Connecticut Press Club

Bradshaw Smith, RIP

2012-01-23T12:42:00.000-08:00

Bradshaw Smith, producer of Broadway Beat, died Monday, January 16 of a massive stroke. He was 57.

Born on April 14, 1954 in Derby, Bradshaw attended Ansonia High School and Western Connecticut State University. He moved to New York in the mid-1970s and did cabaret at Don't Tell Mama. He received the first MAC award for Best Male Vocalist and the Backstage Bistro award.

Bradshaw also thrived behind the scenes with his award winning cable television show, Cabaret Beat and later with Broadway Beat, which documented thousands of theatre professionals during rehearsals, performance, interviews and fundraisers. Funeral services are private and a memorial is being planned. Contributions may be made in his memory to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Phone Phobia

2011-11-28T08:15:00.001-08:00

I run a writer's group and need help. The problem is that most of the people who say they are willing to help have become phobic about using the telephone to contact speakers for our programs. Regardless of age, they rely on email. They think it's faster and quicker. Shoot off an email and wait for a reply. And wait. And wait. And wait.

The truth is that many emails do not get to their recipients, especially if the intended recipients rely on corporate emails. The term blacklisting has not been retired since the days of Joe McCarthy. I've been working at the same newspaper for more than 10 years and my emails are sometimes lost in the company's email system. Similarly for a magazine for which I freelance regularly. In fact, the managing editor's daughter's emails get lost in the company's spam folder. Why? Some domain names are automatically classified as spam. Some services, such as Constant Contact, are classified as bulk emailers and, therefore, get automatic rejections. Sometimes emails from people and organizations I've accepted for years go into my spam folder. I don't know why it happens, but it does. What was most annoying was when I had AOL as my email provider and I would get daily emails about Viagra and penis-enlarging pills. Despite that, AOL would reject emails sent through Godaddy.com domain names in the days when some people still used dial-up only. Go figure.

When I get a chance to look at journalism boards, I see the postings of writers who ask the same questions all the time. What's the email format at Such and Such publication? At The New York TImes, it's often lastname at nytimes.com. But not always. How do you get the correct email? Pick. Up. The. Phone.

What I find so surprising is that this issue is huge among writers. What do they do when they have to interview people? Unless they're doing a face-to-face interview, they have to disclose in the article that it was a telephone or email interview. Person-to-person is preferable because the interviewer can note body language and, depending on the locale, get a better handle on his subject. Even phone is preferable to email, even with the risk of not getting a quote accurately. The interviewer can at least get a sense if the subject is trying to evade an answer or is articulate and well-prepared.

Journalists, like artists and salespeople, often expect rejection and perhaps that's a main reason for their phone phobia. The vast majority of people are insecure about what they're doing, especially in fields where every assignment is new and perhaps different. We never really know what to expect. The upsides of that are that it's hard to get bored and that we always get another chance to improve our technique.

Best Websites and Blogs

2011-03-17T09:22:00.000-07:00

Web Site Edited by Entrant -- Category 22

1st Place -- Lauren Yarger -- Connecticut Arts Connection

2nd Place -- Analiese Paik -- Fairfield Green Food Guide

3rd Place -- Barbara Wilkov and Laurie Newkirk -- MOTHERRR.com

Blogs -- Category 35B

1st Place -- Stephanie Webster -- www.CTBITES.com Your Guide to Great Food in Fairfield County.

2nd Place -- Sherry Shameer Cohen -- Metrojournalist Blog, 365 posts.

3rd Place -- Barbara Wilkov and Laurie Newkirk -- Blogging with Barb (and sometimes Laurie)

History in the Making

2011-03-04T08:52:00.001-08:00

Congratulations to

Cathryn J. Prince for winning 1st prize for A Professor, A President, and a Meteor: The Birth of American Science

and

Woody Klein for winning 2nd prize for The Inside Stories of Modern Political Scandals: How Investigative Reporters Changed the Course of American History

Note: all entries were judged by members of the Pennsylvania Press Club.

Winners for Young Adult Entries

2011-03-02T17:29:00.000-08:00

75 A Young Adult -- Fiction --

Life, After by Sarah Darer Littman -- 1st prize

The Education of Bet by Lauren Baratz-Logsted -- 2nd prize

The Twins' Daughters by Lauren Baratz-Logsted -- 3rd prize

75 B Young Adult -- Nonfiction

From Survivor to Survivor: Your Journey of Conquest by Rejena L. Bennett - 1st prize

Terrific work!

More Winners!

2011-03-01T07:42:00.000-08:00

In the 72H -- Nonfiction book category (religious/inspirational)

Daniel Fazzina, "Divine Intervention" --- 1st place

Colleen Plimpton "Mentors in the Garden of Life" -- 3rd place

In the Personality Profile 8B (more than 500 words)

From One House to Another by Chris Hodenfield of Greenwich Magazine -- 1st

Steppin Out with Tony Dovolani by Beth Cooney, Stamford Magazine -- 2nd

Brains and Baun by Chris Hoderfield of Greenwich -- 3rd

Christopher Hitchens by Diane Sembrot -- HM

In the Features 7C category

Animation Domination by Greenwich Magazine Timothy Dumas -- 1st

Jose Feliciano by Brigitte Quinn -- 2nd

Behind these Walls by Jane Kendall of Stamford Magazine -- 3rd

French Connection by Josh Garskof of At Home Magazine -- HM

Congratulations!

First Set of Winners - 2011 Contest

2011-02-21T06:32:00.000-08:00

Books

72F - Humor
Jerry Zezima, Leave It To Boomer - 1st place

72G - Instructional
Alan Reznik, M.D. and Jane Reznik, The Knee and Shoulder Handbook For All of Us
Gracelyn Guyol, Who's Crazy Here?

73 - Fiction
Sandra Rodriguez Baron, Stay With Me - 1st place
Alysse Aallyn, Depraved Heart - 2nd place
Rosemary Harris, Deadhead - 3rd place
David Lee Tucker, Stonewall Freedom - Honorable Mention

Periodicals

Profile 8B (more than 500 words)

"From One House to Another" by Chris Hodenfield -- 1st

"Steppin Out with Tony Dovolani" by Beth Cooney -- 2nd

"Brains and Baun" by Chris Hoderfield -- 3rd

"Christopher Hitchens" by Diane Sembrot -- HM

Features 7C

"Animation Domination" by Timothy Dumas -- 1st

"Jose Feliciano" by Brigitte Quinn -- 2nd

"Behind these Walls" by Jane Kendall -- 3rd

"French Connection" by Josh Garskof -- HM

Congratulations!

Class Acts

2010-05-08T19:07:00.000-07:00

Last night the Connecticut Press Club had its 9th annual awards banquet. The awards is my least favorite program because it involves the most work. More important to me, I've never won any awards for writing and I'm inwardly a bitter loser. Nevertheless, I was very excited about this one because for the first time we honored a playwright and we chose Donald Margulies, one of my favorites. We usually do not know in advance how much of a draw our speaker will be or if he or she will even be a good speaker. We chose well on both counts with Donald. For someone who has won so many prizes, including the Pulitzer for Dinner With Friends, he is so gracious, humble and accessible. If I'd won a quarter of the awards he won, my head would be four times wider than my caboose.

Since I've been President of the Connecticut Press Club, we changed the criteria for our Mark Twain Award winners. They had to be more than just distinctive traditional non-fiction print writers. Three years ago we chose Faith Middleton because she was at the forefront of change. She had been editor of Connecticut Magazine for 25 years and then became an author and radio hostess. Of course, she has a website now, as well. She is a much better interviewer than interviewee, but we were proud to have her. At that time, we did not announce the winners before the awards dinner, so we drew only 30 people. Last year, we honored Wally Lamb because his novels probe depths few writers are willing to go. I'd heard him speak at The Poynter Institute's National Writers Workshop several years ago and he was terrific. He did not disappoint us last year. He drew almost 60 people, including those who knew they had won prizes. And he's so nice. We expected almost 70 people to come to the dinner, including the winners and spouses and friends who were honoring them. We were pleasantly surprised that a lot more came to meet Donald. We had 95 people plus Donald, M.C. extraordinaire Randye Kaye, two actresses and the director and his wife who planned a scene from Collected Stories. The restaurant was understaffed and overwhelmed, but it was a nice problem to have. Donald is an excellent professor and he shared with us assignments and advice he gives his students which are applicable to most types of writing. I don't know what we're going to do to top this.

I have to give a lot of credit to Randye, who was the consummate professional. She kindly told us that every event is chaotic. She kept her composure and focus throughout the evening, even when one winner became nasty about everything from not being seated quickly to the food to the service, and another one's name was missed during the awards ceremony. She handled it well. I learned one important lesson for the future: always have an M.C. at such events.

Donald, Randye, Wally and Faith also proved something important: that you don't have to be a divo or diva just because you're successful. They are all class acts.

Posted by Sherry Shameer Cohen, www.metrojournalist.blogspot.com

Mr. Magazine

2010-04-09T02:55:00.000-07:00

For all the talk about the death of print media, there seems to be new magazines cropping up all the time and existing magazines keep reinventing themselves. I know that's not just wishful thinking. Anyone who passes by the magazines racks at Borders or Barnes & Noble has to notice that there are magazines devoted to smart phones (and even broken down to brand) as well as every new must-have gadget. If you're really addicted to your smart phone, you can surf to one of my favorite sites, www.mrmagazine.com.

Mr. Magazine is Professor Samir Husni of Ole Miss. He has been observing magazine trends for at least two decades and is the go to person for anyone who is considering launching a new magazine. That's not my plan, but I do love his blog, which is on his website. You won't find industry gossip on his blog, but you will read interviews and reports about conferences and new magazine launches. You will also find some great soundbites such as graphic designer Erica Endicott's tweet about his speaking at CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) on March 24, 2010: "It's like a tent revival in here with Samir Husni. People are almost shouting 'amen'!"

Please don't take offense, but here's another great soundbite, this one from George Lois, former art director of Esquire Magazine on reading a magazine on an iPad: "It's O.K., I guess. But magazines will never die because there is a visceral feeling of having that thing in your hands and turning the pages. It's so different on the screen. It's the difference between looking at a woman and having sex with her."

No doubt a lot of people were shouting "amen" to that.

Posted by Sherry Shameer Cohen.

Print vs. Digital Reading

2010-04-02T16:50:00.000-07:00

At last evening's program with literary agents Alexandra Machinist, Bob Diforio and Michelle Brower, people at our table discussed the pros and cons of e-readers. We realize that e-readers are not going away, especially since the innovative, albeit pricey iPad is expected to change the way we read. Or will it? All of us love the printed page. You just can't snuggle in bed with a Kindle. You can't read it in the bathtub without wondering if you're going to hear a sizzle if it falls into the water. Toddlers, although able to discriminate between real electronics and toys, love to turn pages.

In my humble opinion, the success of the iPad will depend on the following: 1) that there will be an economic turnaround in the foreseeable future because Apple's pricing is much higher than that of competitors and 2) that it will live up to its promises.

The most positive thing we heard about the iPad, besides the color graphics, is that it authors will get more money for books because Apple is willing to set the price of e-books higher than Amazon does. High time! It's hard to accept the constant downsizing of our income. The writing profession is very labor-intensive. It's not just typing our thoughts or the words we utter. It includes research, interviewing, writing, rewriting and marketing. We are far from overpaid for what we do.

As for the claims that the iPad will save newspapers and magazines, we're not sure. We have witnessed the destruction of periodicals by MBAs who are after the bottom line at, well, any cost. Sounds like a variation of the page from Amazon.com, which has lost money in an attempt to gain market share.

Posted by Sherry Shameer Cohen.

Three Authors, Three Stories

2009-12-09T04:00:00.000-08:00

The Connecticut Press Club celebrated this holiday season with a party to honor three first-time authors. Just surviving another brutal year in our industry would have been enough reason to celebrate, but these ladies' stories restored our faith that dreams can come true.

Stacy Enyeart, a long-time Board member, wrote America's Home Front Heroes: An Oral History of World War II for Praeger. Just as the country is fighting wars on two fronts now, it was doing the same thing during the Second World War, the setting of Stacy's book. At a time when there are so many commentators and blogs on news websites, it almost takes one by surprise to get the story from the original players -- ordinary American citizens who were coping with hard times on the domestic front and knowing that the men and women who were sent overseas were relatives and neighbors, not anonymous volunteers. Years ago I was enthralled with the film, Reds, which incorporated the Hollywood narrative of the story of John Reed with interviews by his contemporaries, and with the British television series, A Family at War. Reds took place during the Russian Revolution. A Family at War was a fictionalized account of a working class family during World War II. But in my mind, I can envision a combination of these two in a film or PBS series based on Stacy's book.

It took Marina Julia Neary 16 years to write Wynfield's Kingdom, a novel reminiscent of books by Charles Dickens. Getting it published, also required a lot of work on her part, she recalled, even with an agent. She finally found a small publisher, Fireship Press, that specializes in genre fiction. Marina, a poet, playwright and screenwriter, has been busy this year with her film, Hugo in London, and play, Lady with a Lamp. Both, like Wynfield's Kingdom, take you back to a different era.

'Tis the season of gift giving and the era of going green. What perfect timing for the release of The Wrapping Scarf Revolution by Patricia Lee. I've met Patty several times and was always impressed with her style, down to a handbag. I thought that she designed the bag, but it turns out that it's just a scarf she wrapped around it. Moreover, there are a gazillion things you can do with scarves, such as wrap two wine bottles, as shown on the cover her book. What a brilliant way to wrap gifts, especially those that are challenging to wrap with paper. Patty calls her scarf wrapping ideas eco-luxe. She explained that it comes from her Korean heritage, which included a history of poverty. It's hard to believe that a generation ago, people grew up in households that didn't even earn $100.00 per year.

Posted by Sherry Shameer Cohen