Saturday, December 19, 2009

Christmastide Celebration by Rooth


•Artistic and Aromatic
•Brilliant Bronze Bells
•Candlelit Caroling
•Dazzling Decorations
•Electric Embroidery
•Festive Feasting
•Greeting Gifts
•Heartfelt Holiday
•Icicle Icing
•Joyful Jingling
•Kris Kringle Kaleidoscope
•Luminary Lighting
•Marzipan Marvels
•Nostalgic Narratives
•Ornament Orbs
•Pageants & Parades
•Quite Quintessential
•Red Ribbon Rhythms
•Solstice Season
•Tree Trimming Tinsel
•Utterly Universal
•Vivid Velvet Vests
•Wildwood Wreaths
•Xmas marks the calendar
•Yuletide Yore
•Zodiacal Zenith
Copyright © 2009 Ruth Keil Posselt

From RoothBooks Intl, here’s to twelve days of yuletide miracles for all of you -- back at you in 2010 with fresh intention to blog more often -- meanwhile, enjoy our author’s alliteration talents!

Monday, September 7, 2009

More negative prints




From Tanzania and Kenya, East Africa: my portraits of a cheetah [also on blog title and Abecedarium Anomalous cover, positive print page 35], leopard in a tree [page 37 in book], and a Masai giraffe mother with baby. I’m off on a road trip to Maine, back at you toward the end of October -- stay tuned!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Photo portfolios of Ruth Keil Posselt


My best black-and-white photographs are housed in 15 [so far] archival boxes and matted with black museum board. Most of them are from my travels worldwide since 1963. My newest portfolio is experimental, negative prints from my photographs scanned into my Macintosh computer and played with in PhotoShop.

This one is of a country cemetery on the road from Paris to Calais in France. It looks much more dramatic as a negative print.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Serendipity sells our book

We thought we knew our book’s audience. Serendipity came later.

We launched Abecedarium Anomalous at an independent bookstore, authors signing party: celebration of animated reading, harp playing, tasty treats, selling a carton of 30 books.

We designed our bookmark business card and brochure mailed to family, friends, business associates. Orders were encouraging—one, two, three or more signed books—reordering continues. One friend bought more than a carton, another ordered nine as gifts, yet another ordered five to be sent to Canada and Australia.

We contacted professionals to hire for marketing, distribution and representation. The initial print run was 1,500 and we could go back to press as demand grew. We learned the print run had to be at least 10,000 to attract anyone’s interest.

The softcover studio edition of Abecedarium Anomalous: Alphabet Book Irregular came out of earlier writing projects, gallery shows, and a postcard line featuring childhood drawings. It sold in an art book fair at The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.

Years later we redesigned the book with new photographs.
We’d learned about ISBN numbers, read books about publishing, formed our company, joined the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association and the then Publishers Marketing Association, taken the Stanford Professional Publishing Course, attended conferences and seminars, listened to many independent publishers sharing our passion for the tactile pleasures of the printed book.

Abecedarium Anomalous
is a black-and-white art book printed on elegant stock: black duotones as rich as the original photographs, pen-and-ink drawings, alliterative verse teasing the imagination and word definitions of child perspective. It ignites creativity, invites us to be silly in a playfully inventive parent/child gallery right out of tomorrow.

My son’s first employer
, I paid him book royalties and for each word definition, illuminated alphabet letter and Picasso-esque drawing he’d produced between ages six and twelve. He earned enough to buy a dirt bike.

The book was expensive to manufacture. With money saved from my publications editor day job, we worked with designers and typographers and printers, and now could design on a Macintosh computer instead of doing pasteup by hand—such a miracle!

This book has earned awards—Writers Notes Art Category book award with embossed gold foil seal for the cover—Best Children’s Book [all black ink] by the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association—a quotable critique from a Benjamin Franklin Awards judge—and praise from many readers including the renowned Ray Bradbury: “You have written what I would call an edible feast.”

Its secondary audience is a serendipitous surprise: grandparents, teachers, parents reading it with children! The vocabulary is adult, yet parents at book signings explain that their youngsters can already say and spell “supercalifragilistic-expealidocious.”

Response to Abecedarium Anomalous continues to delight. Our former tax accountant in California and new one in Nevada each boought a book—the dermatologist’s assistant and gynecologist each bought a book—the radiation doctor and assistant each bought a book—the owner and employee of a frame shop each bought a book—two real estate agents bought a total of 40 for client gifts.

People met while traveling buy the book, including a store clerk in California, passengers on an Alaska cruise and a Canadian Rockies tour, a woman in Hawaii while waiting for the airport shuttle.

The new pet sitter fell in love with the book, bought six. A friend bought 12 for school library memorials. More than a carton sold to high school classmates, many copies at a fiftieth year reunion.

The book is selling in a gift boutique that orders at wholesale, and a hair stylist sells the book in her salon—local reps receive sales commissions.

We sell at a discount, and most of the books are signed. The signed copies are appearing on the Internet—some above retail!

Here’s the newest serendipity. Publishers Weekly arrived with another copy stuck to it addressed to a local public library. When we gave them their copy along with the bookmark business card and explained I was an author/publisher, we were invited to sell at their book fair—how cool is that!

Of course we would like Abecedarium Anomalous to come out from under the radar—yet watching it travel in the universe of adventurous readers is exciting and satisfying. We may soon launch a second book based on teaching the publishing process to elementary and middle school students for 10 years. It relies on Abecedarium Anomalous as a creative resource and is titled Limited Edition A to Z: How to Produce Your Own Book. Its audience: teachers and homeschooler parents.

A third book is almost ready: Dust Bunnies On Parade—e-mail us for information, roothbooks@earthlink.net.

Abecedarium Anomalous was accepted for the Premium Book Company special-sales catalog used by reps nationwide selling in quantity to non-bookstore outlets—wish us luck! When the books are gone, we might not go back to press. This is your chance to order while stock remains—contact us for discount information at roothbooks@earthlink.net.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Holiday Wreath


Titled Holiday Wreath: pinecones and seeds, Mardi Gras beads, electronics parts, mirror signature. This ends the series of 12 mobiles and stabiles based on clear plastic type wheels once used in typesetting. More found-materials constructions by Rooth in future blog posts—next time, a serendipity story, stay tuned!

Monday, August 3, 2009

Play it Again


Titled Play it Again: turntable record, jewelry, machinery parts, ornaments, mirror signature. Found-materials type wheel construction by Rooth, see below—last one next week!

Monday, July 27, 2009

Color Wheel


Titled Color Wheel: can tops, game parts, gears, Mardi Gras beads, bubble blowers from my son’s wedding, mirror signature. Found-materials type wheel construction by Rooth, see below—another one next week!

Monday, July 20, 2009

Tradition Textures


Below Wildflower Meadow, titled Tradition Textures: Lego toy and electronics parts, CDs framing black & white photos by me [clockwise from upper right—chimney sweep, through a lens kaleidoscope, dragon in Rose Parade, wood door detail, Chief Illiniwek dancing], mirror signature. Found-materials type wheel construction, see below—another one next week!

Monday, July 13, 2009

Wildflower Meadow


Titled Wildflower Meadow: clockworks, wood beads, mirror signature—one of my favorites. Found-materials type wheel construction by Rooth, see below—another one next week!

Monday, July 6, 2009

Rainbow Starlight


Titled Rainbow Starlight: Lite-Brite toy parts, Mardi Gras beads, metallic stars from my son’s wedding, mirror signature. Found-materials type wheel construction by Rooth, see below—another one next week!

Monday, June 29, 2009

Concert Extraordinaire


Titled Concert Extraordinaire: Steinway piano parts, Mardi Gras beads, electronics parts, mirror signature. Found-materials type wheel construction by Rooth, see below—another one next week!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Circle Rhythms


Titled Circle Rhythms: toy car wheels, machinery and electronics parts, pearls, mirror signature. Found-materials type wheel construction by Rooth, see below—another one next week!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Language Lesson


Titled Language Lesson: beer bottle caps printed in Hawaiian and English [for example, Aloha and Hello], electronics parts, purple Lite-Brite toy parts, mirror signature. Found-materials type wheel construction by Rooth, see below—another one next week!

Monday, June 8, 2009

Fun and Games


Titled Fun and Games: Bingo and Monopoly game tokens, mirror signature. By the way, you can click on any of my photos for a larger version to view details. Found-materials type wheel construction by Rooth, see below—another one next week!

Monday, June 1, 2009

H.T.H to You


Titled H.T.H. to You with school colors red and white to mark my high school class fiftieth reunion: red Mardi Gras beads and pencil-end hearts, red and clear Lite-Brite toy parts, electronics parts, mirror signature. Found-materials type wheel construction by Rooth, see below—another one next week!

Monday, May 25, 2009

found-materials constructions by Rooth


What I do for fun: here begins my series of 12 mobiles and stabiles based on clear plastic type wheels that not so very long ago were used in typesetting.

This photo shows all 12 arranged on shelving. Barely visible on top, titled Working on the Railroad: Lite-Brite and train toy parts, mirror signature. My constructions all have mirrors somewhere in their design. Closeups to follow—stay tuned!