We Don't Know What We Don't Know
– The oldest directory of the Web.Four New Internet Research Classes
Fact Finding for Fiction Writers: Free & Easy Research Techniques to Pump Up Your Skills
"Fact Finding for Fiction Writers:
Free & Easy Research Techniques to Pump Up Your
Skills"
Book Passage Class with Geri Spieler
Fiction does not release a novelist from fact. Inaccurate detail will sink a book into the chasm of sloppy writing and lazy work habits. Never underestimate your reader. Accurate references such as historical data, legal and medical references are critical examples of professional writers.
Learn the skills for fast, accurate and reliable Internet search techniques that boost your book out of the slush pile.
Geri Spieler is an author and investigative reporter. Geri has
written for Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Forbes.
She is a reviewer for the New York Journal of Books, an official blogger for
the Huffington Post, member of the National Book Critics Circle, the
Internet Society and a former Research Director for the Gartner Group.
She is the author of the four-time
award winning Taking Aim at the President: The Remarkable Story Of The Woman Who Shot At Gerald Ford, Palgrave Macmillan
www.gerispieler.com
http://www.bookpassage.com/event/class-geri-spieler-fact-finding-all-writers-easy-search-techniques
Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Blvd.
Corte Madera, CA 94925
(415) 927-0960 (800) 999-7909
$40.00
-- Limited Seating --- Reservations suggested
Book Review: Opposition Research Revealed
Publisher: William Morrow Trade Paperbacks (208 pages)
“There is humor and personality in every paragraph of We’re with Nobody. The writing is intelligent, detailed, and intimate. While the authors don’t explain the personal cost of spending months on the road and what effect it had on their lives, they let us in on their highs and lows of the day-to-day tasks in such a way that I did not want the book to end. I wanted to know where we were going next.”
In politics, hubris abounds. It is truly amazing that politicians think they can keep secrets.
After reading, We’re with Nobody: Two Insiders Reveal the Dark Side of American Politics, by Alan Huffman and Michael Rejebian, there is no question—there are no secrets.
The scenarios of secrets revealed are played out in detail in this entertaining account of opposition research, sometimes called “oppo.”
A good example of this arrogance is the story of candidate who believed he could keep a secret from his own team. When presented with the services of Mr. Huffman and Rejebian to prepare the candidate for an upcoming congressional race, he balked.
“Why the hell do I need to hire you? What could you possibly tell me about myself that I don’t already know?”
Such was the naïve lament of what turned out to be a failed campaign, and we get a front row seat to the shenanigans that go on behind the scenes of the campaign trail. For an outsider, watching these political antics is great entertainment.
Opposition research is a multimillion-dollar business. It is the practice of uncovering damaging background information of candidates that will compromise a run for elected office. It is also practiced for other situations, such as celebrities and business officials. It parallels the private investigative business, but opposition research stays close to the political arena.
The term may new, but the practice is as old as when two people wanted the same position of power. Opposition research is a practice with a long history. An article in The Washingtonian magazine revealed this piece of history: “In the 1828 presidential election, Andrew Jackson’s opponents unearthed his marriage records, seeking to imply that the hero of the Battle of New Orleans was an adulterer for marrying Rachel Robards in 1791 before she was legally divorced from her first husband.”
We’re with Nobody cleverly takes us through the detailed steps of performing opposition research. More often than not, the results are usually less than positive for either side of the political aisle. We see firsthand the gritty details and feel the frustration through stories about obstructionist clerks who are determined to keep public documents private.
The book is presented as a diary of sorts, each chapter alternating authors. The reader gets a glimpse of this work from both perspectives that add an interesting element to the subject.
The authors are highly credentialed and seasoned professionals. Mr. Huffman, a former journalist, is also a contributor to the New York Times and author of four books. Mr. Rejebian was a reporter in Texas, director of communications for the Office of the Mayor in Jackson Mississippi, and political advisor to the Attorney General of Mississippi.
They team up on most assignments to make sure the research gets the best treatment from both perspectives.
Because Mr. Rejebian and Mr. Huffman exclude the names of their clients, they let us inside this murky and sometimes dangerous work. We get to go along for the ride, which is sometimes amusing as well as laborious, but always engaging.
There is no attempt to glamorize the world of opposition research. In fact, we see the strong component of tedium in the research process. There is enough monotony in investigation to discourage any would be political junkie who doesn’t possess the strongest commitment to unearth a nucleus of illicit activity under a candidate’s rock.
A significant part of the book is spent describing the various methods used to pry files from self-styled gatekeepers of public information. The stories are amusing as well as instructive. Among the more comical situations, this one in particular stands out:
“Standing about five foot five, she’s a manly woman, troll-like in many ways. And though she might very well reside under a bridge, she works in a local government office in Missouri. From the expression on her face, we can tell this is going to be unpleasant—a trip to the dentist and a prostate exam wrapped into one,” wrote Mr. Rejebian.
In an instructive chapter, the authors give us ten tips for how obtain the desired documents with grace and grit. Among them, Mr. Huffman suggests a confrontational approach for a particularly difficult clerk: “Listen, this isn’t the CIA and I don’t have time to stand here while you figure out ways not to do what you’re paid to do. So here’s a novel idea—just do it!”
We’re with Nobody makes it clear that it takes more than mere dedication to the cause, clearly illustrated by assignments requiring the team wade through 20 years of financial reports.
Yet the descriptions of hours of laborious thumbing through paper are written with a very light hand. There is humor and personality in every paragraph of We’re with Nobody. The writing is intelligent, detailed, and intimate. While the authors don’t explain the personal cost of spending months on the road and what effect it had on their lives, they let us in on their highs and lows of the day-to-day tasks in such a way that I did not want the book to end. I wanted to know where we were going next.
This book was originally published in the New York Journal of Books www.nyjournalofbooks.com
Facts for Fiction Writers-Pump Up Your Novel
Interview by Linda Loveland Reid –for the Redwood Writers Conference, April 28, 2011
Geri Spieler – Researching Facts for Fiction Writers-Pump Up Your Novel
“The most exciting thing about teaching,” Geri Spieler says, “is giving students that Ah Ha! Helping them to that Wow place where they can see how much value and fun there is in research.”
Spieler, a journalist and investigative reporter now working at Stanford, wants to help writers do research to make their details sing. “A reader will go anywhere with you if they trust your facts.”
A researcher long before the Internet, Spieler points out that in today’s world, 60% of what you need is on-line; however, much of it is hidden. She wants to share how writers can locate information that is not only more accurate than what’s available on the surface, but more interesting.
Reid: I imagine it can be embarrassing to miss a truth.
Spieler: If you use the wrong weapon, one that was not invented at the time of your story or is not capable of doing what you say it does, it will turn your reader off. The wrong year of an historic event or a famous person turning up who isn’t born yet−these are issues that destroy a writer's credibility.
Reid: We have Google. Why do we need any other tool?
Spieler: Deeper. That is, the Net is wonderful and fast, but must be used properly. Google is my gateway to the Net. What I teach is how to go much deeper. How do you know if you can trust what you find? I teach “string research,” how to disambiguate, that is, put your question into words the browser recognizes so you can get beyond the junk, into the real sources. It’s important to us sources built by actual people, not just built by search engines.
Reid: Should I use Wikipedia?
Spieler: Yes, but be careful. The problem here is there is no verifying information. Even when an error is corrected, the misinformation remains. You can find verifiable information by going into the “deep-web,” places populated by institutions and experts.
Reid: Deep-Web?
Spieler: It’s critical to understand the difference between “data base” and “search engine.” When you research at the library, you don’t limit yourself to one book; you use many. You need to know how to use more tools; how to get there; how to find those tools.
Reid: What do traditional publishers look for in historical fiction or non-fiction works?
Spieler: Publishers want to know where you got your facts. The agent reading the book cares. They will ask the questions. You want to have relevant answers. The problem with the Net is it makes us sloppy. We go to the Net first. My technique includes first organizing what you want from the search; then go on line. There are many things to consider. You can use links and websites, but what if a URL you depended on expires? You need to keep clear records.
Reid: How did you get to be a research expert?
Spieler: As a reporter, I became a Badger, would not let go until I had all the facts. This skill led to my working with various newspapers and finally a global company as an analyst where I became the Research Director. I left to write a book involving the FBI and police records. This book is in universities as an example of good research; on how to do solid work.
Reid: What is the most exciting experience you’ve had as writer?
Spieler: Creative non-fiction! I wrote a factual story into a novel, Capote style. Very difficult. I began by taking creative writing classes. “You can make up nothing!” my agent told me. “A story has a lot more power when it’s true.
Reid: What do you see in the future for research, the trends?
Spieler: People are taking control of their writing, which is terrific but which also means they are not going through the rigor of the editorial process, of a publisher checking facts. It’s your job to be that editor. Growth of the self-publication industry offers great opportunity, but writers need to be even more careful. You can be lazy but, a well-researched book shows respect for your audience.
Reid: There’s a rumor out there that research is a dry subject?
Spieler: No! It’s a game! Everybody likes a good mystery. It’s shocking what you can find out! The more you find, the more you realize, wow, I never thought about that in this way before. It expands your mind and, consequently, your story.
Geri Spieler will be giving a session at
the Redwood Writers April 28 Conference in Santa Rosa, California: Facts
for Fiction Writers−Research Secrets Everyone Should Know.
http://redwoodwriters.org/conference/
Geri Spieler – Bio
Geri Spieler is a
journalist and investigative reporter. Her specialty is to take the buzz on the
streets and turn it into investigative stories that are not being covered
anywhere else.
She has reported for such
publications as the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and
Forbes. She was the founder and editor of Electronic Commerce News,
a technology journal published by Phillips Business Information, which led to
an eight-year assignment as a Research Director and Analyst for the Gartner
Group, an international technology advising company. Geri is also a book
reviewer for the New York Journal of Books, an official blogger for the
Huffington Post, a member of National Book Critics Circle, member of the
Internet Society, author with Red Room and a senior writer with Ezine Magazine.
In her capacity as a reporter, she met and
corresponded with the would-be assassin Sara Jane Moore. Palgrave Macmillan
published her four time award-winning book, Taking
Aim at the President: The Remarkable Story of the Woman who Shot Gerald Ford,
Jan. 2009. Sundance Film director Robinson Devore is making a documentary film
about Sara Jane Moore's life.
Geri graduated from the
University of California at Los Angeles with a degree in English. She is former
president of the San Francisco/Peninsula Branch of California Writers Club,
conference director of the Jack London Writers Conference and board member of
NorCal, a consortium of Northern California Writers Club consortium.
Currently she is research associate at Stanford University. www.gerispieler.com
How to Become An Internet Search Expert
Twitter Has No Clothes--Guest Blog
New York Times-The Saga Continues
Page One: Inside the
New York Times and the Future of Journalism
“. . . thorough, thoughtful, and exceptionally well
written. . . . Page
One is a most
encompassing volume on the issue of the future of journalism and newspapers. .
. . Highly recommended.”
Can print journalists be objective about the future of
news? Page One attempts to answer this question in 17
essays and interviews with respected and well-known writers from various
positions in newspaper and public affairs worldwide.
David Folkenflik, NPR’s award-winning media correspondent
based in New York City, edits the book.
The project was originally a documentary film shown at
Sundance in January 2011. At the core of the film is a story told by
journalists in the business representing different generations. David Carr, a
former drug addict, is out of central casting as an eccentric, old school,
gravely voiced reporter. On the other side of the proverbial desk is Brian
Stelter who epitomizes the model of a fresh faced, new media journalist.
The essays contained in the book cover the global
challenge of how will newspapers and professional journalism survive in the age
of the digital demon Websites like WikiLeaks, Gawker, Politico, and the
Huffington Post.
For a reporter, a job at the New York Times equaled being admitted to Harvard
University. The romance of the New
York Times held forth until
2007 as things began to change. After the paper moved into its resplendent and
high-tech new home across town, even the Times could no longer hold off the
advance of a changing landscape and stuttering economy.
Kate Novack and Andrew Rossi created this idea for a film
project. Novack and Rossi are husband-and-wife documentary filmmakers. An
earlier film by this team is “Eat This New York,” about friends trying to start
a restaurant in Brooklyn.
Each essay reveals, and offers solutions, to the various
ailments of the newspaper business. Some take on the Internet as the insect
that infected journalism and caused it to wither away.
The history of the newspaper business is filled with
stories of deals gone bad, buyouts, massive firings and questionable business
decisions about what is news and what people want or will read.
James O’Shea is the former managing editor of the Chicago Tribune and then the editor of the Los Angeles Times. In his
essay, he chronicles the calamitous events when the Tribune Company of Chicago
acquired Times Mirror Company of Los Angeles.
O’Shea calls it the “Deal from Hell,” as the arrangement
emptied the Times of nearly 50 percent of its news staff and changed the
editorial style from one of hard news to cotton candy.
He is emphatic that it is not the Internet that was not
the cause of declining readership but the reaction of those who are in charge.
O’Shea said, “The lack of investment, greed, incompetence, corruption,
hypocrisy, and downright arrogance of people who put their interests ahead of
the public’s,” as the reason newspapers are having problems.
Others, such as the piece by Jennifer 8. Lee, taught the
paper how to embrace the electronic frontier and see it as a way to flourish as
it never could before by creating a new arm for its staff to explore; the blog.
Chapter Eight by Evan Smith, former editor and president of Texas Monthly, writes about a growing anecdote
to the threatened loss of real investigative journalism, which are the grant
and donation supported nonprofits. These entities are creating a new business
model: public news organizations.
In this chapter Smith describes these organizations as
the saving credible journalism in a world of one sided and un-vetted opinion.
The mission of nonprofit and nonpartisan journalism is to
disseminate the product, investigative reporting, to news agencies for free.
They can afford to do this as large grants, foundations and contributions fund
the newsrooms. The idea is to keep good journalism alive and good journalists
employed.
The first of this new breed is ProPublica in New York followed by the Texas Tribune out of Austin and the Bay Citizen in San Francisco. It is a model being
emulated around the country.
The Associated Press is expanding on its own model to
distribute content from nonprofit news organizations to newspapers around the
world. Investigative News Network, another nonprofit, has 51 members of news
organizations also producing investigative journalism available to newspapers
and other outlets.
The manuscript/script is thorough, thoughtful, and
exceptionally well written. Each essay offers another wrinkle in the
evolutionary saga about the fate of newsprint. All of the authors, including
Alan Rusbridger, Editor in Chief of The
Guardian newspaper and executive editor of its sister Sunday paper, the Observer, and Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary of
State, have something of value to bring to the story.
For those interested in the status of how news is being
analyzed and delivered, Page One is a most encompassing volume on the issue of
the future of journalism and newspapers.
Highly recommended.
This review originally appeared in the New York Journal of Books
How to Search the Invisible Web
If you limit your Internet research to a general
search engine, such as Google, it is the same thing as limiting your research
to just one book.
You wouldn't do that, so why limit your Internet search to just one site.
There are many more "books" available
online that yield more results you don't want to miss.
The Invisible Web offers thousands of Web sites,
databases and directories you just can't find using a standard search engine.
Why can't you find these treasures? There are
several roadblocks. There are four types of invisibility to conquer. According
to The Invisible Web by Chris Sherman
and Gary Price, there are four types of
barriers:
The Opaque Web-This Web consists of files that are
not included in a standard search engine search.
The Private Web-These sites are not indexed Web
pages and are deliberately excluded from search engines. Often these sites are
password protected.
The Proprietary Web-These pages are only accessible
to those who have agreed to special terms such as registration.
The Truly Invisible Web-There is technical reasons
keep these sites under wraps. So far, search engines just can't find them with
the current technology used to find these directories or databases. However, as
the technology grows, these sites may be found in the future.
So, how to break through these barriers? There are
ways. A lot depends on how you go about go about designing your approach and
understand how to go about it.
One way is simply "ask" a search engine to
take you to the Invisible Web. For example, "Bio Science + Invisible Web."
In addition, you can access special Invisible Web
databases, such as:
Surfwax,
Academic Index, Dogpile, Turbo 10, Multiple Searches, Clusty, Mamma, World
Curry Guide, Fazzle, IceRocket, Izito, Ujiko, pipl, and Mensur.
These are just a fraction of Invisible Web sites
available. You can find even more Invisible Web sites at www.completeplanet.com.
