John Spalding

Three Questions for Kit Laybourne

"As the Globe Spins" visits Kit Laybourne, author of Mediapedia: Creative Tools and Techniques for Camera, Computer and Beyond:
 

Falcon Authors Win 4 2008 National Outdoor Book Awards

 Drum roll, please:
 

Nick Knack's NY Adventure: How to Create the Perfect Slideshow

In the last post, I mentioned my recent visit to Mediapedia author Kit Laybourne's NY apartment, where I videotaped Bret Kerr playing with his camera on Kit's balcony overlooking Central Park. Lest you think that's the only video we filmed there--oh, no. There's more. Much more.

For example, we also shot the first in a new video series I'm creating for Knack Books. This "show" will feature Nick Knack (yours truly) as he shares various step-by-step, do-it-yourself tips drawn from Knack Books. I like to think of Nick as GPP's entertaining answer to the Complete Idiots and Dummies guides--if severely mechanically challenged Nick can figure out how to get the job done quickly and easily, then so can you, dear reader, believe me. Without further ado, here's "How to Create a Perfect Slideshow":  
 

Three Questions for "Haunted" Author Mary Beth Crain

Halloween is just days away, and there's nothing like a good spine-tingling tale to help you get your spook on. GPP's new book, Haunted U.S. Battlefields: Ghosts, Hauntings, and Eerie Events from America's Fields of Honor, has 25 stories that will leave you and the kiddos shivering. Recently, I sat down with author Mary Beth Crain to discuss her fascinating look at the spirits and otherworldly entities believed to inhabit America's legendary fields of war.

Why do so many soldiers seem to hang around battlefields after death?

According to paranormal research, ghosts seem to be more prevalent at sites involving a sudden and/or violent death. There are a number of proposed reasons for this. The spirit may be disoriented, especially if it belonged to a young person who was very attached to life. It may not realize that it’s dead. It would undoubtedly have unfinished business—messages to get to the living, or loved ones it wanted to see again. A battlefield ghost may be seeking revenge, one more chance to get back at the enemy. And let’s not forget that battles were also high points in men’s lives, and many ghosts seem to want to relive them, over and over.

What's your favorite haunted battlefield story?

Wow. I have a lot of them, but I guess my favorite concerns the dapper Confederate General from Louisiana, Pierre Gustave Toutant de Beauregard, who lost the Battle of Shiloh due to a dumb miscalculation, and never forgave himself. His ghost has reportedly been seen and heard by many people at his old New Orleans home, now the historic Beauregard-Keyes House, moaning “Shiloh! Shiloh!” and wandering the halls. But the wildest part of the Beauregard haunting is the fact that since the General’s death in 1893, the home’s residents—and others—have reported witnessing a phantom midnight re-enactment of the Battle of Shiloh, complete with misty landscape, horses, soldiers, booming cannons, the whole nine yards—in the ballroom!

Did you have any brushes with ghosts while working on the book?

I don’t know if this counts as a ghostly encounter, but it occurred at around 2 a.m., when I was writing the chapter on my favorite Civil War personage, General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, who won the critical Battle of Little Round Top and was supposedly aided by the ghost of George Washington. As I was working at my computer, the chapter suddenly started printing out by itself. Swear to God! And then, a few minutes later, my Chihuahua, Truman, started growling in the bedroom and backing up, like something or someone was coming toward him. He kept barking at thin air, and I had a suspicion that old Chamberlain was paying me a courtly visit, in appreciation, maybe?
 

Knack Video: How to Cook a Lamb

I was recently brainstorming ideas for the how-to video series I'm creating to promote GPP's Knack books, when inspiration came in the form of a birthday e-vite. Each year, my pal Chris Norris celebrates his latest trip around the sun by cooking a whole animal in his backyard. Last year, it was a pig. This year, it would be a sheep. The perfect test subject for a video, I thought—how to cook a whole lamb.

Fortunately, Chris liked the idea, too, and didn't call the cops when I arrived at his house just after dawn the morning of the party to film him preparing "Larry the Lamb" for the afternoon feast. I documented the whole process step-by-step, from the first cut with a power saw to the final unveiling at the fire pit.

Note: Chris is not a Knack author. But he is the head of the paleontology collection at the American Museum of Natural History, with a PhD in zoology from Oxford, so his expertise at preparing animal remains for public consumption is certainly world-class.  

Four Questions for Bill Berloni.

Over the past 30 years, Bill Berloni has trained countless animals—including cats and dogs, pigs and rats—to perform in Broadway productions and Hollywood films, starting with the original Sandy in the musical Annie in the late 70s. Incredibly, all the animals Berloni has worked with came from shelters.

In his book, Broadway Tails, Berloni recounts the stories of these “throw-away” animals who went on to become showbiz superstars. Recently, Berloni stopped by the GPP offices, where we got a chance to sit down and discuss his book, his career, and some of the fascinating furry creatures who've graced the Broadway stage (no, I'm not talking about George Wendt):

Bill Berloni will talk about Broadway Tails at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, CT, on October 16, at 7 PM.

The Boston Popouts

Step aside, Boston Pops: