offer. I personally don't have a problem with it, although I know that some people still look down their noses at POD.

Finally, as you suggest the proof is in the numbers and not in the name on the flyleaf.

Thanks for reading!

Anonymous said...

I think allot of you are jumping to conclusions about print-on-demand. Virtually all major publishing houses are going P.O.D. And really, one can find anything negative on the internet about anything.

LET US NOT judge the book by the publisher!!

I'm not sure who thought it was self published?? What a deceitful way to start a blog. I checked the buy.com link. It was immediately apparent this novel was published traditionally. By the way, it's a great read!

Dittman said...

It is, without a doubt, self published. PublishAmerica takes all comers who have the cash. Check the links I put up. But, as I said, ". . .personally don't have a problem with it, although I know that some people still look down their noses at POD.

Finally, as you suggest the proof is in the numbers and not in the name on the flyleaf."

Also, where's the proof that, "Virtually all major publishing houses are going P.O.D."?
Again, I wish James Stumpo and all local authors the best of luck and I read everything that comes out by local authors. If you read the blog, you'd notice that last month, I attempt to turn people on to local author Eric Day's book, which, yes, was a POD.
Thanks for reading - I like all comments, even when I don't agree with them. If you know Stumpo, tell him to send me a press release if he does any local readings so I can promote it on the blog.