 |
SOC News
› Pride in Print Faculty Publish Books on Nature,
Sound and Photographs
A number of works from SOC faculty recently have found their way from publishers’ desks onto the sales racks. In this issue of SCAN, we highlight three faculty members who’s work has been published in the past year: Don Corrigan, Journalism; Gary Gottlieb, Audio Production; and, Susan Stang, Photography.
DON CORRIGAN
“Show Me … Natural Wonders: A Guide to Scenic Treasurers in the Missouri Region”
More than anything, Don Corrigan needed an excuse to get out of the office. Corrigan — editor and columnist for the Webster-Kirkwood Times and South County Times — needed to write about something other than local politics.
“I wanted something that would get me out away from the political talk shows,” he said.
He turned to nature.
Corrigan for years had traveled throughout Missouri visiting bluffs, springs, caves and parks that caught his attention. It’s these environmental locales that comprise his latest book, “Show Me … Natural Wonders: A Guide to Scenic Treasurers in the Missouri Region.”
The book is described as “an escape manual — a guidebook to special places right in our own backyard.” It highlights about 100 places throughout Missouri and Southern Illinois in a series of column-length vignettes written throughout the past two years.
“All the vignettes are the exact same size as the column that I write for the Times,” Corrigan said. “ I used the same parameters … so it was like writing a column a week.”
“Show Me … Natural Wonders” was illustrated by E.J. Thias and published by Reedy Press in St. Louis. Part of the success of the book, means Corrigan’s been traveling the state signing copies in person.
“I’ve been really pleased with the publicity,” Corrigan said. “I’m actually having a blast. People want to point out the places they thought should have been included in the book. I always tell them, ‘I’ll put it in the sequel.’”
GARY GOTTLIEB
“Shaping Sound in the Studio and Beyond: Audio Aesthetics and Technology”
Gary Gottlieb never really considered himself a morning person, but in an attempt to rework his most recently published book, he quickly learned how to become one.
“Since I do my best writing in the morning, I tend to reserve some early morning hours every day for writing,” Gottlieb said. “I just write more clearly at that hour. Since I write early it doesn’t interfere with the rest of my schedule, and my other obligations don’t interfere with my writing.”
Gottlieb’s book, “Shaping Sound in the Studio and Beyond” teaches audio production by presenting “both the aesthetic and technological elements of recording in one text.” It covers basic audio theory, mics, speakers, amps and much more.
And while he’s been self-publishing his work for years, it wasn’t until a chance meeting at an audio convention that Gottlieb found Thomson Course Technology, a Boston-based publisher of educational textbooks geared to students learning with technology.
“I was at a convention with a friend who was recently published and we ran into his editor,” Gottlieb said. “I told him about a book I wrote 10 years earlier and had been self-publishing, and he asked me to send him a copy. He asked if I was willing to make a long list of revisions, reorder the book, and add 100 pages or so. I was and we proceeded from there.”
The book went on to sell nearly 400 copies in the first month of its publication and Gottlieb’s already got another in the works. “Recording on the Go: The Definitive Guide to Mobile Recording,” co-authored with adjunct faculty member Paul Hennerich, is expected to be released in March 2008.
But Gottlieb has one piece of advice for those looking to live a life of luxury off publishing textbooks: “Keep your day job. Residuals take a long time to add up.”
SUSAN STANG
“FIRENZE un incontro”
A quality exhibition — that was the original goal Susan Stang set when she took a faculty leave in 2003 to shoot photographs in Florence, Italy.
Her work spawned so much more. Four years and about as many return trips to Italy later, Stang’s work has been professionally published in “FIRENZE un incontro.” The title roughly translates from Italian to “Encountering Florence.”
It’s a book that has something to say, Stang said, an important aspect of getting her photographs published. Years ago, Stang brought a stack of her photographs to New York hoping someone would put them between hard covers. She quickly learned that’s not the way most publishers work.
“I just had a big pile of photographs and thought they’d find a book for me,” Stang said. “I didn’t really get it. A book has to be about something. This book is about something.”
“FIRENZE un incontro” contains Stang’s photographs of Florence accompanied with text from novelists, poets, artists and musicians —“All getting to the essence of Florence and how it has touched people’s lives,” she said.
Andrea Burzi and Susanna Sarti collaborated with Stang on the book, published in partnership with a fledgling Webster University Press. A contribution made through the University made publication possible.
Although the book originally was published in Italy, the text appears in Italian and English. Stang said it soon could be available in the United States and certainly would be available online via her Italian publisher, Palombi Editori.
Return to Top 
|
In this issue…
Onward!
Established Alumni
SOC News
Just Landed Alumni
SCAN
|
