Life at Open Heart Publishing

Posts Tagged ‘artist’

We here at Open Heart Publishing have had a ton of work on our plates but one bite at a time deadlines are being met and production is moving forward. With everything coming up on us in the next weeks I wanted to, halfway through; introduce you to our fearless leader, the Dictator of Deadlines, Debrin Case.

I remember when I first saw the friend request from An Honest Lie in my Facebook in box. I thought, “What the hell is an honest lie?” I’m glad I did the research because I was more than pleasantly surprised at what I found. There are so many small publishers out there, and I’m not one to point fingers, but Open Heart Publishing struck me immediately as one of the better ones. At the time Debrin was hiring and I was determined to get in on the Publishing business so I sent him an email. It wasn’t long before he got back to me and within a week he’d given me a call. I remember one of the first things he said to me was,

“I have to warn you I get a bit nervous around new people and when I’m nervous I cuss.”

It seems like such a small thing but it made him more real to me, more human, more accessible than the other interviewers I’ve had to deal with. I didn’t get the job then but Debrin and I remained in contact. When the time came he called me first and I appreciate it.

Debrin is a man with a focus and a plan and he does a fantastic job of bringing us all together to accomplish our goals. He may seem gentle and unassuming on the surface, but don’t be fooled he has an iron will and a remarkable depth of talent. He graces the Pages of An Honest Lie Volume 2 with a tale called Learning to Pray. today though we are going to talk to him about Open Heart Publishing and what exciting things are in store for us. But I’ll let him tell you about it.

Open heart Publishing: So you are the man who started it all. I feel I would not only be remiss if I didn’t ask, but I might get a few less than pleasant emails as well, so, what do you feel is a delusion of insignificance?

Debrin Case: I feel it would be a travesty for me to interpret the meaning of this year’s theme or the masthead . This is something I would rather leave to the interpretation of the individual reader as opposed to defining it and ruining all of the fun.

OHP: I can understand that. What is An Honest Lie?

D. C.: Like a Delusion of Insignificance, I feel it would be a travesty for me to interpret the meaning of this year’s theme or the masthead. This is something I would rather leave to the interpretation of the individual reader as opposed to defining it and ruining all of the fun.

OHP: Looks like we are going to be sticking with the party line on that one. But I asked him! No angry emails! Open Heart Publishing and the An Honest Lie anthologies are becoming pretty popular pretty fast; tell us something about where you are planning to take them in the future.

D.C.: AHL is heading into its second volume and wow what a great collection of authors we have found for our readership this year. It does my heart good to see a new cast of amazing authors to work with for volume 2, and as we get ready to embark on volume 3 it can only get better. As to what else to expect from Open Heart Publishing, the best advice I have is to keep checking us out. A wonderful collection of short stories from C.B. Calsing entitled All Along the Pacific will be available later this year, the winner of AHL Vol. 1 will be announced, yet another wonderful opportunity project, and of course Volume 2 of An Honest Lie should be available by late October.

OHP: I can hardly wait; it’s looking pretty good right now. Is your desire to publish other writers as strong as your need to write?

D.C.: Absolutely, in some ways it is even stronger. They are both important sides of me and my own personal missions of creating accessible fiction, and to promote and find new authors.

OHP: I’ve read some of your work and I know what’s waiting in the wings as far as Open Heart Publishing goes, I find your imagination fascinating. Where do you draw your inspiration from?

D.C.: Like all artists, and the rest of humanity, my inspiration is an amalgamation of everything I intake into my life. Whether this is through food, drink, music, movies, T.V., books, internet, conversations with strangers, moments of road rage… etc, in the end everything I do is a byproduct of everything I have consumed.

OHP: so many bathroom jokes and waste to writing comparisons to make, so little time. In your opinion, which is the more important discovery of humankind… plumbing or the written word?

D.C.: Definitely plumbing. Though I would like to believe that the written word has changed the world far more vastly than any other human invention, it has also brought about more debacles, damnations and epiphanies than any other invention before or after. Yet, it is in fact plumbing that has done more in the ways of health, safety and the unity of mankind than was ever dreamed of before. Just like pants that go on one leg at a time, so too do we discover that everyone goes to the bathroom and perhaps this could be the very medium by which world peace could be achieved.

OHP: People miss the simplest things sometimes. Are you a writer or a publisher first?

D.C.: I am dictator first, everything else is highly suspect.

OHP: Are there any authors, besides yourself, that you enjoy reading?

D.C.: There are thousands of authors out there besides myself that I love to read. Too many to list and to many egos to inflame or deflate by a mere mention or deletion from that list. I am a voracious reader, and in fact often read books without trying to discover anything about an author before I devour their work.

OHP: Who would you say is your writing mentor/ hero?

D.C.: My writing heroine is Ariel Gore, her book How to Become a Famous Author before You Are Dead is like a bible to me. I read it far more religiously than I ever read any assumed to be “Holy” text. If you are an author or a publisher and have not read this book, then stop reading this article now and hit Google, or whatever search engine you prefer, and find out more about this amazing book right this second. Seriously, you won’t regret it.

OHP: I haven’t read it yet … I know, I know. Do you have a writing nemesis?

D.C.: I sure do, and I have to see that bastard every morning when I get out of bed and wander my way into the bathroom. If you never realize that you are your own worst critic and at times your own worst enemy then perhaps you need to reexamine your artistic endeavors.
Being an artist is about introspection, and introspection is not as easy as getting your temperature taken, on the contrary it is more akin to exploratory surgery on a primitive battlefield where the doctors are still blissfully unaware of the concept of infections caused by dirty hands.

OHP: Indeed! I know how much work goes into producing an awesome literary product; do you have any advice for aspiring publishers out there?

D.C.: Keep to your deadlines. Nothing else matters above your word and keeping to your deadlines.

Is your life in shambles, can’t pay the rent, need a new car… tough shit, keep to your deadlines.

The world is doomed, the wrong political candidate won the election, there is a race of mutant rats overthrowing your city… ah well, stick to your deadlines.

An author needs an extension on their piece, an artist is having issues, your printer is going away on holiday, who cares… Keep your deadlines.

OHP: Why do you feel the need to write?

D.C.: Communication. Communication and communion with the rest of the human race is the endeavor of all people the world over. Whether this is via speech, interpretive dance, collages, decoupage, crochet or writing the need is the same it is in its presentation where we discover all of the dissimilar ways in which we are so similar.

OHP: Besides short stories what other writing endeavors are you currently engaged in?

D.C.: Tons of them. Currently I am working on 4 different books, and I am preparing 3 more volumes to be published this year by Open Heart Publishing.

OHP: It has been a pleasure picking your brain. Just a few more questions; what do you feel about the following quote “Imagination is more important than knowledge?”

D.C.: I believe Einstein was more accurate than he could have ever dreamed, and as the day’s move forward into months, then years, decades and eventually eons we will see just how far down the rabbit hole we can go while taking what we perceived of as reality along for the ride.

OHP: According to Anatole France “To die for an idea is to set a rather high price on conjecture,” in your opinion what do you believe is worth dying for? What do you believe is worth living for?

D.C.: I believe that everything is worth living for, I have yet to find one truly worthy reason to die and for this reasoning alone I am currently refusing any model of living which concludes with such an outmoded way of thinking.

OHP: Mark Twain once said that “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” What do you believe he meant by that?

D.C.: There is a bigger picture in all things with which you may be blissfully unaware at any given moment. As such you aren’t always seeing or understanding what is actually going on at any moment. Pay close attention to everything and all of the details. No matter how unusual, bizarre or even downright ordinary things may appear… they aren’t. They never are.

OHP: Most people have two stories for doing anything… a plausible excuse and the real reason, why do you really write?

D.C.: I write, therefore I am.
Or is it; I am, therefore I write?
Or is it simply, I enjoy telling a story whether good or ill conceived and in the end I want to get paid for it?

Yes to all of the above, and then a whole bunch more that I am quite sure would quite easily become a philosophical debate about the existence of bubblegum on the dwarf planet of Pluto and how that is causing certain politicians’ to vote no to better funding for public education art programs.

OHP: There is a great deal of talking going about your book “A Children’s Book of Necromancy”, I hear that anyone that reads it can become quite powerful and even learn how to raise the dead. Is this true?

Absolutely, Davin. “A Children’s Book of Necromancy,” is absolutely the most important coloring book ever to be published, and I personally promise with absolute barnum sincerity that anyone who reads this book will be able to raise the dead.

If you want to know more about this amazing volume visit the official website here, and you can also visit us at Animefest 2010 in Dallas,TX where you can meet myself and Darcy Melton (the illustrator).

OHP: We are coming up on the publication day for An Honest Lie Volume 2: Delusions of Insignificance very fast. Do you have any plans for a third volume?

D.C.: Yes I do, but you will have to wait until next year to hear more.

Debrin Case has been making the story more interesting since 1970!
Debrin Case holds a B.A. in English Literature and is currently the founder/publisher of Open Heart Publishing, a company that promotes, showcases, and opens doors for new authors with its annual anthology
“An Honest Lie,” but also for children through its charitable project called, “The Opportunity Project.”
Additionally, Debrin oversees intuitive writing workshops, writes grants for charities (non profits and artistic endeavors), and is an experienced storyteller, ghost writer, and fiction writer.
Previously held the positions of editor for Hedge Wizard Press, and also co-editor for Red River Review.
When asked of the validity of his tales he will normally reply,
“My stories are 50% bullshit… and the rest is questionable, but at least they are honest.

http://debrincase.com/

An Honest Lie Volume 2 is in production. The final edits are being … finalized by M.E. Johnson, the formatting headache is in the very capable hands of our Publisher Debrin Case and they have left me in charge of keeping you all updated on our progress. Progress is, as ever it does, progressing and at a phenomenal rate. We are all very happy with what we’ve selected and we are certain you will be too.

In the interest of keeping you titillated about what you can expect from AHL V2 we are offering up a glimpse inside the minds of the Authors you’ll be reading. Over the next few weeks we will be bringing you Artist Interviews from each of the featured Authors in AHL V2.

So, without further adieu I want you to help me welcome C.B. Calsing. C.B. graced us with a great tale, “Gran’s Prophecy” , in An Honest Lie Volume 1 and she is back in volume 2 with “Martina Gets the Last Word”. She is also working with Open Heart Publishing to publish her short story collection “All Along the Pacific”. When asked what her inspiration was for the collection here is some of what she had to say.

The first story I wrote that became part of “All Along the Pacific” was “A Common Whore.” I had heard a story from a fumigator about a brothel in Pismo Beach, California. I thought at first about fictionalizing this, but then the character of Lydia just sort of came up out of the soup of information I was dealing with. She’s a complete fabrication, not based on anything historic I had heard, but she really did appeal to me. The story of an abused woman on the run is not a new one, and back in the 1920s, there weren’t a lot of options in that type of situation, so prostitution seemed like a logical place to end up. But I didn’t want it to be a normal story, so I threw in the son, but then realized it would be even more interesting if it were a step-son instead of a biological son that she steals.

I am excited to see what else is in store. There is much more to that story. Stay tuned for much more from C.B Calsing. We asked C.B. a few other honest questions and here are her honest answers.

Open Heart Publishing: Thank you for taking the time to do this interview for us. So, the anthology is titled, “An Honest Lie: Delusions of Insignificance”. I want to ask you a two part question. First, what is an honest lie?

C.B. Calsing: An honest lie or An Honest Lie? Because there is quite a difference, don’t you think? An Honest Lie is a great series of anthologies, each with a different central theme, that is sure to entertain readers. They feature talented up-and-coming writers that are enthusiastic about what they do and eager to share their work with the world.

An honest lie, on the other hand, is a fib designed to make someone feel better, like when we tell a sick friend she’s looking great, or a parent how cute his child is when in fact that baby looks like a shrunken old man. These small fibs lube the gears that make up society and civilization. That reminds me of the movie The Invention of Lying. Can you imagine if everyone were brutally honest like that? The individuals wouldn’t be able to keep society together. It would fall apart. So what if sometimes our bosses tell us “Good job” and then turn around and roll their eyes. It doesn’t matter so long as we don’t see it. We think we did a good job and with a smile on our face we go about our day. We want to believe these lies to be true, and because more often than not they are subjective lies, it’s easier to convince ourselves of that.

OHP: Great answer! Now on to the second part; what is a delusion of insignificance?

C.B.: A delusion of insignificance is feeling that we are worthless. Self-deprecation, self-pity when in fact we are loved, intrinsic in someone else’s life, and completely necessary. I think most people live with these delusions. Otherwise they are over the top in the opposite direction, like egomaniacs. It’s hard to find a balance between confidence and modesty, and a delusion of insignificance goes a long way in the modesty column.

OHP: For some of us writing isn’t a job or even a serious career path, we write because we can, we write because we love it. Why do you feel the need to write?

C.B.: Pashaw. I don’t need to write. I can stop anytime I want. I’ve done it before. I think I went weeks one time with writing a single word. You don’t believe me? I can stop right now. Watch. There. I did it. What? Well, I only started again because I wanted to. I didn’t need to. It’s not like a compulsion or anything. Besides, it’s not going to kill me so long as it’s in moderation, right? Yeah, I know: signs of addiction, blah, blah, blah. Does it affect my work? I’ve only missed, like, one day ever to write. Relationships? Well…

OHP: I lolled at that one. I can relate to the passion for writing and a tempering of that with a little humor. Why did you decide to submit your work to An Honest Lie?

C.B.: In the C.B. Calsing School of Professional Writing, the first rule taught is “Money flows to the writer.” I particularly like royalty paying markets because even at my age, I’m thinking about retirement. That little bit coming in every month or quarter or year… That’s beer money right there.

OHP: Many great writers are very practical people. I believe it comes from the preservatives in ramen noodles. Yet we write anyway. Most people have two stories for doing anything… a plausible excuse and the real reason. Why do you really write?

C.B.: I didn’t really give a plausible excuse to the above answer, did I? I write because I’ve always written. I started when I was three, and my mom and dad would make books with me. Real, cloth-bound, stitched together books. Throughout junior high and high school I wrote derivative novellas and angsty, Goth poetry. By college I’d started in on short fiction that showed a glimmer of originality, and I’ve been building from that for years now. Everyone around me defines me as a writer: my parents, my husband, my friends. When we get together, the question is always “What are you working on?” or “What comes out next?” I’ve been defined by what I do, and honestly I have no problem with that. I can’t imagine not writing.

OHP: Well we are glad to have you with us. Tell our readers something about your inspiration for “Marina Gets the Last Word”.

C.B.: I am a fan of the paranormal and horror, particularly the old masters like Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. I went through a phase last summer — 2009 — where I was writing a lot of horror stories: werewolves, elder gods living inside Norwegian black metal albums, vengeful women returning as oyster monsters from the briny depths…. Those sorts of things. The one thing that most of the horror sites listed in their submission guidelines is that they were tired of the old tropes. I got to thinking how someone could make a sort of standard haunting story new and different. What made Poe and Lovecraft great to me was not necessarily their ability to craft really scary situations or write in detail about giant, slimy beasts, but the use of their characters’ tension to create the feeling of dread in the reader. Either of these writers could have made buttering toast a harrowing experience if they had wanted to. I decided to create a sort of mundane haunting, a journal that seems to write itself in the hand of a dead woman, and then add to that a character that is a little haunted by something else: his own guilt and, maybe to a lesser extent, booze. This would give me plenty of room to move around the psychology and tension of the issue. Finally I realized the best way to break from the old ideas of a horror short story was to destroy the expectations the readers would have for the ending. That’s how I came up with “Martina Gets the Last Word.”

OHP: Besides short stories what other writing endeavors are you currently engaged in?

C.B.: I’ve written a young adult novel set during World War Two that I need to find time to revise. I love to write historic fiction, and so I took the opportunity during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writers Month (ed.) last year to get this idea I’d had down on paper. This year, I’m working on a fantasy western, I think.

OHP: So, we live during a time in story telling history where the Hero/Villain dynamic is more popular than ever. Who would you say is your writing mentor/ hero?

C.B.: Without a doubt, I can say that my writing hero is Philip K. Dick. He worked hard for years, never giving up, staying dedicated to his genre. My weakest point in my writing is his greatest strength: the ability to make the story about the relationships and people without the bizarre plots or interesting settings overwhelming the story. My work is so often plot driven; I know I need to step back and reevaluate, looking at it with the kind of eye he would have had. I try to think like him when I work.

OHP: Do you have a writing nemesis?

C.B.: I believe I have a writing nemesis, but I’m not sure she really counts because she probably has no idea. She might not even know I exist, though I have taken a class with her. I’ll sometimes check her book’s Amazon ranking against anthologies and things that I’m in. If she’s ranked higher than me, I cry out “Curses!” and shake my fist at the monitor.

OHP: Wonderful. I have just a few more questions for our readers. In your opinion, which is the more important discovery of humankind… plumbing or the written word?

C.B.: Hmmm… Shitting in a hole or having to listen to recitations for entertainment? That is probably the most difficult question in this entire interview. Without writing we’d have no scripted entertainment of any kind. All reality shows on the tele? Ick. I supposed I’d rather poop in the yard and then go watch Glee than consider the alternatives. So the written word wins. Definitely.

OHP: According to Anatole France “To die for an idea is to set a rather high price on conjecture.” In your opinion what do you believe is worth dying for? What do you believe is worth living for?

C.B.: I have — let’s say — a very tenuous hold on my spirituality. I’m also quite pessimistic. As a result, I have very little faith that anything better lies down the road, so nothing is worth dying for. This life may be all I get, so why would I waste it on ideals or self-sacrifice? Everything is worth living for.

OHP: Mark Twain once said that “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” What do you believe he meant by that?

C.B.: Well, many philosophers would tell us that the world only exists as a reflection of our mind or perception — like why we would all draw a different chair if asked to draw a chair. There’s no one “chair” that exists in the world that we all look to as a perfect example. Everything in existence is colored by our minds and, by extension, our imagination. I’m prone to exaggerate. Sometimes when I describe something I saw, I’ll up the numbers or the scope of the encounter. I don’t realize until after I’ve said — during a retelling of the story — the first number out-loud that I’m probably off. There weren’t twenty cop cars there, but maybe twelve. I have to go back and correct myself. My imagination wants the amazing things I witness in my day-to-day life to be even bigger. Therefore I can never be relied upon to give accurate testimony.

C.B. Calsing was born and grew up in the small Central Coast town of San Luis Obispo, California. As a child, she spent long hours composing stories and plays. Half-way through her junior year in high school, she left to attend Cuesta Community College, where she received her associate of arts degree with honors. Following that, she transferred to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. There, she completed her bachelor of arts in English. She took a year off, traveled to Indonesia and Ireland, and then decided to return to school to become a certified English teacher. In 2002, fresh out of her studies, Mrs. Calsing and her then future husband moved to New Orleans, where she began her career in education. In 2004, she married. Following her evacuation from Hurricane Katrina, Mrs. Calsing returned to New Orleans and began her master of fine arts degree in creative writing, fiction, at the University of New Orleans. She completed that in 2009, and since then she has been writing and publishing regularly. Now, she teaches middle school English and edits for a prominent e-book publisher. Her work has appeared in college literary journals, anthologies, guerrilla zines, and on Web sites. Her two favorite genres to write are historic and science fiction because both allow her to visit other worlds. More information can be found at her Web site, www.cbcalsing.com, and at her blog, cbcalsing.blogspot.com.