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

 

 

 

 

 

Page One: Inside the New York Times and the Future of Journalism

 Edited by David Folkenflik

 

“. . . 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 

 

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.

 

 

Genius of Place, The Life of Frederick Law Olmsted  by Justin Martin

Da Capo Press

The gift of artistic vision on the large stage of life is rare. When witnessed it is so overwhelming few can appreciate its impact for years to come.

Such was the man, Frederick Law Olmstead, the founder of landscape architecture in the United States, designer of Central Park and many other significant parks, communities and schools.

By today's educational and academic standards, Olmsted was a "self made man" with little formal education.  Raised on a farm and barely supervised by various schoolmasters, Olmsted was free to roam about the grounds and explore his grandmother's book collection. At the age of nine, Olmsted supplemented his erratic education with consuming such works as The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith and Laurence Sterne's Sentiment Journey Through France and Italy.

His curiosity for life contributed to his love of nature and adventure. His quest to learn about the world and yearn to travel also presented him with challenges no one could have prevented him from exploring. Olmsted was a determined person whose kept his own counsel.

As often the case with exceptional talent, determination and vision can override more socially acceptable characteristics.  Fortunately, for us all, Olmsted's skills and talents had shown through any personality defects that could have dismantled his successes.

Remarkably, New York's Central Park was Olmsted's first architectural landscape project. His official position for the task was as a superintendent to oversee the labor in dismantling the previous scattering of gardens throughout the city.

The park project came at a time when cities were expanding quickly and an interest in the country of creating communities that are more hospitable was on the rise. The population of Manhattan more than doubled from the 1840's to 1860's from three hundred thousand to almost eight hundred thousand.  The demand for some open space and tranquil grounds was heightened as more people moved to the city.

The cry for open space in the nineteenth century was heard across the country. James Gordon Bennett in the New York Herald compared a park to a pair of lungs when he wrote, "There are no lungs on the island. It is made up entirely of veins and arteries."

The dismantling and clearing of the previous 17 separate park locations was not without controversy and heartache for many.  Local businesses and unwelcome manufacturing plants such as bone-boiling plants that processed animal carcasses to create glue to match manufacturers inhabited most of the 700 acres of land.  There were impoverished immigrants crowded into one-room cabins. Some had formed communities called Dutch Hill and Dublin Corners.

All had to go. It was accomplished by eminent domain, the first time in U.S. history that this principle had been used to create a large park. They city earmarked money to pay off the occupant's.

Although Olmstead was the park's superintendent, he had no official role at the time as a designer.  Andrew Jackson Downing with his partner, Calvert Vaux, was the original force behind the park. Downing and Vaux were to submit a design for the park. In 1852, Downing died in a riverboat accident and Vaux asked Olmsted to take his place. In 1858, they entered the competition to design the park with an entry they termed Greensward, which was chosen as the park's design. Vaux and Olmsted continued to partner on many projects off and on through the years.

Vaux was an architect, a skill that was a perfect complement to Olmsted's more aesthetic eye.
In the succeeding chapters, Martin's attention to detail is breathtaking. He describes Olmsted's vision and plans with great clarity and his eye for balance. Martin's skill is exceptional as he describes Olmsted's design with a footpath here, a Willow tree there and mound rising to soften the landscape over there.  

Martin takes the reader through the painstaking political process that almost capsized the entire project as Olmsted and Vaux envisioned and was eventually approved. The reader joins with Olmsted's life of travels, missions and projects world wide and throughout the United States. Olmsted put his mark on many U.S. landmark's both public and private, including Prospect Park in Brooklyn, NY, Stanford University in California and Niagara Falls State Reserve. The entire list is profound. 

The biography is a comprehensive journal of Frederick Law Olmsted's life written with great precision and exhaustive historical specifications. However, these elements do not get in the way of a well-told tale. Indeed, Martin's respect for history only enrich the experience of reading a biography that goes beyond the narrow life of one individual to encompass a century of lifestyle, politics and personal relationships.

Highly recommended.

This review appeared first in the New York Journal of Books.

I’m Dorothy’s daughter, Geri.

I am very proud of my mother and I hope I can live up to the legacy she left to me.  She was a very brave woman who fought for what she believed in.

She never let artificial barriers get in the way of what she wanted to do, she never hesitated to go after what she believed was right.

All of  5’1”, raised in an orphanage and with a high school education, Dorothy Spieler drew on her values and beliefs  in order to make the world a better place both for her family and others. Many people will never know that she was the person whose efforts were behind their newfound good fortune.

My mother and my father had a 47 year plus love affair. My mother was never a battered woman. Yet one of the many places Mom volunteered, Human Options, was a battered women’s shelter.

 Mom believed in the cause and she worked hard for those women. She helped them for ten years. When she first started to volunteer for Human Options, I commented on her “Women’s Rights” inclinations.

She quickly corrected me. She said that battered women was not a “Women’s issue,” but rather a “human issue” that includes everyone involved.

My mother could be strong willed, even stubborn at times. However, it requires just that kind of strength to take on the “establishment” in order to make a difference. It takes conviction to confront conventional wisdom in order to right a wrong.  

It takes guts and belief to get out there to fight the good fight, even if you make a few enemies battling for what you believe. Mom was very clear when she said to me: “Geri, the person who never made a mistake never did anything. So get out there.  You’ll make some mistakes, but so what.  Do something with your life. Make a difference, she said to me.”

Dorothy Spieler Goldsmith left a wonderful legacy for her family, a model of giving back and making the world a better place.   I will do my best to continue to  make her proud of me.

 

(This post is second in an ongoing series of posts to help in doing Internet research.)
 
Are there blogs and Web sites you go to often to look for updates? Wouldn't it be great to have these updates come to you?

You can with a technology called RSS.

What is this? It appears as a funny little orange icon on a Web site you are visiting. It represents an RSS feed.  The acronym has several explanations. Some say it stands for  Really Simple Syndication. Others define it as Ready for Some Stories or Rich Site Summary. 

Next to this little button is often an invitation to "Subscribe to this feed." When you click on the link you might find yourself staring at lot of computer code you may not understand. 

What you are seeing is a computer language called XML, similar to HTML. All you need to know is that this is the language used to connect what you are reading with a link to your computer and any updates in the content. 

The advantage of RSS is a time saver. Instead of having to scour Web sites to check for updates or weigh through another Google search, all you have to do is check your desktop RSS folder or open your RSS E-mail alert.

You can choose all the sites you want to get updates for and sign-up with them if they offer you the option to "Subscribe to this feed." 

The first thing you need to do is install an RSS "tool" or "Feed Reader" on your system.
There are four types of Feed Readers to choose from:

Desktop feed readers: With a desktop reader, you have an icon that sits on your desktop. Desktop readers to choose from include AmthetaDesk (www.disobey.com/amphetadesk), RSS Bandit (www.rssbandit.org) or BlogBridge (www.blogbridge.com).

Browser feed readers: Some browsers offer extensions that give this functionality. Popular readers like Firefox's Live Bookmarks (www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/livebookmarks.html), as well as Internet Explorer 8 (www.mircrosoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/default.mspx).

E-mail feed readers are easy to use. All your feeds come into your E-mail so you will need to be set up for this. Mozilla Thunderbird (www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/), Newsgator Inbox (www.newsgator.com/NGOLProduct.aspx?ProdID=NewsGator+inbox) or Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts).  You can tell these readers how often you wish to receive announcements.
Another popular option for those who use their smart phones more often than their computers if the mobile feed reader. Yahoo, Google and AOL all offer the option to get alerts.

The best way to begin is to choose and install a reader onto your system. Once you have that in place, go to a Web site or Blog you visit often. Chances are the site will have an RSS icon on the page.

Click the icon, choose where you want this information to live, such as a folder in your reader or in the case of Google Alerts, it will show up in your E-mail.

If you are a blog fan, there are several ways to find the blogs you like. You can go to Technorati (http://technorati.com/) and do a blog search by typing in the subject. Technorati probably has the most extensive list online. You can also go to Google blog search and find blogs in their database.  Almost all blogs have the RSS option available.  By linking up to the feed, you will be alerted every time there is an update.    

You can also narrow your search if you are not interested in an entire site but only interested in certain topics. Most sites will offer RSS feeds for various segments within the site. Another way to narrow the search for a topic is to put quotation marks around the phrase.

This is a handy way to narrow any search on all search engines. For example, if you are a sports enthusiast and like a certain football team you will want to refine your search to "San Francisco Giants," not San Francisco Giants. Without the quotation marks, your feed or search will separate the words and pour an ocean of information in your lap--most of which will be about everything but the San Francisco Giants.

Happy hunting. 
 

 Conducting Internet research is a challenge. It's time consuming, often confusing and who ever thought too much information could be a problem?
 
The Internet has opened up the world of information gathering to the extent that it can be overwhelming and therefore problematic. Standard Google searches can be but conflicting, redundant and often incomplete.    

Common complaints for online research include:
• Validating the information for reliability
• Relevance of the results.
• Multiple points of view and the inability to source the information
• Time intensive
 
There is help. Several research techniques that will smooth out the bumpy road to Internet information. Effective research tools can cut research time significantly as well as reduce the amount of irrelevant information and improve the reliability of the results.    Follow my research secrets to streamline your process and give you the skills and tools you need to conduct fast, effective investigations.

Super Sleuthing Research Tips  

• Understand the different between Data and Information.  DATA is a single piece of information, as a fact, statistic, code or an item. It may be a fact assumed a matter of direct observation. INFORMATION is the knowledge received concerning a particular fact or circumstance.

• Know how to remove ambiguity in your search. Many words have different meanings such as the word "Capital" for example: Seat of government, money, letter or crime. 
 
• Use standard "Search Strings" to narrow your search and improve results. For example: The hyphen search string,  The wildcard search, The date range search,  The exact search using quotation marks, Blog keyword search: inurl, The file type search such as PDF, PPT or XLS,  The link search: link: www.gerispieler.com,  Find information using "either or" and the definition search: define:writing, Boolean search: And, Or, Not, +:

• Use the "Deep Web" which is 500 times bigger than the standard searchable Web. To find "Deep Web" search engines, just use "Deep Web" plus the topic in your search box.

• Use a Web credibility formula to evaluate information and pre-screen Web sites for credibility. A good program is the CARS check list: Credibility, Accuracy, Reasonableness and Support. 

• Avoid unintentional plagiarism. Everything on the Internet is protected by copyright. Always cite anything taken from a Web site and use the URL with a date to note the quotation or information. 

For a more complete and comprehensive explanation on the details for conducting Internet research and the skills required to improve your search capabilities, Geri Spieler hosts a one-hour LIVE Internet Research Webinar. Go to  http://www.gerispieler.com/Reviews.html